On Nov. 7, 2006, Hawaii voters approved the constitutional amendment calling for the establishment of a candidate advisory council to address the concerns about appointments to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii and requiring the governor to select the board candidates from a pool of people screened and proposed by the council.

The Regents Candidate Advisory Council was created by Act 56 of the 2007 Session Laws of Hawaii in conformity with Article X, Section 6 of the Hawaii state Constitution.

By letter dated Feb. 20, 2008, the RCAC fulfilled its statutory requirement by presenting Gov. Linda Lingle with a slate of 22 names of qualified candidates for 12 vacancies. From this slate, she appointed, with the Senate's consent, six regents to fill two Honolulu County seats, two Hawaii County seats, one Maui County seat and one At Large seat.

The remaining six vacancies were filled by the governor with six of the seven regents whose terms had expired on June 30, 2007, and June 30, 2008, to continue to serve on the Board of Regents as “;holdovers”;; namely, Byron Bender (Honolulu), Catherine Lagareta (Honolulu) , Jane Tatibouet (Honolulu), Marlene Hapai (at large) Ramon de la Pena (Kauai), and Michael Dahilig (student). The seventh regent, Andres Albano, whose name was on the RCAC's list for an “;at large”; seat, was not selected by the governor to continue to serve as a “;holdover.”;

Sens. Colleen Hanabusa and Norman Sakamoto filed a writ of mandamus alleging that the governor must appoint from the list submitted by the Regents Candidate Advisory Council for these six positions.

It is the position of the RCAC that the continuation as regents by the six “;holdovers”; selected by Lingle, when a list of 22 qualified candidates was presented to her by the RCAC, is in direct contravention to the Hawaii state Constitution and Act 56.

The list from which the governor was asked to appoint as regents included outstanding, highly qualified citizens who are well-respected in the business and academic communities.

The RCAC, after spending an inordinate amount of time, including interviewing and evaluating these candidates, agrees with the filing of the writ of mandamus by Hanabusa and Sakamoto and requests that the Supreme Court of the state of Hawaii rule on this matter.

The terms of two members of the Board of Regents, who currently occupy Honolulu County seats, will end on June 30, 2009. Recruitment is currently under way for these two positions.

Please call Roy Takeyama, chairman of the RCAC, at 692-1218 for more information or visit the RCAC Web site at www.hawaii.edu/rcac.