Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 8, 1 August 1995 — HPAC to honor John Waiheʻe [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HPAC to honor John Waiheʻe

This month on Aug. 25, the Hawaiian Political Action Committee (HPAC) honors former Governor John Waihe'e with its Lei Hulu Mamo Award, for

outstanding puhlie service by a Hawaiian in politics. The award banquet will be held at the Queen Kapi'olani Hotel at 6 p.m. Tickets are $50 and may be ordered by calling Katherine Farm at 5954643 or Momi Jones at

536-7829. Past recipients include former Chief Justice William S. Richardson, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, Rep. Henry Peters, former Judge Walter Heen, and the late Sen. Richard Lyman, Sen. George Mills, and Rep. Joseph Leong. John Waihe'e began his eleetoral career in 1977 in a successful bid for the first elected board of directors of Alu Like, ine. In the 16 years to follow, he was elected to the 1978 Hawai'i Constitutional Convention, where he served as majority leader, followed by election to the state House of Representatives in

1980, and eleehon as Lieutenant Governor in 1982. He became the first elected governor of Hawaiian ancestry in 1986 and completed a second term in 1994.

His initiatives on behalf of the State of Hawai'i encompassed many areas, but it was his attention to native Hawaiian issues that led to addressing longunresolved problems. I As governor, he I increased funding for

the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to pay for its administrative costs for the first time in its history, supported funding for the Hawaiian language immersion program and the Office of Hawaiian Health, and expanded the State Historic Preservation Office. During his term, the Legislature passed a law to allow for suits for breaches of the public land trust and the Hawaiian Home Lands trust. The administration also resolved the dispute on revenue from ceded lands due to OHA, and paid $134 million in past revenue due to OHA. To begin remedying the many

Hawaiian home lands controversies, the administration proposed, and the Legislature established, a claims panel process for individuals to bring past claims for breaches of the Hawaiian home lands trust. They also paid $12 million in past rent due for public uses, conveyed more than 16,000 acres of usable lands, and established a task force that settled numerous claims, thereby paving the way for the recently enacted $600 million claims settlement bill.

On the national level Waihe'e pressed for federal recognition of native Hawaiians, and pursued claims against the federal government for the taking of Hawaiian home lands and other federal breaches of the trust. As governor, he supported the process of sovereignty, strove to educate the general public on the history and merits of the issue. In 1993, anticipating the long-awaited retum of Kaho'olawe, the administration — introduced legislation to create the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve for the island and its waters. The following year, the state negotiated a 10-year eleanup agreement with the U.S. Navy.