Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 9, 1 September 1997 — Claims review panel unfair, blased [ARTICLE]

Claims review panel unfair, blased

NHLC attorney Melissa Seu's August article criticizes H.B. 1827, signed into law by the governor on July 8. This creates a "working group" — consisting of the attorney general, director of finance, chair of the Hawaiian Homes Commission and chair of the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust Individual Claims Review Panel — to "discuss and formulate an appropriate formula and any criteria necessary to qualify and resolve all claims made under chapter 674, Hawai'i Revised Statutes." I agree with Ms. Seu's conclusions that successful claimants who "jumped through every legal and administrative hoop thrown at them" are "seeing everything fall apart simply because the state does not like the results of the panel's decisions." But I do not agree that the panel was ever "fair, neutral and independent." How ean it be? One of its members also filed his own elaim against the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Such a person clearly has a conflict of interest. One of the hearings ofbrprs

of the Hawaiian Claims Office filed her own elaim against the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands while supposedly fairly and independently adjudicating all the other claims filed. Again, this person had a clear and blatant conflict of interest. Also, in the July 1995 Ka Wai Ola, two of the panel members appeared with claimants and claimants' attorneys in an ad relating to chapter 674 claims when the panel was in the process of adjudicating. How many of us would trust a judge appearing in an ad with a party? Finally, Ms. Seu noted that NHLC has prevailed in 89 percent of its cases before the panel. But the head of the NHLC is a sister of a panel member. If things are falling apart, it is not because the state did not "like the results of the panel's decisions," but because the panel forgot about fairness. To those who are denied eompensation because of the panel's unfairness and bias, I am truly sorry. Francis Paul Keeno Honolulu

Ka Wal Ola o OHA