Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 2, 1 March 1984 — Trustee Clears Air on False Impression of 'Joint Venture' [ARTICLE]

Trustee Clears Air on False Impression of 'Joint Venture'

A question of a "joint venture" with Alu Like and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands prompted an explanation from Hawaii Trustee Piilani C. Desha following an inquiry from a disturbed constituent at a recent meeting in Keaukaha. According to Desha, there has been feedback from constituents in the eommunity that OHA is uncooperative and distant with the two organizations and other Hawaiian agencies. Desha added this was the impression being fostered in the community. She explained to the group this was not true because OHA has done a number of things. OHA's planning division, Desha pointed out, spent many months with the planners of DHHL and Alu Like to eomplete a matrix whieh clearly illustrates the services and programs, duplication of services, actions planned and the gaps that exist between agencies. She aiso noted that the OHA Board of Trustees spent an entire day going over eaeh item in 12 sections of the 23-page report and made various changes. Also at the meeting were Trustees Moses Keale and Thomas K. Kaulukukui. Keale referred to portions of Senate Resolution 39 whieh was passed last year. It specifically calls for coordination between OHA, DHHL and other state departments, without reference to signed documents and agreements. OHA and DHHL have been assisting one another since OHA's inception when DHHL helped the new department get started. Desha declared. She also noted that OH A recently provided over 550,000 to the Federal-State Task Force on Hawaiian Homes to do a departmental audit. While not always in agreement, Desha noted, the two agencies have kept in eommunication while making decisions on behalf of their mutual beneficiaries. Desha reminds readers of the bigdifferences in the administration and governing councils of the two state agencies. OHA Trustees are elected by its beneficiaries to carry out a legal mandate of responsibility that cuts through every spectrum of government and society. OHA Trustees are referred to as such because they manage a trust that ean be traced right back to original Hawaiian lands. Trustees are directly accountable to work in good faith for those who placed them in office — the Hawaiian electorate. A chairperson is elected and an administrator is appointed to run the OHA office. OHA Trustees have tremendous independence and autonomy. This is easily discernible by the constant skirmishes waged with established bureaucracies. Control of OHA is absolutely in the hands of the Hawaiian people. On the other hand, Desha notes, the chairperson of D H H L is appointed by the governor with the approval of the senate and runs the department as well as chairs the commission. Commissioners are also appointees of the governor and they serve for specific terms when they may or may not be reappointed. Although they, too, must be approved by the senate, they are in essence accountable to serve at the will of the governor. Desha explained that DHHL is basically a land distribution and management agency, with some recent side ventures into education, eeonomie development and social and cultural projects. Desha, who was a former president of Alu Like, said she feels qualifies to elaborate a bit on the organization. She describes Alu Like as a private, nonprofit agency that writes proposals for

and receives approximately 90 percent of its funding in annual grants from the federal government, most of it for their employment and training program. Alu Like, she added, has a membership whieh elects a Board of Directors as well as boards for the offices established on eaeh island. It also receives $100,000 in matching funds from the state government and maintains a community outreach and eeonomie development eomponent. Alu Like's research data has been very important to long range planning for Hawaiians, and OHA is currently in the process of gathering an even broader range of updated material. Desha emphasized that OHA works with groups large and small, formal and informal, families and individuals, all apsects of governmental departments and agencies and private enterprise. "We are constitutionally and statutorily charged to work for the betterment of conditions of the Hawaiian peopleand will continue to do so," she concluded.