Raucous OHA meeting elects new leader

Veteran trustee Rowena Akana was elected chairwoman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees on Thursday, edging out incumbent Chairman Robert “Bob” Lindsey of Hawaii island during a rancorous meeting that saw three members walk out in protest.

“Good luck, everybody,” Collette Machado said as she left the OHA boardroom following the vote. Dan Ahuna and Peter Apo also walked out.

Newly elected trustee Keli‘i Akina helped to make a difference in his first OHA meeting, voting with a 5-4 majority to install the new leader. Also voting for Akana, a trustee since 1990, were John Waihee IV, Leina‘ala Ahu Isa, Hulu Lindsey and Akana.

Ahu Isa, an at-large trustee, was elected vice chairwoman, while Hulu Lindsey of Maui was selected chairwoman of the Committee on Resource Management.

Akina, president and CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, an organization that has found itself at odds with OHA, said he voted for the leadership change because Akana has demonstrated a greater commitment to future fiscal sustainability.

In an interview after the meeting, Akana said she plans to instill a renewed transparency and accountability at OHA and bring back some programs that were eliminated over the last 14 years, including health, education and self-help housing programs and a mentoring program for young leaders.

In addition, she said she wants to establish more partnerships to achieve greater results for the Native Hawaiian community.

“I don’t think we’re doing enough to serve our beneficiaries,” she said.

Akana said she wants to change the way OHA does business.

“We’re spending a lot of money, but we’re not making a dent where it needs to happen,” she said. “We have a budget of $53 million, and last year only $8 million went to grants. We are top-heavy with people making $120,000 or more, but we don’t see the results.”

Akana added that at least three-fourths of the current OHA budget goes to salaries, fringe benefits and administrative costs.

“That’s serious,” she said.

Akina’s Grassroot Institute’s opposition to OHA includes going to court in an attempt to stop its nation-building efforts. It has also taken opposing positions on the Department of Interior rule on federal recognition and on the Papaha- naumokuakea Marine National Monument.

The annual organizational meeting was heated and tension-filled from the beginning, featuring interruptions and shouting, charges of corruption and unethical behavior, and squabbles over meeting rules and procedures.

Akana, who as senior trustee ran the meeting, banged her gavel at least a dozen times and, at one point, threatened to remove Apo after he said there would be serious consequences for Akana if she ignored the agency’s bylaws.

“This is what we’re going to be looking forward to in the future?” an exasperated Ahuna said.

Machado said she couldn’t vote for Akana because of “certain character flaws,” including that Akana is punitive and will work to “reduce openness.”

Reading from a prepared statement, Apo said he would be supporting the incumbent chairman for what he’s not:

“Chair Lindsey does not lie. Chair Lindsey does not play clandestine political games. Chair Lindsey does not engage in rancor. Chair Lindsey does not demean the institution and those who work for it as a political strategy to make it appear that he is going to save OHA from the rest of us. Chair Lindsey does not cross the lines of ethical behavior. Chair Lindsey does not spread falsehoods about colleagues behind closed doors.”

Apo added that Robert Lindsey brings a high moral standard to his leadership style.

“What a breath of fresh air in the midst of the high passion and turmoil that too often defines our operating culture,” he said.

But Ahu Isa said her efforts to generate more revenue for the agency were thwarted by representatives of Lindsey on at least three occasions.

“I guess people forget that you’re going to run for chair again, because they kind of dismissed me as if I were nothing,” she said. “So that’s why I’m trying to give our organization a chance.”

Just before the vote, OHA CEO Kamana‘opono Crabbe spoke up despite being ruled out of order by Akana. He warned of “severe consequences” if trustees voted the wrong way. He said “two serious matters” involving ongoing public land negotiations with the governor could be undermined by a change in leadership.

“Your vote will determine whether we will be successful in those public land negotiations,” he said.

Asked about the “serious matters” and “severe consequences” afterward, Crabbe responded, “No comment.”

Akina, attending his first meeting after knocking off incumbent Haunani Apoliona in November’s election, said that as a newcomer, his vote for Akana was based on his own due diligence.

“I had to read through the minutes, comb through the comments and the positions taken by the trustees; I had to look through the financial documents, read through the fiscal sustainability reports,” he said.

In addition, Akina said he put together a team of economists and advisers to examine OHA’s financial statements and came up with a report of recommendations that Akana embraced.

Called “Crucial Recommendations for Achieving Fiscal Sustainability,” the 13-page report calls for a reduction of expenditures to reverse a recent trend of spending more than the agency has been earning, as well as to aggressively seek additional revenues.

“We must find creative and responsible ways to increase the revenues of OHA for the sake of beneficiaries. Projects like Kakaako development need to be fast-tracked,” he said.

The report also calls for an end to depleting the fiscal reserve. This is necessary, he said, to protect “the intergenerational equity” of the trust rather than spending it down at the current rate.

It also urges the implementation of a new planning and budgeting system and for reinstating the Budget and Finance Committee.

On Thursday, Akina urged the trustees to keep their eye on their mission.

“There are many things we spend on, but what we have to do is ensure that the spending is focused on the betterment of Hawaiians — housing, jobs, education, health care. Not political programs,” he said.

“The new chair has committed to fighting for the fiscal sustainability of OHA and to seeing that the funds are used for the betterment of Hawaiians,” Akina said.