Category: Government

Ethics Commission is being manipulated

`Ano`ai kakou…  As you may have heard in the media recently, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission has filed accusations against me that are inaccurate and politically motivated by my opponents who want to muddy up my reputation because this in an election year.  I didn’t break any laws.  I didn’t do anything I’m ashamed of.  And I can defend everything.

Trustee Allowance

I have explained (twice) to the Ethics Commission that I did not use my trustee allowance funds to pay for a “home security system,” an “iTunes gift card,” a “Hawaiian Airlines Premier Club membership,” along with other things they claim, yet they refused to listen.

I did buy the whole office lunch for a secretary that was leaving, but it wasn’t a party for myself and our fiscal department said it was an allowable expense.

I also sent Princess Abigail Kawananakoa flowers in the hospital when she suffered a stroke.  Again, this was allowed under our existing fiscal policy.

The charges for internet and phone lines are permitted under our rules because I use them to communicate with OHA beneficiaries and staff while I’m working from home.  OHA Trustees have been allowed to work from home since 1993.

OHA’s Administration verifies all of the trustee allowance expenses quarterly and will not release the allowance funds for the next year unless everything has been resolved.  I received my Trustee Allowance check every year so this proves I did nothing wrong.

This Attack Is Politically Motivated

It is completely unfair for the commission to go back five years and dig up things they feel violates their rules.  The State Auditor’s recent report indicated that several other Trustees and the CEO were clearly in violation of ethics law and yet I’m the only one the commission charged.  This is so blatantly political.

Legal Fees

The commission also claims I wrongly accepted $72,000 from Princess Abigail Kawananakoa and that I didn’t report it as a gift within their deadline.  The truth is I never saw that money.  It went directly to my attorney to pay for legal fees related to my lawsuit to bring transparency to the Board.

My attorney advised that because I was being sued in my official capacity, anyone could offer to pay my legal fees and therefore it is not a personal “gift.”  However, he later recommended (after the reporting deadline passed) that I disclose the money “in an abundance of caution” and that’s what I did.

The Princess paid for my legal bills because she strongly supports the fiscal accountability I’ve been trying to bring to OHA.  I am just one of the many Hawaiians the Princess has helped over the years.

The Ethics Commission is Being Used

There are three Trustees who strongly support the CEO.  One of these Trustees filed this complaint against me to the Ethics Commission.  My detractors at OHA have been fighting my efforts to clean up our agency for years.  Now they have found an agency willing to help them create distrust and controversy against me in an election year.  It’s obvious they are only trying to shine the light away from the current Attorney General & FBI investigation of OHA.

Aloha Ke Akua.

Understanding OHA Politics: 5 Trustees + 1 CEO = Total Control

`Ano`ai kakou…  Due to the recent state audit, some have been calling for the ouster of all current Trustees.  Before people “throw the baby out with the bath water,” I think it’s important to understand how the politics at OHA allows six individuals to have complete control over OHA.  It’s a simple formula:

FIVE TRUSTEES

Five Trustees choose the Board Chair, which gives them an enormous edge over the remaining four Trustees.

The Board Chair serves as OHA’s Chief Procurement Officer and has complete control of OHA’s checkbook.  However, she has handed over this responsibility to the CEO so he can cut checks on a daily basis.  Some of the Trustees have questioned the CEO’s spending but the Board Chair is still OHA’s Chief Procurement Officer and if she is unwilling to investigate it, then nothing happens.

Another problem is legal representation for the “whole” Board as opposed to a few Trustees.

+ ONE CEO

Only Five Trustees are needed to hire the CEO, so he can ignore the remaining four if he chooses.  And that is exactly what he has done!  He has even gone so far as to tell his department heads to not meet with Trustees unless they have his permission.

The CEO has far more power over OHA than any Trustees or even the Board Chair.  Only the CEO (not the Trustees) has the power to hire and fire any OHA employee.

The CEO has complete control of OHA’s legal department and OHA’s Corp. Counsel answers directly to him.  So good luck asking the Corp. Counsel for help if you have a problem with the CEO.  Also, all of OHA’s legal department opinions must go through the CEO before the Trustees can see them.

= COMPLETE CONTROL

I’ve heard people argue that the Trustees should have known the CEO was misspending OHA Trust funds and that all Trustees share the blame for his misconduct.  Normally, I would agree with that statement.  However, when Five Trustees and the CEO form a political partnership, it is nearly impossible for the remaining Four Trustees to discover the truth.

As most people know, I have even gone so far as to sue the Board of Trustees to get some transparency.  That is the only option that minority Trustees have – go to court against the Board to allow information to flow to all Trustees and the public.

Aloha Ke Akua.

WAITING OVER A YEAR: Where is OHA’s Internal Audit?

`Ano`ai kakou…  Way, way back on February 8, 2017 – before the recent State Audit was completed – the Board of Trustees approved Action Item RM 17-02, which authorized a Request for Statement of Qualification from an independent CPA firm, for the purpose of conducting an audit of OHA and its subsidiary Limited Liability Companies (LLCs): Hi’ilei Aloha LLC, Ho’okele Pono LLC and Hi’ipaka LLC.

RM 17-02 authorized an independent auditor to look at the following:

  • Contracts:
    1. Sufficiency of contract/grant oversight provided appropriately by the assigned contract manager/monitor;
    2. Deliverables were met by the contractor/grant recipient;
    3. Conflict of interest with LLC managers and directors; and
    4. No fraudulent or wasteful disbursements were made.
  • All other disbursements of funds, excluding payroll:
    1. Conflict of interest with LLC managers and directors;
    2. Compliance with internal policies and procedures; and
    3. No fraudulent or wasteful disbursements were made.
  • Quarterly reports to the BOT:
    1. Sufficient internal controls are in place to ensure the integrity of the performance indicators as reported in the quarterly reports to the BOT.

On December 18, 2017, the independent auditor requested the check registers from Hi’ilei Aloha LLC, Ho’okele Pono LLC and Hi’ipaka LLC in order to finalize the audit.  It’s three months later and, at the writing of this column, we’ve still received nothing.

As a result of the stalling, on February 7, 2018, the Resource Management Chair, Trustee Hulu Lindsey, was forced to ask the Board to approved Action Item RM# 18-02 to compel the LLC Managers (OHA’s CEO, COO, & CFO) to submit any necessary LLC documents to her so she can transmit them to the independent auditor.

However, the LLC Managers and OHA’s Administration have objected to submitting their “proprietary” information to the Resource Management Chair.  Instead, they want to submit the documents directly to the independent auditor.  However, as contract administrator for the audit, the Resource Management Chair acts as the point of contact and is responsible for oversight of the audit.  Therefore, there shouldn’t be a problem with routing documents through her office for transmittal to the independent auditor.  The Resource Management Chair and her staff are willing to sign nondisclosure agreements to address this concern.

The LLC Managers and the Administration have also expressed doubts about legal issues related to the Board’s authority to request information from the LLCs.  In response, Trustee Hulu Lindsey consulted the State Attorney General’s office and received a letter stating that OHA (the Member) has rights to the information requested, pursuant to the Operating Agreements between OHA and each LLC, and pursuant to HRS Chapter 428, the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act.  The right of access includes the opportunity to inspect and copy records during business hours.

As the highest authority at OHA, the Board of Trustees should not have to tolerate all of the excuses and stalling tactics by the LLC managers and OHA’s Administration.  The OHA Chair needs to show some courage and demand that the information we need to carry out our audit is delivered to us immediately.  After all, this is one of the areas that the State Auditor said needed to be looked at.  This obvious stall is an indication of mismanagement.  Aloha Ke Akua.

IT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS: OHA needs more Fiscal Responsibility, but certain Trustees have lacked the political will

`Ano`ai kakou…  Recently, there has been a lot of critical news about OHA’s recent spending on grants, sponsorships, and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs).  But this is definitely not news to me.  It’s what I’ve been saying all along.  Here are some highlights of my past Ka Wai Ola articles during the past year:

  • January 2018 – OHA publishes a book and hands over Scholarship Program to UH. On November 21, 2017, OHA published a book on mana that took five years of staff time to print.  I’ve been waiting months for a response about where the money to publish the book came from.
  • December 2017 – Bring Back OHA Run Programs. I wrote that change will not occur unless the Trustees begin to hold our Administration responsible for their actions.
  • April 2017 – Back to Normal: Ho Hum, Business as Usual. I wrote that one of OHA’s money managers recommended that we get rid of the Fiscal Reserve slush fund.  Trustees seemed supportive, but nothing has happened since.  Now the State Auditor is calling this out!  I also wrote that we need to find a more efficient way to run our essential programs such as community grants.  The State Auditor’s February 2018 Audit of OHA (LINK: http://files.hawaii.gov/auditor/Reports/2018/18-03.pdf) vindicates my position that OHA grants are still not being monitored and mostly given to those who know who and how to ask.
  • March 2017 – Transition: Change doesn’t have to be painful. I argued that OHA must be an agency that treats our beneficiaries equally and it’s now up to the new leadership to make sure there is an even playing field at OHA.  However, this has not occurred.  I also mentioned that on February 8th, the Trustees formed an Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the Board on the scope of a proposed financial audit and management review.  This only came about because our beneficiaries demanded it and wanted an answer to the one question I’ve been asking nonstop for the last decade:  Where is all the money really going?”  This effort has met with great opposition from the Administration.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:

Mona Bernardino, who currently serves as chief operating officer of Hiilei Aloha LLC, one of OHA’s five nonprofit LLCs, recently wrote an op-ed piece to Civil Beat.  In it, she tries to shift the blame for OHA’s misspending and lack of transparency solely on the Trustees by hinting that it has to do with Trustee Allowances.  What Ms. Bernardino fails to mention is that nothing was spent on things that weren’t allowed under current OHA policies.

Also, the fact that OHA’s LLCs are shrouded in secrecy and riddled with complaints rests mostly on Ms. Bernardino’s shoulders.  Her objections to the audit of the LLCs has caught our attention for sure.

This is an election year and people like Ms. Bernardino would like nothing more than to get rid of the Trustees who have been demanding accountability.  This is what prompted her op-ed letter.  However, what she has done is open the barn door for not just the auditors, but for the Trustees to re-examine the need to have five LLCs.  I have NOT been a fan of OHA’s LLCs.  Three of them were secretly created by two former Trustees and the former Administrator without Board approval.  They were eventually approved by the Board two years after they were formed, but only because I started asking questions about them.  Aloha Ke Akua.

OHA turmoil: Trustee Akana says staffers told of flagrant disregard for policies

NOTE: This op-ed was originally printed in the Honolulu Star Advertiser on February 25, 2018

LINK:  http://www.staradvertiser.com/?p=722471?HSA=44dec0285d36f9e93efa1bd7b3c84c45c183bddf

In January 2017, as then-chairwoman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ board of trustees, I and four other trustees offered OHA CEO Kamana‘opono Crabbe a buyout of his contract so that we could have a fresh start with a new CEO and correct many of the issues that have now been revealed by the state auditor.

However, three trustees fought us hard: Colette Machado, Bob Lindsey and Dan Ahuna went above and beyond to protect the CEO. They all refused to deal with the problems plaguing OHA and lacked the political will to make the necessary changes.

Over the past few years, OHA has had a problem with a mass exodus of administrative staff. Whole divisions were gutted and we lost our most capable and experienced staff.

Several of these employees confided in trustees they trusted and shared their horror stories of unqualified managers, friends of the CEO, who flagrantly disregarded policies and procedures. When they brought up their concerns, they were threatened, bullied and reprimanded. Most of them left for greener pastures.

There were always at least a few grant applicants who complained to trustees about the application process during every grant-giving cycle. They sent us emails and personally testified at the board table about the unfairness of the whole process. Many of them said their grants were denied based on technicalities. And yet, at the same time, many of the organizations that received grants were not properly evaluated on their deliverables. Many of the institutions that did receive grants had some sort of personal connection to the CEO. Beneficiaries constantly urged the trustees to do something, but the trustees in power believed the CEO was doing a good job and ignored the complaints.

In February 2017, I was removed as the board chairwoman because, I believe, of the sweeping changes I intended to make within the organization. The efforts to reform OHA came to a halt and things went back to the status quo when Machado was chosen as my replacement, and the CEO was back in business.

At the time of my ouster, I warned OHA’s new leadership that one cannot hide the truth, that it was only a matter of time before the public found out about what was really going on here. I believe the recent state auditor’s report says it all.

A year has passed since the new faction took over and, as predicted, nothing has changed.

Further, legislative measures such as Senate Bill 1303, which calls for amendments to the OHA election process, are dangerous because many of the reform-minded trustees calling for fiscal responsibility, such as Trustees Hulu Lindsey, John Waihee IV and myself are up for re-election this year. SB1303 specifically targets our races. Those who want to maintain the status quo are hoping that the new voting format will help them knock us out of office. Proponents of the bill say they want a head-to-head race with the three at-large candidates, but this already happens in the primary election. Six candidates will move on to the general election for three seats.

Fifty Years of Mismanaging Mauna Kea by UH & DLNR

`Ano`ai kakou…  An excellent video was recently released that explains the state’s failure to fulfill its trust obligations relating to Mauna Kea.  The six-minute video, “Fifty Years of Mismanaging Mauna Kea,” was uploaded to VIMEO (Link: https://vimeo.com/247038723) on December 12, 2017 by Kanaeokana, a network of ʻōlelo Hawai’i, Hawaiian culture, and ʻāina-based schools.  Here are some quick highlights:

1964 – Mauna Kea is identified by UH as an exceptional site for astronomical observation.

1968 – UH signs a 65-year general lease from BLNR for 13,321 acres of ceded lands at the summit.  BLNR can terminate the lease if the lease terms are not met, including care for the mauna.  A permit for “an observatory” was granted but numerous telescopes are built.  BLNR later issues “after the fact” permits.

1974 – Governor George Ariyoshi, concerned that the activities on the mountain pose a threat to its “priceless qualities,” directs DLNR to make a Master Plan for the mauna.  DLNR and UH draft 10 different plans, but the speed of development on Mauna Kea makes some of them obsolete before they are completed.

1975 – The Audubon Society resists the installation of the 15-meter sub-millimeter antenna.

1995 – UH cleans up trash accumulating on the summit only after the Sierra Club files a complaint.

1998 – The State Auditor releases a scathing report documenting 30 years of mismanagement of Mauna Kea by both the BLNR and UH and reveals that, despite spending $50 million per year on telescope operations, no observatory paid more than $1 a year rent.

1999 – Despite the audit, they build two more telescopes.

2004 – Subpoenaed documents reveal that sewage, ethylene glycol, diesel fuel, and toxic mercury were spilled on the mauna.

2005 – A follow-up audit finds that UH’s management “still falls short.”  A NASA environmental study concludes that 35 years of astronomy activity has caused “significant, substantial and adverse” harm.

2007 – Third Circuit Court revokes NASA’s permit for an observatory project because of the state’s lack of a comprehensive management plan for the mauna.

2010 – UH’s new Comprehensive Management Plan includes a “Decommissioning Plan” for removing observatories and restoring the site.  To date, only one of the existing 13 observatories has started the process.  A UH environmental study concludes that astronomy activities have caused “substantial and adverse” impacts to the mauna’s natural and cultural resources.

2011 – The Subaru Observatory spills 100 liters of orange coolant.

2013 – BLNR hears UH’s request for a new 65-year general lease, to expire in 2078.  UH’s undergraduate governing body, representing 14,000 students, passes a resolution opposing a new lease.

2014 – Another follow-up audit finds UH failed to adopt a single rule to manage public activities on the mountain.

2015 – Governor David Ige temporarily stops construction on Mauna Kea after 300 mauna protectors peacefully block roads to the proposed TMT site and 31 are arrested.  A petition with 53,000 signatures calling for a halt to the TMT and the arrests of protectors is delivered to Ige.  UH’s President admits that “[UH] has not met all of [its] obligations to the mountain or the expectations of the community.”

2017 – Another audit finds that none of the 8 recommendations in the 2014 audit had been completely implemented.  UH and DLNR have also failed and to adequately implement 32 of 54 management actions that concern Native Hawaiians.

If you think Mauna Kea deserves better care, help spread the word by sharing this video.

Check out the video at: https://vimeo.com/247038723

One step forward, two steps back: OHA publishes a book and hands over Scholarship Program to UH

`Ano`ai kakou…  Last month I talked about OHA taking a step in the right direction by getting rid of a “middle-man” to administer OHA’s funds to support 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools.  It was a win-win situation I hoped we could replicate with other OHA programs.  Disappointingly, this seems to have been the exception, not the rule.

OHA PUBLISHES A BOOK ON MANA

Certain things should be contracted out to outside vendors, such as publishing books.  We’re a government agency focused on bettering the condition of Native Hawaiians, not a book publisher.

Amazingly, on November 21, 2017, OHA published and released a book that explores mana.  According to OHA’s press release, the 300-page Mana Lāhui Kānaka is “a multidimensional study of mana: what it is, how to articulate it, and how to access and cultivate it.  The book, which is available free to the public online, was co-authored by OHA Ka Pouhana and Chief Executive Officer Kamanaʻopono Crabbe, Ph.D, Dr. Kealoha Fox and Holly Coleman.”

I had no idea our CEO was using OHA staff time and resources over the past five years to write this book.  None of the previous Board Chairs or the Trustees I’ve talked to were aware of this project or how it came about.  Apparently, OHA’s CEO felt that there wasn’t many books written about mana out there, so he decided to have OHA publish one.

While mana maybe a worthwhile subject for some, is spending five years of staff time on it to publish a book more important than the life of our people or their homeless plight?  OHA needs to be more careful when taking on these projects because the public could easily see it as self-serving and done on the backs of our beneficiaries.

MIXED MESSAGES

According to OHA’s press release, on November 8, 2017 OHA filed a filed a lawsuit in First Circuit Court against the State of Hawaiʻi and the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) for their longstanding and well-documented mismanagement of Mauna Kea.  OHA’s complaint requests the court to order the state to fulfill its trust obligations relating to Mauna Kea and to terminate UH’s general lease for the mountain for breach of the lease’s terms.

“The state and UH have failed to properly mālama Mauna Kea and have demonstrated their inability to ensure that the environmental and cultural significance of the mountain is recognized and protected,” said OHA Vice Chair Dan Ahuna.  “It’s time to abandon any hope that UH is capable or even willing to provide the level of aloha and attention to Mauna Kea that it deserves,” Ahuna continued.  “We need to come together as a community to completely re-think how we care for the mauna, and that starts with cancelling the university’s master lease.”

I agree with Trustee Ahuna.  However, on November 29, 2017, the Board approved, based on the Administration’s recommendation, the disbursement of $550,000 from FY 2018 and $550,000 from FY 2019 to fund a grant to the UH system to serve as administrator for OHA’ scholarship fund.  NOTE:  I abstained.

So to recap, OHA can’t trust UH to properly manage Mauna Kea but we can totally trust them to properly distribute our money to Native Hawaiian students.  Talk about mixed messages.  Aloha Ke Akua.

The Return of Trustee Accountability: Bring Back OHA Run Programs

`Ano`ai kakou…  With a New Year coming up soon I continue to hope that there will be positive changes at OHA.  However, change will not occur unless the Trustees begin to hold our Administration responsible for their actions.

The biggest problem is that the current system encourages Trustees to do nothing but show up to vote for action items written by the Administration.  Many of these action items are delivered to us a few days before a meeting, giving us very little time to properly review them.  This is why Trustees often feel blindsided at the table by last minute proposals.

Another problem is that OHA only reacts to problems as they pop up instead of proactively solving issues before they get serious.  With the many emergencies we face, our beneficiaries cannot afford Trustees that only sit back and passively wait to put out fires.

OHA used to be a hands-on agency with a variety of programs to help our beneficiaries.  Whenever a beneficiary would call with a problem, whether it had to do with health, education, housing, or even funds for an emergency, we could call someone in the OHA Administration for help.  Our beneficiaries were assisted quickly and efficiently by an OHA staffer.  That’s why having in-house OHA programs, closely monitored by the Trustees, are so important.

Today, OHA mostly operates like a charitable foundation that simply hands out grants and conducts research.  Most of the successful OHA-run programs, like Aha ‘Opio and Aha Kupuna, which took years of hard work by past Trustees to develop, have been contracted out or quietly discontinued.

OHA also had a very successful housing program through a partnership with Fannie Mae and implemented through First Hawaiian Bank.  We not only provided assistance with down payments but also classes on how to control debt in order to qualify for a mortgage.  In those productive years OHA ran many programs with just a quarter of our current staff.  While farming work out to nonprofits is appropriate in some cases, I believe OHA has gone too far.

A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Rebuilding our programs won’t be quick or easy, but there is hope.  For the last eight years, OHA contracted with a third-party “middle-man” to administer OHA’s funds to support 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools.  The middle-man took a small percentage of the funds as an administrative fee to cover the costs of distributing the fund and ensuring compliance.  Since the Trustees approved $1.5 million for this school year and next school year, the administrative fee was estimated to be up to $200,000 for each year.

On October 19, 2017, the OHA Trustees approved distributing the $3 million directly to the charter schools over the next two years.  Amazingly, the Trustees finally decided to get rid of the middle-man.  This means that the administrative fee will now go to the schools.  It’s a win-win situation I’m hoping we can replicate with other OHA programs.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The Trustees are ultimately accountable for OHA.  Therefore it makes more sense to run our programs in-house so that we can monitor them.  That way, OHA Trustees will be more involved and regularly kept up to date on our programs’ progress.  This should be our goal for 2018.  I pray that the New Year will bring constructive and meaningful change.  Aloha Ke Akua.

Give OHA its fair share of ceded land revenues

`Ano`ai kakou…  In 2006, Senate Bill 2948 established the amount of interim revenue to be transferred to the OHA from the public land trust, each fiscal year beginning with fiscal year 2005-2006, at $15,100,000.

While I was not opposed to the $15,100,000 that was negotiated, I did have serious concerns about how the amounts were calculated.  I also questioned whether OHA’s negotiation team considered all of the facts and figures that were available to come up with a fair and justifiable amount.  The last discussion that I am aware of was in December 2005, when our attorney told us that the state owed a past due amount between $17-$30 million.

Despite my inquires, I have never gotten a satisfactory answer on how the final $15.1 million figure was calculated nor why this amount is lower than the $17-$30 million range that was discussed.  I did receive bits-and-pieces of information from the negotiation team from time-to-time.  However, even very important information, such as the calculations and figures compiled by OHA’s accountant in the past, had changed over the years and I questioned whether they were even considered.  There also did not appear to be a clear formula by which the negotiators calculated the amounts owed or even the future payments to be paid to OHA.

At no time was I ever privy to the formula which the negotiation team used to calculate the settlement with the Governor’s office, nor was I given any real numbers that showed exactly how the team had arrived at the numbers that they were suggesting.  Much of the specific details of the negotiations were kept a closely guarded secret.

On February 1, 2006, the State House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs had a hearing on Senate Bill 2948.  During the questions and answers period, committee members asked the State Attorney General about where the revenue would come from.  The AG replied that they were looking at receipts from the airport shops, the University of Hawaii Bookstore, U.H. parking, etc.  State Representative Ezra Kanoho asked if those sources were included in the $15.1 million and the answer was “yes.”  This was confusing since those revenues have been in dispute with the state since the Heely case.  This begged the question – Was the state now settling a part of the Heely case with this settlement?

By the time I found out that the negotiating team and the Governor’s office had come up with a deal, it was too late for me to express my other concerns.  For example:

  1. By what method was the past due amounts determined to be $17-$30 Million?
  2. Was inflation factored into the equation?
  3. Did they consider the fact that the state has been re-negotiating leases every year and, consequently, the revenue stream is now much higher? The $15.1 million figure goes way back to 1995.
  4. What about the interest that is owed to OHA on the unpaid amounts?

I have always felt that our negotiating team was too secretive about how they came up with the final $15.1 million figure.  I also haven’t heard a convincing argument that justifies the amount.  It is critical that we revisit this issue and finally convince the state to give OHA and its beneficiaries a fair share of the ceded land revenue.  As the past OHA Chair I did ask Governor Ige to reconvene the taskforce of 2016 to resolve the unpaid debt to OHA but as of this date I’ve had no response.  Aloha Ke Akua.

Charter Schools are shortchanged by the State

`Ano`ai kakou…  Since 2005, the OHA has been a supporter of the charter school movement, and has collaborated in partnership with the Kamehameha Schools’ Hoꞌolako Like program, ꞌAha Pūnana Leo, Hoꞌokākoꞌo Corporation and other non-profit organizations supporting 15+ Hawaiian-focused charter schools statewide, where Native Hawaiians make up a high portion of the student population.

Most of Hawai’i’s start-up and conversion public charter schools are Hawaiian-focused charter schools and more than 3,000 Native Hawaiian children are enrolled in these schools.  These schools lack sufficient funds for facilities and infrastructure, capital improvements and repair and maintenance costs.  Difficulties in securing adequate long-term and affordable facilities that are academically appropriate are resulting in a financial crisis for some Hawaiian-focused charters.  This threatens the long-term viability of Hawai’i’s public charter school system and the well-being of our Hawaiian children and families.

In spite of the challenges and severe under-funding, Hawaiian-focused charter schools have demonstrated their effectiveness in serving our Hawaiian children, who are more engaged and attain greater gains in the educational process as compared to their peers in conventional public schools.  Our children are succeeding in the Hawaiian-focused charter schools because they are grounded in Hawaiian language, culture and values.  The well-being of our Hawaiian families and communities are also enhanced by the positive gains made in our Hawaiian-focused charter schools.

The Trustees, the Administration and the staff of OHA are committed to fulfill its education mission to facilitate culturally sound educational opportunities for Native Hawaiians by promoting academic success and life-long learning.  The Trustees have authorized and allocated millions of dollars over the years leveraging other potential resources to fund Hawaiian-focused public charter schools.  The State is the largest stakeholder and is charged with the greatest responsibility or “kuleana” to make this possible.

Section 5(f) of the 1959 Hawaii Admission Act established that the State holds lands as a public trust be used for: (1) The support of public schools and other public institutions; (2) For the betterment of conditions of native Hawaiians; (3) The development of farm and home ownership; (4) Public improvements; and (5) The establishment of lands for public use.

Hawaiian-focused public charter schools are getting shortchanged by the State.

Hawaiian-focused public charter schools should be getting a much greater share of the ceded land revenues than they do now.  They should be drawing from a pool of 40% of the ceded land revenues (support of public schools at 20% and public use of lands at 20%).  The State’s share of the ceded land revenues is 80% (minus the 20% for the betterment of native Hawaiians that goes to OHA) and yet they give nothing (0%) to the Charter Schools for infrastructure.  This causes a huge disparity between Charter Schools and the Department of Education.  Paying for their facilities is a huge burden for charter schools and the State needs to start paying up.  Things are so bad that many charter schools would be in dire straits if it weren’t for OHA’s yearly $1.5 million in grants.

It is not enough to make possible the opportunity for our children to attend charter schools.  It is incumbent upon us to ensure that the learning environments we create for our children, and indeed for all children, must be reflective of the promising future that we envision for them and for our society.  I urge all of my readers to support the ongoing success of Hawaiian-focused charter schools.  Write and email your OHA Trustee, State Representative, and State Senator to do something about this disparity.  Aloha Ke Akua.