OHA plans to pick new administrator today

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

A new administrator for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will be named today after trustees meet at 10 a.m. to consider applicants for the position. Interviews were conducted privately this week.

Trustees of the Native Hawaiian assistance agency began looking in April for a replacement for Administrator Randall Ogata, whose contract for the $85,000-a-year job expires June 30 and will not be renewed.

OHA, which has more than $300 million in assets, spends about $7 million a year to provide programs for people of Hawaiian ancestry.

Trustee Rowena Akana said she and five other trustees finished up the interviews yesterday and that she expects a choice to be made from among six finalists today.

Trustee Clayton Hee, who had objected to the interviews being conducted at the members-only Pacific Club for the sake of privacy, did not attend any of the interview sessions, and Trustee Charles Ota, who had not attended earlier because of illness, also was not at the club yesterday.

Akana and Trustee Linda Dela Cruz dropped their objection to the Pacific Club location after managers said any member of the public could enter the premises to wait outside the interview room.

The finalists for the job include Patricia Brandt, a former assistant to then-Gov. John Waihe'e; Jan Dill, a local businessman; Colin Kippen, OHA's deputy administrator; Clyde Namu'o, a state judiciary deputy administrator; Robert Ozaki, a former vice president at the Queen's Health Systems and Amfac Inc.; and Winona Rubin, an aide to OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona and a former state human services director.