OHA shuffling committee assignments
By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writer
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees who returned Clayton Hee to the agency's chairmanship last week are poised to take over key committees Monday, while Hee's critics are already withdrawing from the new regime.
In a reorganization proposed yesterday, Hee nominated Maui millionaire Charles Ota, a non-Hawaiian elected to the agency last year, to replace Oswald Stender as head of the agency's Budget and Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, OHA vice chairwoman Rowena Akana is Hee's pick to take over Colette Machado's Legislative and Government Affairs Committee.
John Waihe'e IV, whose swing vote sealed Hee's return to power, was listed as the proposed head of Program Management. And Hee's pick to lead Policy and Planning is Big Island trustee Linda Dela Cruz.
All assignments must be approved by five votes, and could change over the weekend as trustees negotiate changes.
As for the new board minority, Kaua'i trustee Donald Cataluna indicated that he may resign as chairman of the Committee on Land, while Stender says he will not serve on any committees.
Moloka'i trustee Machado also is considering reducing her involvement, saying she already feels marginalized under the new regime.
"I'm not sure how much I can do under this new leadership," Machado said.
Hee replaced Haunani Apoliona as chairman in a 5-3 vote Tuesday. His supporters argued he would make a stronger leader at a time when OHA's investment portfolio has taken a dive in the stock market slump.
Critics of Hee countered that the change was disruptive and would only serve to promote the political aspirations of 48-year-old Hee, who is expected to run for lieutenant governor in 2002.
Hee's campaign to regain the chairmanship largely centered on issues of how the agency would survive after a Hawai'i Supreme Court decision voiding a law that set up a revenue funding stream for OHA.
Though the high court on Sept. 12 affirmed the state's obligation to compensate Native Hawaiians for historic losses, it overturned a Circuit Court decision that could have forced the state to pay OHA hundreds of millions of dollars in ceded land back revenues.
Ceded lands are former crown lands that the United States ceded to the state in 1959 for public benefits, including the betterment of Native Hawaiians. For more than a decade, OHA and the state have been battling in court over how much the state owes OHA for its use of those lands, which make up about 95 percent of state-owned lands.
In his campaign to regain the OHA chairmanship, Hee said he will work with his old friend Gov. Ben Cayetano toward a settlement in that dispute. In 1999, against Hee's objections, OHA rejected the state's offer of $251 million and 360,000 acres of revenue producing lands.
Kim Murakawa, the spokeswoman for Cayetano, said the governor is not prepared to discuss his position on a ceded land settlement at this time.
Meanwhile, a Sept. 21 report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on a bill to bring federal recognition of Native Hawaiians says that if a Native Hawaiian governing entity is formed, that government should be able to negotiate claims to ceded lands with the federal government and state of Hawai'i.
