Susan Kodani, the center’s president for the past three years, has resigned and will be replaced by retired University of Hawai'i administrator Richard Kosaki, serving as acting president while a search for a permanent executive takes place.

Kodani will take a position as director of institutional advancement at St. Andrew’s Priory School for Girls, a job combining fund-raising and special events.

Kodani and Colbert Matsumoto, the new chairman of the board of directors, both say the resignation was Kodani’s decision; a panel appointed to rate her performance had not completed her job evaluation.

However, Kodani has been the target of critics who say she did too little to reverse the center’s financial crisis, which last year threatened it with foreclosure. A last-ditch effort by the ad hoc Committee to Save the Center, organized last fall, cleared the bulk of the $9 million debt by the end of the year.

In response to the criticism, Kodani would say only that the center has made "tremendous turnaround," and that she felt "pleased to have been part of that whole difficult period."

"I’m proud of the work that I’ve done over the past 3› years," she said. "We were instrumental in keeping the center moving forward during a dark period."

Matsumoto said the center is clear of all debts — including mortgage, property tax and back payments to various vendors — and now must find money to spend on various repairs and maintenance that were put off during the financial crisis.