Lingle delays search for head of UH agency

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Harold Masumoto, the outgoing executive director of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai'i, has been asked to stay on as a $5,000-a-month consultant to help with the transition to his successor.

But earlier this month, Gov. Linda Lingle asked the board that oversees RCUH to hold off on hiring Masumoto's replacement and to postpone "a business transaction with Mr. Harold Masumoto involving a substantial amount of money."

In the July 1 letter, Lingle said she had learned that the RCUH board was scheduled last week to discuss the business deal, as well as a replacement for Masumoto. The meeting was canceled at Lingle's request.

RCUH was established by the Legislature in 1965 to support UH research and training programs.

The agency falls under the general management and control of a 10-member board of directors. Five members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. The UH Board of Regents selects the other five from among its members.

The day-to-day operations are managed by an executive director. Masumoto resigned from that post June 30.

Lingle asked that decisions on the new executive director and any agreement with Masumoto be delayed because of the transition of both boards. She has appointed new members to the Board of Regents, who will in turn determine some new RCUH board members who are expected to begin serving this month.

"The motives for very important decisions that are made just before a possible 'changing of the guard' are quite often subject to very strict after-the-fact scrutiny," Lingle wrote.

Masumoto said yesterday that he also had recommended to the RCUH board that both decisions wait for Lingle's new appointees. Masumoto said he has agreed to stay on for up to a year as a consultant, with a standard clause that he will recuse himself if any conflict occurs.

He said that he can help a new director, but wanted to make sure that the new person wanted his help.

"If it's an outsider, I think I can be very useful," Masumoto said. "I know the university; I know the state; I know higher education; I know research administration."

Masumoto said he's willing to stay because he thinks it's important that RCUH maintain its independence from UH.

"I don't see a conflict with my defending the RCUH against the university," he said.

Masumoto has worked part time at the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR) since July 2001, according to officials there. The center is an independent, not-for-profit, applied research and development entity in Hawai'i with a board of directors from the United States, Asia and the Pacific region.

The center promotes and develops technology related to the marine and tropical environment of the Asia-Pacific region. Much of the major project work concerns research and development of renewable energy technology.

Masumoto is a former UH vice president of administration, where he served under former UH President Fujio Matsuda. Masumoto served eight years as Hawai'i's director of planning under former Gov. John Waihee. He was often referred to as Waihee's point man, a key troubleshooter and quiet power who preferred to avoid the center stage.

Masumoto first took the job at RCUH in 1994 after Matsuda stepped down and recommended that Masumoto succeed him. Some critics at the time suggested the move smacked of cronyism. Matsuda serves on the board of PICHTR.

But regent and board member Walter Nunokawa, who has been serving on the RCUH board as one of the five UH regent members, praised Masumoto's work at the research corporation. He said he understood Lingle's request to postpone key action before her newly appointed members of the Board of Regents took office and agreed with it.

Nunokawa, a retired psychology professor, emphasized that he was talking about the issue as an individual and not speaking for the board.

He said it made sense to wait until Lingle's picks take office.

"We don't want to give the impression that we're trying to rush anything through to try to beat Gov. Lingle to the punch," he said.

Nunokawa said he believes the new board will be more assertive because the new members favor public discussion.

"We should be able to accomplish a lot more," he said.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.