Posted on: Friday, December 3, 2004
OHA seeks more autonomy like 'fourth arm of government'
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is seeking ways to spend and manage the Native Hawaiian trust fund more independently of the state, its trustees looking ahead to the day when those assets will be transferred to a native government.
The goal of functioning more like a "fourth arm of government" with greater autonomy is being studied by OHA attorneys who are preparing the agency's legislative package, said Clyde Namu'o, OHA administrator.
It also was mentioned in an address delivered by OHA chairwoman Haunani Apoliona at Kawaiaha'o Church, during Wednesday's installation of the board of trustees.
"Wherever legally permissible, OHA needs to begin to operate as the quasi-independent organization, the fourth arm of government, that was envisioned by the framers of the Hawai'i State Constitution in 1978," she added, a reference to the establishment of OHA in the Constitutional Convention 26 years ago.
Apoliona later said it was too soon to offer specifics on the move toward greater autonomy. But she said that although OHA must work "within the context of state government," it was created as something distinct from a state department.
Namu'o said that in some ways OHA already operates more like a fourth branch. Like the judiciary, for example, OHA presents its budget directly to the Legislature without going first through the state administration's budget office, he said.
The move toward more autonomy will be gradual, he said, probably starting with the administration of its trust fund independently, rather than paying bills and issuing grants through the state accounting office.
Namu'o said he and other officials have pored over the journals of the 1978 Constitutional Convention and believe that some level of autonomy was the delegates' intention for OHA.
"The discussion was clear that the framers were looking to create OHA as a separate independent branch," he said.
Agreement with this interpretation came yesterday from Frenchy DeSoto, a former OHA trustee. As a ConCon delegate who was one of the primary forgers of amendments benefiting Native Hawaiians, DeSoto said OHA's creation had to be confirmed by the state Legislature, and some of the state regulation resulted from early legislative oversight. But the original intent was clear, she said.
"I believe the OHA was the beginning of creating a political machine that could be heard," she said. "Otherwise Hawaiians are never heard, unless perhaps they're wearing a holoku and strumming an 'ukulele."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
