28 percent raise proposed for OHA trustees
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees would get a 28 percent pay raise — their first since being given a salary in 1993 — if a salary commission's recommendation goes into effect.
The OHA Trustee Salary Commission, appointed by the governor, based its proposed increase on the rise in the cost of living since 1993, using data from the Social Security Administration, according to the report.
The panel favors raising the salary to $41,000 for eight of the nine trustees and to $47,000 for the chairperson of the board. Those positions now pay $32,000 and $37,000.
The raise would make trustees higher-paid than state legislators, who are due for a raise next year, from $32,000 to $34,200.
Ann Nathaniel, who chaired the commission, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Andrew Poepoe, commission vice chairman, said the panel decided the work of the trustees was not strictly comparable to that of any other group.
Poepoe and two other commissioners, Alan Yee and Charles Rose, also emphasized yesterday that the panel was given inadequate time to complete the review, being appointed Jan. 23 and having a Feb. 20 deadline to issue the report. The other commission members are Michael Chun, Mona Kapaku and Claire Hughes.
On the issue of computing the raises, Yee said the commission began by comparing OHA trustees with private foundation board members but decided the fact that OHA trustees are elected officials added another dimension to their duties.
Conversely, other elected officials are not as personally liable for their fiscal decisions as are the OHA trustees, he said.
"If they make a wrong investment decision, they can be sued like any other trustee," Yee said.
The pay raise would take effect July 1 unless legislators vote against it. State Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said her committee likely will schedule a hearing on the proposal to allow for public comment.
OHA board chairwoman Haunani Apoliona thanked the commission and called its recommendation "very prudent, based on the fact that the trustee compensation has not changed in 10 years."
"We look to the Legislature to be favorable," she said.
The trustees' pay comes from the Native Hawaiian trust fund that derives its money from the ceded lands — property that was ceded to the state years after the Hawaiian kingdom was overthrown.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
