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OHA Trustees Discuss Personal Allowances

Wayne Yoshioka

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees suspended personal allowances for members last year. But the Board is contemplating taking action to resolve this matter.

 

 

Credit Wayne Yoshioka
OHA Trustee Rowena Akana

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustees placed a moratorium on their Sponsorship and Annual Allowances which amounted to more than 22-thousand dollars per trustee.  The state auditor criticized that spending as inconsistent and arbitrarily enforced.  OHA Trustee, Rowena Akana, says OHA’s funds are from the ceded lands trust and not from state taxpayers.

 

“We, as an entity, should start sending a signal that trust funds are trust funds and they should not be dictated by the state.”

 

Credit Wayne Yoshioka
OHA Corporation Counsel, Everett Ohta

But, OHA is a state agency and Trustees are state elected officials.  OHA Corporation Counsel, Everett Ohta, assisted in putting together an Ad Hoc Committee report completed last month.  He says there are problems with trustee sponsorship allowances.

 

“What the issue has repeatedly come out as, it’s providing that direct funding from an individual trustee to an individual or small group of the community and that’s what’s been repeatedly flagged for attention as possibly violating fair treatment laws under the state ethics code or   under things like the trustees’ duties of impartiality.”

 

Ohta says future sponsorship programs can be funded but they need to be a board decisions and not done by an individual trustees.  The Ad Hoc committee report recommends a Trustee Protocol Allowance of 7,200 dollars be set up.  For HPR News, I’m Wayne Yoshioka.

Wayne Yoshioka
Wayne Yoshioka is an award-winning journalist who has worked in television, print and radio in Hawaiʻi. He also has been on both sides of politics as a state departmental appointee and political/government reporter. He covered Hurricane Iwa (1982) as a TV reporter; was the State Department of Defense/Civil Defense spokesperson for Hurricane Iniki (1992); and, commanded a public affairs detachment in Afghanistan (2006). He has a master's degree in Communication from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is a decorated combat veteran (Legion of Merit, Bronze Star and 22 other commendation/service medals). He resides in Honolulu.
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