Name on ballot:

Cyd L. (Makanui) HOffeld

Running for:

OHA Hawaii Resident Trustee

Political party:

Non-Partisan Special

Campaign website:

Cyd4oha.org

Current occupation:

Health Promotions Manager

Age:

58

Previous job history:

• Health Promotions Manager – Bay Clinic, Inc., Promotion of health in BCI clinics and during outreach activities with community partners (10 years-present)
• Program Director – Bay Clinic, Inc.: Keaʻau Youth Business Center…an innovative youth-driven Entrepreneurial Program featuring four areas of development for youth in partnership with HawCC. (i.e. digital arts/video media, music recording, culinary arts and Middle College) (5 years)
• Family Planning/Health Educator – Bay Clinic, Inc. Providing health education presentations in Public, Charter, Private and Hawaiian Immersion Schools…including in Alternative Learning Centers (Lanakila & Keaʻau High School) Substance Abuse Treatment Programs, Homeless Shelters, After-School programs, and Hale Nani Correctional Facility (present)
• Women’s Advocate – Family Crisis Shelter: Alternatives To Violence Program – TRO assistance, assessment, court advocacy, counseling services, case management & referrals (8 years)
• Youth Group Facilitator – Family Crisis Shelter: Youth Services Program (8 years)
• Women & Teen HIV/AIDS Prevention Specialist and HIV/AIDS/Hep B Counselor/Tester – Hawaiʻi Island HIV/AIDS Foundation–Working with HIV/AIDS positive women and teen and in adults prevention. HIV/AIDS/Hep B Counselor and tester.
• Legal Administrative Assistant – J. Richard Peterson, Attorney at Law, Hilo Law Firm (1 year internship)
• Paraprofessional Tutor – Hilo Intermediate School: Title I program – (5 years)

Previous elected office, if any:

None

Please describe your qualifications to represent the people of Hawaii.

What makes me stand out are my deep roots in this ʻāina. My father, Charles K. Makanui, Sr., was born to Abraham Laeha & Margaret Makanui Laeha. He was raised in Laupahoehoe. My mother, Myra I. Aina, is the daughter of Ah Kui and Julia Aina of Keaukaha and Panaewa Homestead. I believe that I am uniquely qualified for this position because of my years of leadership experiences working with and for our community in the fields of healthcare, education, housing, domestic violence prevention and social justice.

As the next Hawaiʻi Resident Trustee, I will work hard and diligently for the betterment of OHA beneficiaries. My strong community relationships and collaborative partnerships with statewide colleagues will assist in bring together resources and leadership from many sectors for the advancement of Native Hawaiians.

What will be your top priority if elected?

These are the issues I have identified as top priorities and how I would address them:
1. Education – Support and participate in the implementation of the BOE and DOE Stategic Plan 2017-2020 and Hawaiʻi Blueprint for Public Education 2017 after consulting with the OHA Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment Committee. (http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/DOE%20Forms/Advancing%20Education/SP2017-20.pdf) (https://governor.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Blueprint-for-Public-Education-2017.pdf)
2. Healthcare – Collaborate with policy makers and healthcare institutions to address the provider shortage in Hawaiʻi and seek resources to support our Hawaiian Health Care Systems and community health centers statewide.
3. Housing – Increase beneficiary access to Hawaiian Home Lands by creating a stronger partnership with DHHL and seeking a broader range of home finance options for building and maintenance.
4. Social Justice – Continue as co-chair of Health and Housing for Going Home Hawaiʻi Consortium to work with state partners to address the overrepresentation of Native Hawaiians in prisons. Hawaiʻi Island Going Home Consortium has been leading efforts to provide innovative and culturally responsive reenrty and reintergration services to justice-involved men, women, and youth through employment, education, training, and appropriate services.

What is the most pressing need for the people you seek to represent and what can the Office of Hawaiian Affairs do to address that need?

The pressing issues include low educational attainment, poor health & wellness, housing insecurity, overrepresentation of Native Hawaiians in prisons and more. In observing these inequities one might ask, “What caused and continues to cause Native Hawaiians such devastating disparities in their own homelands?”

When looking at Hawaiʻi’s history from past to present facts shed light on some root causes and attempts at reparation. In 1778, members of Cookeʻs expedition described natives of the islands as hardy, robust, and capable of great physical activities. Within 150 years, Native Hawaiians were dying from influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, and mumps. The native population declined from an estimated 800,000 to 50,000. Many other cultural and historic traumas impacted Native Hawaiian and that was before the unconstitutional overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom led by American and non-kanaka Kingdom nationals. After 127 years of United States control over our island nation, Hawaiians went from thriving to barely surviving.

Fortunately, in 1959, as a condition of statehood under the Admissions Act, a portion of “ceded lands” were held in trust with its revenue to be used for the “betterment of the condition of Native Hawaiians.” As OHA Trustee, I will strongly support that the state fulfill its obligation to honor the 20% PLT revenue lawmakers are mandated to pay OHA in accordance with Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes (HRS) Section 10-13.5. I will further support the requirement for OHA to receive “[t]wenty per cent of all funds from the public land trust[.]” Legislation was passed and Public Land Trust revenues are being generated annually. The OHA Trustees are required to manage and administer income and proceeds for the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians. The state and OHA both need to fulfill their obligations to native Hawaiians so academic attainments can be met, quality healthcare can be accessed, and home ownership can become a reality.
OHA cannot do it alone. However through partnerships with Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Hawai’i State Government, DOE, University of Hawaii System, local non-profits, and community partners, we can create positive and long lasting changes that will not only benefit Native Hawaiian’s, the ripples of positive change will permeate throughout Hawai’I nei.

What is one specific change you would like to see in OHA’s operations and what would you do to make it happen?

The one specific change I would like to see is for OHA to have greater integrity in its governance.
With a growing number of new trustees, this next generation will have a chance to improve the culture of OHA. Winning the trust of our beneficiaries, lawmakers, and the public will take empirical evidence of transparency and accountability. The first step towards this goal is to conduct a complete and independent audit. Uncovering past mismanagement of funds, excessive waste and fraudulent practices will move OHA forward with more accountability.
My intention is to use my own positive attributes of honesty, integrity, respect, loyalty, hard work, and a commitment to listen and perform my due diligence before taking action. I will work in partnership with fellow trustees to fulfill our requirement to manage and administer income and proceeds for the “betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians.”
I will strongly support that the state fulfill its obligation to honor the 20% Public Land Trust revenues lawmakers are mandated to pay OHA in accordance with Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) Section 10-13.5. I further support the requirement for OHA to receive “[t]wenty percent of all funds from public land trust[.]” In this way, we can ensure that both the state and OHA fulfill their obligations to provide beneficiaries with vital resources.

Do you support or oppose the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the Big Island and what should OHA’s role be in the process?


As an OHA Trustee, I will be in support of what is in the best interest of the beneficiaries I serve. Finding the balance between science, conservation, and Hawaiian cultural practices will be important in finding a pathway to working together. My observation of events before 2014 to this present day is that a large number of Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiian supporters not only in Hawaiʻi but across the U.S. continent and around the world have voiced their opposition of having another telescope built on what is believed by many to be sacred land.
Other issues may be involved, as well, but the bigger issue seems to be about a breach of trust and broken promises by the university and the state to properly steward the land that has been entrusted to them for 50 years. The conflict on Mauna Kea in particular has created more divisiveness between families, friends, neighbors, and community members than I have ever experience in Hawai’i. The same divisiveness is being experienced on the continent and around the world by those with the most power against those with the least.
In Hawai’i, the beneficiaries of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are the most vulnerable population and the ones I would like to serve as their trustee. OHA’s role in this process will be to serve in the best interest of their beneficiaries.

If Aunty Pilahi Paki and Uncle Pono Shim’s “Aloha Response” is to be perpetuated…A.L.O.H.A. must be embraced by all.

What is OHA’s role in easing the overrepresentation of Native Hawaiians in prisons?

In 2016, the Task Force was formed through House Concurrent Resolution No. 85, H.D. 2, S.D. 1 to address a badly broken correctional system. What was soon discovered was that “Hawaiʻi’s correctional system is not producing acceptable, cost-effective, or sustainable outcomes and needs immediate and profound change.” They identified that mass incarceration does not work and the punitive mentality that created and sustains the current failed system must end. The Task Force and its five subcommittes researched the best practices to improve Hawaiʻi’s correctional system and arrived at a new vision for corrections in Hawaiʻi.
During the Hawaiʻi Legislature 2019 Regular Session the final report, “Creating Better Outcomes, Safer Communities” was presented. OHA also published the Final Report of the HCR 85 Task Force on Prison Reform – Summary and Key Recommendations report. The recommendations for improvement included opportunities for prisoners to access higher levels of education, restore highly successful sex offender treatment programs, expand restorative justice programs, improve the reentry process, support the development of new transitional housing and more.
As the next OHA Hawaii Island Trustee, I will use my experience and partnerships with the Going Home Hawaiʻi Consortium along with the recommendations of the report to address and correct the current correctional system in Hawai’i. OHA can join with programs like Going Home Hawaiʻi and together with the state, counties, and communities; we will ease the overrepresentation of Native Hawaiians in prisons.

Is there anything more that you would like voters to know about you?

As your next Hawaii Island Trustee, I will bring my strengths as someone with integrity, honesty, hard work, and collaboration. OHA cannot do everything on its own but what we can do is bring the right people to the table, and figure our challenges out together.

With my proven ability to lead and support the Hawaiian community, I believe I am the best candidate to represent Hawaii Island.

Please visit my website at Cyd4oha.org to learn more about the issues I stand for.
I humbly ask for your support, your trust, and your vote.

I’m Cyd Makanui Hoffeld, and I am ready to serve as your next Hawaii Island Trustee.

Mahalo