Three of five seats representing island districts and three of four at-large seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees (BOT) are up for a vote this year, each with a four-year term. OHA elections for all seats are statewide, and any registered Hawaii voter can cast a ballot.
OHA’s budget increases in the coming year to $21.5 million from $15.1 million, allocated from the state’s revenue derived from Hawaii’s public lands — and this year, OHA also received a one-time lump sum of $64 million, making the $21.5 million annual budget retroactive to 2012. The bigger budget raises the stakes for OHA to show that it is serving and improving the lives of Native Hawaiians, and trustees and candidates have already begun floating ideas for priorities, such as obtaining land to provide housing.
Maui District candidate Carmen Hulu Lindsey, the incumbent and current BOT chair, is running unopposed.
Representing Oahu, Kalei Akaka, elected to the BOT in 2018, garnered more than 50% of votes in the primary and will serve another term.
Here are the Star-Advertiser’s endorsements for the Hawaii island contest between Mililani B. Trask and Hope A. Cermelj; and for new blood for OHA’s three at-large seats among the primary election’s top six vote-getters: Leina‘ala Ahu Isa, Brickwood Galuteria, Sam K. King, Chad Owens, Keoni Souza and John D. Waihe‘e IV.
HAWAII ISLAND
Attorney Mililani B. Trask is a strong and deeply informed advocate for Hawaiian self-sufficiency, citing poverty and homelessness among Hawaiians as her most pressing concerns. She was one of the kupuna arrested for civil disobedience during protests on Maunakea against building the Thirty Meter Telescope, and she has long been involved in organized efforts to bring the state to account on its use of ceded lands and Hawaiian homelands. She was an at-large trustee for OHA from 1998 to 2000.
In her current term as an trustee, to which she was appointed in February after Keola Lindsey resigned, Trask backed a ceded lands inventory to identify income-generating resources to support affordable housing for Hawaiian homelands beneficiaries. She is worthy of a full term to continue pushing OHA on her agenda to support community-based economic efforts and Hawaiian small businesses, advocating for partnerships with county, state and federal government in creating workforce training programs, supporting start-ups and fostering business expansion, and moving the needle on housing for Hawaiians by launching innovative programs. Opponent Hope A. Cermelj cites the homelands waitlist as a primary issue, but has provided few specifics on her platform.
AT-LARGE
Brickwood Galuteria, a Hawaii state senator from 2008 to 2018, is well-equipped to serve on the BOT, with a reasoned, informed platform based on building a unified voice for Hawaiian interests. Galuteria says he wants OHA to be more able to assist in lifting Hawaiians economically, noting that “what’s good for Kanaka Maoli is good for all of Hawaii.” To that end, he supports OHA’s ceded land inventory and the effort to increase ceded land revenues for OHA, so that the agency can do more to support housing, education and other endeavors.
Galuteria supports a methodical, data-driven approach to addressing issues such as the rate of Native Hawaiian incarceration. He would be a stabilizing force and asset to the BOT.
Sam K. King says his No. 1 focus is steering OHA to support early childhood education to raise the well-being of Hawaiian families through the generations. He’s drawn much public attention through his support for building the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea, as a benefit to science and Hawaii’s economy.
King also places creation of housing for Native Hawaiians and all islanders in need at the top of his priorities list, and suggests that OHA’s disposition of land it owns in Kakaako Makai, now zoned so that housing development is not allowed, should be part of that. He calls for fiscal responsibility and recurring independent audits of OHA, along with new leadership at the agency, and would represent a conservative viewpoint on the board.
Keoni Souza, a Realtor and musical artist, is part of the Na Hoku Hanohano award-winning Hawaiian music trio, Na Hoa; he promises to work in “creative, efficient, and effective terms for bringing about real, tangible change,” by seeking new ideas and avoiding “business as usual.” Affordable housing, economic development, education, sustainability and criminal justice reform are priorities.
Souza says he is committed to being a grassroots representative for Hawaiians, who as an at-large trustee would visit each island to listen to individual concerns. His pledge to carefully consider Hawaii- wide viewpoints and pursue new solutions earns our vote.
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