Last week Kelii Akina helped topple the leadership of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board in a victory during his first meeting as trustee.

On Thursday he couldn’t win election as vice chairman of the board’s Committee on Resource Management, despite support from new Chairwoman Rowena Akana and the committee’s new chairwoman, Hulu Lindsey. Akina was nominated by Lindsey.

With members questioning Akina’s commitment to OHA’s mission of supporting the Native Hawaiian people, Akina failed to win the required majority of votes Thursday, falling with only four votes in favor, three against and two abstentions.

The lines of voting were nearly the same as last week, when a narrow majority elected Akana chairwoman of the nine-member board, ousting incumbent Robert “Bob” Lindsey. John Waihee IV, Leina‘ala Ahu Isa, Hulu Lindsey, Akina and Akana made up the five-vote majority Dec. 8.

The difference Thursday was Waihee, who said he had intended to vote for Akina, but after hearing him Thursday he was having “a hard time trusting (Akina) as a prudent trustee.”

Trustees Peter Apo and Dan Ahuna led the charge in arguing to deny Akina the leadership position.

Apo said he objected to Akina because of his role as president and CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, an organization that has opposed OHA on numerous occasions and forced the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees in defense of the agency’s governance efforts.

Ahuna said Akina has demonstrated that he doesn’t support OHA’s mission. He pointed to Akina campaign slogans that suggested OHA serve not only Hawaiians by blood, but also Hawaiians by heart.

“He’s shown over and over that he not only disavowed our mission, but is dead set against it,” Ahuna said.

Akina defended himself, saying he supports Hawaiian self-determination — just not the “unconstitutional” way OHA was going about it, underwriting the governance effort with public trust funds.

Akina said he would rather OHA spend its money on jobs, health care, housing and other “bread-and-butter” issues important to the Hawaiian community.

He added that he stands in defense of the Hawaiian people, the alii trusts, Hawaiian entitlements and Hawaiian homelands.

“I never advocated to take assets away from Native Hawaiians to give to non-Native Hawaiians,” he said in response to another allegation.

Waihee, Apo and Colette Machado voted against Akina, while Ahuna and Robert Lindsey abstained.