Promising to bring stability to a panel beset with dissension, Colette Machado of Molokai on Thursday was elected chairwoman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees.
The veteran trustee and former chairwoman edged out Carmen Hulu Lindsey of Maui for the leadership position following a couple of rounds of paper-ballot voting by the board.
“We have to rebuild the hale (house),” Machado said. “We cannot move forward unless we can work eyeball to eyeball, face to face. That’s very important. We cannot move without everyone helping each other.”
Kauai’s Dan Ahuna was elected vice chairman, a position he held for two years under former Chairman Robert Lindsey.
Machado’s election comes after trustee Rowena Akana was forced out as chairwoman Feb. 2, following two months of turmoil and infighting.
The election appears to settle the question of whether CEO Kamana‘opono Crabbe will continue as the top staffer at the state agency tasked with bettering the lives of Native Hawaiians. Machado has been a supporter of Crabbe, who had been under fire from Akana.
However, Crabbe’s leadership remains under attack in a lawsuit filed Thursday by Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa. The complaint seeks to invalidate Crabbe’s three-year, $150,000-a-year contract.
The suit, filed in First Circuit Court, argues that the full nine-member board failed to give its authorization to changes in the contract before it was executed in November.
The suit takes up where a complaint filed last week by Akana left off, asserting essentially the same arguments. That complaint was withdrawn earlier in the week.
In an interview following Thursday’s board meeting, Machado said she is confident the new complaint will be dismissed. Board counsel Robert Klein was authorized by the board to make changes to the contract, as long as they weren’t substantial, which they were not, she said.
As for Crabbe, the board needs to look at areas where it can increase his “capacity” and improve him as a CEO, Machado said.
“I think everyone’s been battered,” she said. “So it’s a matter of re-establishing. What that would look like, I’m not certain. But we’re going to have to figure out how to resolve it.”
Machado, who was OHA chairwoman from 2010 to 2014, said she wants to bring fairness and transparency to the board table.
“I’m not here to make pilikia (trouble),” she said. “We’ve really got to look hard into our hearts to do what would be best for our people and the generations to come.”
Machado said she continues to support a special audit to identify areas of potential waste, abuse and fraud in procurement.
On Wednesday, OHA’s Resource Management Committee approved the audit to examine the finances of the agency and its subsidiaries.
The committee, whose membership consists of all the members of the Board of Trustees, also voted to establish an ad hoc committee to determine the scope of the audit. The panel is composed of Machado, Keli‘i Akina and a financial analyst staff member.
The audit now advances to the full board for a final reading.
Machado succeeds Lei Ahu Isa, who became acting chairwoman Feb. 2 when Akana was toppled from her leadership role. The ouster was preceded by trustee walkouts, meeting boycotts and feuding that saw a divided board locked in a power struggle, with Crabbe’s job on the line.
At one point the board majority voted behind closed doors to buy out the contract of the chief executive officer. But five votes wasn’t enough to force the issue, and Crabbe refused to accept a buyout.
With Akana losing support and her tenure as chairwoman hanging by a thread, she filed a complaint in First Circuit Court on behalf of OHA questioning the validity of Crabbe’s employment contract. The filing occurred the day before she was ousted from the chairmanship.
On Wednesday, Akana denied withdrawing the complaint and said it was board attorney Robert Klein who ordered the dismissal.
Kawananakoa’s suit claims Klein ordered the withdrawal despite having a conflict of interest in witnessing the executing of Crabbe’s contract.
The suit alleges that then-Chairman Robert Lindsey and Crabbe intentionally signed the contract even though they knew it lacked the full approval of the board.
Among the contract terms not formally approved by the board, according to the suit:
>> It offers no cap on damages or payments in the event of termination before the end of the three-year term.
>> It obligates OHA to mediate and arbitrate any decision to fire Crabbe despite state law that gives the board authority to remove the administrator by board vote.
>> It gives Crabbe veto power over the selection of a mediator.
The complaint asks for an injunction barring Crabbe from serving as CEO until a valid contract is in place. In addition, it seeks damages against Crabbe and Robert Lindsey for any money paid out to Crabbe from the “null and void” contract.
