 This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. I'm Marcia Joyner, and we are navigating the journey. Today our journey is very familiar to everyone in Hawaii, and that is we are going to journey into the world of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. And our guest today is newly elected Brandon V. He was just elected in November to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Welcome. Thank you, Marcia. I find it interesting that you say that this is a familiar journey, because most people in Hawaii, native Hawaiians included, don't really understand the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. That's why we're asked you to be here. That is precisely why we asked. To tell us about, first of all, congratulations. Thank you. Do you hear you were a candidate? That's correct. And there were 259,000 people as candidates. My God, I couldn't believe how many people were candidates. It was a lot. There were, for my particular seat, which is trustee at large, which were three seats elected, for the primary, there were 15 people running for three seats, which is a lot. It is a lot. I think that's a good thing. I don't know, but looking from the outside in, if that many people were running, it looked to me like ordinary people felt that Oha needed some new blood, new thoughts, new energy. In part, I would say of the 15 candidates, maybe 11 were really concerned and really wanted to run and always intended to run, to put their two cents in and see how they could help. I would say four or maybe five of them did not decide to run for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs until a state audit came out and they saw an opportunity. Okay. But now you have been, you are still a major part of the Hawaiian civic clubs. Is that correct? Well, that depends on your definition of a major part. I was the sitting second vice president of the association. That's major. Well, but we just had elections. So I am no longer on the executive board for the association. I'm still a member of Pearl Harbor Hawaiian Civic Club and will continue to be an active member for my club, but I am no longer part of the, at the association level. And you were also part of the conference, or was that what it was to come together on? I was. You're speaking of the AHA 2016. Yes. That's correct. I was one of the participants, one of 120 participants at the AHA 2016 and I was the elected chair. That's what I remembered watching all of that. Like you're a master at herding cats. Well, that's a good way to put it, master at herding cats. Well, I'm a trained parliamentarian, so I'm very well versed in Robert's rules of order. So that helped me keep order at the AHA and make sure that the rest of the participants, as they participated in debate, that they stayed focused and that they stayed on topic on the debate and didn't wander off to whatever tangent they wanted to go for storytelling. So that ability to keep order in that room helped the process move forward. So what was the outcome of that process? As many people know, I was on a show here shortly after with Governor Wahe'e and we were able to write and adopt a native Hawaiian constitution. It still sits there waiting for a body electorate to form, to ratify that constitution. So we were all of the participants of the AHA who self-called themselves participants because none of us were elected to be there. And we realized that because we were not elected, it's not for us to speak for all of native Hawaiians. So although we as a body adopted the constitution that we wrote, they collectively felt that native Hawaiians for themselves need to determine whether this is a path that they want to take forward or not. I think that's correct. It should be. Yeah, absolutely. It should be. And while I feel a kinship, simply having lived here for so long, but I'm not Hawaiian. And I just think that that's a decision Hawaiians have to make for themselves. Right. Well, especially for the purpose of having the AHA, you know, a lot of people, there were a lot of people there, the AHA, that didn't feel that we should exclude non-Hawaiians. And a lot of them kept reckoning back to the kingdom of Hawai'i, which you didn't have to be Hawaiian. Right. Right. Although popular stories say that American businessmen over through the kingdom, that's actually not true. Although they were born in the United States, they were subjects to the crown of the kingdom of Hawai'i. So it was overthrown from within. Yes. Whoever they were, it was from within. Right. Yes. But the path that we were asked to explore was a government for Native Hawaiians so that Native Hawaiians could have a political distinction and not just a racial distinction, which is something that Native Americans and Native Alaskans have. Not to say that this is necessarily something for federal recognition. It was just so that anywhere in the world, Native Hawaiians would be recognized politically and not just racially. I think with the election or selection of the newest member of the Supreme Court and his attitude toward the Hawaiians, I think it is absolutely necessary that you have a political recognition simply because he makes that because he's there. Right. And he made it clear how he felt. Right. Unfortunately, that may not help either because that faction of politics is using Native Hawaiians to rule against Native Americans who do enjoy federal recognition as a political entity. A federal judge in Texas in October used Rice Iacayatano as the basis for his ruling to overrule a Native tribe in Texas, their right to adoption within their own tribe. And he ruled it unconstitutional, even though they are federally recognized as a political group. Oh, dear. And they also use Rice Iacayatano in Guam for land ownership and land rights for the Chamoans. Oh, dear. Okay. Dear. Dear, dear. Okay. Now, let's go to Oha, office of Hawaiian affairs. And what do you see? What did you campaign on? What did you think should happen, can happen to, after the audit and things were kind of boo-hooed, what do you see that you can do, you and the newly-elect people, to correct those things? Well, the things specifically pointed out by the audits weren't necessarily bad. Some of the things were misunderstood by the state auditor, for instance, saying that Oha wastes $3 million a year giving it to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, while the state law mandates that Oha does that. So you can't call, excuse me, you can't call state law a waste. The law requires that the office of Hawaiian affairs provides $3 million a year to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. So that was an inconsistency within the audit. Some of the other things, as far as oversight with spending, I believe has already started to be addressed and were being started to be addressed before the audit was even released. So I think Oha was already in the right track and moving in the right direction. It's just unfortunate that the audit came out before Oha had a chance to say, well, these are the steps that we're taking to correct some things that we know aren't working well, and before they had the chance to make that statement, the audit came out. Well, the audit was leaked, so that didn't really help for their PR. As far as what I think should happen, well, number one, I think Oha needs to stop saying that they spend $3 million on housing because they don't. They're mandated by law to give that money to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Most native Hawaiians do not live on Hawaiian homelands. So in all actuality, Oha really on average only spends about $500,000 on housing, and that's not OK. No, it's not. Seeing a lot of people that ran this past election cycle said that education and housing are top priorities of theirs. While I agree those are very important, I think economic sustainability is much more important. It doesn't matter how cheap you make housing. It doesn't matter how great your education is. If there's no jobs and well-paying jobs for Hawaiians, none of those things are going to matter. They're still going to leave. Yeah. Tell us what, again, you mentioned right at the top that a whole lot of people do not know. Oha means what? Well, from the 1978 Constitution, the mandate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is to better the living conditions of native Hawaiians. And that's where a lot of the sticky issues come from because what exactly does that mean? That's up for interpretation. I believe it was done that way on purpose because it's a Constitution and it's a high-level document. It should be up to interpretation. And that interpretation should change over time. And when it was written in 1978, education was probably at the foremost of their thinking at the time. But things change over time. Throughout the 80s, their focus probably should have been much more on housing given the these whole conversions that were going on in the late 80s and the skyrocketing land development going on in Kahala and Hoikai area, which drove housing prices astronomically high before the bubble burst. So I think it's appropriate that it's that broad in general and that each regime, for lack of a better word, of trustees interprets it to what's appropriate to the time in which we're living it. How many new trustees were elected? Two. Just two. Just two. So the Oahu seat was up for reelection. The current trustee, Peter Apo, decided not to seek his seat again. So that seat was up. So the person that won was Kalea Kaka, granddaughter of Senator Daniel Akaka. And two incumbents for at-large regained their seat, John Wahe, the third, and Leahu Issa. And then I'm the other new trustee. So the outgoing trustee would be Rowena Akana. She had been there forever. 28 years. I remember campaigning with her in the 70s for Oahu. She wasn't running. She was campaigning. Right, she was campaigning. Yeah. We happened to live close to each other, so we were. Anyway, we got to take a break. And when we come back, let's talk some more about what you see going forward with Oahu. We'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host, Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, where we motivate, educate, empower, and inspire all women. We are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. And we welcome you to join us here at Sister Power. Aloha and thank you. Aloha, and I'm Marcia. We are navigating the journey. And today we are talking about the Office of Hawaiian Affairs with our dear friend. And you all know that I only talk to dear friends. And Brandon is newly elected to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. So tell us now, at large, what does that mean at large? So there are four trustees that represent island groups. So there's the Kaua'i trustee, Oahu trustee, Molokai trustee, Maui trustee, and Hawaii Island trustee. And then there are four at-large trustees. So we don't represent an island group, we represent the entire state. Very good. I have one little thing that I would love for you to do. Oahu, the state, I don't care who does it. We have 365 degrees of ocean around each island, right? Why don't we have? The Hawaiians were sailing these oceans, navigating by the stars before when other people thought they were going to fall off the edge. Why don't we have a Maritime Academy? We actually do. There actually is one. And depending on your definition of Maritime Academy, there's actually three. So there's an actual Maritime Academy where they learn how to sail on an actual on a real sailing vessel. That's correct. And then the Windward Community College has a navigation curriculum that teaches them about wayfinding and that type of navigation. And then most recently, this just this past year, Honolulu Community College has an associate's degree. So you can actually get an associate's degree in wayfinding. And it's based on the education put together by Polynesian Voyaging Society. And then I believe two years from now, University of Hawai'i at Manawa, you'll be able to get a bachelor's degree in wayfinding. Two years after that, you'll be able to get a master's. And I believe four years after that, you'll be able to get a PhD in wayfinding. And wayfinding, okay. Now, one of my sons had to go to California, to the California Maritime Academy. So that is, you get a degree in engineering and you can decide if you're going to get a commission in the Navy. Merchant Marines. Yeah, we do have one here. It's, I believe it's operated out of Windward Community College. Could be, I know there's at least a dozen crew members for Hokulea that have attended or are currently attending that and because that was an avenue for them to have a career on the ocean to be captains, pilot captains. So I'm not sure if you know what a pilot is, the people that bring the big ships in and out of harbors, but that's all done here. They don't have to leave Hawai'i. No, well, that's where I'm going with this, that we need so that not just, but the big ships. No, and that's exactly what this school is. Because we do not need to send people away and never come back. Right. And they don't need to. Academy does exist here in Hawai'i. And then why don't we build ships? I don't know why we don't build ships. People buy yachts, big yachts, but they come from someplace else. That's for, yeah. Why don't we have that as an industry? We could. I would imagine they're not built here for economic reasons, because a lot of the materials would be expensive to get here. I know off the top of my head, there's only maybe two or three on the continent that do that. I know. Most of the rest are built internationally because it's cheaper. Yeah, well, now we got to figure out how to do this locally. So real quick, before we run out of time. So what is your plan for OHA? Well, first of all, I think the important thing is to bring civility back to the boardroom, which I know I can help with because of my understanding of parliamentary procedure. A lot of people aren't aware that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs operates under Robert's rules of order. And to date, they have been unable to hold that boardroom table of nine trustees accountable to that. So being a trained parliamentarian, I know for a fact that I will be able to do that. So that alone should help a lot because then the discussions at the boardroom table will be more focused and will involve a lot of the peripheral conversations that are going on. So that one thing alone will be a huge asset to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and allowing them to move their agenda forward. The second biggest thing is, because the strategic plan has expired this year, the biggest thing for the boardroom, the nine trustees will be deciding what direction they want to take the Office of Hawaiian Affairs moving forward for the next decade because they're going to have to write, well, we are going to have to write the new strategic plan. The strategic plan includes what now? Pretty much whatever the trustees... No, I meant that there's some broad categories. There are. The current one that's expiring had Aina culture, self-determination, housing. So the concepts like that were on the strategic plan. So we, the new board, are going to have to determine what strategies we want moving forward, what focus is we're going to want, what's more focused on than perhaps other things. And that is what's going to give the CEO of OHA the direction that they need to do the work because the trustees don't do the work, right? The administration does the work. And the CEO is... Currently, it's Kamana Okrab. His contract, I believe, is up in June of 2019. So there's been so much pillowkea about him. I don't know. I just know the gossip. Right. And it's been well documented. And I don't necessarily agree with all of the hits that Kamana Okrab has taken. It's difficult to be CEO and to be taking an organization in a direction when you're not given that direction by the people that you answer to, which is the boardroom of nine. And in absence of them giving Kamana Okrab a very clear vision and picture and direction of where he needs to go, I think Kamana Okrab has been trying to do the best he can and trying to figure this very cloudy water without anyone making it clear for him. Well, why does OHA have limited liability corporations, LLCs? That was in part to protect the trust of OHA. OHA has a corpus of close to $600 million and as OHA acquires all of these lands as part of its mission, I'll use a very specific example of Waimea Falls Park, which OHA now owns. If it still falls under the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which is a state entity, if someone falls and gets hurt at Waimea Falls Park, they can sue OHA and in turn sue the state of Hawaii by separating out and putting it under an LLC that insulates Waimea Falls Park. So if someone gets hurt, they can sue the LLC. They cannot sue the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state of Hawaii. That's the purpose of the LLCs. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, I agree. How many LLCs are there? I don't know off the top of my head. I know. I don't want to give an inaccurate number. Yeah, so now that you have an office and staff already because you only got elected two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. And I do not. I'm still taking meetings and taking advice and as much information as I can as I move, try to navigate forward and determine who I want my two staff to be. I have an office, but the outgoing trustee is in the process of moving out of that office. So that's an ongoing process. Yes, and one last thing. You mentioned the Hawaiian homes. Yes. Now, it makes sense to me that the two of you work together. Mm-hmm. That's a state agency. You're a state agency. And they're both primarily for Hawaiians. Mm-hmm. So what's the relationship like? They currently have a relationship. I think we need to strengthen that relationship. We need to look at more creative ways of housing. As you mentioned, Hawaiian homelands, actual name of the law is the Native Hawaiian Rehabilitation Act. Homestead is an antiquated 19th century way of thinking. No one uses homesteads anymore. And we need to take that department out of the 19th century and into the 21st century. We need to stop thinking of homesteads and start thinking of vertical housing because we can help and house much more people that way. And it's more beneficial to people, especially young Hawaiians that are starting out, getting a two-acre lot out in Maile doesn't really help them. But having a 500-square-foot apartment in Kaka'ako does help them. Well, that makes sense. That makes sense. So what would it take for you to work together? Can you, I mean, are these homesteads written in law? They are. And they're written in federal law. So then you have to change? Well, yes. We would have to, for some of the things that I'm thinking of, we would have to make some changes to the federal statute. Because getting a 99-year lease for a 500-square-foot apartment is kind of ridiculous. That is ridiculous. Nobody wants that. Right, so there would have to be some changes to the federal statute. Does it, what would it take to change that? An act of Congress. We'll put it shortly, an act of Congress. Well, I do know that our congressional delegation is on your side. So that's... Well, I hope so. I haven't met with them. I've spoken to a few of them in D.C., but I haven't met with them since I took an office. Yeah, well, we have a regular conversation with Andy Weiner, and because he is on, well, not he, but Ryan Schatz is on the Indian Affairs. Yes, correct. And he's ranking on the Indian Affairs. And I've spoken with him in D.C. Yeah, so I know they're on your side. Well, listen, sweetheart, as always, it's a pleasure spending this time with you. Thank you. It's been my pleasure. And you will come back as time goes on. Whenever you call, Marcia. As you make progress, and let's see how it's moving. I'll be happy to. Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure, and we'll see you next time.