 Aloha and welcome to Ehana Kakao. We're here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kili Akeena, President of the Grassroot Institute. There's an venerable Hawaiian saying that goes like this, a pule kakao, which means let us pray together. The kakao means we do it together. It's said everywhere here in the islands. But there's also another saying that we love to say at the Grassroot Institute, ehana kakao, which means let's work together. If we don't work together, nothing good gets done. I'm so delighted today to be with my friend Mili Lani Trask, who is an attorney and an advocate for the Hawaiian people, who has a tremendous track record of standing up for the Hawaiian people, as well as all people here in the state of Hawaii. We are working together. We're going to tell you why we're working together, because what's at stake is far beyond anybody's political agenda, or manini, as we call it, little goals. I'm going to welcome her straight to the program, and we're going to engage in a very fascinating discussion, particularly about an agency called the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Many people do not realize that this is a state government agency whose trustees or commissioners are paid by the taxpayers of the state of Hawaii. And this organization is accountable to the taxpayers. In fact, the way that we hold it accountable is by electing trustees every two years, for four year terms. By way of disclosure, I need to tell you that while this is not a political program, we want you to know that Mili Lani and I are both candidates for trustee in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Mili Lani is running for the big island seat for which everyone in the state has the opportunity to vote, even though she represents the big island. And I'm running for the at-large seat, Oha trustee at-large, for which everyone also can vote. And again, we simply mention those words by way of disclosure so that you know that. But our conversation is really relevant regardless of whether either of us is running for office. We're more concerned about the future of Hawaii and the relationship to this interesting but problematic organization, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Aloha Mili Lani, welcome to the program. Aloha KDE, thanks for having me. Well, I'm so glad you're here today and it's always good to talk with you. Mili Lani, you know there are a lot of people who don't realize why Oha, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, is relevant to everybody. But I think you understand that it is. You know, I've been telling people this for the last few years because the issues that are decided at Oha are issues that are going to impact the entire state. When you look at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, it was created constitutionally to be the lead state agencies for matter pertaining to native Hawaiian. And when you look at what those matters are, every critical issue of the state involves Hawaiians. Well, I think we've seen Oha weigh in on decisions dealing with land, air, ocean, culture, people. What more is there? You know, if you take just a good look at where we are right here in Honolulu town, the largest development for the next 40 years at Kakaako is a development that involves Oha. It's believed to be the economic engine that we're going to need to give Honolulu town a face lift. And with Oha now being a significant part of it, everyone should be concerned that over a year has passed and we can't seem to get Oha to move forward with any kind of a development plan for this area. It's a real critical thing for us to get that revenue in. Well, you know, I am glad you're concerned about that. I'm terribly concerned about that because the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is a government agency, but it's been acting like a land developer and its leaders don't have that capacity. Take what you just talked about, the 31 acres of land that they have at the waterfront gate of Honolulu, all the way from, I think everybody has been to the Ward Center theaters. You go across the street and you're at Fisherman's Wharf, follow that land toward the west all the way to the Kakaako waterfront park. That 31 acres belongs to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. And right now there's no development plan. It's a blight. The part of that land is being used as a truck food court. Oha, ironically, is supposed to care for the poor, but they're kicking the homeless off of their land. You know, it's such a terrible embarrassment, I think, for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. And for many of us, and I know yourself included, for the last 10 years there have been repeated calls for the Department of Hawaiian Homelands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to work together with the county and state to address our homeless problem. Although Hawaiians are only about 6.5% of the state population, we're 27% of the homeless population. The counties cannot be held responsible solely for this. So, although someone may not be ethnically Hawaiian, the problem of homelessness impacts everybody. You just have to walk around Kakaako, Waikiki, Honolulu, and increasingly the neighbor islands. And what you're saying is something that I agree with, and that is we have to stop just relying on the federal government, the state government, the counties. We've got all of this money that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has. Half a billion dollars that it's using for political schemes and it's not being used to help the homeless or housing or provide jobs or provide the education or health benefits that are needed. You know, I really think that you're getting to the heart of one of the biggest problems we have with OHA. OHA is trying to be many things to many people instead of identifying and focusing on the critical needs of the Hawaiian peoples. That's their trust and fiduciary obligation. Poverty alleviation, homelessness, critical issues pertaining to the high rate of incarceration for adults and for children. These are the kind of issues that we need OHA to address strategically in a strategic plan. Instead, we see international trips to celebrate the Cook Island's 50th birthday party. These things are wasteful. And in my estimation, they are themselves a breach of trust. We need to focus back on what the obligation is and put the money there. Absolutely, and one of the things that has brought you and me together is the fact that we're both adamantly opposed to fraud, waste, and abuse in government. You're an attorney, you understand what that's all about. You've devoted yourself, all your career to exposing this kind of thing. And really, people don't realize that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and organizations that it has spawned, like Na'i al-Puni and so forth, are not spending the dollars of the public properly. And so let's shift for a moment. We've been talking about what OHA is not doing. Let's talk about what OHA is doing and why we're working together to stop them from doing it. Mililani, I think it is a travesty that instead of meeting the basic needs of Hawaii citizens and Native Hawaiians in particular, OHA has been spending tens of millions of dollars on a failed political campaign. It started with the Akaka Bill, the attempt to have federal recognition and to turn Native Hawaiians into an Indian tribe. It morphed into other programs, Kanai Oluvalu or the Native Hawaiian Role Commission after that, to try to put Hawaiians on a list and create a fake government that's not really there. And it just goes on, they're reaching out to the Department of Interior. But the price tag is extraordinary. You did a little bit of research and paid attention to something some of the trustees were saying. How much has it diverted financially from meeting the needs of Hawaii's people? You know, we've tried for many years to request an actual accounting from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. We have never gotten it. And there's a big problem there with accountability and lack of transparency, even though we have things like the Sunshine Law, it doesn't work with OHA. But I think that when you take a look at this and thanks to Trustee Ahoisa, we know that in the last 20 years, about $33 million has been spent on the OHA plan for federal recognition. There's no better example of how it has failed than looking at what's happened in these recent years. The legislature passed a law creating Kanae Oluvalu. It never came from the Hawaiian people. The legislature said that there was to be a role with 200,000 names on it. Hawaiians registered by this effort. The trust funds came from OHA. When the dust settled, less than 10% were actually registered. Less than 20,000 people. Now, what you're talking about is the fact that based upon estimated accounts, there are about 580,000 Native Hawaiians across the world, across the country primarily. And less than 10% of them enrolled for this attempt to create a tribal nation. And yet the media, yet various activists and others are trying to say, and the official leaders at OHA are trying to say the Hawaiian people want to rise up and become part of this. It's not happening. It's really not the Hawaiian people. And it's an embarrassing lie for everyone who lives in the state. It was just a couple of years ago that we were all assaulted and shocked by the announcement that the Department of Interior was coming to Hawaii, going throughout the islands. The Hawaiian community turned out en masse to reject it. People were very angry and upset by it. And everyone in the state saw that. There was absolutely no support for it at the grass root level by the residents of this state. Case in point, this shows that the leadership at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is not only out of touch with the people. It's pushing an agenda that's totally different. Because while en masse, the people, not only Native Hawaiians, but non-Hawaiians, rejected this idea of the federal government tribalizing Hawaiians as a federal Indian tribe. And I was there at the hearings. You could see it. Nonetheless, the trustees of OHA took a position of saying, this is our official stance. We want to tribalize Hawaiians. Whether you call it a cockabill federal recognition, not i alpony. It's turning Native Hawaiians into a federal Indian tribe. And it's a failed strategy. It's just something that won't help the people. It's a failed strategy. And it's not a strategy that can be implemented under existing American law. It's been very clear from the time the U.S. Constitution was drafted that it is to the Congress to extend recognition. The Congress did not do it for 14 consecutive years with the cockabill. And they're not going to do it by changing the name to kanai o lovalo or na i alpony. It's not going to fly. But to be fair, the Hawaiian peoples themselves never agreed to it. And they continue to reject the idea of na i alpony. So we've got a government agency with representatives called trustees who are elected by the general public, and most of those people who are voting are not Native Hawaiians, who are managing monies in a way that is wasteful and in pursuit of a political agenda that is failing. And it goes on and on. Let's go back to the money figure. You mentioned $33 million. Now I looked at that figure, and we've looked at that at the Grassroot Institute. Probably that's possibly what you could get out of actual accounts, but there's a possibility that more money has actually been spent, close to $50 million, if you look at the fact that money is off, accounts are often panicked. That's true. The estimated figure of the $33 million spent for the cockabill, as well as the other self-determination initiatives, did not include millions paid to Washington attorneys for lobbying this in Washington and also for drafting up this legislation. If we were to add that, I'm sure it would exceed an additional $20 million. And the money keeps going on, despite success of our constitutional case, a quina versus the state of Hawaii, which shut down the race-based election of na i alpony and ultimately resulted in na i alpony shutting its doors officially. It looks like money may still be going toward that direction. What are your thoughts about that? I'm trying to find out where the current budget allocations from OHA are coming from in terms of their own budget. We have not been able to get an accounting. We know that OHA was cautioned to stop their spending with a $400 million trust, spending it at $50 million per year. Even this year, OHA went $800,000 over budget. Well, you know it. We're looking at bankrupting the trust in nine years. At that rate, you're absolutely right. We're going to take a short break now, and I hope you have been fascinated by some of the things that Mililani and I have been sharing. When we come back from this quick break, we're going to talk a little bit more about why we're working together and what's at stake for everyone in the state of Hawaii, native Hawaiians, and all people. I'm Kei-Li Akiina with Mililani Tresk on Ehana Kako on the ThinkTek Hawaii Broadcast Network. Don't go away. Hi. My name is Kim Lau, and I'm the host of Hawaii Rising. You can watch me live every other Monday at 4 p.m. Aloha. Hi. My name is Aaron Wills. You are watching ThinkTekHawaii.com. I am the host of the show, Rehabilitation, coming soon. You can watch us live at ThinkTekHawaii.com at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays. I will see you there. You're watching ThinkTek Hawaii, which streams live on ThinkTekHawaii.com, uploads to YouTube.com, and broadcasts on cable OC16 and O'Lello 54. Great content for Hawaii from ThinkTek. Aloha. My name is John Waihei, and I actually had a small part to do with what's happening today, served actually in public office. But if you don't already know that, here's a chance to learn more about what's happening in our state by joining me for a talk story with John Waihei every other Monday. Thank you, and I look forward to your seeing us in the future. Welcome back to the concluding portion of Ehana Kako today. You notice we're faster than usual because we moved to a 30-minute format, and the time goes by quickly. I want to say mahalo to ThinkTekHawaii and to Jay Fidel and the wonderful crew that put on about 30 to 35 hours of original content from Honolulu going across the world. So Aloha to all of you who are listening. As you listen, you're being brought into an issue that may be confusing oftentimes. We often don't realize why the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is something that everyone needs to be concerned about. The fact is that it deals with everyone's business, and if we don't watch it carefully and hold it accountable as part of our government, it can go out of control. And indeed, Mililani Trask and I think it has gone too far. Mililani, I am just so glad that we're able to work together for the greater good of not only Native Hawaiians, but all people here in the state of Hawaii. I know that I started to work with you when we looked at serious strategies to reform Oha, particularly the legal strategies. And I like the fact that you have a legal background. A lot of people don't realize that you are a master at using American law in order to solve problems, and that you're not an anarchist by any means, but really looking for the well-being of all people here. You know, I have been an attorney. It is my primary career. And then for the last 15 years, I've been an international expert in human rights law as well as a diplomat at the United Nations. But you know, Kili, I'm glad you point out that we do have many things in common. Why are we working together? One of the strong things I think we share is a commitment to accountable government and transparent government. Regardless of what party you belong to or what your ethnicity is, everybody has to stand up for accountability and transparency in government. And as you know, you've had to go to the Office of Information Practice to just get basic statistical data from Oha. I myself have had to raise several problems with them. And even when the Office of Information Practices had to advise the staff to make data public, they continued to refuse to do so and challenge us to sue them. You know, you can't have clean government, responsible government if you don't hold the line on a standard for accountability and transparency. And that is a big problem at Oha. I think many people recognize it certainly in the state legislature. They understand it, and even at the governor's office. But no one has been able to really turn it around down there, and that's why we need to get some new faces on the board. That's right. We need new leadership at Oha. Yes. We need to bring about reform of Oha, because everybody understands that something's not going right. And in a lot of ways, Oha evades scrutiny. It somehow comes under the radar. I think one of those reasons is a good number of people don't realize how relevant Oha is to the rest of society, how relevant it is to our economy or to our culture and everything that goes on here in the state of Hawaii. You know, let's go back a little bit and talk about why we have to stop these efforts by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to use government to create a race-based nation. You know, I view the U.S. policy as being one that accommodates federal recognition for Native Americans. There is a process. It's not being followed here. American law and American process doesn't require that you say that you're not going to be a Hawaiian and that you be an Indian. The other thing about the American policy is that the purpose of it is to give the right of self-determination to Native Americans so that they can use their own resources to develop their own programs. So Oha wants to maintain warship, have the state provide them with the revenue, but they are not willing to work with their own people to meet the needs for critical things like housing and poverty alleviation. You know, we have to stop making the goal of self-governance be the opportunity to suck at the state and federal tit. It is not that. It is economic self-sufficiency and that's where we should be going and we're not. You know, this is so insightful what you're saying. You're pointing out something most of the public doesn't realize and that is that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and its collusion with the Department of Interior and groups like Nahiel Pune are not really about advancing Hawaiians. They're using a model or an excuse of federal recognition, but not for the purpose of advancing Native Hawaiians. They're using it for alternative purposes and I'm not afraid to say that they're on record for those other purposes. For example, take the waterfront land of Kaka'aako, we were talking about 31 acres. Historically, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has taken a position of Ma'lama the Aina, take care of the land. This is oceanfront land on the oceanfront side of Alamoana Boulevard. But as soon as they got the rights to that land, they went forward with a proposal to build towers, high-rise towers twice the height of the 200-foot limit in Honolulu on the ocean side of Alamoana so they could get the highest amount of return financially. This is not what we call in Hawai'i Hono. It shows that their pursuit of federal recognition is really about getting exemption from land use rules and regulations so they can call their land sovereign rather than serving the people. You know, as misguided as it was Kayli'i, the bottom line was a law had been passed preventing that high-rise development from moving forward and it had been passed a few years ahead. So what happened? $100 million net loss to the Oha Trust. Now you're talking about something a lot of people don't realize that if they had simply done their due diligence and realized before they went into the deal to get the 31 acres of land, that they wouldn't have been able to build on it. So they went in blindly thinking they could turn this into a financial mecca. Then when they finally get it, we see what's happened. It's now just an empty wasteland right now and they've lost, as you say, potentially $100 million. Yes. You know, I don't want to get too much into detail, but doesn't this show a real disregard for stewarding the monies of the people? Well, no, I think, as I said earlier, I think it's clearly a breach of trust. But even when the Kaka'ako situation became a mess in the legislature, you had some like Suzanne Chen Oakland coming out and saying, look, there was a $100 million problem here. Let's make it up by giving Oha some land, other parcels on other islands that they can use for things like affordable housing. What a great idea. No one followed up on it. Well, no one at Oha followed up on it. You talk about affordable housing and you're really touching a need here in Hawaii. You don't have to be poor or without housing to realize it. You just look at the growing population homelessness as well as the inability of middle class people to afford homes. There have been all kinds of games played with affordable housing and affordable housing credits and so forth. Oha needs to be using that money for housing, which brings an issue that's very sensitive and that's the Hawaiian homelands. Hawaiian homelands is the fourth largest land estate in Hawaii. There is more than enough land for the housing of people. But we have 27,000 people on the waiting list for Hawaiian homelands. And I was in a panel with some Oha trustees several years ago and what they said was basically, that's not our business, that's another agency's business, that's the Hawaiian homelands. How can Oha, being the advocate for the Hawaiian people, shirk that responsibility and say it's not our what we call kuleano or business here in Hawaii? You know, the thing is that it's not only shirking the responsibility but it's actually denying their own fiduciary obligation. I love the fact that you're an attorney. The Oha trust has the same beneficiaries as the Hawaiian homeland trust. The Oha trust is for the native Hawaiian of 50% blood, which is what the Hawaiian homelands trust is for. Oha, of course, can serve those of lesser than 50% blood, but a primary beneficiary is those who you are saying are the 27,000. In all these years, we haven't been able to get even a written agreement bringing Hawaiian homelands together with Oha. What does Hawaiian homelands have? They have 200,000 acres of land, and they have an exemption from county building requirements. They can expedite affordable housing. They can use creative forms of housing such as these container homes that we don't see moving. There's so much that can be done but hasn't been done, and this speaks to the general fact that there is a need for a change of leadership. There is. I mean, there are no term limits. There are individuals who have been in there for decades. The same failed policies of promoting the federal recognition are draining the cultures of Oha. It's on a course toward bankruptcy right now in terms of the draining of the trust. We've really got to do something about that, and this is why I think it's important for our viewership, especially those of you who are residents of Hawaii, to understand that Oha is your agency. It's government agency, and its leaders are elected by the people. But frankly, very few people mark that ballot, not enough market on their ballots actually. I think some people are confused. They think that they're not Hawaiian. They shouldn't vote. I think other people just look at it as being somebody else's problem, and they don't realize that when you have significant data showing that the Hawaiian peoples who have this $400 million trust are huge problems in terms of housing, poverty, incarceration. You can see why Oha needs to work with the county and the state. We need the voters' help to clean up the problems at Oha. You just said that a lot of people may not vote because they're not Hawaiian and so forth. So what do you say to those who aren't ethnically Hawaiian as to why they should vote? Why do they have a responsibility and a duty to exercise their vote? I think that everyone that lives in Hawaii, whether they're Hawaiian or not, has an obligation to see to it that our state progresses, that our state develops, and that all of our state's problems, including problems relating to ethnicity, are addressed in an honest and legal way. The poverty of the Hawaiian peoples is one that we all need to address, just like the benefit of the Hawaiian trust can be used in a way that's going to alleviate state and county problems for homeless less than in other areas. You know, Hawaii is just too small and the need's too great to have people believe that they can't get involved because of an ethnic difference. It's a tragic mistake and unless we get the support of the non-Hawaiian voters, we just are not going to be able to clean up the situation at Oha. Voters are less than 7% of the state population. We need the other voters to join us to help clean it up. What a great invitation for all people to exercise their civic duty and to get involved. What a great statement that it's everyone's kuleana or business. And so I'm so sad that our time has gone so quickly. Hasn't this been too fast, Mililani? Well, neither you nor I are going away. And good thing, we still have the opportunity to seek accountability. I think that what you have done in terms of filing actions for public disclosure, now we see Princess Kei Kaulikei doing the same. I think sooner or later we're going to have to take the next step and I myself am talking to Hawaiians, yourself included, about the need to consider a breach of trust action against the office. Well, that's a friendly warning as we close on. Mililani, I'm so glad you're here today. My guest today, Mililani Trask, an attorney and advocate for the Hawaiian people. And I, together, Ehana Kako, we work together. We work together to keep our government transparent. We work together to fight waste, fraud and abuse. We work together to help people understand that the office of Hawaiian Affairs is government. It's everyone's government and everyone needs to pay attention because if we don't pay attention it will become everyone's problem. I'm so glad that she was with us today and I want to say thanks to the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network and until next time, everybody, this is Ehana Kako. Let's work together. Aloha.