September 2008
2 posts
Waimea Valley needs to be Saved from OHA
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chair Haunani Apoliona, Administrator Clyde Namu‘o, Deputy Administrator Mona Bernardino, and Director of Land Management Jonathan Scheuer are programmatically and financially mismanaging Waimea Valley. According to OHA sources, Apoliona led a charge to release $4,567,511 of Trust funds to support Hi‘ilei Aloha LLC, Hi‘ipaka LLC, and Hi‘ipoi LLC in January 2008. By...
Cooking the Books at OHA
Chair Haunani Apoliona, Administrator Clyde Namu‘o, Chair of the Committee on Asset and Resource Management Oz Stender, and Deputy Administrator Mona Bernardino of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are “cooking the books” by redefining previous expenditures (public trust funds and your tax dollars spent by OHA) for the fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007. The posted expenditures on OHA’s website...
July 2008
1 post
OHA'S Omitted Expenditures
Office of Hawaiian Affairs officials stated in an article titled “OHA spends millions on trying to create a Native Hawaiian nation” in the Honolulu Advertiser on July 16, 2008 that “the numbers (dollar amount) does not include salaries, wages, and related expenses paid to OHA employees involved with the efforts.” OHA sources have shared the following examples of omitted expenditures from the...
June 2008
1 post
OHA Manipulates Hawaiian Beneficiaries
Chair Haunani Apoliona, Administrator Clyde Namu‘o, and Deputy Administrator Mona Bernardino of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will be expanding OHA’s operating budget beyond the current approved Fiscal Year 2008 Total Operating Budget of $42,373,692 at the Board of Trustees’ meeting today (June 5, 2008). The increase in OHA’s Operating Budget will directly affect the fiscal year 2009 Total...
May 2008
1 post
OHA's Lavish Spending Continues
Once again, Clyde Namu‘o the Administrator of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has failed to provide any assurance that OHA is transparent and accountable to OHA’s mission and to the native Hawaiians OHA is mandated to serve. In the May 2008 Ka Wai Ola article titled, “Reinforcing Accountability,” the rhetoric is similar to his April 2008 and December 2007 Ka Wai Ola articles. The differences...
April 2008
1 post
OHA Unable To Separate Church and State
OHA Administrator Clyde Namu‘o recently instructed OHA staff, along with the Hawaiian Governance Department to shift their outreach campaign from Kau Inoa to nation-building. On March 13, 2008 OHA Director of Hawaiian Governance Theresa Bigbie announced via email Namu‘o’s directive, supporting OHA’s Ho‘oulu Lahui Aloha nation-building initiative. Ho‘oulu Lahui Aloha is OHA‘s initiative of...
March 2008
1 post
OHA’s Mismanagement and Poor Judgment Continues
On behalf of Administrator Clyde Namu‘o, Deputy Administrator of Beneficiary, Advocacy, and Empowerment Mona Bernardino announced on Monday, March 3, 2008 via email to OHA staff that she has been appointed the person in charge of the Grants Department, once known as Planning, Research, Evaluation, and Grants (PREG). The Planning, Research, Evaluation components of PREG have been assigned to...
February 2008
1 post
OHA Presssures Grantees
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) has been leveraging grantees to support the Ceded Land Settlement (HB2701 and SB2733) via multiple emails and phone calls directly to non-profits who are receiving grants from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. OHA staff has been working the phone lines and sending out multiple emails to grantees, since the week of January 28, 2008. According to several OHA staff...
January 2008
7 posts
OHA to Use Government Property & Trust Funds to...
OHA to Use Government Property & Trust Funds to Lobby Public Support The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Administrator Clyde Namu‘o is currently meeting with all OHA employees and requesting that OHA employees consider working overtime to lobby the public to support the Ceded Land Settlement and push OHA’s agenda forward, according to OHA sources. Namu‘o began meeting with OHA staff on Monday, the...
OHA Ceded Land Settlement Misleading &...
OHA Chairperson Haunani Apoliona and Administrator Clyde Namu‘o fully intended on excluding Native Hawaiian senators and beneficiaries in any discussions or informational sessions pertaining to the Ceded Land Settlement, prior to OHA’s press conference on Friday, the 18th of January. At 8:41 am on the morning of the press conference, Namu‘o, via his administrative assistant, sent an email to OHA...
OHA Seeks To Settle
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees meeting will be held today. Sources close to OHA Administrator Clyde Namu‘o have revealed that the Board of Trustees will be approving a negotiated settlement between OHA and the Executive Branch regarding the income and proceeds from the Public Land Trust (the State holds the ceded lands as trustee of the public land trust established in 1898)....
The True State Of OHA
On December 17, 2007, Chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Haunani Apoliona delivered a speech titled, “State of OHA and the Native Hawaiian Community” that was filled with fear igniting language and misleading statements intending to divert Hawaiian beneficiaries from the true realities of OHA. The “True State of OHA” has been detailed and published in a report, titled the “Audit of the...
Friendship At OHA Leads To Questionable Hire
Mona Bernardino, current OHA Deputy Administrator of Beneficiary, Advocacy, and Empowerment, attended high school at Kamehameha Schools with Keith “Kalani” Akana. Kalani Akana, a former kumu hula and Waiau Elementary teacher has served time in federal prison for possession of child pornography and is currently serving time on weekends for violating the terms of his supervised release. While on...
Trustee Akana Speaks The Truth, OHA Retaliates
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 2, 2008 with an agenda item to remove Trustee Rowena Akana as the Vice Chair of the Committee on Asset and Resource Management. Winona Rubin, Chief of Staff to OHA Chair Hauanani Apoliona submitted an article that attempted to refute Trustee Akana’s 2007 December Ka Wai Ola article entitled “It’s a Matter...
Personal Commitments Over Commitment to...
Nepotism extends beyond “bloodline” relations at OHA; it also includes those family members who are considered extended family members, otherwise known as “calabash ‘ohana.” A great example of “calabash ‘ohana” at OHA is the relationship between Mona Bernardino and Haunani Apoliona. Apoliona made the relationship with Mona Bernardino apparent in her...
December 2007
1 post
Apoliona Sisters: All In The Family (Part I)
Haunani Apoliona’s sister Aulani Apoliona was a legislative aid in 2003 who has catapulted to a lead advocate position in the Hawaiian Governance Department. In her current position, Aulani Apoliona has been given several special privileges beyond any other staff member at OHA. She has been given extensive travel privileges through the continent with an assistant at an estimated annual expense of...
November 2007
3 posts
Response To Clyde Namu`o
The following letter is in response to the printed message in the December 2007 issue of Ka Wai Ola submitted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Administrator Clyde Namu’o on page 19. Nothing to Hide: Initiate an Independent Public Forensic Audit (11/29/07) Honesty “is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully related to truth as a value.” Clyde Namu’o in the...
Apoliona, Namu`o and Bernardino Control OHA
As of the 8th of November 2007 OHA now operates in greater secrecy with the passage of “amendments of OHA Bylaws Article VI, by adding a new section “C” and to approve the creation of conforming OHA Executive Policies,” which took place at the Board of Trustees Meeting on Lana’i at 9:00 am. With the passage of “new section C,” Haunani Apoliona has gained full control over...
OHA Chair and Administrator Seek to Hide...
On Thursday, November 1, 2007 during the OHA Board of Trustee meeting OHA Chair Apoliona and Administrator Namu’o pushed an amendment pertaining to the OHA Bylaws Article VI forward that will “gag, suppress, and restrict” OHA Trustees from being transparent and held accountable to respond to beneficiary inquiries. Apoliona and Namu’o are preparing to push a final vote to support...