STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3051

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.R. No. 56
                                        




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs and
Judiciary, to which was referred S.R. No. 56 entitled:

     "SENATE RESOLUTION REQUESTING A STUDY OF THE EXISTING
     REPRESENTATION FRAMEWORK OF THE OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS
     AND THE EFFECTS OF THE RICE V. CAYETANO DECISION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to request that the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) study possible alternative governance
models to succeed the existing elected trusteeship model.

     Specifically, the measure asks OHA to include in its study,
recommendations on:

     (1)  How OHA will be able to remain sensitive to the needs
          of Hawaiians and native Hawaiians;

     (2)  How to ensure that the persons leading OHA in the
          future will be at least all or part Hawaiian;

     (3)  Whether future OHA trustees or directors are to serve
          full time in their capacity as OHA trustees or
          directors;

     (4)  How to ensure that representation on the OHA board is
          fairly and equitably distributed; and


 
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     (5)  How future trustees or directors of OHA would be more
          directly accountable to their constituents;

     Testimony in support of the measure was received from the
Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

     Your Committees find that Harold "Freddy" Rice, a citizen
without the requisite ancestry to be a Hawaiian under State law,
applied to vote in OHA trustee elections.  When his application
was denied, Mr. Rice sued the State, claiming that the voting
exclusion was invalid under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments to the United States Constitution.  On February 23,
2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rice v. Cayetano that OHA's
voting scheme was a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment because
OHA is a state agency.  The U.S. Supreme Court's decision was
narrowly written and did not call into question the
constitutionality of OHA or the trust, only the particular voting
mechanism by which the trustees are selected.  The resultant
impact of the decision is that the State is left with the
question of how to manage its trust obligations to the Hawaiian
people.

     During the month of February, in hearings on the issue
before the House of Representatives and the Senate, constituents,
and particularly Hawaiians, repeatedly voiced a desire to
maintain a system of governance that:

     (1)  Ensures that OHA trustees be at least part Hawaiian;

     (2)  Requires OHA trustees to serve full time in their
          capacity as trustees;

     (3)  Allows for representation on the OHA board by island;
          and

     (4)  Provides for a mechanism by which trustees would be
          more directly accountable to their constituents.

     In light of the testimony presented, for the continuity,
stability, and integrity of OHA, which is beneficial to the
trust, its beneficiaries, and the State as a whole, and in light
of the Rice v. Cayetano decision, your Committees believe that
OHA should be provided with an opportunity to develop a model of
governance to succeed the existing elected trusteeship model that
addresses the concerns of its constituency so that it may fulfill
its trust obligations in a manner which OHA and its beneficiaries
deem most prudent.


 
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     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs and Judiciary
that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the
intent and purpose of S.R. No. 56, and recommend that it be
referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Water, Land, and
                                   Hawaiian Affairs and
                                   Judiciary,



____________________________       ______________________________
AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair        COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair



____________________________
MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
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