Trusts of the Online Hawaiian Affairs Office to obtain large salary increases

The Trusts of the Hawaiian Affairs Office, who for years have been the worst paid elected officials of the State despite having vast financial responsibilities, could soon become some of the best paid.

The OHA Salary Commission is considering a proposal to increase the salary of the trusts just over $ 91,000, a 62% increase on their current annual salaries of $ 56,000. The president would earn about $ 100,000 a year, an increase of 50%.

If the plan is approved at the Commission meeting on Wednesday, the trust would obtain their first increase since 2016, which would allow them to be better paid than state legislators. The proposals have not received any public opposition.

To justify the increases, the members of the commission say they want a more professional board in the future, where the trusts no longer work in secondary works and instead concentrate on the mission of the office to improve the lives of the Natives Hawaiians.

Five of the nine current trusts have other works and some earn more than $ 100,000 in their external work, according to financial declaration forms.

President Kai Kahele is a pilot of Hawaiian Airlines and earns at least $ 250,000 a year. Vice President Keoni Souza earns at least $ 100,000 as a musician. Administrator Keliʻi Akina earns at least $ 150,000 as president of the Grassroots Institute, a group of public policy experts.

The decision of the OHA Salary Commission, which operates independently of the trusts, is definitive unless both the Chamber and the Senate reject it by concurrent resolution, a relatively high ribbon that would require audiences and multiple votes in both cameras.

In a draft salary proposal, the commission wrote that it wanted to give current and future trusts a competitive salary along what other elected officials in Hawaii annually earn.

The governor, the Vice Governor, the members of the Cabinet of the Executive Power, the state legislators and the judges are also expected to obtain salary increases this year as a separate state salary commission concludes their work in the coming weeks.

The OHA is unique because, by law, it has its own salary commission, whose members are appointed by the governor every four years.

Commissioners say they work 40 hours

The best paid Trust in the OHA, the president of the Board, currently wins more than $ 66,000, which means that it earns less than its assistants, according to salary data.

“It’s not much money,” said administrator Carmen Hulu Lindsey during a meeting of the Board of Directors on Thursday. “I almost consider us in the poverty zone.”

The salary commissioners said in a report that the new salaries could lead to a more diverse group of candidates, “including those who previously could not afford to serve with current salary levels.”

The commissioners heard the testimony of the trusts who said they work no less than 40 hours a week in what is technically considered a part -time. The trust controls a trustee valued at almost 600 million dollars, as well as commercial properties in Iwilei and Kaka’ako of Honolulu, and other plots in the islands.

The trusts said that their functions are throughout the year, unlike state legislators that meet for four months a year and win up to $ 83,000.

The Kalei Akaka Trust, former president of the Defense Committee of the Board’s beneficiaries, recently told the salary commission that passes the first half of the year by pressing on issues of the Hawaiian natives during the legislative session and that must be kept updated on issues on issues Federals in Washington, DC.

Trusts usually hold community meetings between July and December and help respond to emergencies such as Maui’s forest fires in 2023.

“We are in constant communication from a County, state and federal perspective,” Akaka said. “That promotion is done throughout the year.”

The previous proposals of the Salary Commission would have granted the trusts an even greater salary increase. A proposal draft for the meeting of the commission of January 7 would have set the president’s salary by $ 127,000 and that of the trusts at $ 117,000 a year.

The commissioners reached reduced salary figures calculating the average compensation of the members of the County Council throughout the State. They also considered the possible public and political reaction that could make legislators annul the proposal.

“What is the gold number that will not be rejected so that we are not trapped in this for another four years?” Commissioner Dennis Rose said during a meeting on January 7.

According to the current proposal, the annual salary of the trusts would increase to almost $ 106,000 by 2028, and the president of the Board would earn $ 116,000.