Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities. Native NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  For information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

 

 

January 6, 2005

 

 

 

 

Sen. McCain Opposes Akaka Bill

POSTED: 3:37 pm HST January 5, 2005

Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John McCain said he will oppose legislation that would allow Native Hawaiians to seek federal recognition.

 

The Arizona Republican has taken over as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which would consider the legislation also known as the Akaka bill, after Sen. Daniel Akaka, who introduced the measure. McCain replaced retired Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who had supported the bill.

 

McCain said that when Hawaii became a state, there was an implicit agreement at that time that Native Hawaiians would not receive the same status as Native Americans.

Akaka said he was surprised by McCain's remarks, and he said he plans to talk to him. Akaka said he still intends to offer the bill.

 

Last December, Hawaii senators struck an agreement with Republican leaders to bring the bill to a floor vote before Aug. 7, this year.

 

 

 

 

Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) Announces its Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP) to Provide Financial Literacy and Homebuyer Training Statewide

 

Honolulu, Hawaii – The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) has launched its Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP), designed to facilitate the delivery of homebuyer counseling and home ownership readiness training for beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.  HOAP will be coordinated by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) and delivered by multiple training organizations throughout the state.

 

“The Commission and I are excited to be facilitating this opportunity, which will better position our beneficiaries to meet mortgage qualifications and become homeowners,” said Micah Kane, Chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission and Director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.  “We are proud to be partnering with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands,” said Robin Danner, CNHA President & CEO.  “In an unprecedented endeavor to match home ownership and financial literacy training with its housing development program, DHHL is ensuring that families are empowered to actually take possession of the homes that will be built.”

 

“Our Department asserted the critical need for homebuyer education and case management in preparing beneficiaries for home ownership and decided to take all necessary measures to support their success, in preparation of thousands of new awards in the next ten years,” said Kane.

 

“Our commitment to the Home Ownership Assistance Program embraces and recognizes that building homes is only one part of meeting our mission; another is to provide direct assistance to families that are navigating the home buying process and to equip them with the necessary financial tools to secure home ownership,” Kane added.

 

CNHA will be working with a team of community-based organizations to provide home ownership counseling and financial literacy training throughout Hawaii.  To meet the anticipated demand for assistance, a minimum of four agencies will be available to work directly with families on a myriad of issues related to homebuyer eligibility and home ownership. The primary objectives of the program are to expand home ownership opportunities and to provide counseling services to families and individuals that need to improve their financial conditions in order to meet the responsibilities of home ownership.  These training sessions/workshops will not only cover important topics such as mortgage lending, savings and budgeting, but also allow experts to personally work with individuals on trouble areas like credit repair, debt reduction, restructuring and how to complete home loan applications.  This program further supports the delivery of a wide variety of housing counseling services, which are much needed in our Hawaiian communities. 

 

Hui Kako`o Aina Ho`opulapula, a statewide nonprofit advocate for Hawaiians that are on DHHL’s wait list, took note of the HOAP project.  Hui Kako`o President, Blossom Feiteira, a dedicated supporter of home ownership training remarked “Chairman Kane and DHHL have embarked on an aggressive housing development schedule over the coming years – and the commitment of DHHL in being equally aggressive about homebuyer education is something that families from every income category and every island waiting list can look forward to.  Homebuyer education works and I couldn’t agree more with the direction of DHHL’s HOAP project.”

 

DHHL is a state agency administering the federal land trust created by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921.  CNHA is a member-based nonprofit dedicated to providing training and support services to agencies and organizations that deliver programs in Native communities.  For more information, phone CNHA at 808.521.5011 (toll free at 808.709.2642) or visit CNHA’s Web site at www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

 

 

 

 

LATEST NEWS

7:23 PM HST Monday

 

Housing task force completes report

 

Howard Dicus

Pacific Business News

HONOLULU, HI - A task force, in a report presented Monday to the Hawaii Legislature, said lack of affordable housing is a serious problem for the state in several regards. It called for dedicated funding and financial incentives to landlords.

"Hawaii is at a critical housing juncture," the report says. "Rents and sales prices have reached an all-time high. Homelessness has increased. A large segment of our population, primarily lower income families, has been priced out of the market. The high cost of housing serves as a major workforce recruiting, retention and expansion challenge."

The Affordable Housing Task Force says the two-tier system of state and county land use approvals "is often cited" as a barrier to development of affordable housing. "Developers of large residential projects may take seven to 10 years to complete the entitlement process." The task force suggests that government land be made available expressly for affordable housing development, and urges counties to outsource oversight work for which they lack adequate staffing.

The report said lack of roads, sewers and drainage also impedes affordable housing development, but the task force came up with little in the way of short-term fixes apart from urging "creative public/private financing for infrastructure." It suggested letting developers do "off-site" compliance with affordable housing conditions, perhaps building homes on Hawaiian Home Lands.

The task force called for a dedicated source of funding for the Rental Housing Trust Fund, and said landlords need to be provided with financial incentives to maintain affordable rentals rather than removing them from the market. It also suggested that the development of affordable housing requires a dedicated agency, rather than have it be a second priority for an agency already tasked with developing and running public housing.

Gov. Linda Lingle convened the task force on July 20 in response to Senate Concurrent Resolution 135 to find solutions to the affordable housing crisis in the state. Under the coordination of the state-sponsored Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii, an expanded 108-member task force held a public forum in August to bring together representatives from state, county and federal agencies, private developers, financial institutions, the real estate industry, housing advocates, and social service providers.

"Recognizing the growing need for affordable housing on all major islands in the state, we reached out to the business community and housing advocacy groups to help us find real solutions, and they stepped forward in a very big way," Lingle said.

Following the August forum, HCDCH convened five smaller working groups that met in October through December. They focused on:

"They developed sound, well thought-out recommendations that will make their way into legislation," the governor said Monday. "Their collaborative work helped me craft my legislative package on affordable housing that I will unveil on Jan. 24, and I would not be surprised if the Legislature comes up with many of the same proposals. Collaboration is critically important to get everyone together, talking together, moving forward as one."

Lingle gave a copy of the report to state Sen. Ron Menor, who will co-chair a state senate task force that will hold public meetings on affordable housing around the state starting Tuesday.

Fewer than 3,000 new housing units have been developed in the past five years on Oahu, home to 72 percent of Hawaii's population. This compares to 18,000 housing units built just in Makiki during the 1970s.

Reach Howard Dicus at hdicus@bizjournals.com

 

 

 

 

109th Congress Convenes with Major Issues on Agenda

WASHINGTON, DC - The 109th Congress (2005-2006) convened in Washington, D.C. today with the swearing in of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

U.S. Congressman Ed Case (Hawai'i, Second District), who took the oath of office for a third time, said he was "proud and humbled to represent Hawai'i in Congress for another two years, and eager and excited to get going."

Case said he anticipated a "very difficult two years, with our federal budget deficit and foreign affairs, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan, dominating our national agenda one way or another. We'll also have to sort through and make the right decisions on the administration's proposals on Social Security, which have not yet been presented to Congress."

"Back home, I'll be focused on assuring that our federal government is fully assisting us with Hawaii's concerns, ranging from our economy and jobs to education, health and human services, and natural resource protection, as well as pursuing what remains my top single issue, federal recognition for Native Hawaiians. But clearly the two issues where we need help urgently, especially in my Second District, are traffic/transportation and affordable housing, and I'm especially focused there.

"I'll also be ramping up my community outreach again through my Talk Stories and other means," said Case, who conducted 80 Talk Stories throughout his district in the 108th Congress. "We're starting off with eleven Talk Stories on O'ahu in late January and early February and then following that with more on the other islands."

Case also urged anyone wanting further information on his office or Congress to visit his website at www.house.gov/case or call the following local numbers on the following islands: Kaua'i/Ni'ihau 245-1951; O'ahu 541-1986; Moloka'i 552-0160; Lana'i 565-7199; Maui 242-1818; Hawai'i 935-3756. "My office, staff and I are here to serve you, and we look forward to helping you however we can."

 

 

 

 

Obama on fire in political world

 

By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

 

January 6, 2005

"Is his the face of a future president?"

The question is asked in this month's issue of Vanity Fair, a question that has been on the minds of most who saw the Punahou School alumnus give an electrifying keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last year.

The influential magazine profiles what it considers "The Best of the Best 2004." Under the heading of "Best Rookie," in a portrait by photographer Annie Leibovitz, is Barack Obama in a tie and dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves, flanked by his wife and two daughters on one side, and photos of Muhammad Ali and Abraham Lincoln on the other in Obama's election headquarters in Chicago.

The junior senator from Illinois -- and the only black U.S. senator -- was sworn into office Tuesday and begins a political journey in the national spotlight that had its roots here in Hawaii.

Obama is the son of a Kenyan economist who was the first African to study at the East-West Center, and a student from Kansas, who met at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

The couple divorced when Obama was 2. His mother then married another EWC student, an Indonesian who moved the family to his native Jakarta. After two years there, Obama's mother sent the boy back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents in Honolulu, where he enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School. He moved to the mainland after graduating in 1979.

In Chicago he would develop a formidable career as a civil rights lawyer, as a community organizer in the city's predominantly black South Side and as a law professor at the University of Chicago. It was only a matter of time that politics would beckon.

Just before Obama visited his old school last month to address faculty and students, he was the guest of honor at a local Democratic Party fund-raiser, and he rallied the troops with his charismatic presence.

"There is no doubt that the residue of Hawaii will always stay with me ... and that's what's best in me and what's best in my message, is one that is consistent with the tradition of Hawaii."

It is that message of ethnic diversity and tolerance that he takes into his first term of office at the nation's Capitol.

 

 

 

 

LATEST NEWS

2:57 PM HST Thursday, December 30, 2004

State auditor examines burial council selection

Pacific Business News

HONOLULU, HI - The state auditor wants the governor to require the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to respond to Native Hawaiian requests for a meeting to develop culturally sensitive protocols to qualify candidates for seats on island burial councils.

The recommendation came after an audit of how the department manages the program, which was ordered by the state Legislature earlier this year after concerns were raised about how appointments to island burial councils were being made.

The auditor found the slow pace of compiling burial council candidate lists resulted in a large number of interim appointments and holdover members.

"We found that a disorderly process of naming island burial council candidates demeans Hawaiian reverence for ancestral remains," the report said.

 

 

 

 

Sol Kaho'ohalahala to Direct Kaho'olawe Island Reserve

Hawai'i State Representative Must Resign to Become Executive Director of KIRC

KAHULUI, Maui (Dec. 29, 2004) -- Hawaii State Representative Sol P. Kaho'ohalahala announced today he is accepting an offer to become the Executive Director of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC), a Hawai'i state agency within the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Rep. Kaho'ohalahala also announced he is resigning from the Hawaii State House of Representatives. Although he recently won re-election from District 13 by a wide margin, Hawaii state law does not permit a state legislator to also serve as the director of a state agency.

The island of Kaho'olawe was used by the US military as a bombing target for more than 50 years. In 1994, the US Navy signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with the State of Hawaii regarding cleanup, restoration, access, and transfer of control. KIRC was given responsibility to represent the state in all matters pertaining to the island.

Rep. Kaho'ohalahala said, "KIRC faces enormous challenges if it is to complete its task successfully. Although progress has been made during the past ten years, a great deal of work remains to be done to ensure Kaho'olawe is safe and restored."

Sol Kaho'ohalahala has been an active member of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana for 28 years during which time he also served two terms in the Hawai'i State Legislature, two terms on the Maui County Council, and on numerous boards and committees.

In his speech today, Rep. Kaho'ohalahala said the opportunity to become Executive Director of KIRC brings him "full circle" to what originally inspired his "commitment to public service and Aloha 'Aina."

"With Aloha 'Aina as our guiding principle, we can blend traditional Hawaiian wisdom and practices with today's technology to address Kaho'olawe's challenges," said Kaho'ohalahala.

The mandate of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission is to preserve Hawaiian cultural practices, remove explosives, restore the island's ecosystem, and return the island to a sovereign Hawaiian entity recognized by the United States and the State of Hawai'i.

Governor Lingle has the power to appoint a successor to represent District 13 in the Hawaii State House of Representatives. Acknowledging this, State Rep. Kaho'ohalahala announced he is recommending Mele Carroll who currently serves as the Chief Legislative Liaison to the Hawaii State Legislature for the County of Maui and who has an impressive track record of service and support in District 13.

District 13 includes Lana'i, Moloka'i, East Maui (from Pa'ia to Kaupo), Kalaupapa, and Kaho'olawe.

For more information about Sol Kaho'ohalahala:   Web Site: www.sol4aloha.net; E-Mail: info@sol4aloha.net

 

 

 

 

Lingle panel backs recreation over pier

 

A proposal to help cruise ships draws opposition on Maui

 

By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

 

January 3, 2005

WAILUKU » Gov. Linda Lingle's advisory committee on Maui has recommended that the state protect canoeing and other recreational uses at Kahului Harbor.

Committee Vice Chairman Ezekiela Kalua said the state should also seek a secondary site within Kahului Harbor to accommodate cruise ships rather than support the current proposal for a pier.

"We want to see a good, efficient solution is put in and not one that is destructive," Kalua said Friday.

State transportation officials have developed a plan that includes building a so-called finger pier called "Pier 2c" that extends toward the middle of the harbor from the end of Pier 2.

Kalua said the committee also felt the cruise ship industry should contribute to improvements at the harbor, including security and comfort stations.

Some groups are against building Pier 2c to accommodate more cruise ships.

Kalua said canoe paddlers feel the proposal would eliminate regattas in the harbor. He said the interisland barge firm Young Bros. also has concerns that the new pier would reduce the emergency buffer needed between vessels.

Some critics have said state officials underestimated the effect the pier would have on youth recreation. Two canoe clubs have clubhouses at the harbor, including Hawaiian Canoe Club, Maui's largest canoe club.

Critics say the state should extend the harbor east toward the county wastewater treatment plant and should develop an environmental impact study to explore other alternatives.

 

 

 

 

EXCLUSIVE REPORTS

From the December 31, 2004 print edition

 

State budget seeks $40M bond for ferry docks

 

Prabha Natarajan

Pacific Business News

HONOLULU, HI - The state plans to spend $40 million on docks and terminals to enable the proposed Hawaii Superferry to begin operation by 2007.

Gov. Linda Lingle and the state Department of Transportation are seeking legislative approval for the money to pay for ferry terminal projects at Honolulu, Nawiliwili, Kahului and Kawaihae harbors.

The idea of a fast interisland ferry, which has been proposed in various forms since the 1960s, has been enthusiastically embraced by Hawaii businesses and residents even before the logistics have been worked out. Among the pieces that still need to come together are funding for the ferry construction, construction of docks and state Public Utilities Commission approval for the ferry to operate.

But the governor's inclusion of a plan to issue general obligation bonds to pay for the harbor improvements was a major victory for backers of Hawaii Superferry. The ferry's investors need state approvals before they can seek loans from the federal government to build the ship.

The Legislature would have to approve the bond issue. The plan calls for Hawaii Superferry to pay for the debt service through harbor fees.

The move comes despite growing concerns from potential competitors about why the state is spending money to essentially underwrite the startup operations of a private company. The company says that the state owns the harbors and is the entity responsible for maintaining and upgrading the facilities.

"We are operating out of state facilities, and we are working with the state to improve the harbors," said John Garibaldi, CEO of Hawaii Superferry.

The state would spend millions to improve and redesign a part of the new ferry terminal at Pier 19 in Honolulu Harbor. The ferry's design would require all passengers and vehicles to beside-loaded instead of backloaded as is the norm, and the state would pay to redesign the dock to meet the company's needs.

Further, at harbors such as Kahului and Kawaihae, clearing space for a ferry to dock and load 900 passengers and 300 vehicles is a huge challenge, said Rod Haraga, the state director of transportation.

At these harbors, there's not enough room for current users and the state is in negotiations to make room for the ferry.

"We want to make sure that other users are involved ... and at least mildly agree that [the interisland ferry] is a good thing for the economy," Haraga said.

For Hawaii Superferry, determining which pier it would use in Kahului is essential since the ferry's first operational route would be between Oahu and Maui. Routes to the Big Island and Kauai are planned later.

Already, the company has signed on Maui Land & Pineapple Co. as an investor in the ferry, with the likelihood of the company using the ferry to transport its produce.

On the Big Island, the ferry would call at Kawaihae north of Kona, since the distance to Hilo is a deterrent. Again, at Kawaihae the state faces paucity of space that is already split among Matson, Young Brothers, international ships and other users.

The possibility of the military's Stryker brigade locating on the island could mean more demands for Kawaihae Harbor.

It may well be that the state decides to work on other harbors first, and relegate Kawaihae to the back burner, said Bruce Matsui, deputy director of the Transportation Department.

Reach Prabha Natarajan at 955-8041 or pnatarajan@bizjournals.com.

 

 

 

 

Cherokee language goes global


Tribe offers free online language classes

 

By Clifton Adcock
Phoenix Staff Writer

 

January 3, 2005

PHOENIX, AZ - The Cherokee language is going global; at least that is one intent of free online Cherokee language courses offered by the Cherokee Nation.

Rather than sitting in a classroom, students of the language can log on from their home computers, and the tribe has added a level three course in the language, set to begin today.

Ben Phillips, the nation's Web site technician, said the Cherokee I class is filled, with around 150 people from across the United States enrolled, and some from other countries as well.

"They usually get filled up in about a week," Phillips said. "All of this is geared toward online use. We try to teach the language when we talk to them online. It allows anybody with a computer and Internet connection to learn the language."

Ed Fields, who teaches the class, said the classes introduce students to the Cherokee syllabary and the phonetic pronunciation of words, and go on to teach sentences and phrases in Cherokee as the class level progresses.

"We're getting a lot more to a class than we had," Fields said. "We start out with just simple little phrases that they grab hold of."

Sammy Still, who helps teach the classes, said the power of reaching out to the world with the language will help preserve and reinvigorate it.

"It does reach a lot of people," Still said. "It's keeping our language alive."

Fields also said the courses help keep the language thriving.

"It does get way out there," he said. "There's a lot of people out there who have heard their grandmother speak it. They want to find themselves and this is a way of getting hooked in to that."

Phillips said the implementation of a device originally designed to help the instructors translate the Cherokee syllabary into phonetics and subsequently given to the students, has made the whole process of holding the online class much easier.

In addition to classes, online games that teach the language help to reinforce the vocabulary lessons, Phillips said.

"My kids like the games -- they get on there and play all the time," he said. "They're kind of addicting. We're always developing new games and learning tools."

You can reach reporter Clifton Adcock at 684-2926 or cadcock@muskogeephoenix.com.

 

 

 

 

Home ownership rising on Arizona reservations

 

By The Associated Press

January 3, 2005

 

PHOENIX — Inside the front door of Serena Norris’ moss-green home is a welcome mat bearing the Pima symbol of the Man in the Maze, a circular depiction of a person’s path through life.


Norris’ path has brought her to a home of her own, something considered commonplace for most Americans but nearly unattainable for those living on reservations.


But reliable jobs, courtesy of casinos, and innovative legal and financial programs have private lenders looking at reservations as safe investments for the first time.


In the past, the trust status of reservations, which prohibits sale of land outside the tribe, made banks unwilling to fund conventional mortgages. If the borrower defaulted, the bank could not foreclose on the land.


“There have been two big impediments to housing: jobs and a legal structure to allow mortgages,” said Stephen Hart, a lawyer with Lewis and Roca, a Phoenix law firm working with a task force to increase housing on reservations.


“The issue of jobs is being answered in part by gaming,” Hart said. “Not just gaming jobs, but probation officers, policemen, court clerks. These people make money, and they want to buy a house and invest in the community.”


Tribes are educating members about financing, helping them clear credit problems and finding ways to shorten title searches, which in the past have taken up to three years through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which administers Indian land.


Tribal members who qualified as low-income could get on long waiting lists for subsidized cookie-cutter housing built by the BIA. Those who didn’t qualify were relegated to trailers, unless they had enough cash to pay for construction.


“The estimate is that over 56 percent of households on tribal lands are living in substandard conditions or are paying too much for housing,” said Sheila D. Harris, director of the Arizona Department of Housing, which is helping funnel housing money and resources to tribes.


“People finally understood that, the way the BIA did things, this would never change. There isn’t enough money,” she said. “So we had to figure out how to take the money we have and do more with it.”


In 2003, Gov. Janet Napolitano and tribal leaders formed a Tribal Housing Task Force to work on ways to increase housing.


The classifications of reservation land — allotted, tribal, fee simple, etc. — caused problems, Harris said.


“Tribes needed a lending structure that was easier to navigate,” Harris said.
Norris, a business manager with the tribe’s Saddleback Communications, is the first in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to build a home using a new mortgage-guarantee program. Her three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house cost $90,000 to build.


The federal government guarantees the mortgage. If Norris doesn’t make the payments, the bank can foreclose and the tribe can buy her house.


The tribe could either work with Norris to become current with the mortgage, or the tribe could lease the home to another family member. The land always remains in trust for her family. If the house were on tribal land, the home could be leased to any tribal member.
So now, instead of sharing a 10-foot by 10-foot room in her mother’s house, Norris and her daughter, Jamie, 6, wake up in their own bedrooms, eat breakfast in a spacious tiled kitchen, and watch movies in their living room.


“I enjoy it every single day,” she said. “I consider myself very lucky.”


On the Navajo Reservation, 4 1/2 years of negotiation have resulted in a program that allows the Navajo Housing Authority to guarantee loans.


“We are taking what typical American people enjoy and bringing it to the reservation,” said Chester Carl, chairman and executive officer of the Navajo Housing Authority.
Carl said the tribe put aside a reserve account to offset any delinquencies or foreclosures, with a goal to finance at least 500 mortgages a year.


“The hope is that we’ll eventually provide a shelter to every family in need of a house,” Carl said. “If we wait on the sideline for the federal government to come in and build us a house, find us a job, it’s not going to happen.”


The White Mountain Apache Tribe became the first in the nation to issue tax-exempt bonds for housing.


The tribe used block-grant money from the federal government to leverage the bonds, paying $900,000 in fees, said A.J. Yazzie, a financial consultant for the tribe. It raised $25 million, which has financed more than 300 homes, leased to tribal members with an option to purchase them.


In October, in another house on the Salt River Reservation, 4-year-old Tyler Manuel twirled across the carpeting of her new bedroom as her mother and father completed the walkthrough of their just-finished home.


Tyler’s father, Darren Manuel, a Pima who works at Casino Arizona, said his grandfather gave the land to his father, who gave it to him.


“And I will give it and this house to my children,” Manuel said.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Thursday, December 30, 2004

Bandmaster must go, Hannemann decides

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

HONOLULU, HI - The bitter wrangling between Royal Hawaiian bandmaster Aaron Mahi and a number of band members appears to be at an end with Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann's decision yesterday to keep Mahi on for the next three months and then replace him.

Mahi appeared resigned to his fate, while the band members who opposed him said Hannemann had reached a good compromise.

About three-fourths of the band had signed a letter telling Hannemann that they would support a decision to replace Mahi, bandmaster since 1980. They cited administrative issues and concerns about the troupe's musical direction as reasons for their disenchantment.

Hannemann, speaking to band members before a holiday concert yesterday morning at Kuakini Medical Center, did not comment on the band's internal strife but urged the musicians to stay in harmony.

"I want a smooth transition," Hannemann told band members while Mahi stood next to him with his head bowed.

The mayor-elect, noting that it was his prerogative to hire his own Cabinet, said Mahi's departure is among a series of changes he wants to make.

"It's not about Aaron," he said after the meeting. "It's just a general feeling there should be a change of direction in every department."

Hannemann said no decision has been made about a successor and that none can be expected for the next three months.

Mahi, who had been told of Hannemann's decision earlier in the week, appeared to have mixed feelings yesterday. "He said he wants to make a change and that's the right of the mayor to do that," Mahi said. "I said, 'I understand.' "

Mahi, 51, said he had tried to address issues raised by band members and that he believed the problems could have been resolved without his departure.

Robert Larm, a clarinet player and woodwind section supervisor, said he and other band members felt a sense of relief after Hannemann spoke to them.

Larm said he backs the mayor-elect's decision to hire a new band director, a job that pays $99,807 annually as are all members of the mayor's Cabinet.

"We need a new life, the band has basically stagnated over the past so many years," said Larm, a band member for 21 years. Larm said that he, like other band members, believes the organization should have reached out to a broader segment of the community.

"It was like we had gotten into a rut, the same old concerts at the same old places and not really reaching out to a wider segment of the public," he said.

Eric Kop, a French horn player and one of three union shop stewards, said he also supports Hannemann's decision.

"As long as Mayor-elect Hannemann follows through with the selection of a different bandmaster, I feel it's a fair compromise for all involved," said Kop, a band member for 16 years.

Criticism by the public that band members were selfish with their concerns are off-base, he said. "The things we were trying to bring up were issues that were keeping us from performing at our best level," Kop said.

Mahi had too many outside interests, Kop said, such as conducting the Hawai'i Ecumenical Chorale and performing with other musical groups.

The band was founded in 1836 by King Kamehameha III and is the only full-time municipal band in the country. It employs about 40 members, has an annual budget of $1.6 million and performs about 300 concerts a year.

Mahi said he believes it is important that the band stay true to its roots as a link to the monarchy period of Hawaiian music. It's important, he said, for the new bandmaster to continue that emphasis.

That was echoed by Ed Michelman, president of the non-profit group Friends of the Royal Hawaiian Band that had urged Hannemann to retain Mahi.

Mahi will "undoubtedly he will go down in history as one of the most influential Royal Hawaiian Band directors since Henry Berger," Michelman said, referring to the band's longest-serving and most famous conductor who served from 1871 to 1915. "By virtue of his musicianship and dedication to the rich legacy of the band, he has elevated it to a position of national and international acclaim."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.

 

 

 

 

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