The Queen Liliuokalani Trust
Farewell to you, farewell to you
O fragrance in the blue depths
One fond embrace and I leave
To meet again.
– Queen Liliuokalani - Aloha Oe
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
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Hawaii:
A QUEEN’S PLEAS FOR INDEPENDENCE
The same years that women in Colorado, California, and Kansas agitated for their voting rights as full American citizens, Hawaiian women led their nation’s movement for independence from American domination. The popular Queen Liliuokalani resisted threats of armed annexation led by American pineapple planter Sanford B. Dole when she inherited the crown from her brother in 1891.
John L. Stevens, U.S. Minister to Hawaii in 1893, threatened U.S. takeover. “The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.”
The queen’s desperate efforts to save her people’s land, government, and culture continued even after Americans overthrew her monarchy in 1893. Indignant by polite protests against the newly founded “The Republic of Hawaii” reached President Benjamin Harrison with little effect. The Hawaiian people believed they had suffered an undemocratic, illegal, and cruel conquest by the United States.
Hawaiian journalists Emma and Joseph Nawahi popularized the independence movement with their weekly Honolulu newspaper Ke Aloha Aina (The Patriot). Emma Aima Aii Nawahi, once a “lady in waiting” to Queen Liliuokalani, published sharp anti-American broadsides in the Hawaiian language. She took over the journal after her husband’s untimely death in 1896. That same year Queen Liliuokalani was placed under arrest in her own palace for her attempts to regain her throne. She remained confined for two years before the American intruders released her.
Queen “L’il” now appealed to the American people. She traveled to Washington herself, winning the sympathy of the new President, Grover Cleveland. “O, honest Americans, as Christians hear me for my downtrodden people! Their form of government was as dear to them as yours is precious to you. Quite as warmly as you love your country, so they love theirs,” she proclaimed....
Hawaii’s fate was sealed when war fever against Spain broke out in the Pacific in 1898. President William McKinley, and Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt convinced lawmakers in Washington to annex Hawaii by joint Congressional resolution. The U.S. government thus annexed the new territory of Hawaii. No vote of approval by its people was ever taken, and no Treaty with the Hawaiian Queen was ever signed by the U.S.
Voting in the new territorial Constitution was restricted to white, male property owners. Ironically, in a land once ruled by a powerful Queen, women with official U.S. citizenship did not win the right to vote until passage of the 19th Amendent in 1920. Native Hawaiians, as well as Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrant workers remained disfranchised for some time to come.
Emma Aima Nawahi remained an ardent defender of ancient Hawaiian institutions and culture in the pages of Ke Aloha Aina until 1910.
Queen Liliuokalani lived out her life as a noted author and poet. She published her popular autobiography, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen. Hawaii’s last monarch also penned over 200 traditional Hawaiian songs, including the romantic ballad, “Aloha Oe.”
The words express not only friendship, but Liliuokalani’s deeper faith in the eventual resurrection of the Hawaii nation....
Imperialism
As the 19th century came to a close, many voices cried for American expansionism to match the imperialistic ambitions of Europe and Japan. The dream for global destiny was justified by such logic as the expansion of overseas markets, desire for a stronger navy, and the spreading of Christianity to uncivilized peoples around the globe. Eventually, this expansionism translated into conflict, climaxing in 1898 with the Spanish-American War.
James G. Blaine, Pan-Americanism: As Secretary of State, Blaine fostered closer U.S.-Latin American relations and brought about the first Pan-American Congress in order to forge commercial, social, economic, military, and political cooperation among the 21 republics of North, Central, and South America.
Venezuelan boundary dispute: Venezuela had a dispute over its boundary with the British Colony of Guiana. In 1895, while the British refused to resolve the issue, United States Secretary of State Richard Olney sent a message to London declaring that the US would be "practically sovereign on this content."
Bering Sea seal controversy: When the US purchased Alaska in 1867, it included some small Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. Congress leased the island to a US company which killed seals with the understanding that they would not kill more than 10,000 male seals per year. This led to the regulation of pelagic sealing in 1893....
Samoa, Pago Pago: America’s Navy wanted to establish a port in the Samoan Islands, so their ships could refuel in the island of Pago Pago. This was an example of the United States Navy’s expansion efforts in the pacific. Their goal was to obtain more ports so they could have more ships out on the ocean to control the seas.
Virginius: In 1873 a Spanish gunboat captured the Virginius, a ship fraudulently flying the American flag, in Cuba. Secretary of State Fish and the Spanish minister came together in Washington and signed a protocol bringing the end to the Virginius affairs. Spain paid the US $80,000.
de Lôme letter: On February 8, 1898, Hearst’s Journal published a private letter written by Spanish minister to the United States Depuy de Lôme regarding his reservations for Cuban independence and disparaging President McKinley. Many Americans would have agreed, but they resented hearing it from a Spanish diplomat.
Maine explodes: When an explosion rocked the Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing 266 American crewmen, irritation turned to outrage. A review of the evidence later concluded that a ship-board ammunition explosion caused the blast. Still, a navy inquiry blamed the blast on a "Spanish mine."
•Teller Amendment: The U.S. had been motivated o war in part by the desire to aid the Cubans in their attempt to liberate themselves from the colonial rule of Spain. To this end the Teller Ammendment was added to the Declaration of War. It speciffically prohibited the annexation of Cuba, as a cause of the war.
· SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR: The Spanish-American War lasted just three months with only a few days of actual combat. Action started on May 1, 1898, when George Dewey’s fleet steamed into Manila Bay in the Philippines and seized or destroyed all ten Spanish ships anchored there. The war ended after Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera attempted to break through American forces losing 474 men. The Filipinos celebrated their freedom from four hundred years of Spanish rule on July 4,1898.
Assistant Secretary of Navy Theodore Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President William McKinley in 1897. Roosevelt was an impatient disciple in the Spanish-American War, acting largely on his own. In 1898, Roosevelt resigned to become second in command of the Rough Riders.
Commodore Dewey, Manila Bay: The first action of the Spanish-American War came in 1898 when Commodore George Dewey’s fleet steamed into Manila Bay in the Philippines. This fleet destroyed and captured all ten Spanish ships that were assigned in Manila Bay. One American and 381 Spanish men died in the attempt.
Cleveland and Hawaii: In 1887 the United States gained the right to establish a naval port in Pearl Harbor. President Grover Cleveland was troubled with the crisis in Hawaii since Hawaiians claimed to want annexation. However, once their queen was overthrown, Hawaiians were uncertain if they wanted annexation at all.
Queen Liluokalani: Liluokalani was the Queen of Hawaii who did not like Americans since they built their port in Pearl Harbor. Queen Liluokalani was overthrown when Hawaii’s sugar prices dropped 40% and planters wanted the independent Republic of Hawaii.
Annexation of Hawaii: In 1890 under the McKinley Tariff, domestic sugar growers ended the duty-free status of Hawaiian sugar. After Hawaii’s sugar prices dropped 40% and Queen Liluokalani was overthrown, the Hawaiians decided to request United States annexation....
Treaty of Paris, 1898: The Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War and developed an American empire overseas. In the treaty, Spain agreed to abandon Cuba and exchange Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to America for $20 million. The treaty gave the United States a new imperialistic reputation.
American Anti-Imperialist League: The critics of imperialism were many and influential. Forming the Anti-Imperialist League, they believed that every country captured by the U.S. had the same rights under the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence....
July 9, 2007
Lili‘uokalani board taps Asam
to be new trustee
David Peters, who is retiring, praises the board's pick
of the veteran educator
Star-Bulletin staff
The board of trustees of the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust has nominated Claire Asam to replace trustee David Peters, who is retiring.
Asam's name will be submitted to the Probate Court, according to trust officials. If approved, she would be one of three trustees overseeing assets -- mostly land -- valued at $386 million and programs to help destitute and orphaned children.
Asam has been the president of the trust's program division since 1999. Prior to that, she was an educator for 25 years with the Kamehameha Schools, where she was also named a distinguished alumna. Asam also has a master's degree and Ph.D. in education from the University of Hawaii.
"Claire is a fine, fine person and she will do well," Peters said in a news release. "I look forward to helping her achieve a seamless transition."
Board Chairman Thomas Kaulukukui Jr. said: "Claire has impeccable credentials. She has devoted her life to the education and care of our Hawaiian and other children."
The Lili'uokalani Trust was established by Hawaii's last monarch with her family lands to help orphaned and destitute children, with a preference given to native Hawaiian children.
According to its 2005 annual report, the trust directly served 5,185 children and indirectly reached 25,101 children through its programs and at the Queen Lili'uokalani children's centers.
The trust distributed $16.7 million in 2006 for charitable purposes. It owns 6,500 acres of land, including property in Waikiki that generates lease rental income.
Most of the trust's land is on the Big Island. The trust is planning a major development in Kailua-Kona with the MacNaughton Group and the Kobayashi Group involving 3,500 acres and a proposed shopping center called Kona Commons, according to a trust spokeswoman.
http://starbulletin.com/2007/07/09/news/story06.html
February 6, 2007
Kalama named schools trustee
By Rick Daysog, Honolulu Advertiser
The state Probate Court yesterday appointed First Hawaiian Bank executive Corbett Kalama as a trustee of the $7.7 billion Kamehameha Schools.
Kalama replaces Constance Lau, who announced last year that she would step down from the trust's five-member board after she was named chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.
Kalama is an executive vice president at First Hawaiian and is responsible for the bank's O'ahu region, where he manages about 500 employees and $3.8 billion in business and individual assets.
"Corbett is a fine Hawaiian leader, and I think he will do a good job as a trustee," said Jan Dill, a 1950 Kamehameha Schools graduate and a board member of Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi, an organization made up of Kamehameha Schools parents and graduates.
Kalama, whose appointment takes effect April 1, will serve the remainder of Lau's five-year term, which expires on June 30, 2008. Kalama can be reappointed for a maximum of two five-year terms.
He joins trustees Diane Plotts, Robert Kihune, Nainoa Thompson and J. Douglas Ing. Ing was reappointed Friday to a five-year term.
Trustees each receive about $100,000 in annual compensation; the board's chairman earns about $110,000....
All three finalists are of Hawaiian ancestry.
"You had three good candidates," said Oswald Stender, Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee and former Kamehameha Schools trustee. "But having someone with a financial background to replace Connie is great. ... He's a very good person with very strong Hawaiian values."...
Kalama joins a trust that is in the middle of a 15-year strategic plan to broaden its educational reach. His appointment also comes as the school has faced several legal challenges to its Hawaiian-preference admissions policy.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the policy last year but the case could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kalama has been a First Hawaiian employee since 1982. He is a trustee of the University of Hawai'i Foundation and has served as trustee for the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center.
Prior to joining First Hawaiian, Kalama worked as a teacher at Kailua High School. Kalama's wife is a schoolteacher, and three of his four children graduated from the Kamehameha Schools.
"Corbett is an exceptional banker and a man of integrity," said First Hawaiian President and Chief Executive Officer Don Horner. "His personal background, experience, and heart are well suited for the mission of Kamehameha Schools."
Paulette Moore, a 1952 Kamehameha Schools graduate, said Kalama impressed alumni and members of the school's 'ohana during a candidates forum last November.
During his presentation, Kalama recited his genealogy in the Hawaiian language, which convinced many of the kupuna in the audience that he was the right person, Moore said.
"We felt we didn't need another lawyer. We needed someone with a different point of view," said Moore. "Because he came from such a large family that struggled, he understands how it is that Hawaiians live on the beach."
Na Pua's Dill said members of his organization, while pleased with Kalama's appointment, were critical of the way in which the court went about the selection. Members of the Kamehameha Schools 'ohana had too little input in the way the selection was made, he said.
"The composition of the selection process guarantees the continuation of status quo," Dill said.
April 16, 2006
Trust puts its trust in Crabbe
Queen Liliuokalani Trust's new VP says
she has been given a "great opportunity"
Star-Bulletin staff
LeeAnn Crabbe is vice president of Queen Liliuokalani Trust. Formerly chief financial officer for the trust, she will oversee development on the trust's land, which is primarily on the Big Island. The $400 million trust served 6,000 Hawaiian children directly and 29,000 indirectly through community programs in 2004.
Background: Crabbe joined the trust amid a major reorganization in 2002 after working for about 15 years at the Kamehameha Schools, where she was director for budget and financial planning. Before joining the trust, Crabbe had no direct background in development, though she had done financing work for Kamehameha Investment Corp.
Question: Why did you move from chief of finance to head of development?
Answer: I've been actually presented a really great opportunity by the leadership here at the trust, recognizing that I've been doing a large portion of it already. We're very thinly staffed here at the trust. We have six employees at the endowment side and most of our work is outsourced.
The leadership has given me an opportunity to stretch my wings, recognizing not just my commitment to the trust but the fact that I know the importance of the trust to the Hawaiian people. It's a tremendous responsibility.
Q: How big are the trust's assets?
A: Approximately $400 million. We consider ourselves sort of a startup. In 2002, First Hawaiian Bank stepped down as co-trustee and asset manager. We are now totally self-governed and we had some reorganizing to do. We did have to lay off 25 percent of our staff at that time. Our rebound has been stronger than anticipated. We took our medicine and we have gotten better quicker than we thought we would. We're now at about 150 employees.
Q: What development are you considering for Keahuolu and Honohina on the Big Island?
A: Honohina, right now, none. We have 2,400 acres there. Our main focus now is Keahuolu, which is next to Kailua-Kona. We are in the process of master planning our 3,500 acres. ... Really, for us, we're a small trust. Keahuolu is really our future in terms of growing our trust, and the reason for this is the needs of native Hawaiian children are growing and that's the reason we exist.
We have some 16 acres in Waikiki that provide over 75 percent of our rental income.
Q: What kind of development are you looking at? Residential? Commercial? Hotel?
A: All of the above are potential uses, but no specific uses have been identified at this point.
Q: Will you need to seek land-use and zoning approvals?
A: We have some state land-use entitlements in place and county zoning as well but, yes, we will need to go back in.
Q: Is any development already taking place?
A: We've put in a new road, a small road, and that opened up 11 lots for leasing. We're holding back the final two for potential commercial development. We are in discussions with a party.
http://starbulletin.com/2006/04/16/business/story03.html
October 6, 2005
Girl Scouts name women of distinction
The Girl Scout Council of Hawaii has named Claire Asam, Dee Jay Mailer and Colleen Wong Women of Distinction for 2005. They will be honored at a dinner on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom.
Asam is president and executive director of Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center, a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of orphaned and half-orphaned children with preference given to children of Hawaiian ancestry.
Mailer is CEO of Kamehameha Schools, a statewide educational system founded and endowed by the legacy of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. More than 6,200 students of Hawaiian ancestry or enrolled in kindergarten-12th grade campuses on three islands and at more than 30 preschool sites statewide.
Wong also is at Kamehameha Schools where she is vice president for legal affairs.
"This year's honorees have been given the awesome responsibility of carrying on the visions of two extraordinary women, Queen Liliuokalani and Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop," said Gail Mukaihata Hannemann [wife of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman], Girl Scout Council CEO. "The modern day entities that continue their legacies ... both have historical ties to the Girl Scouts in Hawaii.
"It is our privilege to recognize these three exceptional leaders who continue to make significant contributions to not only their organizations but also our state. They truly are great role models for all girls everywhere."
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September 1, 2004
A Catbird News Flash ...
A reliable source has informed me that former General Counsel for Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Nathan Aipa, Esq., has been named General Counsel for The Queen Liluokalani Trust!
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November, 2001
Hawaii’s Wealthiest Landowners
Queen Liliuokalani Trust
By Jacy L. Youn, Hawaii Business Magazine
The trustees for the Queen Liliuokalani Trust say their land strategy is quite simple: Buy nothing, sell nothing. And so far the formula’s worked just fine. Frank Jahrling, vice president of First Hawaiian Bank’s trusts and investments division, says the trust had a value of about $400,000 in 1935 and has since skyrocketed to its current value of roughly $300 million.
“The only properties that we have are properties that were owned by the queen in 1917,” he says. “That’s how well Hawaii’s done since 1935.
Jahrling represents First Hawaiian Bank (a corporate trustee since 1937) and handles assets and investments, while trustees David Peters and Thomas Kaulukukui Jr. focus on the kingpin of the trust, the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center.
Established in 1917, the Children’s Center is dedicated to providing support and services to orphan and destitute children of Hawaiian ancestry.
The perpetual status of the trust means its trustees are looking at long-term investment in the Islands. Although there are no intentions right now to purchase any new property, the trust is continuing to develop portions of its 6,294 acres on the Big Island. Most recently, a parcel in Kona was rezoned from limited industrial to mixed industrial and commercial use, reflecting the trusts’ openness towards a diversified portfolio.
The trust may benefit greatly from the decision to diversify, following a drastic decrease in visitor arrivals to the Island after September’s terrorist attacks on the United States.
“A lot of the money that the trust earns is from percentage rents from the hotels that are on our land in Waikiki,” says Jahrling. “So when there is a downturn in tourism we are greatly affected.”...
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IMPORTANT UPDATE: www.hawaiibusiness.com/1105/1105_top20_imua.aspx
January 17, 2004
Trustee raises opposed
The state argues that a proposal to double the
Kamehameha board’s pay is flawed
By Rick Daysog
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
A proposal to nearly double the pay of Kamehameha Schools’ trustees relies on “flawed analysis” and could “again endanger the trust’s tax-exempt status,” the state attorney general’s office said.
In documents filed in state Probate Court yesterday, Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones argued that a court-appointed committee’s recommendation to increase trustees’ annual pay would make Kamehameha’s board among the highest paid in the nation for public charities....
The compensation committee, whose members include Kamehameha graduate Michael Rawlins and local attorneys Allen Hoe and David Fairbanks, relied in large part on a report by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a mainland executive pay consultant hired by the committee for $50,000, Jones said....
According to Mercer, Kamehameha Schools trustees’ pay compares with that paid to board members and directors of native Hawaiian trusts and local nonprofit organizations. The report stated that the Liliuokalani Trust, which provided services for native Hawaiian orphans and destitute children, paid its trustees more than $195,000 in 2001 and that the Queen’s Medical Center paid its board member about $100,000 that same year.
Jones said “it is illogical” to raise trustees’ pay based on last year’s experience. He noted that the board recently named former health-care executive and 1970 Kamehameha Schools graduate Dee Jay Mailer to succeed McCubbin as chief executive.
He added that Mercer erred in reporting pay at Queen’s and Liliuokalani. The Queen’s Medical Center and its nonprofit parent Queen’s Hospital do not pay board members, while the Liliuokalani Trust has sharply reduced the compensation paid to its trustees since 2001 to about $93,800 this year, he said.
Retired Circuit Judge Patrick Yim, a trustee of the Liliuokalani Trust, said the trust’s board changed its pay structure several years ago from a commission-based system to a flat salary at the recommendation of its outside consultants.
Yim added that the $195,000 pay figure for 2001 was skewed because some of that included trustees’ pay authorized for the year 2000, which was not paid until 2001....
For more, GO TO > > > Dirty Money, Dirty Politics & Bishop Estate-Part IV
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December 19, 2002
Trust for orphans will cut 45 jobs
By Kevin Dayton, Honolulu Advertiser
The Queen Lili'uokalani Trust that serves orphans and poor children will cut about 45 jobs and reduce services next year as it attempts to cope with investment losses and increasing costs.
Trust officials said the move is necessary after suffering about $3 million in investment losses over the past three years as the stock market declined. To do that, the trust hopes to transfer some services to other providers such as Kamehameha Schools, and will cut about one-fourth of its 182 positions statewide.
Trust executives said they also must find money to develop real-estate holdings in Kona, which they said offer the best long-term opportunity for the $360 million, land-based trust to increase its income.
"While it's painful for us to make these cuts, we're determined and bright about our future," said trust Chairman Thomas Kaulukukui Jr. after meeting yesterday with staff at the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center in Hilo. "This will ensure the perpetuity of the trust."
Operations and the trust's children's centers this year cost $18.8 million, and expenses need to be cut by $3.6 million next year, said fiscal officer LeeAnn Crabbe.
Officials have been holding a series of meetings with staff on O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands, and will not announce which facilities will close until staff members have been notified.
Trust Administrator Robert Ozaki said all but one of the major trust operations will remain open, but some smaller satellite facilities may shut down. He declined to name the larger facility that may close, saying only that it would continue operations as a smaller unit.
The major Queen Lili'uokalani facilities on O'ahu are in Kane'ohe, Hau'ula, Waimanalo, 'Ewa, Wai'anae and Honolulu, and on the Neighbor Islands in Hilo, Kona, Lihu'e, Kahului and Moloka'i.
Ozaki said the trust is offering an early retirement program to ease the effects of the job cuts, and that some employees have offered to leave voluntarily.
Claire Asam, executive director of the Lili'uokalani Children's Center operated by the trust, said the center will probably be able to reach only about 7,000 youngsters next year, down from about 9,000 in 2001. She said the cutbacks will cause the center to focus more closely on the trust's primary mission of helping poor and orphaned children, with preference given to Hawaiians.
The center will continue individual counseling and support for families and "grief groups" to help children who have lost a parent, she said. The center also will continue support services for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren because the parents have died or are serving prison time or have other problems, she said.
However, the center plans to shift other cultural, leadership, health and educational services to organizations such as Kamehameha Schools, Asam said.
Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of the Hawaiian Islands, created the trust in her will to benefit orphans and "destitute" children. She died in 1917.
The trust's primary asset is land, including 6,294 acres on the Big Island, with most of that property in the Kona area. It also owns valuable parcels in Waikiki, including the land under the Marriott Waikiki Beach, the Pacific Beach and Radisson Prince Kuhio hotels.
Ozaki said the trust needs to spend money to prepare for development of some of its properties in Kona. Those projects include a road and other improvements for 100 acres at the Makalapua Business Center, and water for 315 acres mauka of the Makalapua shopping center.
The trust is planning a $2 million road at the business center next year, and "we've got to spend money there to make money," Ozaki said. "That's our only source of significant increases" in revenue.
Despite the problems, Ozaki said the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust is a stable trust with quality assets.
"The future is bright here," he said. "We need to take some painful steps in the short term to get more balance in terms of revenues and the programs they support."
January 7, 2003
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
45 layoffs spark round of questions
I read the sad news concerning the termination of 45 staff positions from the Queen Lili`uokalani Trust because of financial losses in assets. But I have a few questions that need to be resolved.
How come the trustees recently voted themselves a substantial pay raise?
How come the trustees recently gave the director a substantial pay raise?
How come the trustees are building themselves a multimillion-dollar corporate office?
Why did the head trustee fail to diversify the portfolio and decide to put all of the investments into high-risk technology stocks, when the signs in the market for the last five years indicated major problems in the high-technology field, led by the failure of all those start-up dot coms and the excess capacity in fiber optics?
It was all there, if they took the time to read Morningstar and other financial news. Good returns on investments are not driven by wishful thinking.
Finally, when did the maka`ainana ever chant an ali`i genealogy – in public?
January 20, 2003
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
West Hawaii Today
Editor:
I read the online news about Queen Liliuokalani Trust cutting programs by $3.6 million, laying off 49 staff people, closing half of its 12 offices and reducing programs for poor and orphaned children (almost 90 percent of 9,000 children receiving services from the Queen Liliuokalani Trust are Native Hawaiians) all because the trustees gambled on tech stocks, didn’t diversify and lost big time.
Worse yet, they took a big raise (27 percent) while the trust was losing money.
I just can’t believe such an idiotic thing is happening.
As a child, I lost both of my parents and was placed in a situation where I could have been an orphan with no place to go. Fortunately, someone took me in, adopted me, and became my dear mother. Queen Liliuokalani set up her trust with the intent that children in these kinds of situations should be well taken care of.
What would these three gentlemen feel if one of their children were being placed in the same situation as the other thousands of children who depend on the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center?
I live in Japan, but I wish I could do something to help save the thousands of innocent children from being the victims of mismanagement by three trustees and their unacceptable misconduct who don’t seem to have any emotions or concerns other than their own damn wealth.
If I were back in Hawaii, I’d be standing outside asking people for signatures to help stop this from going on.
Those trustees should be removed.
Michael Chikara Forry
Tokyo, Japan
July 3, 2004
LILIUOKALANI TRUST WEIGHS KONA DEVELOPMENT
By Karin Stanton, Associated Press
KAILUA-KONA - Preserving local culture and open space and providing affordable housing should be priorities for Queen Liliuokalani Trust land, residents say.
The trust, which underwent a management change last year, is exploring ways to capitalize on 3,500 acres in Kona.
The Keahuolu ahupuaa, or ancient land division, is the only source for future income for the trust that provides services for orphaned and destitute Hawaiian children, said Robert Ozaki, president and chief operating officer.
After a series of meetings in West Hawaii, board of trustees Chairman Thomas Kaulukukui Jr. and trustees David Peters and Patrick Yim now will develop general land use directions.
A preliminary plan likely will be complete by fall, Ozaki said....
He and the trustees met Thursday in Kailua-Kona with 60 residents, seeking input and hearing concerns....
At every meeting, residents stressed any development should allow them the live, work, plan, learn and shop within the community, Ozaki said.
Trustees are devoted to caring for and respecting the land, collaborating with stakeholders and creating an income stream....
Residents have indicated they favor health care facilities, a performing arts and cultural center, and elderly and affordable housing.
They would like to see land at the higher elevations remain agricultural, the shoreline preserved and parks created.
Residents voiced concerns about existing traffic congestion, but opposed building roads across trust land.
Native Hawaiians urged that burials, trails and stone walls be preserved in place on the queen’s land.
Constructing condominiums and high-end homes on the land is “useless to us,” Jimmy Medeiros said. “They are just more congestion and troubles for us.”
Others called for improving or repositioning the industrial area, and said that building heights should be restricted and utility lines should be underground....
Josephine Keliipio, however, said that’s not good enough.
“It already looks like Southern California,” she said. “Be Kona, not southern California.”...
For more, GO TO > > > Paradise Paved; The Puna Connection
November 1, 2002
The Royal Capes
By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch, Hawaii Business
We live in absolutely historic and exciting times, according to Thomas Kaulukukui Jr., the chairman of the board for the Queen Liliuokalani Trust (QLT).
He’s referring in part to the recent formalization of an association of the Alii Trusts (Kamehameha Schools, Queen’s Health Systems, QLT and the Lunalilo Trust) called Na Ahu`ula, or The Royal Capes....
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