If you have never voted in the election of Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees, Sam King is the reason to do so now.
Whether you are Hawaiian by blood or Hawaiian at heart, your vote for Sam will help determine whether tens of thousands of Hawaii’s residents can obtain housing, jobs, education and health care.
For years, institutions designed to serve the Hawaiians have been plagued by fraud, waste or abuse.ÌýThis has been the real bottleneck in getting resources to the people who need them. Sam W. King II is a bold reformer willing to push for the measures necessary to fix OHA.
In contrast to his opponents, Sam is the only candidate for the OHA Oahu trustee seat courageous enough to call for the removal of the current OHA CEOÌýand resignation of trustees who have abused their spending privileges.ÌýAnd Sam is demanding that OHA trustees quit stalling and make good on their promise to provide the public with an independent audit of OHA for fraud, waste and abuse.Ìý
Another reason all people of Hawaii should consider Sam King is that he will fight hard to prevent OHA from dividing our society along the lines of race. Sam is proud to be Hawaiian and descended from a lineage that goes back to the early days of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
But Sam is also proud to be an American who sees Hawaii’s greatness as a true melting pot of all races. Sam KingÌýrepresents what most Hawaiians and residents want, which is for OHA to get out of the business of creating a race-based nation and, instead, use its resources to provide jobs, housing, education and health care.
The OHA election is too important for anyone to leave his or her ballotÌýblank. In Sam King we have a great opportunity to serve the needs of the Hawaiian people while preserving the Aloha Spirit for all in the 50th state.Ìý Sam and I agree that it’s time to stop dividing Hawaii’s people and start uniting!
Editor’s note:ÌýWhile the author is a trustee-at-large in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, he writes in his capacity as a private citizen.
Thoughts on this or any other story? Write a Letter to the Editor. Send to news@civilbeat.org and put Letter in the subject line. 200 words max. You need to use your name and city and include a contact phone for verification purposes. And you can still comment on stories on.
GET IN-DEPTH
REPORTING ON HAWAII’S BIGGEST ISSUES
Every campaign season we get tons of emails and commentary from people supporting or opposing particular candidates. Campaign Corner is a forum for healthy — and civil — discussion of candidates and their issues. Endorsements and criticisms are part of a voter’s decision-making process. Here are the ground rules: The column must be written by an identifiable person and accompanied by a current head shot and brief bio. The commentary must be original and not published elsewhere. No campaign email blasts. No letter-writing campaigns. Send columns and questions to news@civilbeat.org.ÌýThe opinions and information expressed in Campaign Corner are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.
Support Independent, Unbiased News
Civil Beat is a nonprofit, reader-supported newsroom based in ±á²¹·É²¹¾±Ê»¾±. When you give, your donation is combined with gifts from thousands of your fellow readers, and together you help power the strongest team of investigative journalists in the state.
Kelii Akina was elected in 2016 to a four-year term as trustee-at-large of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He is also president andCEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, an independent public policy think tank, committed to bettering Hawaii’s economy and government.