Beneficiary requests answers from vice chair; Pearl City commenter raises KIKU TV buyout and fishing concerns

Jermaine Myers, an OHA beneficiary and Nanakuli Hawaiian homestead lessee, used the public-comment period on June 24 to press trustees for transparency and accountability. Myers said he wrote Vice Chair Keone Souza after the May 28 board meeting seeking the factual and legal basis for statements made about alleged Sunshine Law violations, minority-trustee counsel and interim CEO Summer Silva, and that he had not received a reply.

Myers told the committee he had copied all trustees on his May 28 email and asked that Vice Chair Souza "provide a response to my May 28 request for clarification or explain why he believes no response is warranted." He added: "Transparency transparency should not end when the meeting adjourns." The remark was entered into the public record during the community concerns portion of the agenda.

A separate commenter identifying themselves from the Pearl City Office of Elections raised concerns about a reported $30 million proposed purchase of KIKU TV, questioning the buyer's EBITDA assumptions and liabilities. The commenter said: "If they're asking you for 30 mil for the buyout, ... the earnings be for interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization," and said the expected EBITDA would suggest an income range of about $3.7–5 million. The speaker also discussed fishing litigation and expressed concern about foreign longline fleets and their impact on local fisheries; those remarks referenced ongoing litigation noted earlier on the committee's agenda.

Neither Vice Chair Souza nor Chair Galutaria provided an on-the-record reply to Myers' public request during the June 24 meeting; Myers stated on the record that he had received no response. The committee moved on to adjournment after public testimony.