The state would allocate $15 million a year to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and pay a one-time sum of $17.5 million, under a partial settlement of the issue of revenues from ceded lands.

The agreement between OHA and the Lingle administration was announced yesterday. It still must be approved by the OHA board of trustees, which is expected to vote on it Thursday, and the Legislature.

Ceded lands are 1.4 million acres of former crown and government lands — once part of the Hawaiian kingdom — held in trust by the state. OHA is due a share of the revenues derived from those lands under the Hawai'i Constitution.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs would get $15.1 million a year in ceded-lands revenues and $17.5 million in back payments under a tentative settlement announced yesterday, which some say falls well short of what the agency should be entitled to under a 1980 state law.

"It appears that the trustees have settled for crumbs at the table of the king," said state Sen. Clayton Hee, a former OHA trustee and chairman. "This amount represents an entitlement lower than what the legislation called for, particularly in times when the economy is robust. From a dollars perspective, this is not a good settlement from the Hawaiian point of view."
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Last night, OHA trustee Rowena Akana said the full board was not consulted before the deal was made public -- even though OHA sent out a news release with the Governor's Office on the settlement yesterday afternoon.

In the release, Apoliona said she had the "concurrence" of the board. The statement could not be clarified last night.

"The board of trustees was not privy to this deal," Akana said. "It is just egregious. It appears to be a done deal." Other trustees could not be reached by press time.