Investigative Reports Expose Deep Dysfunction At Office Of Hawaiian Affairs

A pair of investigative reports released by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs on Monday into OHA’s two leaders, Board Chair Kai Kahele and former CEO Stacy Ferreira, reveals dysfunction in an organization that has struggled to achieve its mission due in part to differing views those two leaders had of their own roles and of each other

One of the reports regarding Ferreira also found a potential conflict of interest in her failure to disclose a romantic relationship with the founder of a nonprofit that could have been a likely candidate for grant funding during last year’s budget cycle. It also found that she obstructed passage of the office’s budget in 2025, although that issue has also figured heavily in a lawsuit she filed against the office last year alleging that Kahele hijacked the process and put undue pressure on staff.

While Kahele may have a heavy hand — comments on his leadership style in one report described him as militant and dictatorial — an investigation prompted by a complaint from Ferreira did not substantiate claims that he created a hostile or toxic work environment and overstepped his duties as chairman.

In yet another example of dysfunction among OHA trustees this year, the board failed to come to an agreement Monday on who should lead the office as its next CEO. That decision is being pushed forward until at least early December.

The findings of the two reports — both completed by outside contractors — address some of the major questions that have arisen since Ferreira sued OHA and the trustees in late 2025. Civil Beat had requested those reports in June, but the office declined to make them public, citing attorney-client privilege.

The Board of Trustees voted 5-to-4 Monday, a common split on this deeply divided board, to waive that privilege and post redacted copies of the reports online.

“For too long, speculation and uncertainty surrounding these matters has consumed the attention and resources that should be used advancing OHA's mission,” Kahele said at a press conference.

Ferreira's lawyers did not return messages seeking comment. They previously said that they had repeatedly asked for the report and were turned down. In a letter to OHA on Friday, they had asked to be given the documents by Nov. 12 — after which they said the board could decide whether to release the report.

Her lawyers also wrote that the refusal to provide Ferreira with those records but willingness to disclose them publicly “is another example of OHA’s retaliation against Ms. Ferreira.”

Unclear Roles Led To Conflict

In June 2025, Ferreira wrote a formal grievance to the Board of Trustees alleging that Kahele had abused his authority and breached his duties as a trustee. Her claims centered around pressure from Kahele to certify a proposed budget that he wrote.

She claimed that Kahele had overstepped his authority and micromanaged staff by giving them direct assignments. In one example, Ferreira said Kahele sent an email at 2:59 a.m. with a directive to complete tasks related to the budget by 3 p.m. the same day.

Ferreira claimed that staff, who had to juggle those last-minute assignments with their regular work, were burned out.

But the newly released investigation by Cathy Chin found “insufficient facts” to demonstrate that Kahele created a toxic or hostile work environment, or abused his authority.

In a conversation about the budget, Chin found that Kahele told Ferreira something to the effect of, “Well if you don’t like it, you can leave.” But in the investigator's eyes, that did not rise to the level of a toxic work environment.

The report also says that Kahele did not abuse his authority by communicating directly with staff because OHA has no rule prohibiting that.

While Chin could not substantiate the allegations against Kahele, she did write that there were systemic issues preventing OHA staff and the Board of Trustees from working together — namely a lack of clearly delineated roles and responsibilities between the chair of the board and the CEO, unclear budget policies, misalignment between the administration and the board, and conflicting leadership styles.

Chin recommended the trustees and CEO review their roles, get on the same page about their strategic plan and find ways to communicate more often.

The investigation did not appear to address one piece of Ferreira’s complaint: that Kahele leaked budget information to a potential grant recipient to solicit positive testimony on his proposed budget.

Conflicts of Interest

Another likely grant recipient weighed heavily in the investigation into Ferreira performed by Susan Ichinose.

She was placed on leave on Sept. 23, 2025, and claims that was in retaliation for reporting Kahele to the state Attorney General’s Office. The board did, in fact, suspend her for soliciting an investigation from the AG’s Office without the consent of the board.

The report addresses one mystery, which was how Kahele became aware of Ferreira's complaint to the AG. It indicates he told Ichinose that he learned about Ferreira's complaint to the AG's office from Gov. Josh Green's communications director.

"The Attorney General found it problematic that the CEO would solicit an investigation of OHA; so much so that she contacted the Governor's Office and the Governor's Office contacted me," Kahele is quoted as saying.

But the investigation also found potential conflicts of interest with two nonprofits that could have received grant funds during the 2025 budget process.

During her interview with Ichinose, Ferreira said that she had had a romantic relationship with the founder of the nonprofit Kinai ‘Eha sometime in 2020. ‘Kinai Eha is affiliated with a restorative justice program that was set to receive $425,000 from the office under a draft budget last year. Kahele’s draft of the budget cut some of that funding.

The report additionally found that Ferreira failed to disclose a friendship with Denise Yamaguchi, the wife of celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi, whom Ferreira met while working for Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz. Proposed funding for the Culinary Institute of the Pacific also amounted to a conflict, according to the report.

The investigation also found that Ferreira unilaterally made salary changes and approved a $160,000 contract amendment without board approval.

Board Punts Again On CEO 

Selection of the next chief executive of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is up in the air after Kahele once again punted selection of the organization's leader until after Tuesday's election.

“Our responsibility is not to rush this decision but to get it right,” Kahele said at a press conference Monday.

The process appeared complete two weeks ago when the board named Todd Apo the top candidate in a 5-to-4 vote before the following day pushing a final vote to Monday, the board’s last meeting of the current term and a day before the General Election.

Whether a CEO search process must begin again could depend on the outcome of the OHA races.

If a new trustee is elected, Kahele said there should be enough publicly available materials for them to research the finalists: Todd Apo, the top nominee; Kaulana Park and Summer Sylva, the interim CEO. But he left open the possibility that the process may need to restart.

The board will next meet in December when it reorganizes.

Divisions over how to handle a lawsuit from Ferreira arose during the selection of OHA’s next CEO, with a group of four dissenting trustees who had sided with Ferreira in her lawsuit voting down the nomination of Interim CEO Summer Sylva as the office’s permanent CEO.

Sylva had the support of Kahele, but her nomination failed to get the five votes necessary to advance after Trustee John Waihe‘e IV joined the dissenting trustees to support Apo.

Kahele said that his support of Sylva had no bearing on his decision to defer the CEO vote.

Apo is a former Honolulu city councilman who left office in 2010 to work for Disney. He has also held positions at Ward Village and most recently at a nonprofit restoring parts of North Kohala on the Big Island.

Trustees who supported his nomination cited his development experience; the office has struggled to develop lands it owns in Kaka‘ako, although it recently announced a partnership with the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to build a mixed-use development that includes housing units there.

But dozens of people who testified publicly at the OHA meeting two weeks ago either opposed Apo’s nomination or supported Sylva. Kaka‘ako had weighed too heavily on the trustees' decisionmaking, some testifiers said, at a time when OHA faces many other issues of water rights, cultural protection and military land leases.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated with the correct location of Todd Apo's nonprofit work on the Big Island, which is in North Kohala.