Haunani Pacheco, 62, has never run for elective office before.

But when the Kauai seat for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs opened this year with the retirement of longtime trustee Donald Cataluna, Pacheco decided to make a bid.

“It is a time in my life where I am able to give some time to my community — I do community service anyway — but I want to give more to our Native Hawaiian community,” said Pacheco, owner of Hawaiian Paradise Flowers, a 5-acre farm near Princeville.

Pacheco, who is Hawaiian, is just one of 11 candidates seeking Cataluna’s seat. It’s a huge turnout for a seat that has gone largely unchallenged for years.

She supports OHA’s mission to help improve the lives of Hawaiians through education, environmental and cultural programs, and to protect Hawaiian assets. Her friends encouraged her to run for a position on the board of the quasi-state agency, which is funded through ceded-land revenue, the Hawaii Legislature and investments.

But there is another reason for running, too.

“Kauai has been not well represented in the past few years with the the illness of Donald Cataluna, so they have been kind of absent from the process,” Pacheco explained. “I think that is why you see so many people stepping forward. We really haven’t had a voice, and there are so many issues coming up that we want to be a part of.”

Those issues include farming taro, fishing and gathering rights.

Another candidate, Kanani Kagawa Fu, does not believe that OHA has underserved Kauai. For example, she points to recent outreach and partnering efforts by OHA to invest $500,000 in the Makaweli Poi Mill.

But Kagawa Fu, 31, who worked for OHA for several years on Kauai, wants strong representation for her home island on the OHA board. She’d like to direct more grant money into Garden Isle hands, and to make sure her constituents are more aware of OHA and its programs.

“I think OHA is at a pivotal point in its history,” she said. “We just had the (Kakaako) land settlement. We have made so much progress. People are wanting to be actively involved to make critical changes for the betterment of Native Hawaiians, and if ever there was a time for progressive and positive action, the time is now.”

Cataluna’s Illness

OHA Chair Colette Machado told Civil Beat that the reason there is so much interest in the Kauai seat has a lot to do with the fact that Cataluna is so well known on Kauai.

Cataluna, who was appointed to the board in 2000 and elected outright that year, and again in 2004 and 2008, is the father of Lee Cataluna, the popular author and columnist.

Machado notes that Cataluna faced no opposition in 2004 and 2008. It’s news that he is not running again, and word got around.

But she also acknowledges that Cataluna has been slowed by illness.

Asked about OHA possibly neglecting Kauai, Machado said, “If there is an area of neglect, it is is accessibility to the elected individual. But he is the one responsible for the Makaweli Poi Mill to take action. I can tell you that, by his old-school training, he has been on the telephone every afternoon with his staff, and he has been very vocal about calling the (OHA) executive director and trustees to voice certain concers that he may have that we may not be agreeable too.”

Cataluna has also participated in OHA board meetings on Oahu via video-conferencing, and sent faxes. And OHA has two staff on Kauai that are continuing its work, including community resource coordinator Kaliko Santos, one of the 11 candidates in the race.

Reach by telephone Monday, Cataluna, 76, told Civil Beat that he is proud of the work he has done for OHA and Kauai. But, after 13 years on the job, he felt it was time to step down.

“I just decided that was enough already,” he said. “I feel trustees should not go for more than two four-year terms.”

Asked about his health, Cataluna said “I feel OK.” He exercises regularly with two physical therapists and an occupational therapist.

But, because of hip surgery a few years back, Cataluna says he has difficulty with balance and walking.

Machado acknowledged that Cataluna’s absence from meetings has been noticeable.

At a recent OHA community meeting on Kauai, according to Machado, a woman rose and said: “Trustee Cataluna has not done anything.”

Machado defended Cataluna, saying, “That might be the perception of the beneficiaries because they feel he is ill, but in the background he has been very vocal. Whether he can affect the decision making and the policy, well, part of that decisison making (means) you have to be present.”

The woman who spoke was Sharon Pomeroy, said Machado. Pomeroy, who is also running for Cataluna’s seat, did not return Civi Beat’s call for comment.

Pomeroy aside, Machado suggests that the fact that former and current OHA staff are running to be trustee is evidence that the agency is valued in the Kauai community. The problem may be that not enough people on Kauai are aware of OHA’s contributions.

According to a list provided by her staff, they include hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money, mostly for schools; $30,000 for homeless services; $25,000 for domestic violence intervention program; and advocating for protection of the Hanapepe Salt Pans that were threatened by construction pollution.

OHA’s eight trustees each earn an annual salary of $55,440. The chair makes $63,204.

Cataluna is supporting Kagawa Fu in the race to replace him.

Here’s the full list of all Hawaii candidates for office in 2012, which includes the 11 candidates running for the Kauai OHA seat.

Unfinished Business

The Kauai seat is not the only competitive race for OHA trustee, which are nonpartisan contests and will be featured on the general election ballot only.

Five people are challenging Haunani Apoliona for her at-large seat. Apoliona is a former OHA chair who was elected to the board in 1996

Her opponents include Molokai activist Walter Ritte, a former trustee, and football coach Cal Lee, formerly with St. Louis School and the University of Hawaii.

Ritte told The Molokai Dispatch that he is running to help protect Hawaii’s fragile environment. He was a member of the original “Kahoolawe Nine” that helped halt military bombing on that island, as well as a member of the 1978 Constitutional Convention that formed OHA.

“I am concerned for the life of our islands. Our economy is at war with our natural resources,” Ritte told the paper.

Robert Lindsey Jr., who has been an OHA trustee since 2007, faces two opponents for the Big Island seat.

Applications for the Maui seat, meantime, will be accepted in September, and Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey, who was appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie earlier this year to fill a vacancy, is said to be weighing a run — something she will have to clear with the governor, who selected her with the understanding that she would not seek election.

That’s because OHA trustees could not agree on who should serve as Maui trustee, sending the controversial decision to the fifth floor at the state Capitol.

Machado, who is unopposed for re-election, told Civil Beat that Ritte called to let her know he would not challenge her, and that he supports her leadership.

“I am 62, Walter is 67,” Machado said. “He feels some of the legacy is unresolved, and he wants to bring closure to certain things that he has had a direct hand in for over 40 years. He’s still got a lot of energy and juice in him. It’s not like he would have to start from ground zero.”

Machado, who has been elected four times to OHA but served as chair for only the past 18 months, has some unfinished business of her own to attend to.

They include completing a registry of Hawaiian names, securing federal recognition for a Native Hawaiian governing entity and developing the 25 parcels of Kakaako Makai land given to OHA by the state to settle past-due ceded-land payments.

“Sixteen years came and went by very fast,” she said.