OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS SPENDS HAWAIIAN BENEFICIARY MONEY ON LAVISH PARTIES FOR WASHINGTON LOBBYISTS
OHA Spends Almost $40,000 On Author Of Akaka Bill
Zell & Cox, the other lobbying firm hired by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to assist on the Akaka bill, was hired last year under a two-year contract for $150,000 a year.
Zell & Cox have no other clients except OHA.
A partner in the firm is attorney Patricia Zell, a former longtime staffer for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and chief of staff for the committee when it was chaired by Hawai`i Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.
It was Pat Zell who actually wrote the Akaka bill when she worked for Inouye.
Zell retired from federal employment at the end of 2004 and went into business with her husband, Michael Cox, also a lawyer and a longtime Washington lobbyist.
The partnership registered with the Senate as an OHA lobbyist in June 2005 and since then has registered no other clients, according to Senate records.
OHA has had a close working relationship with Zell for years.
In August 2004, OHA spent $37,000 of Hawaiian beneficiary money on a retirement party that honored Zell for "her steadfast support and work in advancing the well-being of Native Hawaiians" during 23 years of service at the Indian Affairs Committee.
The retirement bash was held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and included presentation of some $1,000 in gifts, lei and commemorative photographs to Zell, records show.
Tickets that OHA sold for the event brought in only $9,000.
The party should have been much smaller in scale, because of course, most Hawaiians are still waiting for their "well-being" to show up.
