RICHARD S.H. Wong, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bishop Estate, figures that the unprecedented scrutiny and criticism of the estate amount to nothing more than name calling. According to the former state Senate president's essay in this section today, not only is the estate being attacked with "baseless and unprovable charges," the critics are adopting a "deplorable mainland tactic: If you throw enough mud, some of it is bound to stick." Wong sets up
strawmen to destroyWong is a good street fighter. When attacked he is smart enough to know that charges must be answered. He is tough enough to see a fight through to victory. And after winning, Wong isn't likely to allow the opposition to rebuild for another attack.
So when the hounds nipping at his heels are transformed into a raging grizzly bear ready to tear apart him and fellow trustees Gerard Jervis, Lokelani Lindsey and Henry Peters, Wong came back with his own attack.
In streamlined fashion, here is what Wong said in rebuttal to the five whose criticism launched an attorney general's investigation into Bishop Estate:
First, the will says the Supreme Court picks the trustees, so why are you griping when it does its job?
Second, Bishop Estate has a better credit rating than Hawaiian Electric and Bank of Hawaii, so who says we mismanaged funds?
Third, Bishop Estate is an important Hawaiian institution. Its problems shouldn't be handled by government because the estate will lose its right to self-determination.
If Wong considers mud-throwing to be a mainland sport, then he must have borrowed from a similarly imported playbook as he sets up a series of strawmen to ferociously destroy.
The argument with the Supreme Court selection process, according to the five critics -- who include a senior federal judge and a retired state appellate court judge -- is that the court mostly picks politicians or the friends of politicians.
This is a battle Wong cannot join.
He also equates credit-worthiness with effectively making money for Kamehameha Schools. Of course it's not the same.
If you owned more land than any other private interest in Hawaii, it would difficult for you not to be credit-worthy.
As for the sovereign nature of the Bishop Estate, championed by Wong, it would be handy for some if financial estates were still treated like a medieval duchy, but those good old days went out with the earl of Lancaster's opposition to Edward II in 1321.
Bishop Estate draws its power not from the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, but from the state of Hawaii's recognition of that will. Wong and his fellow trustees enjoy their incomes of more than $800,000 a year not because of any lingering generosity on the part of the princess but because state law provides for their compensation.
FINALLY, although Wong notes that the trust gets a yearly checkup by a court-appointed master, he doesn't say what the trust does when it doesn't like the master's report.
For instance in 1992 and 1993 James Duffy went over the books and said the trustees should adopt a formula ensuring that their commissions were reasonable and appropriate. So while the estate's lawyers said everything was OK, for the last three years each trustee has averaged $900,000 in compensation.
A yearly figure that comes out to $7.21 a minute per trustee is reason enough to reform the estate.
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