Hawaii voters in the general election next week will be electing trustees to run the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The bulk of the agency’s money comes from revenues from ceded lands. It also gets funding from the state’s general fund. It gets other funding from the federal government. But it told Civil Beat recently in response to a public records request that it wouldn’t be complying because it’s not a public agency.

Up for grabs are three at-large seats and an Oahu seat on OHA’s nine-member board. The office, created in 1978, is charged with administering 1.8 million acres of ceded land held in trust for the benefit of Native Hawaiians.

While OHA describes itself as an independent state agency, part of its budget comes from the state’s general fund, which the public fills when it pays a dozen different taxes.

By state law, 20 percent of all “income and proceeds” derived from the public land trust are to be paid annually to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. It received about $39 million in 2009, according to its annual report. It got another $3.2 million from the state’s general fund that year and $1.1 million in federal grants.

Yet OHA has stalled Civil Beat’s public records request for the names, salaries and positions of all OHA employees. At Civil Beat, providing data on how government works and how it spends taxpayer funds is central to our commitment to truth and transparency. (You can also read articles about state salaries, University of Hawaii salaries, Department of Education salaries, pay at the state’s public hospital system, and pay at the Legislature. Today we’re adding the judiciary to the list of branches of government whose salaries we’re sharing.

On Sept. 3, Civil Beat requested the names, salaries and job titles of all OHA employees.

In response to Civil Beat, OHA initially said it would fulfill the request at charge of $120 for 12 hours of work.

Here’s OHA’s Sept. 7 letter to Civil Beat:

After arranging for payment and delivery, things seemed set. But we got an e-mail on Sept. 29 letting us know that OHA had asked the state Office of Information Practices for an opinion on releasing the information to Civil Beat.

The four-page letter by OHA’s corporate counsel, Ernest Kimoto, questions whether OHA employees are in fact “public employees if their salaries are totally funded by ‘non-public’ trust funds.”

Kimoto says OHA has 145 employees. He says 62 of them are paid for in part by money from the state’s general fund, but that the remaining 86 positions are “funded exclusively” by the OHA trust, “which is under the purview of and solely managed by the OHA Board of Trustees.”

OHA also says it’s concerned about privacy issues: “While OHA shares in the belief that the public has a right to know how its tax dollars are being spent, we are also mindful of our duty as fiduciaries to comply with all laws, which includes respecting our employees’ privacy interests.”

Here’s Kimoto’s letter to OIP:

In stating OHA’s purpose, the law describes OHA as “the principal public agency in this state responsible for the performance, development, and coordination of programs and activities relating to Native Hawaiians and Hawaiians.”

The law also addresses OHA employees and benefits, saying OHA board members, its administrator and employees “shall be included in any benefit program generally applicable to officers and employees of the state.”

We checked in with the Office of Information Practices last week to see where things stand. Director Cathy Takase said she hasn’t gotten to it — they’re “backed up” — and wouldn’t give a timeframe on when she might issue an opinion.

We’ll keep you posted.