Kalaupapa residents want administrator fired

The Maui News
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

By VALERIE MONSON, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - Saying they just wanted to be treated like human beings, the patients of Kalaupapa called for the state Department of Health to fire the administrator of the Molokai settlement who was described in a state audit as "rude, abusive and lacking in compassion."

More than 15 residents - a sizable portion of the small community testified before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Health Committees at the Capitol Tuesday.

The session in Honolulu was shown live in Maui County on the Akaku: Maui Community Television cable TV network.

Lawmakers also asked DOH leaders to explain what they were doing to address the scathing audit issued last month by Auditor Marion Higa that criticized the department for poor management at Kalaupapa, authorizing excess payments to some staffers and failing to listen to the community.

Legislators heard from residents - most of them kupuna who were all banished to Kalaupapa as young people years ago when they were diagnosed with leprosy - as they ticked off a long list of grievances about the insensitivity of the administrator, Mike McCarten.

"The patients' feelings are this: We want him out," said Gloria Marks, chairwoman of the Kalaupapa Patients Advisory Council. "I hate to say it that way . . . but they want him out."

Following the two-hour session, Health Director Dr. Chiyome Leinaala Fukino said she would respond to the committees next week.

"I heard the testimony today and I am going to take it to heart as to how to resolve the situation," said Fukino, who admitted earlier in the meeting that she had good experiences with McCarten and had never considered removing him despite Higa's report and the outcry of the patients.

Last year, the Kalaupapa community was so frustrated at being unable to get McCarten or anyone else in DOH to hear their concerns that they decided to go to the Legislature and ask for an audit.

At that time, Marks acknowledged that residents were aware that their request could backfire, especially if the auditor didn't believe them, but they felt that it was their only recourse.

Roz Baker, chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, said lawmakers appreciated that so many residents traveled to Honolulu to speak in person.

"It's sad to think that it took this amount of time and this amount of heartache on the part of the patients to bring it to a head," Baker said after the meeting. "I feel much better about the fact that the highest levels of the department heard what the patients had to say. I think they heard it with a considerable amount of empathy and urgency."

And they heard it loud and clear. When Oahu Rep. Bud Stonebraker asked the residents if they wanted McCarten fired, they responded with a burst of applause and cheers.

DOH officials said they were trying to improve communication, with plans to begin monthly community meetings along with the National Park Service to share information and answer questions. Kuulei Bell, longtime postmistress of Kalaupapa, pointed out that it was a new group of patients, family members and friends known as Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa that got DOH and NPS to agree to monthly meetings.

Whether or not those gatherings will prove productive remains to be seen. Marks said that McCarten had "walked out of meetings" in the past. The auditor reported that he is accused of using profanity.

"We don't expect much from everybody, but we do want them to treat us with kindness and aloha," said Bell. "We live in a community where we have to work together."

Randall Watanuki, who worked for DOH in Kalaupapa for 22 years before recently getting hired by the Park Service there, echoed the concerns of the patients.

Two legislators whose districts include Kalaupapa, Rep. Sol Kaho'ohalahala and Sen. J. Kalani English, sat in on the joint committee session and noted concern over other needs in the community. Both lawmakers were part of a group that has been working with DOH to restore dialysis services to the community where a number of residents suffer from kidney failure, an issue also noted to the committees.

With support from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Na Pu'uwai Native Hawaiian Health Systems, Sen. Daniel Inouye, St. Francis Medical Center, the 'Ohana and other concerned citizens, dialysis services are expected to start up again soon, meaning that residents in need of that service who were forced to move to a Honolulu hospital can return home.

English said he wanted to make sure that the state carries out the law that ensures patients can live out their lives at Kalaupapa.

Kaho'ohalahala urged health leaders to act quickly to make things right in the community again.

"They don't have the luxury of time on their side," he said.

The youngest of the 38 patients is 61. (The medicine to cure leprosy was discovered in 1941, and everyone in the settlement has been cured.)

Paul Harada, sent to Kalaupapa in the 1940s, said the community needed an administrator trained more in social work and human skills than engineering.

Fukino and Dr. Linda Rosen, deputy health director, said McCarten would be undergoing "professional development" that would include training in communications and nursing home settings.

But Harada didn't think that would work. He said if "I was an S.O.B . . .you think you can make a new man out of me" with a few training sessions?

English also expressed concerns about the superintendent of the Park Service at Kalaupapa not communicating well with the patients.

Before adjourning the meeting, House Committee Chairman Dennis Arakaki obtained a guarantee from Fukino that no one who spoke out against McCarten or the department would suffer retribution.

Baker thanked Fukino for her willingness to listen, but most especially, thanked the Kalaupapa community.

"This wouldn't possible if it wasn't for the residents," said Baker.

Copyright © 2003 Ñ The Maui News

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