Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Data Infrastructure Papakilo Kipuka topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
OHA research office asks for money to rebuild Papakilo, Kipuka and Native Hawaiian Databook; trustees press for larger tech plan
Summary
Research and Evaluation presented a multi‑part budget to repair aging digital infrastructure, fill vacancies and expand data‑sovereignty work. Staff named specific contract and equipment asks and trustees urged a broader, better‑funded technology strategy.
Carla Hostetter, director of Research and Evaluation at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, outlined a budget request that would rebuild three core research systems — Papakilo (cultural and historical archives), Kipuka (GIS land‑history platform) and the Native Hawaiian Databook — while funding staff training, digitization contracts and statewide research partnerships.
Hostetter told trustees the director’s portion of the office proposal is roughly $1.4 million for fiscal 2026 with about $1.3 million proposed for fiscal 2027; she said staff would correct a personnel split that appears in the initial budget documents before the next submission. “R&E’s purpose is long standing and is in direct alignment with OHA’s mandate,” Hostetter said, summarizing the office’s work in digitization, demographic compilation and original research.
Key line items described in the presentation included server maintenance and software updates (hosted in the director’s budget), an estimated $250,000 contract to upgrade the Kipuka GIS platform, $150,000 to update the Native Hawaiian Databook platform, $40,000 in equipment upgrades, and a proposed $300,000 statewide archives digitization contract to preserve local collections and provide access through Papakilo. Staff also proposed a $50,000 OHA contribution to an annual statewide Native Hawaiian well‑being survey run jointly with partner agencies.
Hostetter warned trustees that long‑standing vacancies — notably a GIS systems administrator position that has been unfilled about three years — have left platforms out of date. She described a contractor assessment completed under a separate contract with SWCA Environmental Associates that reviewed prior land‑mapping work and proposed a multi‑year plan to complete a ceded‑lands inventory, and she said that work will inform how Kipuka should be upgraded.
Trustees asked detailed questions about whether the Databook could be made interactive and how the research systems might integrate with an agency‑wide data dashboard being developed by Strategy & Implementation. Trustee Akaka warned that upgrades should not be “bare bones” and said the board should adopt a higher strategic vision for technology across the agency: “This group should not be coming to the board as beggars,” Akaka said, urging a policy‑level decision to invest in technology rather than incremental fixes.
Hostetter and other research staff said the proposal represents a “bare‑bones” path to bring systems current and that a significantly larger investment would be needed to reach state‑of‑the‑art capabilities, including expanded staffing. Trustees and staff repeatedly linked the data infrastructure request to OHA’s ability to support legislative advocacy and to document ceded lands, burial‑site history and other issues that drive policy and funding requests.
Trustees asked staff for follow‑up details and for clearer integration plans with other agency data platforms; staff said a corrected budget and a further briefing would be provided at the next update to the board.
