Three Mauians Nominated for UH Board of Regents

Eugene Ball III, executive director of the Maui High Performance Computing Center, has been nominated to the UH Board of Regents. Photo courtesy of MEDB.

By Sonia Isotov

The Regents Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC) has presented a list of candidates to Governor Neil Abercrombie to fill three seats on the University of Hawai’i Board of Regents for terms beginning July 1, 2013.

The outgoing regents whose terms will end on June 30, are Artemio Baxa (Maui County) and Barry Mizuno (Hawai‘i County). The third seat was formerly filled by Regent Michael Dahilig whose term would have ended on June 30th but resigned on January 2, 2013.

The finalists for the Maui County seat, whose terms will begin July 1, 2013 are: Eugene Ball III, Artemio C. Baxa, and Georgia K. McMillen.

Eugene Ball III, who after 25 years of military service, retired as a Navy captain to join the Maui High Performance Computer Center as the executive director. He has held this position for the past 16 years of the Center’s 19 year history. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Bal earned a Master of Science degree from the United States Naval Postgraduate School, graduated from the Advanced Executive Program at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College.

Artemio C. Baxa worked for the County of Maui, initially as a Deputy Corporation Counsel, then as Deputy Director of the Department of Human Concerns. In 1979, he served as Deputy Prosecutor on Maui, and in 1998 was appointed as a Circuit Court judge in the Second Circuit, by then Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano. He retired from the bench in 2001, but returned as a Deputy Prosecutor in 2003 and is presently assigned to the Appellate Division. In 2004, he received his license to practice before the Supreme Court of the  United States. He also hold the seat currently.

Georgia K. McMillen is an attorney based in Wailuku with 25 years of experience advocating on behalf of the indigent in federal and state courts. McMillen is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawai’i Manoa. She holds a J.D. from New York Law School.

Finalists for the Hawaii County and At-Large seats are:

 Hawai‘i County Seat (Term to begin July 1, 2013)
1. Barry T. Mizuno
2. Roy A. Vitousek

 At Large Seat (Term to begin immediately upon appointment on an interim basis untilconfirmed by Hawai‘i State Senate)
1. John L. Fink
2. Randolph A. Moore
3. Eric A. Seitz

The Board of Regents is the governing body of the University of Hawai‘i and consist of fifteen (15) members whose representation include seven (7) from the City and County of Honolulu; two (2) from the Hawai‘i County;, two (2) from the Maui County; one (1) from the Kauai County; two (2) At Large;  and one (1) University of Hawai‘i student. Members of the Board of Regents as well as the RCAC serve voluntarily and are not paid.

The RCAC was created after the passage of the Hawai‘i Board of Regents Candidates Act, a 2006 legislatively‐referred constitutional amendment. Hawai‘i voters overwhelmingly cast their votes to require the Governor to select Board of Regents candidates from a pool of qualified candidates screened and proposed by the RCAC.