Bank of Hawaii Corp. appears to be shaking off the effects of the turmoil in the nation credit markets.

Shares of Bank of Hawaii Corp. have risen over 33 percent during the past month from last month’s 52-week low of $39.34. Bankoh’s stock closed today at $52.64 on the New York Stock Exchange.

During the same period, the 91-bank Bloomberg United States Bank Index rose 19.3 percent after hitting a 52-week low on July 15.

For Bankoh, no news is the good news.

There’s no subprime problem, no large writedowns and no recession in the isles … Not yet atleast.

It’s been nearly two-years since the twin earthquakes off the Big Island set off an island-wide power outage. And local consumers are still waiting to hear from Hawaiian Electric Co. about their refund request.

About 1,400 local customers have filed for reimbursement from the electric utility for damages from the Oct. 15 blackout. Claims range from spoiled food to damaged electronics equipment.

HECO said it is waiting for outcome of the state Public Utility Commission’s investigation before it issues any checks. The company adds that all awards will be made on a case-by-case basis.

The local utility does not need PUC approval and could have reimbursed customers on its own.

But given that HECO is looking to the PUC for guidance, you would have thought that the commission would have opened a separate docket to expedite the reimbursement process.

Further delays reduces customers’ recovery. Records get lost, people move away and consumer forget about the claims they filed.

It’s usually not a good sign when the Mainland brass arrives into town in the company’s jets.

I can remember in the early 1990s when Castle & Cooke Inc. shutdown its pineapple operations on Lanai, workers got a early hint when they saw CEO David Murdock’s jet parked on the runway.

Local managers at Tesoro Corp. were probably feeling some unease each time top executives blew into town in company-owned Gulfstream IV and Bombardier Challenger jets.

Records provided by the state Department of Transportation show that Tesoro executives with the San Antonio-based petroleum refiner and gasoline retailer landed their corporate aircraft in Hawaii atleast six times during the past year. (See)

A spokesman for Tesoro declined to comment on the visits but it’s no secret that the company’s refinery has been losing money.

Tesoro recently reported that production at the 95,000 barrel-a-day plant at Campbell Industrial Park had fallen to 71,000 barrels.

The lower local output, combined with soaring crude prices and reduced demand on the Mainland, is helping to push down Tesoro’s companywide results.

From July 2007 to June 2008, Tesoro lost a total of $71 million, which compares to a net profit of $948 million during the year-earlier period.

The company said it expects major improvements at it local refinery. Local managers are hoping it turns out that way. They’re probably not looking forward to further visits from San Antonio.

One Wall Street analyst recently came up with a novel way to track Apple Inc.’s performance.

According to a March 2008 BusinessWeek magazine article, Kathyrn Huberty of Morgan Stanley began tracking company co-founder and CEO Steven Jobs’ private-plane bills.

After all, Jobs’ tarmac-hopping might indicate that he’s out cutting business deals around the world.

So, how does Jobs’ frequent Hawaiçi trips fit into this theory?

According to records obtained from the state Department of Transportation, Jobs flew his $43.5 million Gulfstream V to Kona three times this year. (See)

They included trips in November, February and April — each for less than a week.

I’m not sure if he owns a house on the Big Island but I’m pretty sure he’s not there to launch the latest Apple product.

He probably earned every minute of that vacation time.

Last year, Apple’s stock more than doubled while earnings soared 75 percent thanks to robust iPod and iPhone sales.

By the way, Apple — which gave Jobs the long-range jet in 2000 which is registered under ownership of “Marmalade Skies” — reimbursed Jobs for costs associated with the jets.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company paid repaid Jobs $776,000 in 2007 for expenses related to the jet.

An Apple spokeswoman declined comment.

Trustee pay at the Kamehameha Schools, always a controversial issue, was in the headlines again this weekend.

A report by San Francisco-based Mercer LLC, an executive compensation expert hired by an independent probate court-appointed trustee compensation committee, recommended raising trustee pay by 65 percent or more, citing the complexities faced by a board that sets policy for a $9.1 billion trust. (See)

Mercer found that Kamehameha Schools board spends more than twice as much time on trust matters — 2 1/2 to 3 days a week — than do the boards of comparable nonprofit organization and for-profit corporations.

In a “CEO team Message” on Kamehameha Schools’ website, the trust expanded on that theme:

“The Committee and Mercer, LLC also observed, among other things, that the issues regularly confronted by the Trustees, from expansion of the Schools under the new Education Strategic Plan, to improving the quality and diversification of the endowment, land use and environmental issues, and litigation concerning admissions policies are highly significant, complex and time consuming matters that require a substantial commitment of time above and beyond that which is required of a typical corporate board.”

The trustee compensation committee’s recommendations aren’t a done deal: They require probate court approval and board members can always turn down any raise that gets approved as they did several years ago.

But Mercer’s findings and the trust’s follow-up comment raises a key questions about the estate’s governance policy.

Under the CEO-based management system should those duties be delegated to Kamehameha Schools’ executives and administrators or should those duties be relegated to the board?

There’s no doubt the board needs to set policy on major issues such as the admission policy litigation and the trust’s education strategic plan.

But are things like the “diversification of the endowment, land use and environmental issues” typically the responsibility of a CEO and their staff?

(By the way, Kamehameha Schools’ own tax filing with the Internal Revenue Service state that board members spend 10 hours a week on trust matters.)

There’s no doubt that Kamehameha Schools’ trustees — Diane Plotts, Douglas Ing, Nainoa Thompson, Robert Kihune and Corbett Kalama — are remarkable people, who have displayed much compassion for plight of native Hawaiians and much courage in wake of the many challenges faces by the trust.

Under their stewardship, the estate’s finances have grown at a record pace and schools are reaching more Hawaiian children than ever.

But what about future board members five, 10, or even 20 years from now? If those future board members are still spending 2 1/2 to 3 days a week on trust matters, will that open future boards to criticisms of “micromanagment?”