INDEX - JUSTICE
www.islandbreath.org

SUBJECT: KAUAI PUBLIC ACCESS TV

SOURCE: ED COLL coll@kauai.net

Ho`ike's lack of Sunshine may cost public half a million bucks!

15 March 2005 - 8:00pm

Front door of Hoike TV on Rice Street in Lihue

Ho`ike may owe $500,000 in architect fees in building purchase plan fiasco
by Ed Coll 14 March 2005

The following is a correspondence sent to the Director of the Hawaii Department of Consumer Affairs
related to Hoike TV and state Sunshine laws.

 

Aloha Director Recktenwald
Hawaii Department of Consumer Affairs
mrecktenwald@dcca.hawaii.gov


It is incidents like this that highlights the need for the DCCA to contractually require " full compliance" with State of Hawaii Open Records and Sunshine Laws to safeguard public money and resources from poor decision making processes by an uninformed board.

Ho`ike, the Public, Education, and Government service provider on Kaua`i has found itself in deep kim chee, and they got there by spending cable subscriber's money.

According to the Jan 27, 2005 board minutes Ho`ike may owes half-a-million dollars on plans for a building that will never be built. Ho`ike funding is state mandated and paid for by public monies collected from cable subscriber's by Oceanic Time Warner. Ho`ike has an annual budget of around $300,000. According to their 2003 Managing Director's report, Ho`ike had no "new users" for the entire year.


Following is a quote from the minutes of the Jan 27, 2005 Ho`ike Board meeting:


"Gabrielle Dorman replied that as a new member, and interior designer, she had attended the architect’s presentation, whereupon she discovered the architect’s fee was a half-a-million dollars. To her knowledge, no one on the board was even aware of the fee, or had ever even ‘seen’ the architect’s contract. Yet former president Rowena Cobb insisted that Ho’ike was under contract and needed to pay the bill.

Soleille La Fete stated that as a new member she was confused as to who had created the misrepresentation, and how it had come to this. Jose explained that there was a time when the board lost three members and was unable to meet the quorum and proceed accordingly. During this time the LLC and Mano Wai made decisions without the board’s consent.

Teri Tico recommended Ho’ike legally extricate itself from the project as soon as possible. John Isobe spoke up and explained that he had a different perspective. “ It appears documents have been executed and the architects have done work and need to be paid.” Jose insisted that we have never been allowed to look at the details."

 

Read the board minutes transcripts here: http://helpkauai.dns2go.com/hoikebdmin01272005.html

Listen to an audio transcript of the board meeting here: http://helpkauai.dns2go.com/archives/cat_audio.html

The Ho`ike Board tried to keep their plans secret from the public by talking in “code” at Board meetings about the project, going into executive session to discuss their secret plan to spend public monies under a bylaw provision which  in conflict with Hawaii State Sunshine Law. This bylaw, used as a ruse to keep the public in the dark, is a bylaw in which the board gave itself the power to, “Entering into an executive meeting for “any issue deemed best to be kept confidential.”

They certainly didn't want the public knowing about their plans to spend 8 million dollars of public money. When a request was made to inspect public records under State of Hawaii Open Records law, Ho`ike refused to comply. Following is a request to inspect the documents made on May 19, 2004 (almost 10 months ago). In violation of Hawaii Open Records Law and an Office of Information Practices opinion Managing Director J Robertson refused to allow inspection of the requested documents. Following is a partial transcription of the May 19, 2004 records request “to inspect the following records presented to the board members present at the May 13, 2004 Ho`ike board meeting, but not made available to the public in attendance.“

 

Managing Director J Robertson;


This is a request to inspect the following records presented to the board members present at the May 13, 2004 Ho`ike board meeting, but not made available to the public in attendance.

All documents related to the Center for Art, Education, and Technology, including, but not limited too;

1. Articles of Organization of the
Kauai Center for Arts, Education & Technology, LLC

2. Operating Agreement of the
Kauai Center for Arts, Education & Technology, LLC

3. Fiscal Agreement of the
Kauai Center for Arts, Education & Technology, LLC

4. Management Agreement of the
Kauai Center for Arts, Education & Technology, LLC

5.All documents related to Mano Wai

6. the “Corporate Resolution” that was introduced
for consideration and discussion

7. Memorandum of Intent to form the
Kauai Center for Arts, Education & Technology, LLC

 

Ho`ike is still refusing to comply with several OIP opinions to allow the public to inspect records, while `Olelo (Ho`ike's big brother on Oahu) has hired "lead attornies" and is suing the State Office of Information Practices claiming they are not covered by Open Records law.

Rowena Cobb, (former) Ho`ike Board President, real estate agent, and chief promoter of this fiasco served out her term evidently leaving a half million dollar bill as an unplesent surprise for the new incoming Ho`ike board. Ho`ike has still not made the requested public records available for inspection.

 



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