Whistleblower Greg Wongham's Research on Punaluu, Sandy Beach, etc. - Reposted
THE PIRATES OF
PUNALUU
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
~ o ~
March 9, 2006
Proposed development at Turtle Bay
bothers residents
Some are concerned about renewed plans to build 3,500 units
By Allison Schaefers, Star-Bulletin
On a big wave day at the North Shore, it takes Peter Cole an hour and a half to get from Haleiwa to his country home at Sunset Beach….
The popularity of the North Shore has inflated property values, stretched community services and created traffic jams — and resurrected a two-decade-old master plan at Turtle Bay Resort that would bring 3,500 new hotel and condominium units to an otherwise rural area stretching from Kawela Bay to Kahuku Point.
“That would just be immense,” said Cole, who first opposed the plan when it was presented in mid-1980s because of potential negative impacts on the region’s environment, traffic conditions and quality of life.
Turtle Bay Resort’s master plan, which included five lodging structures, was expected to be completed by 1996 but never came to fruition due to its then-struggling financial position. Oaktree Capital, which acquired Turtle Bay in 1999 and has spent $60 million upgrading the once-dilapidated hotel, is now moving forward on the original development master plan that was approved years ago, said Doug Carlson, a spokesman for Kuilima Resort Co., the developer of Turtle Bay….
While hotel workers union Local 5 supported the development in the 1980s, the union is now opposed to the project.
“We don’t think it’s going to create the quality jobs that our workers need,” said Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer for Local 5. “Turtle Bay Resort pays workers less money and offers substantially less benefits than our other Oahu hotels.”
The union, which has been involved in a consumer boycott of Turtle Bay Resort since 2003, has filed an injunction to stop the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting from giving Kuilima Resort Co. the necessary permits to move forward on the project, Gill said.
Local 5 joined North Shore community groups to rally in front of the resort in January to protest further development of the area, and the region’s neighborhood board members have been flooded with calls, said Creighton Mattoon, chairman of the land and planning committee for the Koolauloa Neighborhood Board….
“I think community sentiments on development vary from total support to total opposition to many positions in between,” Mattoon said. He gets two to three calls a week about the proposed project.
While some have told Mattoon that the project would be good for economic development and would create jobs, others are concerned that its environmental impact statement is too old and needs to be re-examined….
Others are worried that the region’s two-lane main transportation artery cannot support the development, he said.
Population and visitor growth has created “a mathematical problem that didn’t exist 20 years ago,” said Carol Philips, president of the North Shore Neighborhood Board….
“People like the country: That’s the sole reason that we live in the North Shore,” she said. “The atmosphere of the North Shore will change as a result of this development. I think it’s just starting to sink in for the community that this could be an impending reality.”
Read the complete story at…
http://starbulletin.com/2006/03/09/business/story01.html
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April 5, 2006
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Honolulu Advertiser
DEVELOPMENT
SANDY BEACH BATTLE APPLIES TO TURTLE BAY
To understand why Rep. Michael Magaoay’s call (Advertiser, April 2) for a re-examination of the Turtle Bay expansion project is so sensible, just reflect on the struggle over development near Sandy Beach.
In early 1987, the City Council was considering a special management area permit to allow a luxury housing development on an elevated plateau across the highway from Sandy Beach.
An unprecedented array of community interests sprang up to oppose the permit. Tour operators, visitor industry labor unions, artists, environmental organizations and community leaders and ordinary citizens of all stripes urged the City Council to slow down and consider what was at stake.
They asked the council to take into account the city’s own study of O’ahu’s scenic coastal resources, then only months away from completion.
But the community appeal for common sense didn’t prevail. Instead, five council members rammed the permit through.
Their failure to listen to the community resulted in a history-making conflict and political showdown involving leading politicians, the Hawai’i Supreme Court, Bishop Estate, the Legislature, neighborhood boards, community groups of all stripes and litigation that went unresolved for 15 years.
The City Council has an opportunity to make a better decision at Turtle Bay.
It seems only rational that the permit given 20 years ago for Turtle Bay expansion should be fully re-examined in light of today’s environmental, economic, social and cultural realities and current projections of future needs.
Hopefully, a majority of the council will see it that way.
Phil Estermann
Hawai’i Kai
For more, GO TO > > > Paradise Paved
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April 8, 2005
Mitsunaga employee
called for grand jury
Investigators say the worker directed firms’
contributions to campaign coffers
By Rick Daysog, Star-Bulletin
City prosecutors have convened a new grand jury that will focus on the activities of Dennis Mitsunaga, a key Democratic Party fund-raiser and ally of former Gov. Ben Cayetano.
An Oahu grand jury subpoenaed an employee with the local engineering firm Mitsunaga & Associates Inc. this week for a hearing Thursday, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Mitsunaga, who heads the engineering firm, is a major target of prosecutors’ three-year investigation into the campaign of former Mayor Jeremy Harris. The employee, Terri Otani, is listed on state business records as secretary, treasurer and director of Mitsunaga & Associates.
Campaign investigators have alleged that Otani helped direct tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from dozens of local engineering firms and architects to the campaigns of Harris, Cayetano, ex-Maui Mayor James “Kimo” Apana and other prominent Democrats.
Mitsunaga has served as fund-raiser for those campaigns….
Otani said she was unaware of the grand jury proceedings and referred all questions to her attorney Lynn Panagakos, who denied any wrongdoing on her client’s part….
Prosecutors previously disclosed that Mitsunaga was a focus of their three-year criminal investigation of the Harris campaign. Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said last year that a local engineer told investigators that Mitsunaga was instrumental in securing state and city jobs for him.
Michael Green, Mitsunaga’s attorney, said Mitsunaga played no role in the awards of nonbid government contracts and that his client does not know any of the members of the city and state boards that issue contracts….
Harris’ attorneys have denied any link between the awards of city contracts and campaign contributions.
Otani is the latest member of Mitsunaga’s circle to face a criminal investigation.
Mitsunaga’s brother Dwight pleaded no contest in October to misdemeanor charges of exceeding campaign spending limits and making a political donation under a false name to the Harris campaign.
Dwight Mitsunaga, who is president of Pacific Architects, was fined $2,000 but was granted a deferral which allows him to get his criminal case dismissed if he stays out of trouble for a year.
Mitsunaga’s cousin, former Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii Chairman Wesley Segawa, also pleaded no contest to money laundering and making illegal contributions to the Harris campaign last December.
Circuit Judge Richard Perkins fined Segawa $6,000 and ordered him to perform 300 hours of community service.
Read the complete article at:
http://starbulletin.com/2005/04/08/news/index1.html
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October 2, 2004
Harris campaign donor
is fined $2,000
The architect pleaded no contest
to charges of illegal donations
By Rick Daysog, Star-Bulletin
A state judge has ordered a local architect to pay $2,000 after he pleaded no contest to charges of making illegal political donations to Mayor Jeremy Harris’ campaign.
District Judge Lono Lee granted Dwight Mitsunaga’s request for a deferral, which allows him to get his criminal case dismissed if he stays out of trouble for a year.
Mitsunaga is president of Pacific Architects Inc. He also is the brother of local engineer Dennis Mitsunaga, who was a key fund-raiser for Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano and ex-Maui Mayor James “Kimo” Apana and a major target of investigations by the prosecutor’s office and the state Campaign Spending Commission.
Earlier this month, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint alleging that Dwight Mitsunaga made a political donation under a false name to the Harris campaign and exceeded the $4,000 campaign contribution limit for the mayoral race.
Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said Mitsunaga and his company made more than $16,000 in illegal campaign contributions.
Randal Lee argued for a sentence of probation, saying it would bar the company from receiving state and city contracts and send a message to anyone who violates the state’s campaign spending laws….
Randal Lee declined to discuss his investigation into Dennis Mitsunaga yesterday, but Bob Watada, executive director of the state Campaign Spending Commission, said several government contractors interviewed by his office have indicated that they were solicited by him for campaign contributions….
Dwight Mitsunaga’s company, Pacific Architects, received more than 20 city contracts totaling $2.5 million since 1990, city records show.
Pacific Architects also received a number of state contracts and was one of the firms that worked on the controversial renovation of the University of Hawaii president’s residence at College Hill.
The 2001 College Hill renovation initially was priced at $170,000 but soared to more than $1 million.
Read the complete article at:
http://starbulletin.com/2004/10/02/news/index11.html
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September 17, 2004
Isle agency accepts federal reforms
The state’s overseer of public housing will adopt HUD suggestions
By Rick Daysog, Star-Bulletin
The troubled state agency that oversees Hawaii’s public housing has agreed to increased oversight by its outside board, to provide ethics training for staffers, and to implement new accounting and procurement procedures.
The state Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii’s nine-member board yesterday approved a 23-page agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calling for significant reforms of its operations.
HUD, which provides millions of dollars in federal grants to HCDCH annually, designated the HCDCH as a “troubled public housing agency” earlier this year, according to Mike Liu, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
The designation means the federal agency can withhold funding or can place the HCDCH under receivership if the changes aren’t in place within a year, Liu said.
HUD, which will work with the HCDCH to implement the reforms, oversees about 3,000 public housing agencies nationwide and 100 to 200 of them have been designated as troubled agencies, Liu said….
In 2002, HUD accused the state agency of mismanagement and of violating procurement laws in awarding a $771,000, nonbid contract to a company headed by the former husband of the agency’s then-executive director Sharyn Miyashiro.
HUD also demanded the resignations of all nine members of the HCDCH board and ordered the state agency to repay the $771,000 to the federal government.
The contractor, Punaluu Builders, is headed by Dennis Mitsunaga, who is a longtime political supporter of former Gov. Ben Cayetano and a campaign fundraiser for isle Democrats. Mitsunaga’s relative Wesley Segawa was chairman of the HCDCH’s board at the time.
Segawa and seven board members resigned in 2002 and were replaced by appointees of the Lingle administration. HCDCH repaid the $771,000 in January.
Read the complete article at:
http://starbulletin.com/2004/09/17/news/index10.html
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November 5, 2002
Subpoenaed executive rebuffs
Campaign Spending Commission
By Rick Daysog, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The state Campaign Spending Commission has opened an investigation into a local contractor linked to the campaigns of several isle Democrats.
The commission recently subpoenaed Mitsunaga & Associates Inc. executive Terri Ann Otani for an interview last week, according to people familiar with the state probe.
But Otani declined to appear, citing her constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Otani’s attorney, David Gierlach, said his client has no plans to testify before the commission. He declined further comment. Bob Watada, the commission’s executive director, also declined comment.
State business records list Otani as secretary, treasurer and director of Mitsunaga & Associates, a local architecture and structural engineering firm.
Otani also assisted the political fund-raising efforts of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, Maui Mayor James “Kimo” Apana and Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono’s aborted 2002 mayoral campaign.
Mitsunaga & Associates is headed by Dennis Mitsunaga, a friend of Gov. Ben Cayetano. Since 1994, Mitsunaga & Associates has received more than $8.3 million in state contracts and $3.6 million in city contracts.
Mitsunaga also is at the center of a dispute between and the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii, which is headed by Mitsunaga’s ex-wife, Sharyn Miyashiro.
HUD has criticized a $771,000 nonbid contract to Mitsunaga’s company, Punaluu Builders Inc. and has called for the resignation of the state agency’s board by Nov. 15.
Cayetano said the report was politically motivated.
Read the complete article at:
http://starbulletin.com/2002/11/05/news/story11.html
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MORE TO COME
MEANWHILE, FOR MORE PIRATES, POLITICS AND PLUNDER IN PARADISE, PUTT TO…
BCCI: THE BANK OF CROOKS & CRIMINALS INTERNATIONAL
THE CARLYLE GROUP: BIRDS THAT DRINK FROM CESSPOOLS
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PART I – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4 – PART 5
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THE KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS’ RETIREMENT FUND
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MARSH & McLENNAN: THE MARSH BIRDS
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P-S-S-T, WANNA BUY A GOOD AUDIT?
RON REWALD: FLYING HIGH IN HAWAII
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Last updated July 3, 2006, by The Catbird
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