Crooks and Cronies: Who’s Getting Paid from the FY 2016-17 OHA Check Register

by Andrew Walden

Hawai’i Free Press has obtained a copy of the Fiscal Year 2016-17 Office of Hawaiian Affairs check register in response to an open records request.

For the second year in a row, OHA provided the complete (except payroll) register with 10 work days of our request, as prescribed by law, without their usual delaying tactics.

View the Check Register here >>> PDF.  The register totals $34,338,671.74.

Highlights found by searching the register include

• Spire --  13 Checks total $428,820.22. See:  Financial Services: OHA Spire Contract Balloons 760% in Two Years, and  Prosecutor: HART & OHA Auditing Firm Victim of 3-year, $500K Embezzlement Scheme
• 4 Checks total $77,999.99 to Stryker-Weiner PR firm.  See: “PR Disaster: Stryker Wiener Behind New OHA Policy Gagging Trustees” 
• $371,041.09 paid in 8 checks to WCIT and DTL.  See: “Ethics Complaint: OHA Insiders Take Kickbacks from Kakaako Makai Projects”
• OHA LLCs vacuum up another $777,887.07 Background: OHA LLCs—A License to Self-Deal
• Kauai Food Bank Inc  Four checks total $22,348   Musings: Thoroughly Tricked  Kauai Food Bank Inc is not the Kauai Branch of Hawaii Foodbank.
• $213,218.83 in 7 checks to Forest Solution, LLC  See: “Secrecy surrounds Parker Ranch's sale of 3,509 acres to biofuel pioneer” 

OHA LLCs -- $777,887.07

OHA keeps claiming the LLCs are becoming ‘self-sufficient’ but the flow of OHA Trust money to the LLCs shows otherwise.  Meanwhile, the LLCs refuse to comply with Hawai’i Free Press open records request for their check registers.  They just don’t want anybody to know where OHA’s money is flowing.  Background: OHA LLCs—A License to Self-Deal

• Hiilei Aloha LLC Two checks total $622,531
• Hookipaipai LLC One check total $130,000     
• Hiipaka LLC Four checks total $25,356.07 

Mystery Money $337,751.83

• 11 checks total $2,110.00 to AOAO 215 N King St.  Hmmmmm.
• Kooler Ice (vending machine co) – Three Checks total $65,303.00 (A new Kooler Ice machine sits on OHA property at Fisherman’s Wharf site)
• Phoenix Chartering 13 checks total $57,120.00 (same address as OHA lobbying house at 211 K St NE, WDC 20002) 
• $213,218.83 in 7 checks to Forest Solution, LLC (owned by Michael Saalfeld) See: “Secrecy surrounds Parker Ranch's sale of 3,509 acres to biofuel pioneer” 

Misc. Cronies $622,810.12

• Systemmetrics Corp (Consulting--many insiders) 14 checks – $226,196.72
• I Ola Lahui (Psych training—many insiders) 4 checks total $218,415.40
• Solutions Pacific (Ray Soon) 10 checks total $89,040.00
• Pa’i Foundation – Vicki Holt Takamine 2 checks total $66,810.00
• Kauai Food Bank Inc  Four checks total $22,348   Musings: Thoroughly Tricked  not Kauai Branch of Hawaii Foodbank

$1,770,873.28 to Lawyers

• Native Hawaiian Legal Corp – 7 checks total $1,095,431.18
• Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing -- 40 checks total $300,509.70
• McCorriston, Miller, Mukai, Mackinnon -- 49 checks total $271,625.62
• Sherry Broder, ESQ. –7 checks total $47,622.97
• ES&A, Inc, A Law Corp – 6 checks total $46,643.43
• Ogawa, Lau, Nakamura & Jew – 7 checks total $6,165.93
• Cades Schutte, LLP – 5 checks total $2,874.45

Robin Danner Etal -- $229,962.00

• CNHA  Five checks total $224,512  
• SCHHA  Two checks total $5,450

Kakaako ‘Planning’ – $371,041.09

• WCIT Two checks total $169,094.84
• DTL Six checks total $201,946.25
• See: “Ethics Complaint: OHA Insiders Take Kickbacks from Kakaako Makai Projects”

Indian Tribe --  $419,722.50

• Broken Trust DC Lobbyists Marsh USA Inc  8 Checks total $294,969
• US Dept of Interior – Five checks total $64,303.50
• Law College Assn of Univ of Arizona -- Three checks total $20,000
• Nat’l Cong of American Indians -- Three checks total $10,450
• Smithsonian—Nat’l Museum of American Indian – One check total $10,000
• Nat’l Indian Education Assn – Two checks total $10,000
• Alaska Federation of Natives -- Two checks total $10,000

UH Gets $896K

• Univ of Hawaii – 23 checks total $808,103.51
• UH Manoa -- Four checks total $88,103.79

Schools/Youth $2,288,522.97

• Kanu o ka Aina Learning Ohana – 2 Checks total $1,350,000.00  Flashback: “OHA Chair’s Charter School Gets Seven Times More Than All Other Charters Combined” 
• After School All-Stars – 3 checks total $219,221.50
• Boys & Girls Club of Maui Inc -- 4 checks total $117,894.48
• Kualapuu PCS -- 4 checks total $116,944.00
• Boys & Girls Club of the Big Island -- 5 checks total $103,874.00
• Parents and Children Together -- 4 checks total $103,223.45
• Hui Malama Learning Center – 2 checks total $102,496.04
• EPIC Foundation (Registration expired July 18, 2016) Agent Educational Services Hawaii Foundation  (Not in good standing) – 3 checks total – $69,892.50 
• Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike Building Pgm – 3 checks total $58,725.00
• Kamehameha Schools – 3 Checks total $38,250.00
• Friends of Molokai HS & Middle School Foundation – 1 check total $7000
• Hakipuu Learning Ctr PCS  -- 1 check total $1000

PDF: 2016-17 Check Register  (Use Ctrl-F to search)

Related: Full Text: After Two Months, OHA Coughs up Check Register (Previous years OHA check registers.)