OHA Check Register 2023-24

by Andrew Walden

Hawai’i Free Press has obtained a copy of the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Office of Hawaiian Affairs check register in response to an open records request.

The register shows 2,110 checks totaling $39,084,016.34--a spending increase of $3,418,525.87 or 9.6% from last year.

Some noteworthy items from this year:

• OHA’s payroll totals $15.9M.  This is 40.7% of OHA spending.
• Kuilei Consulting pulled in $707,890.27 for so-called Kakaako Makai lobbying even as Trustees questioned whether Kuilei was actually doing any work.
• $705,000 hush money paid to former OHA CFO David Laeha.  SEE: OHA Trustees Never Approved $705K Hush Money Payment 
• 160 Maui fire victims received payments of either $4,000 or $9,000 each -- totaling $970,000.  This is 2.5% of OHA's total expenditures.

OHA obtains an annual state appropriation fixed by the legislature.  Customarily, the appropriation estimates a 20% cut of ‘ceded lands’ revenues.  OHA claims this is a right, but the State Supreme Court has ruled that the allotment of ceded lands revenues is a political decision. 

Efforts by OHA to expand ceded lands revenues serve to steer Hawaii towards greater and greater reliance on the tourism industry by repressing alternatives.  Given the predominance of entertainers on the OHA Board of Trustees, this should not be a surprise.

In spite of the relatively manini amounts involved, the cost of acquisition is very high—for instance:

OHA gets a 20% cut of state harbors revenues, thus increasing consumer prices for all imported goods.  OHA’s take for your misery?  A paltry $77M.

OHA supports litigation and legislation designed to restrict the availability of developable land, thus increasing the cost of housing.     

Housing and the high cost of goods are key factors driving the exodus of Native Hawaiians from Hawaii.  The majority of Native Hawaiians now reside outside the state.

Ironically, OHA is repeating the error of Hawaiian Kingdom royals who exploited their own people and relied on an alliance with businessmen.

Looking forwards, OHA seeks expanded revenues from telescope leases on Mauna Kea and military leases statewide.  Anti-telescope and anti-military protesters are controlled by OHA insiders who see the upcoming master lease renewals as an opportunity to get more money for themselves. 

The result:

• America’s defense posture is compromised.
• Perfectly good telescopes are being dismantled and shipped off to Chile where science is appreciated.  
• Military and scientific employment opportunities are lost and Hawaii becomes that much more reliant on tourism. 

In other words, the cost of acquisition is extreme.  But since OHA isn’t paying, OHA doesn’t care.

That’s the income side of the transaction: But what about the expense side?  Where is this ceded-lands money going?

View the check register here:

• XCL: 2023-24 Check Register
• PDF: 2023-24 Check Register

What did Maui Fire Victims get?

• 94 payments of $4,000 = $376,000
• 66 payments of $9,000 = $594,000
• TOTAL = $970,000.   This is 2.5% of OHA's total expenditures.

Payroll:

• $13,768,794.16 paid to Director of Finance and $2,096,651.35 paid to OHA (payroll)  Total $15.9M up 4% from last year's $15.3M.  OHA Trustees recently voted to end all work-at-home programs.

Which insiders are enjoying the cash flow? 

$12M goes to these big winners:

• Kanu o ka Aina $3,093,831.33
• DHHL $3,001,287.52 (OHA Trustees have promised DHHL $3M/yr.)
• NHLC $1,361,649.98
• Resources Connection LLC $1,463,398.70
• Kanu o ka Aina News Century PCS  $375,049.00
• Kuilei Consulting $707,890.27
• Alu Like $132,566.40
• Marsh $425,005.36
• Oahu Publications, Inc (Publishes Star-Adv) $228,203.50
• Klein LLLC $190,199.42
• Forest Solutions, LLC $414,575.82  (nearly double last year)
• Solutions Pacific $97,700.00  (half of lst yr)
• Denton’s $135,296.60
• ES&A $206,770.07

$705K Lawsuit Settlement Hidden from Trustees

See OHA Trustees Never Approved $705K Hush Money Payment and Ex-CFO: I was fired to keep Legislators from Seeing OHA's True Budget.

Kakaako Goes Out With a Bang

Kuilei Consulting, Inc -- Karl Veto Baker raked in $707,890.27 – on top of the $2,751,674.90 his company got for 2023-24 and the $1,199,275.57 Kuilei took for 2021-22, to pay insiders for promoting OHA’s Kakaako Makai development schemes. 

READ: “Dead Bodies, Convicted Felons and Kakaako Makai: Meet the new Gang at OHA.”   

Incorporated April 2, 2021, Kuilei has been raking in OHA money since January 6, 2022.   But this may be nearing the end.  In the 2024 legislative session, OHA did no Kakaako Makai lobbying.  Instead of buttonholing legislators, Veto Baker began the year by racking up $1,000 per day fines from the DPP for promoting a luau at his Pauoa Valley home.  Trustees questioned this at BoT meetings in early 2024 but Kuilei still managed to bill OHA for $707,890,27.

DETAILS

Here is the breakdown:

$3.9M -- Lobbyists, PR, Kakaako Makai

• $707,890.27 Kuilei Consulting, Inc
• $126,370.38 Kalaimoku Group / John Aeto (advertising)       
• $425,005.36 paid to Broken Trust DC Lobbyists Marsh USA Inc.
• $97,700.00  Solutions Pacific (Ray Soon)
• $228,203.50 Oahu Publications, Inc (Publishes Star-Adv)
• $6,500.00  Hawaii Public Policy Advocates, LLC  (down sharply)
• $39,434.71 Strategic Communication Solutions, LLC (Nathan Hokama)

Robin Danner Etal -- $279,139.59

• CNHA  -- $172,500 -- READ: Dirty OHA Contract is Model for CNHA Takeover of Tourism Marketing
• Homestead Community Development Corp $106,639.59

$2.4M -- Consultants, Computer Software, Engineering, Training and Marketing

Spending doubled from last year – the difference all goes to Resources Connection LLC 

• $1,294,265.90--up from last year’s $1,207,050.43 -- Resources Connection LLC  (Tammi Watson Honolulu Consultant)
• $414,575.82 paid to Forest Solutions, LLC – nearly doubled from last year -- (Owned by Mrs. Michael Saalfeld) See: “Secrecy surrounds Parker Ranch's sale of 3,509 acres to biofuel pioneer” and “Parker Ranch files lawsuit against German industrialist’s 3,500-acre purchase.”
• $326,760.36 RUNNING LOGISTICS LLC
• $218,451.74 SHI INTERNATIONAL CORP (Software House Int’l)      
• $5,000.00 Supporting the Language of Kauai, Inc (For OHA Insider Cash Bonanza Comes with Poi Mill)      
• $2,758.80 THOUGHTFOCUS, Inc
• $11,874.27 WPEngine, Inc
• $7,834.36 FOUNDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
• $2,473.82 Akamine, Oyadomari & Kosaki CPAs Inc
• $19,679.99 Aurora Design and Consulting LLC
• $46,343.41 CHERRYROAD TECHNOLOGIES INC. (systems integration and consulting services)
• $95,643.72 DATAHOUSE (consulting)
• $101,840.00 DL CONSULTING LIMITED (No bid sole-source contract: LINK)
• $88,580.00 Ohanasoft, LLC (Oracle Consultant Joon Kwok)
• $69,320.42 Oracle America, Inc
• $65,778.45 Xerox Corp
• $62,724.17 ZR Systems Group, LLC (computer consultants)

$1.7M to Lawyers (NHLC and Klein big winners)

• $705,000.00 Eric Seitz Attorney at Law – Settlement for Laeha Case # 1CCV-21-0000095 SEE: OHA Trustees Never Approved $705K Hush Money Payment  and  Ex-CFO: I was fired to keep Legislators from Seeing OHA's True Budget
• $18,692.02 paid to McCorriston Miller (defending OHA, Crabbe, etal in Laeha case).
• $190,199.42 to Klein Law Group LLLC (see: OHA Sacrifices $3.2M to Hide Lawyer’s Conflict of Interest?)
• $1,361,649.98 paid to Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.  (Working hard to make land unaffordable in Hawaii.)
• $206,770.07 to ES&A, INC which, among other things, in the past defended the OHA LLCs refusal to comply with Hawaii’s open records laws. See: Lawsuit: OHA-Owned Corporations Must Comply With Open Records Laws and OHA’s Hidden LLCs: Why Plead Guilty to Stealing $14M?
• $44,365.40 to Sherry Broder ESQ
• $3,094.24 Ogawa, Lau, Nakamura & Jew
• $35,269.05 to Kaneohe Lawyer LLLC
• $366.49 Law Office of Bianca Isaki
• $297.50 Practicing Law Institute
• $135,296.60 paid to Denton’s (formerly Alston Hunt).

Over $407K to Banks:

• $407,075.18 paid to Bank of America.
• $0 paid to Bank of Hawaii (again)—was $1.7M in fy 2022.  (What happened to BoH’s OHA HQ mortgage?)  See: Surprise: Entire OHA Trust Fund Frozen by Gentry Pacific Boondoggle)
• $620.00 paid to First Hawaiian.

Other Highlights found by searching the register include

• $13,768,794.16 paid to Director of Finance and $2,096,651.35 paid to OHA (payroll)
• $132,566.40 to Alu Like (back in the money after years in the wilderness)
• $10,202.50  Adult Friends for Youth (Fake gang counselor who was moving multi-pound quantities of meth until he was killed over drug debt.)
• $98,116.37 to Ho’okako’o Corp (charter schools)
• $3,093,831.33 paid to Kanu o Ka Aina Learning Ohana and another $375,049.00  paid to Kanu o Ka Aina PCS.  Former OHA Trustee Chair Bob Lindsey formerly member of Board.  Flashback: “OHA Chair’s Charter School Gets Seven Times More Than All Other Charters Combined”
• $3,001,287.52 to DHHL (OHA in 2009 promised to give DHHL $3M per year for 30 yrs)
• $0 paid to OHA’s Hi’ilei Aloha, LLC.  Second year OHAs LLCs don’t get a subsidy.  See: Lawsuit: OHA Uses Corporations to Sidestep Open Meetings Law, Loot Assets, Line Cronies' Pockets
• $215,710.00 paid to University of Hawaii
• $29,526.00 to US Department of the Interior
• $1,500,000 to DBEDT
• $67,250 DAGS Risk Management

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RELATED:

• 2023: The-Office-of-Hawaiian-Affairs-is-a-slush-fund: Where-is-the-money-going? 
• 2022: OHA Check Register 2022--Insiders Rake in $1.2M for Kakaako Makai Lobbying
• 2022: OHA LLCs Funnel Dollars to COO, Individuals, Lawfirm
• 2022: Auditor Rips 'Never-ending fishing expedition'
• 2021: Legislative Audit of OHA’s Limited Liability Companies Cancelled
• 2021: OHA Check Register: Complete List of Who Gets Paid FY2020-21
• 2020: OHA Check Register: First Year After Crabbe--Insiders Still Rake in Millions
• 2019: How OHA Lawyers Hid $200K Procurement Violation
• 2019: After Years of Illegality, OHA LLCs Hand over Check Registers--Trustees Repeal Nepotism Clause
• 2019: OHA LLCs Agree to Provide Check Register
• 2019: OHA Refuses to Cooperate with Auditor--May Lose Legislative Appropriation to Hide LLC Secrets
• 2018: Crooks and Cronies: Who's Cashing in on the 2017-18 OHA Check Register
• 2015: Lawsuit: OHA Uses Corporations to Sidestep Open Meetings Law, Loot Assets, Line Cronies' Pockets.
• 2015: After Two Months, OHA Coughs up Check Register
• OHA Procurement: https://www.oha.org/solicitations