James B. Nicholson, Trustee vs. Harmon

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

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DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

ROBERT ALM

Robert Alm (aka Robbie Alm) was a member of the committee to select a Kamehameha Schools trustee to replace Constance Lau who resigned to become CEO for Hawaiian Electric Company. Currently, Robbie Alm is Sr. Vice President of Public Affairs for Hawaiian Electric Company; and before that Robbie Alm was in charge of the Financial Management Group of First Hawaiian Bank.

Before his employment at First Hawaiian Bank, Robert Alm was the Director of the Hawaii State Department of Consumer Affairs for six years, which regulates banks and insurance companies in Hawai`i. Before that Robert Alm was an aide to Sen. Dan Inouye for three years.

Robert Alm is the brother of U. S. Attorney, Steven Alm.

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The following is quoted from the Nation of Hawaii website (www.hawaiian-nation.org/index.html:

Conflict of Interest with First Hawaiian Bank
and U.S. Attorney's Office?

Following is an excerpt of the Nation of Hawaii's letter to the Department of Justice, a paragraph regarding the relation of brothers Steven and Robert Alm, with Robert Alm's biography below.

Robert Alm is Senior Vice President of First Hawaiian Bank. Steven Alm is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawai`i, who brought the indictment and political prosecution against Mr. [Bumpy] Kanahele last year.

The Nation of Hawaii believes that as the current United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, Mr. Steve Alm should be more forthcoming regarding his brother's current employment status with First Hawaiian Bank. The brother of US Attorney Steve Alm, Mr. Robert Alm, is currently Senior Vice-President at First Hawaiian Bank and has policy making responsibilities in financial management and other areas which could impact this case. The Nation of Hawaii is concerned that this situation seems to indicate a possibility for self-dealing and the potential for a serious conflict-of-interest.

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January 29, 2001

Isle Democrats get early start on campaign

Planning for next year's election is
speeded up due to Republican gains

By Richard Borreca, Star-Bulletin

Democratic Party leaders, worried about the advances made by Republicans in the 2000 elections, have called for an early start to the usual election-year coordinated campaign.

An invitation-only meeting Jan. 10 at First Hawaiian Bank kicked off the 2002 political season for Hawaii's Democrats.

Walter Heen, party chairman, said after meeting with Jennifer Goto Sabas, U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye's chief of staff, and Linda Takayama, a private attorney who served as the Democratic coordinated campaign chairwoman in 1996 and worked for former U.S. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Henry Giugni, that the three decided to speed up planning for next year's election....

The meeting was chaired by Inouye. Heen said bringing Inouye into the planning early was needed to firm up support.

"He is the senior senator. When he asks people to do something, they can't say no," Heen said.

Besides Inouye, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie attended, along with former Gov. John Waihee and his former communications director, Charles Freedman, and Robbie Alm, former director of the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Department.

Also attending were legislators and representatives of the two major possible Democratic candidates for governor, Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris.

They set up committees for fund raising, reapportionment, candidate recruitment and grass-roots networking, Heen said.

Mayor candidates or supporters were also asked to pledge $10,000 each to start the campaign, according to another politician who attended but asked not to be identified.

The Republicans' likely candidate for governor, GOP Chairwoman Linda Lingle, said the early organization by the Democrats is a sign that the GOP is a viable political force....

http://starbulletin.com/2001/01/29/news/index.html

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November 1, 2006

Kamehameha list shortened

By Rick Daysog, Advertiser Staff Writer

A court-appointed panel yesterday selected three finalists for an opening on the Kamehameha School's board of trustees.

In a filing in state Probate Court, the seven-member trustee selection committee named local attorney Allen Hoe, First Hawaiian Bank Senior Vice President Corbett Kalama and former city budget director Ivan Lui-Kwan as its top candidates to replace Constance Lau, chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.

Lau, who has served on Kamehameha School's board since 1999, announced that she would step down as a trustee when she became HEI's CEO in May. She agreed to remain on the board until her successor was named.

Probate Judge Colleen Hirai will select Lau's replacement from the list after a public comment period. The deadline for the public to submit letters is Dec. 4.

Lau's replacement will serve the remainder of her five-year term, which expires on June 30, 2008. The appointee could qualify for reappointment for a maximum of two five-year terms.

For the year ending June 30, 2005, the estate paid its trustees about $100,000 each, while board chairwoman Diane Plotts earned $110,500.

Before 1999, when the estate implemented wide-ranging governance reforms, board members earned as much as $1 million each.

Established by the 1884 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the Kamehameha Schools is the state's largest private landowner and one of the nation's largest charitable institutions.

The selection committee includes former Honolulu police chief Francis Keala; Hawaiian Electric Co. executive Robbie Alm; the trust's former court-appointed master Ben Matsubara; Kamehameha Schools alum Michael Rawlins; attorney Melody MacKenzie; Queen Li-li'uokalani Children's Center president Claire Asam; and George "Keoki" Freeland, executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation.

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September 1, 2005

Decision seen as example of why Akaka Bill is needed

The Maui News and The Associated Press

An appeals court decision on an effort to block state funding for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is another reason that Hawaiians need the federal government to recognize their right to a government of their own, Maui Hawaiian leaders said Wednesday.

Cultural specialist Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr. said there were good and bad points to the appeals panel decision, but he said it was basically bad in setting the stage for more challenges to benefits for Native Hawaiians....

He is a supporter of the federal recognition bill, commonly known as the Akaka Bill, that he says will help to protect programs set up specifically to provide benefits to Native Hawaiians.

"There’s nothing in the horizon to save our entitlements. It’s more pressing now to get the Akaka Bill passed," he said.

Retired judge and OHA Trustee Boyd Mossman said Hawaiians have "dodged a bullet" in that the appeals court panel narrowly focused on a single issue of state general tax revenues.

"But until we have the Akaka Bill passed, we’re going to be suffering the effects of more bullets that are chipping away at Hawaiian benefits. That’s why Akaka is so important to us, to make available a law that will help us to defend ourselves," he said.

Maxwell and Mossman were reacting to the ruling issued by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday that allows a group of Hawaii taxpayers to sue to block the state from funding OHA for Hawaiians-only programs.

The appeals panel ruling reversed a U.S. District Court decision on only the issue of state funding from general tax revenues. The appeals panel allowed to stand the lower court decision that dismissed the federal government and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) from claims in the lawsuit, as well as a decision that allows continued funding for OHA from ceded-lands revenues.

In Honolulu, OHA called a news conference to respond to the ruling, with Sen. Daniel Akaka – who had introduced the bill in the Senate – among several participants urging support for the legislation.

Others included Gov. Linda Lingle, DHHL Chairman Micah Kane, Kamehameha Schools Chief Executive Officer Dee Jay Mailer, University of Hawaii interim President David McClain and Robbie Alm, a vice president at Hawaiian Electric Co.

Akaka made a strong pitch for his bill and said he is confident that he and Sen. Daniel Inouye have the 60 votes necessary for approval of a cloture motion Tuesday that would force a Senate vote on the bill.

Lingle said the state will ’’fight vigorously any attempt to take anything from Hawaiian people.’’

The governor said she and Kane will leave Sunday for Washington ’’to try to reach as many people as we can’’ to get support for the cloture vote and the bill.

’’We have addressed challenges to the constitutionality of the Akaka Bill and feel we have put that to rest,’’ Lingle said.

OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said the court ruling ’’underscores the need to pass the Akaka Bill.’’ She and other trustees, including Mossman, also will travel to Washington to lobby for the measure.

OHA’s chances of prevailing in the funding case would be much stronger with the Akaka Bill, said acting Attorney General Lisa Ginoza.

Deputy Attorney General Charlene Aina, who helped argue the case before the appeals court, said Congress already has recognized Native Hawaiians in various federal programs but said it has been in ’’a less-than-direct way. The Akaka Bill would give Native Hawaiians direct recognition we haven’t had.’’...

Maxwell today will participate in a public forum on the bill, sponsored by Ho’okahua and by Po’okela, both Native Hawaiian programs at Maui Community College. Kalei Ka’eo, a spokesperson for Hui Pu and NOA (Not of America) will speak in opposition to the bill.

http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=11990

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April 16, 2003

OUR CABLE MONOPOLY

HOW THE STATE’S SECRET DEAL WITH AOL/TIME WARNER AND OCEANIC IMPERILS THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ACCESS TV IN HAWAII

By Ian Lind

In a controversial move hidden from the public, and even from most insiders when it occurred in mid-2000, state cable regulators gave a multimillion dollar windfall to Oceanic Cable and its corporate parent, AOL-Time Warner. The windfall came in the form of lowered franchise fees to be paid by the cable company and a cut in the number of channels required to be set aside for future public, education and government use. Supporters of public-access television, which uses cable franchise fees to provide community programming, say the state’s action was just one example of political pressures that threaten to undermine the fragile arena of free speech carved out by local access providers.

The unexpected dose of corporate welfare was buried in the state’s lengthy review and approval of the $350 billion merger of Internet pioneer America Online with the entertainment and media conglomerate Time Warner, which could not be finalized until it got an official blessing in each community where the company owned cable systems, including Hawai‘i.

At that time, Oceanic was the sole cable provider on O‘ahu, the Big Island and Maui County. It established a statewide monopoly last year when, with little fanfare, it took over Garden Isle Telecommunications on Kaua‘i, the last independent cable provider in the state. Now if you want or need cable anywhere in the state, from Ka‘ü to Hanalei, Oceanic is your only option.

Regulators had only limited discretion in dealing with the AOL-Time Warner merger, but in some parts of the country the occasion was used to try to leverage additional public benefits from the cable company. Few succeeded, but here in Hawai‘i state regulators went in the opposite direction, apparently paying tribute to AOL-Time Warner’s political clout.

Decision and Order No. 261 was signed by then-director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), Kathryn Matayoshi, on Aug. 11, 2000. It slashed the number of cable channels Oceanic is required to set aside for future public, education and government use (known as PEG access channels), and at the same time changed a key formula that essentially lowered the rent Oceanic pays to string its cables along publicly owned rights-of-way....

Ethics concerns

Although cable regulators defend the changes in franchise terms, they have little comment on the secrecy with which the decisions were made, feeding the perception that state policies are unduly influenced by backroom deals between cable regulators and the industry they are supposed to regulate.

It wasn’t simply that the public didn’t figure out what was going on until it was too late. The record seems to show the issues were systematically hidden in order to eliminate any opportunity for public questioning or debate.

Adding to the perception of backroom deals was the disclosure that Pamela Sonobe, wife of Cable Division Administrator Clyde Sonobe, began working for another Time-Warner company in 2001, just a year after the merger was approved and as Oceanic was preparing to establish its statewide monopoly.

In September 2002, the Community Television Producers Association filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission, alleging that Pamela Sonobe’s job with Time Warner Telecommunications in Honolulu created a conflict of interest for her husband in his oversight of Oceanic, another Time Warner company. The complaint cited an ethics provision that prohibits any state employee from taking any official acion directly affecting a business “in which he has a substantial financial interest. …”

The Ethics Commission agreed that Sonobe’s employment gave her husband “a substantial financial interest” in Time Warner Telecommunications. But the commission concluded it was not a conflict of interest. The commission’s ruling is contained in a Nov. 20, 2002, letter, a copy of which was provided to the Weekly by current DCCA Director Mark Recktenwald.

According to the commission’s findings, the cable and telecommunications firms are separate and distinct subsidiaries of AOL-Time Warner with separate offices and no shared officers. Further, the commission determined Clyde Sonobe’s cable duties do not require him to take any action “directly” affecting his wife’s employer.

“We have not been presented with any evidence that any specific action you take as the Cable Television Administrator directly affects Time Warner Communications,” the commission concluded, a finding that is unlikely to give access advocates much comfort.

However, in a March 11, 2003, letter to the Ethics Commission, Recktenwald disclosed that the Cable Division and Time Warner Telecommunications are parties in a pending Public Utilities Commission proceeding involving the state’s communications infrastructure. According to Recktenwald’s letter, the Cable Division has not “actively” participated in the case since Clyde Sonobe took his post in 1995.

Letter to the Editor

"Rotten Deal" failed to paint a clear picture of how messages on PEG channels are controlled through a combination of questionable government regulatory process, government-controlled PEG boards, and discriminatory actions and inactions by nepotistic, corporate PEG boards.

By creating and presenting their choice of propaganda and favoring them with more repeats than afforded others, those elitists have further silenced the voice of the silent majority.

Past DCCA director Matayoshi, whose husband worked for ex AOL Time Warner (AOL-TW) CEO Steve Case's father (attorney Dan Case), appointed the majority of board directors of all Hawaii's access organizations; Oceanic Time Warner appointed the remainder.

Former DCCA Cable TV division (CATV) administrator Susan Doyle was appointed to ‘Olelo's board by then-DCCA director Matayoshi, who served on the board of the YWCA, which employed Doyle as Executive Director. When the cable franchise was transferred to AOL-TW neither Doyle nor any 'Olelo directors or staff participated in the transfer hearing that resulted in substantial loses to PEG corporations statewide. Doyle admitted she alone knew of DCCA's intent to redefine gross revenues and cap 'Olelo's channels and funding, but failed to share it with any stakeholders.

Matayoshi's DCCA CATV administrator is currently under investigation by the Ethics Commission for the second time in one year as to whether his wife's employment with Time Warner Telecom (TWT) is a conflict since he regulates Time Warner Cable (TWC), the State's cable monopoly since 2002. Both companies are owned by AOL-TW.

Ex DCCA Director Alm when a member of 'Olelo's board, helped remove "sunshine" and open records clauses from bylaws he had been advised by the AG to put in. He also attempted to merge 'Olelo and KHET (on whose board he now sits as Treasurer) and approved that Olelo funds be deposited in the trust account he managed as its President, and DCCA, KHET and Oceanic also deposit their funds with that trust.

State law (HRS 440g-8(b) & 13) mandates establishment of a Cable Advisory Committee (CAC), which is to advise the DCCA Director in cable franchise decisions. However, no governor has appointed CAC members since 1996. As a consequence the DCCA Director did not have neutral advice when considering the franchise changes that resulted in benefitting AOL Time Warner and severely crippling Access organizations.

By creating and presenting their choice of propaganda and favoring them with more repeats than afforded others, the voice of the silent majority has been further silenced.

Jeff Garland
President, Community Television Producers Association (CTPA)

http://hpam.hi808.net/1RottenDeal/

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Robert Alm is expected to testify regarding his business, professional, political and personal relationships with Hawaiian Electric Company, Robert Clarke, Edwina Clarke, Constance Lau, Sukamto Sia, Lisa Ginoza, Faye Kurren, Judge Barry Kurren, Judge David Ezra, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge Steven Alm, University of Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Dee Jay Mailer, Robert K.U. Kihune, Gilbert Tam, Sandwich Isles Communications, Summit Communications, Haunani Apoliona, Governor Linda Lingle, Bob Awana, Daniel Akaka, Dan Inouye, Frank Teskey, Frank Bridgewater, Colbert Matsumoto, Benjamin Matsubara, Jon Van Dyke, Linda Chu Takayama, Ed Case, Dan Case, Steve Case, AOL-Time Warner, Hawaii Superferry, Suzanne Case, The Nature Conservancy, James Nicholson, Curtis Ching, Carol Muranaka, Mary Lou Woo, Steven Guttman, Judith Neustadter Fuqua, David Farmer, Ed Kubo, and others to be named upon discovery.