Woo vs. Harmon - Witness Milton Holt

James B. Nicholson, Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

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DEFENDANT’S MOTIONS FOR ABATEMENT, DAMAGES, ETC.

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DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

MILTON HOLT

Address to be determined.

Former Hawaii State Senator; former Special Projects Officer for Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate (now Kamehameha Schools).

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January 10, 2003

Charitable trust
settles political
investigation

Kamehameha Schools agrees
to pay a $10,000 fine

By Rick Daysog, Star-Bulletin

The Kamehameha Schools has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to settle the state Campaign Spending Commission's 2 1/2-year-old investigation into the estate's political activities.

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, the $6 billion charitable trust agreed to settle with the commission, ending the only remaining investigation of the Kamehameha Schools' former trustees Henry Peters, Richard "Dickie" Wong, Lokelani Lindsey, Oswald Stender and Gerard Jervis. The fine, which will be paid to the Hawaii Election Campaign Trust Fund, requires the approval of the commission's five-member board, which will meet on Thursday.

Kamehameha Schools' Chief Executive Hamilton McCubbin said the agreement avoids a costly, protracted legal battle and will allow the trust to focus resources on its educational mission.

"It resolves one of the last remaining issues relating to the former management of the trust," McCubbin said.

Bob Watada, the commission's executive director, said he did not seek a larger fine against Kamehameha Schools since the former trustees who took part in the political activities have resigned and the estate's current managers and board of trustees have implemented significant reforms.

Watada also noted that former staffers such as the late Namlyn Snow, who headed the government relations division, have either died or have left the trust, while recipients of the estate's political support such as former state Sens. Milton Holt and Marshall Ige have been convicted of criminal charges.

"I think it's clear the Kamehameha Schools has taken steps to make sure that they don't get involved in political campaigns," Watada said.

The commission began its investigation in April 2000, looking into more than $200,000 in polling that the trust conducted on behalf of several prominent state lawmakers during the 1990s.

The commission also was looking into tens of thousands of dollars in political fund-raising tickets that the trust funneled to its employees and outside contractors.

Watada said evidence included in more than 40,000 pages of internal trust documents and witness interviews indicated that the trust operated an in-house network that distributed fund-raiser tickets to trustees and their relatives, staffers and to the estate's engineering, architecture and law firms.

Recipients included Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, former Mayor Frank Fasi, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and former Honolulu City Councilman Arnold Morgado.

Under federal tax law, charities like the Kamehameha Schools can lose their tax-exempt status for making political contributions.

In the early 1990s the trust also hired a pollster, QMark Research & Polling, to conduct political research in the districts of their biggest legislative supporters, including former state House Speaker Joe Souki and former state Sens. Holt, Ige, Robert Herkes, Donna Ikeda and Whitney Anderson.

The estate's former trustees had argued that the polls were conducted to gauge public sentiment on controversial issues such as land use and leasehold reform in those districts.

But Watada noted that the polls also asked specific questions about candidates the trustees supported.

The polls were delivered to the legislators in unmarked envelopes in an apparent attempt to conceal their source, he added.

Neither the trust nor the candidates declared the polls as campaign contributions as required by law. A poll is considered a campaign contribution if its findings are shared with a limited number of candidates and if its value exceeds $1,000.

http://starbulletin.com/2003/01/10/news/story5.html

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April 20, 1996

VOLCANIC ASH

By David Shapiro

To Volcanic Ash Archive

Milton Holt considers himself above rules

STATE Sen. Milton Holt has a reputation as a slick politician. He certainly impressed me with the slick way he cut himself a year and a half of slack with his dubious retirement announcement.

In 1994, Holt was taking a lot of heat. He'd been through highly publicized incidents involving spouse abuse, disorderly conduct in New Orleans and a bizarre disappearance during a key point in the legislative session. His high profile as the Senate's bad boy forced him to give up his bid for the Senate presidency and concede it to rival Norman Mizuguchi.

So Holt announced he wouldn't seek re-election - and might not even finish his term - to spend more time with his children, who had been placed in his custody after his divorce.

Politically, it was a master stroke. He was no longer a potential Senate president, but a lame duck and struggling single parent. The news media and his political opponents backed off, sparing him further hard questions about his erratic personal and public behavior.

It left him free to play the bad boy with impunity. Free to support the another party's candidate for governor. Free to play political games with Gov. Ben Cayetano on auto insurance that leave Hawaii's outrageous rates intact. Free to subvert the legislative process to make a grandstand play on same-sex marriage.

And predictably, the retirement is looking shaky. First, he announced last year that family and friends were helping him with the children and he'd be able to finish his term after all. Now he's throwing out hints that, at the request of his "supporters," he may seek re-election.

This has been great news to Senate allies like Ways and Means Chairwoman Donna Ikeda, who says the Senate just couldn't get along without Holt. No doubt it's also great news to Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, which has to love having its employee in the Senate.

In fact, when the Oahu Democratic Party considered censuring Holt for endorsing Best Party candidate Frank Fasi over fellow Democrat Cayetano, he was represented by a Bishop Estate attorney while Ikeda and Sen. Randall Iwase had a chat with the party officials to - in Ikeda's words - assure "fairness and due process, no matter who you are or what your name happens to be." Holt got off with a wrist slap.

The bad boy recently showed his own high regard for due process by trampling every Senate rule for fairness and openness to get the Senate on record against same-sex marriages.

It's not that he had the wrong idea. Somebody has to stop this foolish rush toward legalized same-sex marriage. But a real leader would have respected the rules and relied on persuasive powers instead of chicanery.

AFTER much huffing and puffing, Senate leaders gave him his way. It was just another example of how Holt considers himself above the rules - and another time he proved he can get away with playing outside the rules.

With all the solid, reliable and talented people of unquestioned character who would love to serve in the Senate, how can Donna Ikeda suggest with a straight face that the Senate needs Milton Holt?

State Rep. Suzanne Chun Oakland says she'll run for Holt's Senate seat whether he seeks re-election or not. Brave words, but I suspect the powerful forces that protect Milton Holt will prevail upon Chun Oakland to drop out if Holt decides he wants to keep his seat.

I hope I'm wrong and she stays in. Voters in the district deserve a choice on whether or not they need Milton Holt.

The decision shouldn't be made for them by the Bishop Estate, Donna Ikeda and Randall Iwase.

David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at editor@starbulletin.com.
Volcanic Ash runs every Saturday in the Star-Bulletin.