James B. Nicholson, Trustee vs. Harmon
(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon)
U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii
Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang
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HEARING ON MOTION FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT
DATE: January 16, 2007, 10:30 AM
JUDGE: Hon. David Ezra
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DEFENDANT’S WITNESS
MELODY MacKENZIE
Address to be determined.
Email: mkmacken@hawaii.edu
Melody MacKenzie is a big island attorney who was named by Judge Kevin Chang as a member of the “Blue Ribbon” Trustee Selection Committee which selected the candidates for the Kamehameha Schools trustees who replaced the five former trustees.
Melody MacKenzie is currently a Charter Member and Director of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.
Melody MacKenzie served from 1992 to 1999 as executive director of the Hawaii Claims Office of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which reviews claims made by individual Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries for trust breaches.
She was the Secretary, Native Hawaiian Bar Association; a graduate of William S. Richardson School of Law; served as senior staff attorney for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp from 1986 to 1992; part-time Honolulu district judge from 1987 to 1991; and a law clerk to former Chief Justice William S. Richardson.
On August 14, 2006, Melody MacKenzie was appointed to the new Trustee Selection Committee to select a new Kamehameha Schools trustee to replace outgoing Trustee Constance Lau. Other members of the Selection Committee include Robert Alm, Dr. Claire Asam, George Freeland, Francis Keala, Michael Rawlins, and Benjamin Matsubara.
Honolulu Advertiser columnist, Dave Shapiro, had these comments regarding the candidates selected by the Trustee Selection Committee:
November 27, 2006
Kamehameha hopefuls face grilling
By Dave Shapiro
The three final candidates for Kamehameha Schools trustee will be questioned by Kamehameha beneficiaries tomorrow at a public forum from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
The sponsor, Na Pua A Ke Ali'i Pauahi, has opened the event to public participation as an opportunity for beneficiaries and others to learn more about candidates for the $100,000-a-year position.
Banker Corbett Kalama and attorneys Allen Hoe and Ivan Lui-Kwan are the finalists named by a court-appointed selection committee to compete for the Kamehameha Schools trustee vacancy created by the resignation of Constance Lau.
State Probate Judge Colleen Hirai is accepting public comment until Dec. 1, after which she'll make her appointment.
The candidates have actively courted support from the Kamehameha 'ohana, but it's uncertain if the beneficiaries will make an endorsement — or how much weight Hirai would give their backing.
I received mixed reaction to my Advertiser column last week exploring the selection process. Some have enthusiastically supported one candidate or another, while others have expressed skepticism about selection procedures.
The skeptics believe the court needs to cast a wider net than the half mile between Bishop Street and the State Capitol if Kamehameha trustees are to represent the diversity of Hawaiian thought and experience as they fulfill the school's educational mission and help advance Hawaiian interests.
There's also a fear that politics is again becoming paramount in trustee selection just eight years after the politically connected former board of trustees was ousted for breaches of trust.
Hoe has been an associate of former Gov. John Waihee and Lui-Kwan has worked in the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. Both Waihee and Akaka supported the old trustees in the turmoil that led to their removal.
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November 22, 2006
The history lesson of Kamehameha Schools
The selection of a new Kamehameha Schools trustee to succeed Constance Lau is focusing attention on whether the $6 billion institution to educate native Hawaiian children has Fully reformed since the scandal that led to removal of the previous board of trustees in 1999.
Three trustee finalists chosen by a panel assigned by Probate Judge Colleen Hirai — banker Corbett Kalama and attorneys Allen Hoe and Ivan Lui-Kwan — are courting support among alumni and others in the Kamehameha 'ohana.
The public has until Dec. 1 to submit written comment, after which Hirai will make her appointment.
Since the turmoil of the 1990s, there have been obvious changes for the better at the schools funded by the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.
The compensation of more than $1 million a year paid to each former trustee has been greatly reduced, and current trustees have abandoned the speculative deal-making of their ousted predecessors for a more prudent investment strategy to keep the trust financially sound.
Trustees have devoted far more of the estate's assets to the primary mission of education, opening new campuses on Maui and the Big Island, restoring outreach programs axed by the former trustees and sponsoring public charter schools in predominantly Hawaiian areas.
But critics worry that some of the conditions remain that got the estate into trouble before.
Trustees are as secretive as ever in their dealings, and the agencies most responsible for finally holding the old trustees to account — the state attorney general, the Probate Court and the IRS — have pulled back their oversight.
The job doesn't pay $1 million anymore, but the remuneration of about $100,000 a year is still high for a part-time commitment; the average received by trustees of U.S. charitable institutions is about $6,500.
With pay possibly heading higher yet, a trusteeship remains a political plum, and critics such as senior U.S. District Judge Samuel King, co-author of "Broken Trust," believe the reforms won't be complete until Kamehameha Schools is converted into a nonprofit corporation with directors serving for little or no compensation, like schools such as Harvard and Yale.
The political overtones of the current trustee selection are nothing like the scandalous years, when the Bishop Estate board had a former president of the state Senate, a former speaker of the House of Representatives and a confidant to former Gov. John Waihee.
But all finalists to replace Lau have deep ties to Hawai'i's political and business establishments.
"They are perfect if you want to continue keeping Kamehameha under the thumb of the powers at be," said Jan E. Dill of Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi.
Kalama, an executive vice president at First Hawaiian Bank, worked for Democratic Party stalwart Walter Dods and was involved in providing input for the Akaka bill for Native Hawaiian political recognition.
Hoe was appointed by Waihee to the state Land Use Commission and served on a panel appointed by Hirai which recommended in 2004 that pay for Kamehameha trustees be nearly doubled to $180,000 for each trustee and $207,000 for the chairman. Trustees declined the increases at the time after community opposition.
Lui-Kwan was a law clerk for former Supreme Court justice and Kamehameha trustee William Richardson, served as Honolulu budget director under former Mayor Jeremy Harris and helped manage U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka's political campaigns. Akaka supported the deposed trustees and suggested at one point that their $1 million compensation might be too little.
The three finalists will be interviewed next week by alumni and other members of the Kamehameha 'ohana, and can expect some tough questions about their ties to the status quo and commitment to moving the Hawaiian community forward.
David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.
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Melody MacKenzie is expected to testify regarding her business, professional and personal relationships to William S. Richardson; Judge Eden Elizabeth Hifo (f.k.a. Bambi Weil), Nathan Aipa; Colleen Wong; Lyn Anzai; Earl Anzai; Guido Giacometti; Susan Tius; Sherry Broder; Beadie Dawson; Judge Kevin Chang; Judge David Ezra; Judge Barry Kurren; Faye Kurren; The Nature Conservancy; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Haunani Apoliona; Kenneth F. Brown; Colbert Matsumoto; Allan A. Smith; Dan Inouye; University of Hawaii Native Law Center; Daniel Akaka; Steve Case; Ed Case; Suzanne Case; University of Hawaii; Carol Muranaka; Judith Neustadter Fuqua; Steven Guttman; James B. Nicholson; and others to be named upon discovery.
Internet References:
www.starbulletin.com/2006/08/15/news/story12.html
www.hawaii-nation.org/kahale-goals.html
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2000/Jan/07/localnews4.html
http://starbulletin.com/2000/03/22/news/story3.html
www.hawaiianbar.org/nhba-leadership.html
www.hawaii.edu/cgi-bin/uhnews?20050627152234
www.the-catbird-seat.net/AAA-9-19-3.htm
www.the-catbird-seat.net/Confessions.htm
www.the-catbird-seat.net/PunaConnection.htm
www.the-catbird-seat.net/RICO-BH.htm
www.the-catbird-seat.net/Whistler.htm
www.the-catbird-seat.net/Whistleblowers.htm
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