Woo vs. Harmon - Witness Rodney Park

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

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

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

RODNEY PARK

c/o Jeffrey H.K. Sia, Esq., Ayabe Chong Nishimoto Sia & Nakamura
Pauahi Tower, Ste. 2500
Honolulu, HI 96713,

and/or

c/o Matt Tsukazaki, Esq.,
Torkildson, Katz, Fonseca, Jaffe, Moore & Hetherington
700 Bishop Street, 15th Floor
Honolulu, HI 96813

Former President, P&C Insurance Company, Inc.; Former Director, Administration Group, Kamehameha Schools; Signatory to Settlement Agreement; witness in EQ2048; recipient of letters in Harmon’s alleged “letter-writing campaign.”

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NEW UPDATE (09-07-08):

EARL I. ANZAI
Attorney General of Hawaii

DOROTHY D. SELLERS
HUGH R. JONES
Deputy Attorneys General
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Attorneys for the Beneficiaries

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIRST CIRCUIT

STATE OF HAWAII

In the Matter of the Estate

BERNICE P. BISHOP,

Deceased.

EQUITY NO. 2048 KSCC

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REPORT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING MAY 7, 1999 ORDER

The May 7, 1999 order regarding orders to show cause requires the former trustees immediately to resign offices and directorships in the trust’s subsidiary and affiliated organizations... P&C Insurance Company, Inc., is a captive insurance company, the sole stock holder which is Pauahi Holdings Inc.

The Attorney General respectfully invites the court’s attention to the annual report publicly filed on March 28, 2000 by P&C (Ex. 1). The annual report lists Henry H. Peters as a director. The Attorney General is unable to determine whether the listing is incorrect; or whether Peters remains a director in violation of court order. The Attorney General’s several inquiries of the trust concerning this matter remain unanswered despite the passage of three months (Ex. 2).

DATED: Honolulu, Hawaii, May 5, 2000

Respectfully submitted,

<s> DOROTHY SELLERS
Deputy Attorney General

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DECLARATION OF DOROTHY SELLERS

DOROTHY SELLERS hereby states:

1. I am a deputy attorney general, and I am familiar with the case records and files in Hawaii First Circuit Court Equity No. 2048 going back to approximately August 1997.

2. I have personal knowledge of the facts contained in this declaration and am competent to testify to them.

3. Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of the annual report of P&C Insurance Company for the year ending Dec. 31, 1999, filed in late March 2000.

4, Exhibit 2 is a true and correct letter of my February 15, 2000 letter to counsel for the trust asking for verification that Henry Peters had resigned from P&C and the effective date of the resignation. I have never received a response to that letter.

5. On March 13, 2000, deputy attorney general Hugh Jones wrote trustee Libkuman (with a copy to general counsel Colleen Wong) about a number of matters. The final two paragraphs of that letter are:

Finally, we also requested some time ago copies of Henry Peters’ letters of resignation from directorships and ex officio positions, and specifically from P&C Insurance Company. Although the resignation letters of the other trustees were filed with the Court, Peters’ were not.

Please respond to these requests before March 31, 2000. Thank you.

I DECLARE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THAT THE FOREGOING IS TRUE AND CORRECT.

DATED: Honolulu, Hawaii, May 5, 2000

www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-PC-Peters-5-5-0.pdf

www.kycbs.net/PC-Arms-Length-Guide-10-1-94.pdf

www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-Mediation-Order-3-9-0.pdf

www.kycbs.net/KSBE-INTERROGATORIES.htm

www.kycbs.net/RICO-In-Paradise.htm

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NEW DISCOVERY (02-09-08): Kamehameha Schools made a “confidential” settlement agreement with the plaintiff in the John Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools case, which my former attorney, John Goemans, Esq., says, according to what he has learned from the IRS, violates the rules for a non-profit charitable trust:

February 9, 2008

$7M

An attorney involved in a challenge to Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-only policy reveals the amount of a settlement

By Ken Kobayashi, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Kamehameha Schools made the first move to settle a legal challenge to their admissions policy giving preference to native Hawaiians and later agreed to pay $7 million, a lawyer involved in the case said yesterday.

John Goemans, an attorney for an unnamed non-native Hawaiian student who filed a lawsuit contesting the policy, said the charitable trust offered for the first time to talk about an out-of-court settlement last May, just days before the U.S. Supreme Court was to decide whether to hear the case.

Goemans, a former Big Island attorney recuperating in Florida from heart surgery, and Sacramento, Calif., lawyer Eric Grant, the lead attorney, represented the unnamed student and his mother.

"They (the schools) approached Eric and said we wanted to settle and we have to settle by Friday morning," when it was believed the high court was to make a decision about accepting the case, Goemans said.

He said it appeared the high court would accept their appeal of an 8-7 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the policy.

"They (the schools) were worried about losing in the Supreme Court," Goemans said.

Goemans said he did not know how Grant and the Kamehameha Schools arrived at the $7 million figure.

The hotly disputed federal civil rights lawsuit caused a firestorm of controversy among Kamehameha Schools supporters who believed the challenge struck at the more than century-old admissions policy and the heart of the charitable trust's mission to educate children of Hawaiian ancestry.

The confidential settlement was announced on May 14. Those connected with the case repeatedly refused to disclose the terms.

Goemans said he was disclosing the amount because he said he recently learned from Internal Revenue Service officials that Kamehameha Schools, a tax-exempt charitable trust, cannot keep the figure confidential.

"Because exempt organizations operate in the public good, you got to report all your expenses with particularity, and you cannot keep information relative to those expenses confidential," he said. "It's in the public interest to have full disclosure."

Ann Botticelli, Kamehameha Schools spokeswoman, said yesterday the settlement contained a confidentiality clause.

"We intend to honor the terms, and we will not be discussing the settlement or John Goemans' assertions," she said.

Grant said yesterday he had no comment.

Kamehameha Schools, a multibillion-dollar charitable trust and the state's largest private landowner, was established under the 1883 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. It educates more than 6,700 students at its flagship campus at Kapalama Heights, two other campuses on Maui and the Big Island, and 31 preschools throughout the state.

Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Kay upheld the school's Hawaiians-first policy, but a panel of the appeals court in San Francisco ruled 2-1 that the practice violated federal civil rights laws. That decision triggered statewide protests and marches by school supporters.

Later, a larger appeals court panel voted 8-7 to uphold the policy.

It was an appeal by Grant of that 8-7 ruling that was on the doorsteps of the U.S. Supreme Court when the settlement was announced.

At the time, school officials indicated that the settlement calling for the dismissal of the lawsuit leaves intact the appeals court's 8-7 decision upholding the admissions policy.

But the dismissal does not guarantee that another lawsuit might surface and make its way to the high court, although it would first have to go through the federal trial and appeals courts, where the 8-7 ruling would be considered to be binding on the issue. But even if those who file the new lawsuit lose on those two levels, they could still ask the high court to review the case.

Honolulu attorney David Rosen said he has plaintiffs for a lawsuit to challenge the admissions policy. He said the settlement does not affect his case. Rosen said he expects the suit will be filed this year.

Goemans said Grant received 40 percent, or $2.8 million of the $7 million. Goemans said he is preparing to file his own lawsuit seeking to recover a "reasonable percentage" of the $7 million for his work in the case.

Goemans said he found the unnamed student and arranged for Grant to be the attorney for the student and his mother.

"I put the whole thing together," Goemans said. "But for me there would not have been a $7 million payment."

The student never was admitted to Kamehameha Schools because his case was pending. He has since graduated from high school and had been attending college, Grant said last year.

http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/09/news/story02.html

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February 9, 2008

Amount of settlement
raises critical concern

By Robert Shikina, rshikina@starbulletin.com

Supporters and critics expressed surprise yesterday at the $7 million Kamehameha Schools paid a student to settle a lawsuit disputing its Hawaiians-first admission policy.

One Kamehameha Schools alumnus says disclosure of the settlement with the anonymous, non-Hawaiian student will prompt questions among Hawaiians.

"I'm not happy with $7 million," said Kamehameha Schools alumnus Jan E. Hanohano Dill. "Unfortunately, that's a lot of money, and it's going to create a lot of questions in the Hawaiian community whether it was right or wrong and to continue."

Dill, also a board member of Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi, a nonprofit group whose members include students, parents, and alumni of Kamehameha Schools, said he continues to support the school's decision.

"I don't know the details, and I think that's something that has to be cleared," he said. "You settle because you want to avoid costs that would be incurred as you go forward."

He added, "I have to believe that they understood that this was something good for the Hawaiian people. ... It will be clear as things unfold whether that was true."

Dill, who is also president of the nonprofit Partners in Development Foundation, said the admissions policy must eventually be addressed and that the settlement avoids this case but does not stop other cases.

Marion Joy, former vice president of Na Pua, called the settlement a "misuse of trust funds."

"The trust is continually going to be challenged," she said. "This is not going to be the last. ... As far as settling for the particular lawsuit, it's not in the best interests of the beneficiaries (of the 1883 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop)."

Kamehameha Schools declined comment.

Honolulu attorney David Rosen, who has sought potential clients to sue Kamehameha over its admissions policy after the settlement, sent out a statement yesterday that said the $7 million settlement was used to "buy off this case."

He added that the trustees should open a campus on the Leeward Coast of Oahu and possibly Molokai where increased educational opportunities are needed.

H. William Burgess, a retired attorney and founder of Aloha for All, a group opposed to Hawaiian sovereignty, said the settlement raises questions about the proper use of the trust funds.

"Normally, trustees, if they're doubtful about doing something, they ask the court to give them instructions," he said. "Yet in this case, the biggest charitable trust, probably in the nation, instead of welcoming the opportunity to get the highest court in the land to settle it, they pay $7 million to leave it open. And it is very much open."

http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/09/news/story03.html

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From The Catbird Seat website:

The Wise Old Owl asks: How much of the settlement amount came from Kamehameha’s insurance companies, and how much came from the trust funds? How much did Kamehameha Schools (and/or their insurance company) spend for defense costs in this case before they decided to settle? Who is their insurance company? Their insurance broker? Who actually signed the Settlement Agreement?

http://www.kycbs.net/Bishop7.htm

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January 24, 2001

Kamehameha
managers shuffled
in shake-up

An estate spokesman says
the changes are the result of
the trust's strategic plan

By Rick Daysog, Star-Bulletin

Kamehameha Schools' senior management team has undergone a major shake-up.

Rodney Park, former head of the $6 billion charitable trust's administration group, left Dec. 31 after his $160,000-a-year position was eliminated.

Attorney Nathan Aipa recently lost his title as the acting chief operating officer but will remain at the estate in a lesser capacity.

Aipa, who had earned as much as $190,000 a year, had been on paid leave since last May but returned to work earlier this month.

Estate spokesman Kekoa Paulsen said the management changes are largely the result of the estate's strategic plan, which was completed last year.

Paulsen said the estate eliminated Park's position when it merged its administration and operations departments. The new department is headed on an interim basis by retired Gen. Dwight Kealoha, who is the acting chief administrative officer, Paulsen said.

Paulsen noted that the trust has made a number of significant management changes since last year due to the new strategic plan.

Rockne Freitas, former vice president for the trust's education group, and Yukio Takemoto, former state budget director who previously headed the Kamehameha School's office of budget and review, were reassigned several months ago to new positions.

Takemoto is now director of the Kamehameha Schools' facilities development and support division; Freitas is executive director of the Ke Alii Pauahi Scholarship Fund.

Park, Aipa, Takemoto and Freitas were among the trust's top executives during the recent three-year legal battle involving the Kamehameha Schools. Critics have linked the managers with embattled former trustees Henry Peters, Richard "Dickie" Wong and Lokelani Lindsey, who were ousted in 1999.

The trust's current senior managers team includes chief executive officer Hamilton McCubbin, chief legal officer Colleen Wong and chief investment officer Wendell Brooks. Eric Yeaman is chief financial officer and Michael Chun is acting chief educational officer. Park, who had worked at the estate since 1985 and served as head of administration since 1994, could not be reached for comment.

Aipa, meanwhile, has reapplied for a new job at the estate.

The estate's general counsel between 1986 and 1999, Aipa took a voluntary paid leave of absence in May after a report by Robert Richards, the court-appointed special master, charged that several of the trust's outside attorneys conducted questionable legal work and attempted to intimidate critics of the former trustees.

The report prompted the estate to terminate many of its outside law firms, although several firms have since been rehired following a lengthy internal investigation. Aipa supervised the outside law firms' legal work.

The recent shake-up coincides with the completion of an internal investigation into the conduct of the estate's senior managers. Paulsen declined to discuss the report's findings, saying it involves personnel matters.

Bishop Estate Archive

Kamehameha Schools

Kamehameha Schools Strategic Plan

http://starbulletin.com/2001/01/24/news/story2.html

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Rodney Park is expected to testify as to the facts of the settlement and his relationships with Kamehameha Schools, P&C Insurance Co., Matsuo Takabuki, Hamilton McCubbin, Gilbert Tam, William S. Richardson, Nathan Aipa, Colleen Wong, Louanne Kam, Christine Lee, Dan Jones, Lyn Anzai, Margery Bronster, Guido Giacometti, Susan Tius, Sukamto Sia, Robert Katz, Esq, Matt Tsukazaki, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mark McConaghy, Prudential Insurance, Dennis Fern, James Ahloy, Mike McKenzie, McKenzie Methane, Federal Insurance (Chubb Group), Marsh & McLennan, Rocco Sansone, Peter Lowe, John Mullen Company, Yukio Takemoto, Milton Holt, Robert Herkes, Calvin Say, Henry Paulson, Aon Corp, BlackRock, Inc., Nancy Graham, Stephen Ross, WCI Communities; Robert T. O’Neill, KPMG Consulting; David Farmer, Ashford & Wriston, and others to be named upon discovery.

With respect to insurance coverages provided to KSBE and all related companies, Rodney Park is expected to provide for EACH claim that Harmon has made against KSBE and related entities, the following information: the name of the insurance carrier, their agent or broker, their address, policy number, policy period, claim number, and date claim made. He is also expected to testify whether or not he is a licensed Claims Adjuster, and expected to provide the name and address of the licensed Claims Adjuster who was responsible for adjusting EACH of Harmon’s claims, including his Wrongful Termination and RICO lawsuits.

Mr. Park also expected to testify regarding alleged tax fraud, insurance fraud, bribes, kick-backs, bid-rigging, unfair claims practices and other illegal acts involving Marsh & McLennan, Federal Insurance Company (Chubb Group), Aon, and other insurance carriers and agents yet to be named, and he is expected to testify regarding alleged violations of IRS regulations, illegal campaign contributions, obstruction of justice, and other wrongful acts by former, interim and current trustees, directors, officers, employees and independent contractors for Kamehameha Schools, its subsidiaries and related companies, including P&C Insurance Company, Inc.