COULD SOMETHING BE BREWING HERE?

LOCAL NEWS

Posted on: Saturday, September 22, 2007
Jaycees to fight beer allegation

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer


OTHER LIQUOR COMMISSION ACTIONS

Approved a request from Hawai'i Theatre Center to waive the requirement to file personal history and affidavits, FBI fingerprint cards and criminal history record clearances for its directors. But the commission denied requests to accept the theater's financial statement with its license application and to use the tax map submitted with a 1996 license application.

TOO MUCH ALOHA NOT ENOUGH SCRUTINY

Timothy Peter Janusz


Ex-Salvation Army official admits fraud in Hawaii


By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer



A former Salvation Army official pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding the charitable organization and four elderly donors out of more than $300,000.

Timothy Peter Janusz, a 44-year-old federal felon who holds degrees in law and business administration, pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts, including first-degree theft, forgery and money laundering. He admitted to taking money intended for the Salvation Army from donors between 2004 and 2006.
Each count carries a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000 per count.

Janusz was the Salvation Army's director of planned giving. He was fired when the allegations of wrongdoing surfaced.

Janusz, who was convicted in 1996 on federal fraud charges for stealing $2.2 million from an elderly Colorado couple, had previously pleaded not guilty to all of the Hawai'i charges.



Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Giving With Aloha

JUNE 16, 2008
GOVERNOR LINGLE SIGNS A BILL REGULATING CHARITES. Let's see how this pans out. COULD BE MORE OF THE SAME.





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SEPT. 19, 2007
By Rob Perez
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii's rules lax on oversight of charities

Hawai'i is one of only 11 states that do not require charities to register, a gap that allows thousands of local nonprofits to raise millions of dollars from the public with virtually no regular oversight from regulators.

a registration requirement, considered the foundation of an effective monitoring system by many national experts, means charities can collect donations from residents without anyone from the state making even cursory checks to see how that money generally is spent
NO REGISTRATION SYSTEM.



Registration of Hawaii charities doomed by political clout


After failing to get a charity registration bill passed in the 2001 legislative session, the state attorney general's office changed strategy.

It stripped the proposal of some of the requirements the industry considered onerous and, the following year, arranged to have a new measure introduced.

This time the attorney general's office proposed the simplest, most minimal form of registration: Charities would simply have to submit a copy of their federal tax returns each year.

The bill didn't even make it past the first committee.

The fate that the registration bills met in 2001 and 2002 underscores the influence that the nonprofit industry has at the Legislature.

The membership rosters of many of Hawai'i's most prominent charities read like a list of who's who in the community.

Corporate heads. Civic leaders. Major lobbyists. Government officials. Union executives.

Even state legislators sit on the volunteer boards.

NLRB: Mr. Nicholson Where Have You Been?

The Perception Of The Public Needs To Be Trusted And Believed.




Taken From An Interview
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer


Q. Since you started, has there been anything that surprised you?

A. One of the things that I was surprised with was that, in reviewing annual reports and information concerning board activities in preparation for my interviews, in order to try and get this job, I found that over 40 percent of the board's decisions were overturned. That's bad. That's just not paying attention. You have to look at the courts. You can't just make decisions. You can't make decisions based on emotions. The perception of the public was that the board wasn't being fair. Something needed to be fixed. We have a really good board. Emory Springer is a former police officer on the Big Island. He was the Big Island SHOPO representative. He's just a breath of fresh air and he's all gung-ho to try to resolve disputes, bring the parties together and try to work things out. And I'm the same way. And then there's Sarah Hirakami who is just brilliant. We come up with ideas and she looks up the law and tells us whether we can do it or not or finds cases in support of our positions. We have a real nice balance.

Always An Excuse

Energy fund contract violated Hawaii law


By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer



State officials violated procurement law with the recent selection of a manager for an $8.7 million hydrogen technology investment fund, according to the state Procurement Office.

The contract was awarded to H2 Energy LLC in early August even though it was the lowest-ranked choice of an evaluation committee that reviewed three qualifying proposals. Procurement office administrator Aaron Fujioka, speaking at a four-hour state Senate committee hearing on the matter yesterday, said the decision to go with H2 Energy was not in compliance with state procurement law.

The contract should have been awarded to the highest-ranking bidder based on the committee's evaluation of criteria in the state's original request for bids, according to a preliminary investigation by Fujioka. Whether the contract should be rebid and whether anyone could face penalties will depend on the findings of a more thorough probe.

"We would like to look at the rest of the information and make a more definitive, purposeful finding," Fujioka told the Senate Tourism and Government Operations Committee.

DISCRETION USED

The hydrogen energy investment fund, created by lawmakers in 2006, is designed to provide financing for companies working to develop clean-burning hydrogen fuel from renewable resources such as wind and water. The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism maintains that it had the discretion to select H2 Energy over top-ranked bidder Kolohala Holdings LLC.

DBEDT Director Ted Liu, who is the agency's procurement officer, said he selected H2 Energy to manage the fund because a DBEDT evaluation committee failed to identify a "hands-down" winning bidder.


top-ranked bidder Kolohala Holdings LLC



The agency has asked the state attorney general's office to clarify the law. More advisement.

"I will take full responsibility should it be found we made mistakes," Liu told lawmakers yesterday. At least somebody as the self respect to take the fall.In addition to the state Procurement Office investigation, DBEDT's selection of H2 Energy is being challenged by a losing bidder, Kolohala Holdings. Kolohala, which is a partnership involving UH Angels and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, has lodged an official protest with the agency over the decision.

Meanwhile, DBEDT has halted further efforts to go forward with H2 Energy as the fund's manager, Liu said. H2 Energy is a partnership involving HiBEAM and merchant bank Sennet Capital.

During yesterday's hearing at the state Capitol, DBEDT officials acknowledged not being aware of various procurement laws including one governing how much weight to give a lowest-cost bidder. We Don't Have To Know Anything. We Just Work Here.

H2 Energy was the highest-cost bidder, while Kolohala was the lowest-cost bidder, according to rankings produced by an internal review committee.

VIOLATION NOT INTENDED

How Can They Intentionally Violate The Law, When They Don't Take The Time To Know What It Is. But Some Things About The Law Are Common Sense. Excuses Excuses

Senate Vice President Donna Kim, D-14th (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights), said she didn't think DBEDT officials intentionally violated the law. However, she said she would like to see mandatory procurement law training for state agency directors and other procurement staff.

"I'm hoping ... that whoever's involved understands and is trained in the rules and regulations," she said. That's Why He Or She Got The Job. They Know What They're Doing.