At the request of an Ilikai owner (who is also a full-time resident at the Ilikai), I am posting their letter, please see below.

“Olga,

       I completely agree with you assessment of the current board. I am not at all comfortable with the fact that most of the people at the front of the room during board meetings [OLGA: this refers to the Board Directors] either are or were products of the second floor rental office [OLGA: this refers to Marina Hawaii Vacations, a rental and sales company owned by the Tokioka Family].   And if not directly involved with that office, they are indirectly involved in that they rent their condos through that office. In effect they have formed a close knit club among themselves and slant their decisions to favor their agenda rather than the interests of us, individual owners. Furthermore, please explain to me why certain individuals who neither live in the Ilikai nor own anything in the Ilikai are on our board of directors supposedly representing us, owners [OLGA: this refers to Dass Ramadass who is an employee of the Tokiokas' companies that own one unit at the Ilikai (or several at most if under different names).  Dass Ramadass is a Board Director, but he does not own anything at the Ilikai.  How can he act in undivided loyalty to the AOAO and owners if he is not an owner here?  Isn't his loyalty instead directed to his employer, the Tokiokas' companies?].  I would suggest they would be better suited being on the board of directors of the building or neighborhood in which they live rather than on the board of the building in which I live.

Concerning the upcoming board elections, Hawaii First in their mailings to us did not even tell us how many seats are up for reelection (they should go too).  I believe you pointed out that 7 of the 9 seats are up for election, so it is a big and important election. The present board is, of course, doing everything possible to acquire proxies in order to keep themselves in power, however, in my opinion a number of them should go. It is also my opinion that I-Star should, as they own a large portion of the Ilikai, have representation on the board.  They are Steve Stinson and Lesley Love. The only other candidates that I know of (other than the current board) are you Olga Geling , Robert Humphreys (a recently retired attorney) and Cheryl Van Law (a relatively new and very qualified (real estate) arrival).  I would suggest to undecided voters to give these five applicants serious consideration.  To be voted off the board are (in my opinion) Dass Ramadass, Lea Sasak, Robert Currie and others of your choosing.

                               For a better Ilikai,

                              Robert Vogtritter”

P.S. Olga’s comment: I certainly agree with what Mr. Vogtritter has to say.  With one exception – regarding the Board candidate Cheryl Van Law.  I certainly agree with Cheryl on many issues, most notably regarding the assessment of the current Board as a total major roadblock to any progress here.  This Board had a whole year to prove themselves, but they failed, dismal record.  But I disagree with Cheryl on several key issues.  For ex., Cheryl has been advocating for letting Shell and timeshare stay here and making statements to the effect that timeshare is legal here.  These statements of hers are totally off-base and do NOT correspond to what our covenants and applicable law and law cases say.

I am posting this for those who are out of town and may be wondering what has been happening here in terms of the tsunami warning.  This was quite an exciting day here, in anticipation of drama, if not tragedy, but then luckily nothing happened.  At 6 AM we heard a statewide tsunami warning siren that went on for some time.  After that, the Ilikai security announced via the speaker system about the tsunami alert.  They made several announcements over the period of several hours.  There was no evacuation or anything like that here at the Ilikai.  Luckily, there wasn’t really much of a tsunami at all, no damage around here or anything like that.  The tsunami warning got canceled.  It was interesting to see the Ala Wai Harbor at least half empty, as folks took their boats to the ocean for safety to wait out the anticipated tsunami.  Most of the boats that remained at the Harbor were those of absentee owners.  I know a couple people who have boats there, and they sure were quick to take their boats to the ocean for safety once they found out about the warning.  Now the mood is happy and celebrative

From a personal perspective, I would add that I was really impressed with how prepared our State seemed to be – organized, with warnings, announcements, evacated whoever needed to be evacuated, no panic.  Organized and prepared.  Very impressive.

Pacific Business News reports: “Sarento’s owners see bright future for top of the Ilikai.”

The next Board meeting is scheduled for this Thursday, February 25, 2010, at 3 PM, Kauai room on the 2nd floor.  Ilikai owners are invited and encouraged to attend.

By now it is no secret around the Ilikai building that at the last Board meeting on January 28, 2010, the Board voted to re-bid the managing agent contract currently held by Hawaii First and that Hawaiian Properties would bid for this contract.  It is community knowledge around here that there have been concerns expressed about Hawaii First, especially regarding the Anekona delinquencies.  I am no fan of Hawaii First, as those who read this blog have certainly noticed by now.

But Hawaiian Properties as a potential replacement?!

I am sure Hawaiian Properties is a great and highly reputable company.  I have absolutely nothing about them themselves.  But that’s not what it is about.

I’ve already written on this subject.  See, for example, my posting on the Elephant in the Room.  So I won’t repeat myself.

The concerns – very serous concerns – are about the governance and management of the Ilikai AOAO and the trend of where this is going.  The concern is that commercial interests of some business (the companies of the Tokioka Family that is) that owns one unit in the entire building of 1,009 condominiums (or several units at most if under different names) have so much influence over the AOAO Board of Directors and now may be taking over the financial management of the AOAO as well.  In my opinion, this will sink our AOAO into even more potential conflicts of interest and situations when the governance and management of the AOAO may end up being controlled by these outside commercial interests.  Haven’t we had enough of this type of situations with Anekona?

As said, I have nothing against the Tokiokas and their Hawaiian Properties themselves, I am sure they are reputable.  That’s not what it is about.  It is about the governance and management of our Ilikai AOAO.  I wrote and sent the following letter to the AOAO Board of Directors and the AOAO legal counsel, Milton Motooka, regarding these concerns.  Click on the link to view.

Please also note that in my letter I explicitly ask the Board: “If there are any factual misrepresentations, I urge you to let me know ASAP at your earliest convenience.  If you think my concerns are ungrounded, I urge you to let me know why.  I look forward to hearing from you.”

If you appealed your 2009 property taxes (I did), then you probably heard by now from the City and County of Honolulu (I did).  Please feel free to share your experiences.  Did you hear from them?  What response did you get?  Taxes affect us all, let’s share notes and experiences.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for next week’s Thursday, February 25, 2010, at 3 PM, – unless it gets re-scheduled.  Ilikai owners are invited and encouraged to attend.  Be there!

Let me introduce, with great pleasure, a fellow candidate for the Ilikai AOAO Board of Directors: Robert Humphreys.  Robert and I share the vision for the Ilikai and have agreed to join our efforts in terms of collecting vote proxies.  As a reminder: the proxies are not the actual votes.  Proxies are used to delegate the power to vote to another person.  Proxies are commonly used to form a voting bloc so that votes can be consolidated.  In our case, Robert and I forming such a voting bloc.  As said, Robert and I are joining our efforts – and will consolidate our proxies.  I am writing this to communicate that this is a strategy to make sure vote proxies are not wasted.

Click here to read Robert Humphreys’ personal statement.  Click on this link to read Robert Humphreys’ Vision Statement for the Ilikai. 

Robert and his wife first stayed at the Ilikai as visitors in 1971 and became owners in 2004.  They are part of the newer, progressive generation of Ilikai owners (and so am I).  They are residents of the state of Hawaii.  Robert is an attorney, still in active practice.  He routinely serves as an arbitrator, advising state agencies and national and local organizations.  He also used to head a large federal agency and worked as a counsel to a U.S. Senate Committee, as some of his credentials.

Robert and I share the vision for the Ilikai.  We need intelligent, educated, progressive and forward thinking people on our Board.  It is time to break this circle of the fraternity/sorority formed by the OBC (Old Boys (and some ladies) Club) directors currently on the Board.  These OBC directors-old-timers are dragging the Ilikai and all of us into the Stone Age.  They claim to represent the “owners.”  But in reality, they represent an OBC “fraternity/sorority” that they have formed here in our building as a way to kill time and boredom while retired.

For those of you who do not know Robert Humphreys: You may have seen him and his wife at Board meetings and around the Ilikai.  He is a tall, handsome and intelligent looking gentleman, with an equally attractive wife, a wonderful couple.

Vote for me and Robert!

Here is some interesting sample reading of advice our (the Ilikai AOAO that is) legal counsel, Milton Motooka, gives to Boards of Directors. 

Milton Motooka, Ilikai AOAO legal counsel

This was published in the December 2005 Hawaii Community Associations newsletter - see pages 3, 8 and 9 there.  In it, Milton Motooka talks about “Avoiding & Responding to Recall Petitions” and gives advice to Board Directors on how to deal with what he calls “dissident owners.”  Among other things, Mr. Motooka explicitly advises (see page 3 of the attached document, item 4-d), “The board should be seated on a riser and there should be a podium from which the president can preside.  It is a psychological benefit for the board to be seated on a riser.”

Gee whiz.  What can one say.

P.S.: Here is something to think about: Milton Motooka was the Ilikai AOAO’s legal counsel at the time Forward One (the hotel owner prior to Anekona) sold 80 units to the Shell timeshare company.  That is when we got timeshare here, which we now are trying to get off the premises.  As we eventually learned, Forward One was in great hesitation about legitimacy of timeshare for the Ilikai.  But they made A LOT of money by selling those units to Shell.  They were planning that transaction for at least 8-9 months – apparently, with full knowledge of the Board of Directors and the AOAO legal counsel, Milton Motooka.  Yet they kept this as top secret from the AOAO members, owners that is.  Ilikai owners did not find out about this until AFTER the fact. Questions remain about the role Milton Motooka played at that time.  Mr. Motooka is yet to come forward to explain himself.  WE INVITE AND ENCOURAGE MR. MOTOOKA TO PROVIDE EXPLANATIONS.

By the way, Bill Moore and Lavonne West  who are currently on the Board of Directors were on the Board at that time, and so was John Popovich who is now the AOAO manager.  Bill Moore and Lavonne West are also now trying to get re-elected to the Board.  Perhaps they could offer some explanations, too, as to what they were doing on the Board at the time Forward One brought Shell with their timeshare here and what makes them think they deserve to get re-elected to the Board.  Also on the Board at that time was Frank Tokioka of the Tokioka Family (see my “Elephant in the room” posting for some information about the Tokioka Family).  (One of the readers wrote to me, “With people like that on the Board, who needs enemies?!”)

P.S.: Readers have been commenting that the blog looks dull without pictures.  Excellent feedback.  Hence the picture.

As a reminder, here is what the Ilikai covenants (Declaration and Bylaws) say about permitted uses of Ilikai apartments:

1. Pursuant to Section 7(a) of the Ilikai Declaration, “[t]he owner of each apartment within the building shall use such apartment only as living accommodations for hotel or apartment purposes” (emphasis added).
2. Pursuant to Article VI Section 1(a) of the Ilikai By-Laws, “[t]he owner of each apartment within the building shall use such apartment only as living accommodations for hotel or apartment purposes” (emphasis added).

Timeshare is NOT one of the permitted uses!

At the last Board meeting (January), a representative from the Sarento’s restaurant debriefed on their news.  He stated that iStar renewed their lease (as far as I understood, for another 20 years).  He also informed that they are planning significant renovations.  He sounded very upbeat and optimistic about the future.  It was refreshing to hear good news. 

By the way, iStar offered the services of the same professional designer who is working on Sarento’s renovations to our Board of Directors.  iStar stated that they had offered this designer’s services – to be paid by iStar - repeatedly to our Board to assist with Common Elements renovations, such as the lobby furniture.  But no, our Board refused these professional services.  Instead, the Board Directors themselves chose the cheap ugly fabric for the furniture, the “design” for the elevator cab (cheap carpet on elevator cab walls and floor; they simply ruined the elevator), and cheap faux flowers all over the lobby.

The good news is: We have money in our Reserves.  Once we remove some of these Directors from the Board at the upcoming Annual Meeting, we can get professional designers and fix this damage.  This damage is not long-term.  It can be fixed relatively easily.  We just need to get fresh representation on the Board.

Back to Sarento’s:  Here is a report in the Pacific Business News of 02/08/2010.  Another article, in Honolulu Advertiser of 01/17/2010, reports, “Sarento’s adds live music on Thursdays.“  Apparently, the live music and Jazz Nights are quite popular there and bring significant crowds.