Posted on: Saturday, September 4, 2004
Web site inflames Hokulia dispute
| • | 'Final' Hokuli'a offer on Web site |
Associated Press
KAILUA, Hawai'i — A Hawaiian activist group sought $50 million and control of culture concerns to settle its lawsuit against the stalled 1,550-acre South Kona luxury development Hokulia.
Protect Keopuka Ohana's detailed proposed settlement was posted on a Hokulia Web site Thursday, against the group's wishes.
"I did not expect this," said Alan Murakami, an attorney for Protect Keopuka Ohana. "I thought we were operating under what all attorneys in Hawai'i understood about outside-of-court discussions. This is quite disturbing."
Murakami demanded Hokulia shut down its Web site hokuliaupdate.com. PKO President Jim Medeiros said the group's demands had nothing to do with money. But even if its demands were met, the settlement offers no guarantee the project could proceed.
"In other words, PKO is insisting that (Hokulia) write enormous checks today, and bear unprecedented costs in the future, but PKO is not prepared to allow the projects to proceed once the checks are written," the company wrote June 18 to court-appointed mediator Patrick Yim.
According to a letter Wednesday from Hokulia CEO John DeFries to the editor of West Hawaii Today — also posted online — the Web site was created after plaintiffs made "false or misleading" statements.
Since the last mediation sessions in July, the case had not been discussed publicly, "hoping to encourage good relations among the parties," DeFries wrote. "In the last several days, however, the plaintiffs have issued press releases and written letters to the editor making statements about the mediation process and positions they and we allegedly took ... (that) are false or misleading."
Last month, Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra finalized his 2003 decision that found Hokulia violated state law on agricultural land use and ordered construction to cease until the land is reclassified by the state.
Earlier in August, court-ordered mediation between Oceanside 1250, the developer of the 1,500-acre project above Kealakekua Bay, and plaintiffs who sued to stop the project ceased after six months without a settlement.
