The Honolulu Star-Advertiser ran a featured story on Thursday, October 31, concering the controversial proposal by the administration of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell to enter into a private-public partnership to finance and operate a deluxe children’s playground in a section of Ala Moana Park.

The newspaper ran a teaser on the front page of its print edition: “Nonprofit partner says Ala Moana is ideal site for playground project.”

The story itself ran on Page B1, the front of the Local/Business section, with a different headline: “Nonprofit partner says playground relocation not viable.”

Both spins were based on comments by Tiffany Vara, described in the story as “director of the nonprofit Pa’ani Kakou, which has agreed to partner with the city to build Oahu’s first inclusive children’s playground.”

The story doesn’t say much more about this nonprofit group, the interests it represents, nor the nature and extent of its influence with Mayor Caldwell and his administration. It’s a significant part of the underlying story, but the Star-Advertiser sidestepped it.

However, critics of the project have essentially accused the group of being a front for the developers of the ultra-luxury Park Lane condominium project across the street at Ala Moana Center, where some units are priced in the tens of millions. Mayor Caldwell has also drawn criticism for his determination to take a significant amount of open space in Ala Moana Park and, in their view, treat it as an amenity to be put under the control of the owners of units in Park Lane.

I decided to “follow the money.” It usually leads to interesting findings.

The nonprofit “Pa’ani Kakou” was only recently recognized by the IRS. It lists four directors in its registration filed with the state’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs–Tiffana Vara, Alana Kobayashi Pakkala, Ian MacNaughton, and Crystal Rose–all directly tied to Park Lane and its developers.

As veteran reporter Denby Fawcett wrote in a recent Civil Beat column: “The mayor’s earlier description of them as “a group of mothers” doesn’t seem to fit.”

It’s fair to say that if money buys political clout, then the board of Pa’ani Kakou and the developers of Park Lane undoubtedly have a lot of it. Perhaps that’s why the mayor is so firmly behind the group in this controversy.

The developer, AMX Partners, LLC., was formed by the MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group, Blacksand Capital, and the owners of Ala Moana Center, General Growth Properties, now known as GGP Inc. GGP was taken over by Brookfield Property Partners LP, a former minority owner of the company, in a 2018 deal valued at nearly $15 billion.

Tiffany Vara has been spokesperson for Pa’ani Kakou. Vara identified herself in written testimony submitted to the Honolulu City Council in April 2017 “as mother of five children, the youngest of whom acquired profound special needs after a brain injury at the age of two.” Her husband, Ray Vara, is CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health, and they live in a unit at Park Lane now assessed for tax purposes at $3.7 million. Ray Vara is vice-president of the Association of Apartment Owners of Park Lane.

Ray Vara contributed $25,500 to state and local candidates between the beginning of 2012 and June 30, 2019, according to data published by the Campaign Spending Commission. That total included $5,500 contributed to Kirk Caldwell’s mayoral campaign.

Alana Kobayashi Pakkala, is now chief operating officer of the Kobayashi Group, one of the primary corporate members of AMX Partners. The Kobayashi Group was founded by her father, and is now controlled by Pakkala and her two brothers.

For several years, Pakkala has been named by Mayor Caldwell and the city council to serve as chair of the selection committee which doles out the city’s community development block grants, city records show.

Pakkala’s husband, Donald Matthew Pakkala, is listed in campaign spending records as director of sales for Park Lane, and is a licensed real estate salesperson with Heyer & Associates, which is listed as sales agent for Park Lane.

The couple contributed a total of $47,000 of their own money to state and local candidates between 2012 and mid-2019, according to Campaign Spending Commission data.

Their total included $6,000 to Mayor Caldwell, along with $5,250 to Honolulu City Council member Kymberly Pine (now a candidate for mayor), $4,500 to former council member Trevor Ozawa, and $2,000 each to council members Ernie Martin and Ron Menor.

Other officers and employees of Heyer & Associates, the real estate firm, contributed $20,200 to candidates during the same 2012-2019 period, including $9,000 going to Caldwell’s campaign and another $4,000 to Councilmember Kymberly Pine.

And other officers and employees of Pakkala’s company, Kobayashi Group, pumped even more cash into the political system. They contributed a total of $410,575 to candidates in the 2012-2019 period, including a whopping $53,000 to Mayor Caldwell.

They were equally generous with their contributions to members of the city council, including Trevor Ozawa ($27,500), Ikaika Anderson ($20,900), Kymberly Pine ($19,250), Ernie Martin (13,500), and Ron Menor ($9,000), with several other members receiving smaller amounts.

Ian MacNaughton is a director of MacNaughton Group, and a managing partner in Blacksand Capital, LLC., with Pakkala’s brother, BJ Kobayashi.

The two companies, MacNaughton Group and Blacksand Capital, along with their officers and employees, contributed a total of $231,800 to candidates during the 2012-2019 period, according to Campaign Spending Commission records.

Mayor Caldwell’s campaign received $35,800, more than any other candidate. A majority of Honolulu City Council members also received multiple contributions, including Kymberly Pine ($26,750), Trevor Ozawa ($26,600), Ikaika Anderson ($14,100), Ernie Martin ($13,000), Tommy Waters ($9,500), Ann Kobayashi ($5,000) and Ron Menor ($5,000).

And Crystal Rose is an attorney and partner in the firm of Bays Lung Rose & Holma, which is disclosed in the legally-required Developers Public Report to have served as the attorney for the Park Lane developers.

Rose contributed $4,000 to Caldwell’s 2016 reelection campaign, while other employees at Bays Lung Rose & Holma added another $10,600. In total, the law firm contributed $49,950 to state and local candidates during the 2012-2019 period, Campaign Spending Commission records show.

By my count, the campaign contributions to Mayor Caldwell linked to the directors of the nonprofit Pa’ani Kakou came to a total of $123,900 during the 2012-2019 period, and their broader political influence (the implied “what we could do for you in the future if we really tried”) was much greater. Far from simply “a group of mothers.” Certainly the mayor was well aware of that fact.

I suppose, based on following the money, we can understand Mayor Caldwell’s commitment to this project in this particular location, despite objections from the larger community of park users.

While creating a playground that is accessible to special needs children may be a desirable goal, it doesn’t follow that a group with clear special interests should be able to specify its location and design, especially when its proposed location appears to result in direct benefits to their luxury condominium development across the street and would be a loss of needed open space accessible to the public. It might be described as a classic conflict of interest, in which case the proposed playground deserves all the scrutiny it is getting.

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