Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha went to unusual lengths to aid Honolulu businessman Michael Miske, despite Miske’s criminal history, violent reputation, and pending trial on felony charges stemming from an alleged attack on a rival promoter in December 2012. Her actions were described in a post here earlier this week.
But Kealoha was not the only public official who appears to have gone out of their way to give Miske special treatment.
Trevor Ozawa, who at that time represented the east Honolulu area on the Honolulu City Council, also fought to give Miske special treatment despite opposition from several community groups in his district.
Ozawa, who is facing a special runoff election to regain his council seat after the Hawaii Supreme Court voided a narrow reelection victory over Waters in the 2018 general election, played a key role in backing Miske’s quest to obtain city approval to place lights on a tree in an oceanfront park in Hawaii Kai during the holiday season. Miske initially said the lights were a memorial to his son, who died in 2016 as a result of injuries suffered in a traffic accident, but later expanded that to include all those whose remains have been scattered at sea in Maunalua Bay.
In late 2016, Miske unilaterally and without permission wrapped the tree in lights, but later removed them under pressure from the Department of Parks and Recreation. He then turned to Ozawa for help.
Ozawa brokered a meeting between Miske and the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, according to documents obtained through a public records request. It turned out parks administrators had a number of substantive objections, ranging from potential damage to the health of the tree, to concerns about creating a precedent that would allow private citizens to appropriate public resources in other parks. As a result, the department declined to approve Miske’s plan.
Ozawa then drafted and introduced a bill that he would use as a political weapon to essentially force the department to go along with Miske’s request despite their objections.
Here’s an excerpt from a column I wrote about the situation at the time (see “Ian Lind: Why A Tree In Hawaii Kai Is Raising Questions Of Favoritism“).
…Ozawa prepared and introduced Bill 40, which would have established an “Adopt-a-Tree” program allowing Miske’s lights to be approved, along with similar efforts in other city parks. The measure drew continued opposition from Parks Director Michele Nekota, who expressed concern that opening the door to a program of wholesale installation of lights by private parties could cause damage to trees, interfere with regular maintenance and exceed the resources of the department to administer.
“With over 200,000 trees in our inventory and the use of private contractors as well as in-house crews for tree maintenance, it is impractical to contact and coordinate maintenance of each adopted tree,” Nekota wrote in testimony submitted to the committee.
Ozawa’s bill was deferred, but the councillman explained this was part of a ‘deal’ he made with the administration.“We reached an agreement … with some of the nearby residents who are planning to adopt the nearby Lukela Park and take care of the park,” Ozawa told the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board in May, according to an archived recording of the meeting. “They are lighting the tree in honor of those who have passed away,” he said.
Ozawa told the neighborhood board he had met a lot of resistance, and used the proposed “Adopt-a-Tree” bill as leverage to pressure the parks department to approve Miske’s tree lighting plan.
“The city didn’t want my bill to move forward, so they worked out a deal with this community group,” Ozawa.
When I was reporting this story in 2017, several people said they had been warned by others to be careful because of Miske’s violent reputation.
Even after the parks department relented and granted Miske a special permit to light the tree, internal emails show he refused to comply with the city’s rules and procedures, or the terms of the permit, and even threatened to cut down the tree if he didn’t get his way.
The emails show Miske refused to comply with the terms and conditions of the temporary permit, insisting that he would not remove the lights when the permit expired and threatening to retaliate if he did not get his way, while parks officials, unsure how to respond, finally turned to the mayor’s office for advice on how to handle the controversial situation.
Miske angrily emailed parks administrators saying he had no intention of following the rules, and threatened to resurrect Ozawa’s Bill 40, which Miske referred to as “our bill.”
“I’ll move forward with bill 40 so we’re clear the lights can stay on at night through-out the year,” he wrote.
A few minutes later, Miske sent a followup email: “And if we are successful in passing bill 40 I’ll be sure to allocate appropriate funds and place my best marketing efforts forward in notifying everyone on Facebook and Other social media platforms … so they can also apply for similar projects.” [see “Ian Lind: Playing Hardball Paid Off For Hawaii Kai Tree Lights“]
Not only did Ozawa go to unusual lengths to force the department to grant Miske a permit for the lights, he apparently did nothing to rein in Miske’s rejection of rules, and his repeated threats.
And, despite the litany of procedural and substantive problems, the city quietly issued another permit to allow Miske to reinstall the lights again in late 2018.
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Give me 5 minutes at 3 AM on a dark night and I’ll fix that “lights on a tree”.
One wonders what Frank Fasi would have done 🙂
The Supreme Court saved us. Ozawa can’t win.
Amazing, if Ozawa is re-elected he maybe indicted in the federal probe.
This is a significant link to a very potential Federal RICO action. It meets all elements of Racketering, Government entities Police Chief, Prosecutor, Councilmember Ozawa and alleged violent organized crime profit motivations. I see also House Speaker Saiki has crossed the line of Legislative and Judicial seperation by stating the State Supreme Court went beyond its bounds in issuing it’s ruling requiring a new election.
Ian Lind just praying you do not get wacked, Enjoy your site so much!
Why was this even an event worth talking about. The guy lost his son there. He wants to memorialize him to curb his grief and celebrate his son’s life. And ahhh, excuse me but Christmas lights don’t harm anything or every body’s Christmas tree and house would burn down. Ask yourself who really cared about the lights on that tree except one of two tree huggers who don’t have a life. Although ozawa is very under handed and deceitful I don’t think this particular charge against him can stick.
Yeah, I agree. It’s a stretch comparing Kealoha’s wrong doings to Ozawa letting that guy put up Christmas lights to memorialize his son. This is so ridiculous. Move on to more important things like who’s getting payoffs from the rail.
Perhaps if Miske was more of a pillar of society rather than a goon using goon tactics, people might have been more forgiving??
But yes…I agree with you about the RailFail.
For God’s sake, it’s a tree with lights. What is this? A war against Christmas trees? This is so manini and lame. People need to get over this.
haha!! good luck with that on an island in the middle of the ocean. one person’s manini is another person’s loudmouth drama.
Could it be that Ozawa went to bat for Miske because he felt physically threatened?
“Ask yourself who really cared about the lights on that tree”
Well gosh darn I CARE BECAUSE RULES and Ozawa supported the person who wasn’t willing to follow them. Tell you a lot about him.
Judging from a couple of posts now, “Lei” seems obsessed with the notion of someone getting “wacked.” I have not seen or heard of any suspicious body counts massing up yet, so let us know if we have missed something. I would predict that Ian and the dozens of other journalists as well as any of the hundreds of Grand Jury witnesses, and the public at large, are safe for crying out loud.
Ironic.
Another incident: https://damontucker.com/2013/05/28/victim-in-alleged-m-nightclub-beating-speaks-up-pictures-of-incident/?fbclid=IwAR0itgqQt1HNP350miIpMCugFpRHR_gAU2vG4yVTwHjdFLuT39brh22_PYA
So we have this incidence at the M nightclub happens in 2013. The prosecuting attorney is doing/dealing drugs around the islands and protecting the owner of the M…this happened 6 years ago..still no charges…so, yes, lets let this same owner of the M put lights wherever he wants to on the island.
So is Alan Kaneshiro, cited as the attorney for M nightclub, related to Keith Kaneshiro? See at 4:10 http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/31310689/brutal-beating-by-bouncers-at-m-nightclub/
I haven’t found anything that points in that direction beyond the name.
When Keith Kaneshiro first ran for prosecutor, former classmates recalled how as a child he would go to school early to make sure his teachers were safe as they arrived. He was paternalistic to his elders! During that election, Jeremy Harris’s colleagues stated “Jeremy is brilliant.” No such praise for Kaneshiro, which is strange for a prosecuting attorney. A caring, loyal person like Kaneshiro should’ve become a school principal, not an attorney. Peter Carlyle criticizes Kaneshiro for disorganization, laziness and decisions that have no rhyme or reason, but Carlyle never accused Kaneshiro of corruption. We do have corrupt officials who have a tribal brutishness, but in other cases the problem is naive people out of their depth. Sometimes nice guys are enablers.
A former Honolulu police sergeant claims he is being prosecuted in retaliation for arresting a convicted felon against the wishes of former Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha. https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/04/09/hawaii-news/ex-officer-claims-retaliation-for-crossing-kealoha/ Miske sure has gotten lots of special favors.