Kalani Ho’s position at Maui Land and Pineapple has changed since we first began this journey.
Originally, she was the Community Liasion, her title might have been a little different and I apologize for not remembering it. Since then she has been promoted and moved up to the Land and Property Manager.
Although Kalani Ho, as she explained, is a fact finder and not a decision maker all of our contact with the company has been through Kalani. This is a very frustrating process.
We know that we are not being fully represented to the decision makers because we are never allowed in any conversation or meeting with Kalani to fully disclose what we are doing or where we are headed.
Often times Kalani has made committments to do something and has never followed through.
For example: We own a parcel in Honokohau valley. One of the parcels that border our property is the Lychee grove. The trees are unkept, unproductive and pose danger in several ways. We approached Kalani to talk about trimming some of those trees on the boundary so our property is not in danger. It took more than 9 months to get her out there to even look at what we are talking about. Now this was when we were working together and I did not realize MLP did not own most of the land it claims to at that time. When she finally found the time to address this matter she said we needed to have waivers signed by us and the people who were doing the trimming. Yes we were paying for the trimming. That has been almost 2 years ago, we still have not received the paperwork from her to proceed with that. Well in the meantime our family was title searching each Land Commission Award in that valley and we found that they do not own that parcel! We have identified the owners and will be working with them to bring the trees back into productivity and moving MLP off of that parcel.
Just a funny story here. When Kalani and I drove out to the valley to look at this parcel there was a young man hitch hiking to the valley. He lived there. I told Kalani we had to pick him up. I could not just pass him by and it sure wouldn’t look good to do for MLP, who says it was trying to establish a working relationship with people in the valley. She said ok but he had to sit in the back of the truck! Well we pulled over and he climbed into the back seat. I wasn’t going to tell him jump in the back! She didn’t either. I am not sure what she was afraid of or why she felt he was not good enough to sit up there with us? Was his clothes dirty? No. Was he dirty? No. He just had an unkept look because he was poor? Maybe. His family has had portions of their land consumed by MLP. They are original awardees to that valley.
I use to think Kalani was an honest and up and up kind of person who was really into her job and wanted to use her position to make positve changes and make things correct. I thought this because it is what she voiced on numerous occassions. I no longer think this. This is just my opnion and my feeling.
Maui Land and Pineapple Caught with Stolen Lands 