OHA Check Register 2024-25—Payroll Drives Spending up 30%

Hawai'i Free Press

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

OHA Check Register 2024-25—Payroll Drives Spending up 30%
By Andrew Walden @ 10:19 PM :: 301 Views :: Ethics, Labor, OHA

OHA Check Register 2024-25—Payroll Drives Spending up 30%

by Andrew Walden

Hawai’i Free Press has obtained a copy of the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Office of Hawaiian Affairs check register in response to an open records request.

The register shows 2,449 checks totaling $50,635,347.87--a spending increase of $11,551,331.53 or 30% from last year’s $39,084,016.34. All but $3.7M of the increase is payroll.

The two big increases this year:

OHA’s payroll totals $23.7M. This is up $7.8M, an increase of 49% from last year’s $15.9M. Payroll has increased to 46.8% of OHA spending.
524 Maui fire victims received payments of either $4,000 or $9,000 each -- totaling $3,061,000. This is 6% of OHA's total expenditures. Last year, $970,000 was given to 160 fire victims.

This is the second full fiscal year since OHA trustees ended ‘work from home’ effective July 1, 2023.

In January, 2025, OHA Trustees voted themselves a 62% pay hike effective February, 2025.

And there is more to come.

Effective July 1, 2025, the day after this check register ends, OHA began operating under a budget prepared by OHA Trustees’ Chair Kai Kahele. Kahele’s budget features: “salary adjustments for staff earning under $100,000, as well as executive re-leveling….”

OHA obtains an annual state appropriation fixed by the legislature. Customarily, the appropriation approximates a 20% cut of ‘ceded lands’ revenues. OHA claims this is a right, but the State Supreme Court has ruled that the allotment of ceded lands revenues is a political decision, not a vested right.

Efforts by OHA to expand ceded lands revenues serve to steer Hawaii towards greater and greater reliance on the tourism industry by repressing alternatives. Given the predominance of entertainers on the OHA Board of Trustees, this should not be a surprise.

In spite of the relatively manini amounts involved, the cost of acquisition is very high—for instance:

OHA gets a 20% cut of state harbors revenues, thus increasing consumer prices for all imported goods. OHA’s take for your misery? A paltry $77M.

Via the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp, OHA has paid for litigation designed to restrict the availability of developable land, thus increasing the cost of housing.

Housing and the high cost of goods are key factors driving the exodus of Native Hawaiians from Hawaii. The majority of Native Hawaiians now reside outside the state.

Ironically, OHA is repeating the error of Hawaiian Kingdom royals who exploited their own people and relied on an alliance with businessmen.

Looking forwards, OHA seeks expanded revenues from telescope leases on Mauna Kea and military leases statewide. Anti-telescope and anti-military protesters are controlled by OHA insiders who see the upcoming master lease renewals as an opportunity to get more money for themselves. The reality is that without a firm commitment beyond the upcoming lease expirations, TMT is leaving Hawaii for the Canary Islands, another telescope has stopped paying rent, and a third has cancelled $500M in scheduled equipment upgrades.

The result:

The majority of Native Hawaiians have left Hawaii because Hawaii’s cost of housing tops the country.
America’s defense posture is compromised.
Perfectly good telescopes are being dismantled and shipped off to Chile where science is appreciated.
Military and scientific employment opportunities are lost and Hawaii becomes that much more reliant on tourism.

In other words, the cost of acquisition is extreme. But since OHA isn’t paying, OHA doesn’t care.

That’s the income side of the transaction: But what about the expense side? Where is this ceded-lands money going?

View the check register here:

XCL: 2024-25 Check Register
PDF: 2024-25 Check Register

What did Maui Fire Victims get?

351 payments of $4,000 = $1,404,000
173 payments of $9,000 = $1,557,000
TOTAL = $3,061,000. This is 6% of OHA's total expenditures.

Payroll:

$21,854,974.60 paid to Director of Finance and $1,812,902.46 paid to OHA (payroll) Total $23.7M up 49% from last year's $15.9M.

Which insiders are enjoying the cash flow?

$11.5M goes to these big winners:

Kanu o ka Aina Learning Ohana $3,721,216.50
Kanu o Ka Aina Charter School $280,674.00
Keiki O Ka Aina Preschool Inc $102,500.00
DHHL $3,009,153 (OHA Trustees have promised DHHL $3M/yr.)
NHLC $1,308,587.64
Resources Connection LLC $1,311,586.10
Alu Like $78,942.15
Marsh $481,763.00
Oahu Publications, Inc (Publishes Star-Adv) $273,578.96
Klein LLLC $245,274.18 (Terminated. Last Check December, 2024.)
Forest Solutions, LLC $299,445.01
Solutions Pacific $97,660.78 (Ray Soon)
Denton’s $217,713.67
ES&A $67,342.86
DDC Consulting (Donalyn Dela Cruz) $2,460.72

DETAILS

Here is the breakdown:

$1.0M -- Lobbyists, PR

$150,424.81 Kalaimoku Group / John Aeto (advertising)
$481,763.00 paid to Broken Trust DC Lobbyists Marsh USA Inc.
$97,660.78 Solutions Pacific (Ray Soon)
$273,578.96 Oahu Publications, Inc (Publishes Star-Adv)
$916.23 Strategic Communication Solutions, LLC (Nathan Hokama)

Robin Danner Etal -- $346,689.30

CNHA/’Hawaiian Council’ -- $180,000.00-- READ: Dirty OHA Contract is Model for CNHA Takeover of Tourism Marketing
Homestead Community Development Corp $166,689.30

$3.1M -- Consultants, Computer Software, Engineering, Training and Marketing

$1,311,586.10-- Resources Connection LLC (Tammi Watson Honolulu Consultant)
$299,445.01 paid to Forest Solutions, LLC (Owned by Mrs. Michael Saalfeld) See: “Secrecy surrounds Parker Ranch's sale of 3,509 acres to biofuel pioneer” and “Parker Ranch files lawsuit against German industrialist’s 3,500-acre purchase.”
$308,279.68 RUNNING LOGISTICS LLC
$138,047.27 SHI INTERNATIONAL CORP (Software House Int’l)
$90,764.18 Systemcenter
$1,034.55 THOUGHTFOCUS, Inc
$13,267.32 WPEngine, Inc
$8,226.08 FOUNDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
$15,172.76 Aurora Design and Consulting LLC
$117,794.41 CHERRYROAD TECHNOLOGIES INC. (systems integration and consulting services)
$54,530.74 to Carahsoft Technology Corporation
$128,870.45 paid to Solovis, Inc
$53,215.92 DR Fortress
$24,022.50 DATAHOUSE (consulting)
$84,445.00 DL CONSULTING LIMITED (No bid sole-source contract: LINK)
$205,480.00 Ohanasoft, LLC (Oracle Consultant Joon Kwok)
$54,589.83 Oracle America, Inc
$4,185.80 Xerox Corp
$74,608.17 ZR Systems Group, LLC (computer consultants)
$2,460.72 DDC Consulting (Donalyn Dela Cruz)
$8,892.35 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY, LLC
$147,025.30 to SWCA

$2.1M to Lawyers (Aloha Means Goodbye for Klein--NHLC, Denton’s big winners)

$29,855.33 paid to McCorriston Miller.
$245,274.18 to Klein Law Group LLLC. Klein was terminated as Trustees Counsel at the end of December, 2024. (see: OHA Sacrifices $3.2M to Hide Lawyer’s Conflict of Interest?)
$82,918.14 Richard Naiwieha Wurdeman, Attorney at Law, A Law Corporation (Wurdeman was made Trustees Counsel until he was replaced by Alston.)
$217,713.67 paid to Denton’s (formerly Alston Hunt). (Paul Alston has been named Trustees Counsel, thus creating a conflict of interest between his advice to the Trustees and the interest of Denton’s.)
$1,308,587.64 paid to Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. (Working hard to keep land unaffordable in Hawaii.)
$67,342.86 to ES&A, INC which, among other things, in the past defended the OHA LLCs refusal to comply with Hawaii’s open records laws. See: Lawsuit: OHA-Owned Corporations Must Comply With Open Records Laws and OHA’s Hidden LLCs: Why Plead Guilty to Stealing $14M?
$72,097.37 to Sherry Broder ESQ
$9,955.49 to Jeffrey Daniel Lau & Associates, Attorney at Law, LLC
$314.50 Practicing Law Institute
$5,579.23 paid to Kaneohe lawyer LLLC

Over $745K to Banks:

$543,660.33 paid to Bank of America.
$200,000 paid to Central Pacific
$2,078.53 paid to ASB

Other Highlights found by searching the register include

$95,362.14 to Stoebner Holdings, Inc (Kaneohe Honda dealer—2 cars?)
$78,942.15 to Alu Like (back in the money after years in the wilderness)
$100,000.00 paid to Waianae Economic Development Council
$1,349,579.93 paid to Hawaiian Community Assets
$131,433.90 paid to Hawaii Community Lending
$488,212.47 paid to Honolulu Habitat for Humanity
$114,540.00 paid to Hui Ku Maoli Ola, LLC
$135,000.00 paid to N&K CPA
$167,339.23 Laiopua 2020
$117,302.80 Men Of Paa, The
$314,200.19 to Purple Maia Foundation
$425,306.14 to Remedy Intelligent Staffing
$152,725.76 to Ho’okako’o Corp (charter schools)
$211,152.09 to Hoakeolapono Trades Academy And Institute
$195,364.56 to Kupu
$127,474.05 to Maui Hui Malama
$50,000 to Maui Nui Makai Network
$170,962.47 to Ea Ecoversity
$77,500.00 to Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association
$0 paid to OHA’s Hi’ilei Aloha, LLC. Third year OHAs LLCs don’t get a subsidy. See: Lawsuit: OHA Uses Corporations to Sidestep Open Meetings Law, Loot Assets, Line Cronies' Pockets
$421,900.00 paid to University of Hawaii
$23,157.75 to US Department of the Interior
$2,188.65 to DAGS
$18,150.00 NEBULA CONTENT LLC
$45,279.40 to Kinetic Productions, Inc.

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