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November 23, 2005

The year-long dissension between two factions of the board of directors of Akaku was evident at the annual meeting of the board of directors Oct. 28. Akaku is Maui’s public access cable television station.
The meeting started with Jay April, who chaired the meeting asking former board chair Myles Inokuma to leave, declaring that Inokuma was barred from setting foot in Akaku offices.
“I did receive an invitation,” Inokuma said as he left. April said he could attend by phone and vote.
April also asked Sadao Yenagi to leave the table. He said Yenagi hadn’t been properly appointed to the board, as required by Akaku bylaws, and wasn’t a board member.
Later in the meeting, April asked Yenagi to leave the meeting after Yenagi passed a ballot to board member flo wiger in an attempt to vote for board officers. Yenagi said there was a ballot in the board packet he was given.
Akaku officers for 2006 were elected at the meeting, with April elected chair, DeGray Vanderbilt elected vice-chair, Benita Bralzier elected secretary and Danny Agsalog elected treasurer.
The Akaku board has been fighting since the state Legislature considered measures that would strip Akaku of two thirds of its funding. Akaku receives about $1 million a year from 3 percent franchise fees cable subscribers pay.
The money is to be used for Public Access, Education and Government (PEG) programming. Akaku operates five cable channels, including one for Maui Community College. The college supplies programming for that channel.
The legislation proposed Akaku keep the public access portion but give up two thirds that presumably were to be used for educational and governmental programming, although there had never been a formal division of funding.
The legislation was initiated after Maui developer Everett Dowling asked Senate chair Robert Bunda to do so. Dowling said Akaku hadn’t been providing enough money for education, while Akaku maintained that it provided for education by making the facilities available to student producers, as well as making the channel available for MCC. The county pays Akaku to have County Council and other governmental meetings cablecast.
Akaku had stopped funding MCC educational programming, although they used to do so. Former Akaku president and CEO Sean McLaughlin maintained that MCC didn’t keep proper track of the money and the board agreed.
The legislation put the board under pressure, especially since they were about to buy the office building their office was in on Dairy Road. Some Akaku supporters believed the legislative bills were motivated by a desire to censor Akaku. Community producers had made programs that were critical of development. Akaku doesn’t screen programming for content prior to cable casting, allowing all, including pro development programming. Programming cannot be of a commercial nature, however.
After the legislation was introduced, then board chair Inokuma, entered negotiations with MCC and brokered a deal where Akaku would give up a third of its PEG funding to MCC and the state Dept. of Education. Representatives of education already had two non-voting seats on the board and would be awarded two more. All would be able to vote.
After some heated meetings, the board voted to go along with the deal in early March. They also agreed to proceed with buying the office building for about $2 million.
A faction of the board, led by April, decided the agreement Inokuma came back with had some substantial changes and that they couldn’t support it. They met in May and voted to undo the agreement. By that time Akaku had already paid MCC $132,000 and was due to pay another $300,000 before the year was out.
Relations between board members continued to deteriorate. Mark Recketenwald, Director of the state Dept. of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, appointed Charlie Jencks and Lynne Woods to the board to fill the new education seats.
Both Jencks and Woods were perceived to be pro-development. Both were connected to the Maui Chamber of Commerce and Jencks had been president of the Maui Contractors Association.
At their first meeting, they sided with the Inokuma faction and voted to fire CEO Sean McLaughlin in a narrow 8-7 vote July 13. Woods later resigned.
In August, Inokuma and Vanderbilt were involved in a physical altercation, with the two men rolling around on the concrete outside Akaku offices after a meeting of the finance committee.
At a meeting Aug. 26, the April faction engaged in a series of apparently scripted moves where they used parliamentary procedure to call for an investigation of Inokuma for his role in the physical altercation. Several board members walked out of the meeting and at this point the April faction took control of the board, voting to change committee chairs, rehire McLaughlin and hire a new attorney. McLaughlin turned down the offer.
Akaku is now in court to determine which faction will be recognized by the bank.
The Akaku contract to receive PEG franchise fees expires Nov. 30 and it is unclear if it will be renewed.

By Don Gronning