i L i n d . n e t

[Warning--a reader's comment says that "Kuilima Development Co.", Pickard's company discussed below, is a different beast from "Kuilima Resort Company", the Kuilima resort owner. As I said below, I stumbled onto Kuilima Development while doing a quick review. Obviously, there are more twists and turns here that need to be understood. How are these companies related? Are they related? Or did Pickard pick up the corporate name formerly used by the Kuilima resort? For what reason? I suppose that's why this is a blog. It leaves room to for ideas to percolate. Keep that feedback coming.]

Here’s one I hadn’t noticed before. After Gov. Lingle floated the idea of the state buying the Turtle Bay Resort to block development of the large acreage surrounding the existing hotel, I got around to looking up state business registration info on Kuilima Development Co., identified in at least some news reports as the developer tied to the proposed expansion of the Turtle Bay Resort. I was surprised to find the registered agent for the company listed as Joe Pickard. [see the note above--the linkage here may be spurious. So proceed with caution.]

You may recall Pickard’s record of contributions to Lingle’s campaigns, mentioned here back on 9/17/2005. I recently ran across his $10,000 contribution last year to the Hawaii Republican Party, which I mentioned in a Honolulu Weekly column.

His firm, Community Planning and Engineering, was the subject of a Jim Dooley investigative piece last year because of its many contracts awarded by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands under the administration of Micah Kane, who previously served as Republic Party chair. Dooley says Pickard’s family has given $70,000 to the GOP, Lingle, and Lt. Gov. Aiona since 1998. He

Pickard grew up in Kahuku, where his family has played a pretty prominent role. He’s been politically active, was a developer-backed candidate for City Council a decade ago against environmentalist Steve Holmes, has also been a campaign contributor to Congressman Abercrombie, and was a member of Mufi Hannemann’s transition team. He was one of the founders of an effort to turn out Hawaiian voters in 2006.

What a very small political world. I really don’t know what any of this might mean, but it’s useful additional context while trying to interpret Lingle’s Turtle Bay proposal.

Here’s a good time waster for the day–USA Spending.gov, a searchable database of federal contracts, grants, and other types of assistance. Lots of interesting connections to be found here.

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the rescue of our auction cats, Kili and Ms. Wally. We celebrated Meda’s birthday just a couple of days before, so the festivities sort of overlapped. That happens to be part of Ms. Wally’s overlap in this Feline Friday photo.