Hawaii County Council District seven candidate Enock Freire has received a $2,000 contribution from a non-profit charitable organization according to a tip I received tonight. Servants Nest Ministries Inc. has registered as a non-profit corporation with the State of Hawaii. This entity has been “organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes” according to their business registration. In addition, Servants Nest Ministries Inc. registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) corporation.
(Servants Nest Ministries Inc. 2008 990-ez exempt from tax filing)
Note: I redacted any personally identifiable information such as addresses, phone numbers off this document. Please check GuideStar for an original copy of this filing.
These types organizations are “prohibited from conducting political campaign activities to intervene in elections to public office.”. I hope Mr. Freire returns this campaign contribution back to Servants Nest. Their IRS non-profit exemption may be jeopardized if he doesn’t.
Update: Mr. Freire e-mailed me a response to this blog posting tonight:
“Aloha Aaron,
Way to stay on top of it! As you reported, I did receive a $2,000 donation from Servants Nest Ministries Inc, but at the time I was not aware of Servants Nest’s status as a non-profit organization. Upon finding out it was a non-profit charitable organization, I returned the $2,000 contribution to them on July 17th, 2010. The latest Disclosure Report only covers the period ending June 30th, 2010, and therefore does not reflect the second half of the transaction – the return of the check. If you have additional questions, I’ll be glad to talk to you.
Mahalo,
Enock N. Freire”
I’m very disappointed that Queen Liliuokalani Trust won’t create a website for the future Keahuolu Interpretive Center. The Keahuolu area has a rich cultural history. So, it would be wise for Queen Liliuokalani Trust to educate the community about the purpose of this new interpretive center.
Nan Inc. is scheduled to start construction on this facility this month.
The Hawaii County DPW approved the installation of speed humps on Keokeo Street (between Kaiminani Drive and Holu Street) on July 12, 2010. In addition, it appears Melomelo Street in lower Kona Palisades is next in line for these traffic calming devices.
The State of Hawaii has filed a motion to dismiss Margaret Wille’s Lalamilo roadway easement reservation appeal (Court case #3CC101239K). The state’s motion will be heard in Judge Strance’s courtroom on September 13, 2010 at 9:30am.
Lastly, Sandwich Isles Communications has submitted another ex-parte filing in the ongoing FCC petition. Their latest filing sounds very desperate. This may be a result of their precarious financial status.
August 6th, 2010 at 5:50 PM
What’s the deal with him just copying and pasting news to his site?
August 15th, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Enock Freire (pronounced “prayer”, as he told me) seems like a nice guy, but West Hawai`i needs someone who won’t make serious legal mistakes while in office.
Freire’s lapse in judgment and inexperience was clearly shown by his choice of campaign manager. The person Freire chose to manage the details of his campaign failed to follow the most basic campaign law. Doubly bad is that Freire’s campaign manager is also the director of the “nonprofit” religious organization (Servants Nest Ministry) which donated the thousands of dollars to Freire’s campaign illegally. unfortunately, this seems a case of the blind leading the blind (at least when it comes to the legal ins and outs of government).
Hawai`i District 7 (South Kona and parts of Kailua-Kona) already has a no-nonsense, legal-eagle, grassroots, experienced leader who’s running for re-election. It seemed like a no-brainer to vote for BRENDA FORD even before the Freire fiasco. Now it seems even more crucial to re-elect FORD.
It takes effort and bravery to step up to the public service plate, and I appreciate that Freire did so. At the same time, voters must distinguish between candidates capable of doing a good job in elected office and those who might be better doing something else in service to their community.
To protect a part of county government that isn’t broken, it’s crucial that District 7 voters get to the polls on September 18th and vote to re-elect Brenda Ford.