The state fined the companies that run a ferry between Maui and Lanai a total of $57,500 yesterday for rules violations involving a Lahaina Harbor slip rental for a nonexistent boat. State fines Maui
ferry operatorsThe firms were found to be renting
a slip for a nonexistent boatBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comThe state Board of Land & Natural Resources fined Hone Heke Corp. $25,000 and Kahili Charters Inc. $32,500 because of allegations that their top corporate officers gave false information on state documents.
The two companies and a third company, Pardner Inc., have a consortium that operates the 100-passenger Expeditions 3, the 64-passenger Expeditions 2 and the 36-passenger Expeditions. The Expeditions 3 makes five round trips between Maui and Lanai six days a week. The Expeditions 2 handles the same route once a week, and the Expeditions is used for unscheduled trips. All three have berths at Lahaina Harbor.
The companies were fined for filling out paperwork to rent a fourth slip at Lahaina Harbor for the Manele Nelle, a boat that never existed. An attorney for the companies declined to say why they would want to rent a slip for a nonexistent boat.
Though there is no Manele Nelle, it was described in the slip application form dated Dec. 28, 2000, as being a utility powerboat 40 feet long by 12.5 feet wide, built in 1965 and owned by the Hone Heke Corp.
An investigation by the state Division of Boating & Ocean Recreation began after the state Attorney General's Office prosecuted former Lahaina Harbor agent Gerald Lum on four counts of second-degree theft and one count of tampering with a governmental record.
Deputy Attorney General Christopher Young said Lum was "renting out slips and pocketing the money." On May 15, Lum pleaded guilty to all counts and was sentenced to a year in Maui County Jail, plus community service and $40,841 restitution to the state, Young said.
Attorney Jim Geiger, representing the companies' top executives Steven Knight and Bill Caldwell before the board yesterday, said his clients assumed operation of the ferry service in June 1999.
Knight and Caldwell are president and vice president, respectively, of all three companies, which have a total of 14 employees, Geiger said.
Knight and Caldwell are fine captains, and Caldwell is also a mechanic, but "they were not experienced in permitting process," Geiger told the board.
"We are here to admit that they undertook some actions that brought us here today," Geiger said. "They are certainly very sorry about what happened" but did not attempt to defraud the state, he said.
Geiger did not return calls seeking further comment.
The ferry, which transports about 12,000 passengers a month, continues to operate. In its recommendation that the companies be fined for their misrepresentations, boating investigators asked that the board not prevent the ferries from operating, because of the public service they provide.