In a closed meeting, the Molokai Enterprise Community board, Ke Aupuni Lōkahi, Inc., voted in favor of changing its bylaws in an effort to cancel public elections to replace four board vacancies.

The EC board is required by federal law to have 55 percent of its members elected to its seats. The board had discussed holding the election in January or February of 2008, when the terms of office for four board members expired — Joshua Pastrana, Shannon Crivello, Sybil Lopez and Russell Kallstrom.

Those hoping to represent Kalaupapa on the EC were Shannon Crivello and Mahie McPherson. For the east, candidates were Russell Kallstrom, Kanoe Davis and Josh Pastrana. West tract candidates were Steve Morgan and Jerry Manning.

In the April 17 closed board meeting, the organization's president and acting executive director, Stacy Helm-Crivello, recommended that the EC's bylaws be amended to eliminate the requirement of an annual election.

According to EC board member Bridget Mowat, Helm-Crivello said that since the organization's status as a federally-designated Enterprise Community will sunset in December of this year, it would be too difficult for any newly-elected members to learn about the organization in time to complete its work.

Helm-Crivello was not available for comment.

According to Mowat, the board split 5-4 on the question of canceling the elections by changing the bylaws. Those voting in favor of the change were executive committee members Colette Machado (vice-president), Cheryl Corbiell (secretary) and Russell Kallstrom (treasurer) along with Shannon Crivello and Rikki Cooke. Those opposed to the change were Pastrana, Mowat, Lopez and Leila Stone. Helm-Crivello did not vote.

On Jan 24, the Board Development Committee was empowered by motion of the full board with the specific purpose of setting the election schedule and facilitating the election process. The BDC is made up of the executive committee plus Mowat and Stone. According to Mowat, the BDC has not met.

Before the bylaws can be changed, a 10-day notice must be given to all board members and an electronic voting held, said Mowat. That has not occurred, so the vote held April 17 was simply to determine if they would move ahead with this process to change the bylaw.

Mowat said, "It's not fair to our community to announce an election, advertise for candidates, and then cancel the election in a meeting that the public can't even attend."

Mowat also said that Helm-Crivello had told her that all candidates would be personally notified of this change. So far they have not.

“No one called me,” said Steve Morgan. “I think there’s been so much fooling around with this whole thing that they (the EC board) have become numb to the fact that the political process has become corrupt … they are doing all this under the radar.”

The majority members on the EC board, all of whom supported development at La'au Point, decided several months ago that their meetings would be closed to the public. The same four members who opposed canceling the election also opposed closing the meetings to the public.