Charity controlled by HI House leader gets $100,000 to maintain cemetery

By Malia Zimmerman | Watchdog.org

HONOLULU – House Majority floor leader Rida Cabanilla, D-Ewa, controls a nonprofit that got a $100,000 grant from the Legislature, even though it was out of compliance with the Internal Revenue Service.

The 501(c) 3 charity, Ewa Historical Society Inc., lost its federal tax-exempt status with the IRS when it neglected to file required paperwork for at least three years, according to Guidestar.org.

Cabanilla said has filed paperwork with the IRS to rectify the issue.

The organization originally applied in January for a $200,000 grant from the Legislature to hire three landscapers at $42,000 a piece and three grounds keepers at $23,000 a piece to take care of the Old Ewa Cemetery.

The majority leader maintains that she, her son Chris Manabat, who works for her, and her two staff members, who constitute four of six people on the board, will not benefit personally from the state grant. She just wants to help the people in the Ewa community restore a site where many community members’ relatives are buried.

The application submitted to the Legislature said $195,000 was planned for salaries and $5,000 for truck rentals and mowing equipment.

The application said the Ewa Historical Society would restore cracked and aged gravestones and make other upgrades if awarded the $200,000, but Cabanilla said that won’t be possible without a great deal more money.

“The $100,000 is just for weed whacking,” Cabanilla said. “We’d need a lot of money.”

The Old Ewa Cemetery, just more than 3 acres, has been owned by the city and county of Honolulu since the 1970s and was maintained by volunteers, including descendants of people buried there, until last year. The cemetery was founded in 1896, was open for burials until 1976 and is now registered with the State Historical Preservation Division as a historic site.

As a member of the Honolulu City Council, Berg argued for the city to budget and assign responsibility for the cemetery maintenance. In spring 2012, the city agreed to incorporate the maintenance of the cemetery into existing contracts beginning July 1, 2013, Berg said.

The city had been maintaining the cemetery for months before Cabanilla’s grant request, he said.

“So the question is, Why would the Legislature approve of $100,000 to buy new landscaping equipment and to pay six people to mow the grounds of a property owned by the city, and already maintained by the city?” Berg said.

The Ewa Neighborhood Board confirms in its Jan. 9 minutes, that the Ewa Villages Cemetery was added to the master janitorial landscape contract by the city and will maintain the cemetery each month.

If the grant had been awarded, that would equate to $17,000 in state money going toward maintenance, in addition to what the city already does monthly, he said.

Cabanilla explained she listed six positions on the application because she didn’t want anyone to work at the cemetery alone. She cited safety concerns, including sink holes near graves and ghost sightings. She suggested three people should work on site at all times. She also said the grant doesn’t have to be used for salaries alone; it could also be used as seed money to sustain the organization for many years to come.

Cabanilla first said in an email that Tony Bise, the president of the organization, applied for the grant, not her, but later said she prepared the grant and had him sign it.

Chris Manabat, son of Rida Cabanilla, sits on the board of the charity

Bise, who is a retired union leader and well-respected member of the community in Ewa, said by phone Thursday he asked Cabanilla five years ago to get funding to take care of the cemetery, but he did not fill out or submit the application to the Legislature and no longer handles the administration. He also was not aware the city was now maintaining the property.

Bise said he mainly takes care of his wife, who is ill at home, and has cut back all of his activities. He said the nonprofit, set up to take care of historic properties in the area, has largely disbanded because it lacked money and organization. He hopes the grant will get the organization on track and reinvigorate volunteers.

Under state rules, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources will have to vet the Ewa Historical Society application a second time before issuing the check, said Kalbert Young, director of the state Office of Budget and Finance. The charity would need to be in compliance with all state and federal filing requirements.

It is a tradition that lawmakers acknowledge their potential conflicts with legislation before voting and ask the speaker of the House or Senate president to address the conflict. The leadership, without exception, clears the lawmaker within seconds, but the declaration of the conflict is recorded in the legislative journal, and sometimes by the media.

In the case of Cabanilla, however, she did not declare a possible conflict when voting April 29 on the House budget, which contained the $100,000 grant award for a charity she controls.

She said she didn’t realize the grant was in the budget at the time she voted for it because the grant awarding process is secretive.

She didn’t think she had to declare a conflict anyway, because she is not benefiting personally from the grant and not getting paid by the organization. She said she never tried to hide her involvement and was always transparent.

No one from the Ewa Historical Society showed up to the March 7 hearing, when legislators reviewed and heard testimony from some 200 applicants vying for a piece of the $10 million in state grants.

The legislative session ended Thursday, but Berg thinks another charity is likely more deserving, and lawmakers should reconsider the allocation.

“Rida Cabanilla’s $100,000 grant provides services that are duplicative, exorbitantly expensive and unnecessary,” Berg said.

Cabanilla said the grant is important for the community and is a worthwhile project that deserves state support.

“This is a project the community wants,” Cabanilla said. “I just provided the leadership to get it.”

Reach Malia Zimmerman at Malia@hawaiireporter.com