{"id":192,"date":"2026-05-21T10:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=192"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:05:22","slug":"council-considers-new-requirements-for-nonprofits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=192","title":{"rendered":"Council considers new requirements for nonprofits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Hawaii County Council committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that would require nonprofits applying for county grants to certify they have policies governing nepotism, conflicts of interest and auditing.<\/p>\n

Read more Billy Hull: Hawaii\u2019s ride to national men\u2019s volleyball title worth repeating<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Hawaii County Council committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that would require nonprofits applying for county grants to certify they have policies governing nepotism, conflicts of interest and auditing.<\/p>\n

The Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs voted 9-0 to send to the full council with a favorable recommendation Bill 156 \u2014 a measure requiring nonprofit organizations to certify under penalty of perjury that they adhere to bylaws delineating \u201cthe manner in which business is conducted, including management, audit, and fiscal policies and procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The bill also requires these organizations to guarantee they have written policies \u201cagainst nepotism and regarding the management of actual and potential conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council members were quick to note that this proposed legislation was not an implication of any wrongdoing by nonprofits, but is rather a means of streamlining grant application processes and cutting down on paperwork.<\/p>\n

The bill was introduced by council Chair Holeka Inaba, who explained this distinction to his fellow council members.<\/p>\n

\u201dRight now, the current process is that (Department of) Finance gets all of the applications and has to go through the bylaws and the conflict of interest policies and the nepotism policies to confirm that they meet the standards required by our code, which means a lot of work,\u201d Inaba said. \u201cIn some cases, there may have been perhaps some confusion or disagreement as to whether language provided by these organizations does it fact meet our requirements \u2026 so what this bill does is replace the need for any department to have to go in and look at these bylaws and these conflict of interest and nepotism policies and instead receive a certification by the organization that they have those policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

This procedural change was questioned by committee Chair Jenn Kagiwada, who sought clarification from Inaba that the council was not challenging whether nonprofits receiving county grant funds already had these policies in place or not.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It) has to do with documentation and staff time and all that?\u201d Kagiwada asked. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily that we were doubting that they had bylaws or something, but it was just sometimes cumbersome to dig through all the paperwork to document it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Inaba responded to her question with a simple \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puna Councilman Matt Kaneali\u2018i-Kleinfelder took a more pointed approach, subtly implying that an outsized portion of grant funding received by some nonprofits was going toward employee benefits and perks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been watching intently, watching the nonprofits play in and out of the media \u2026 mostly on the side of being at-caution if the nonprofits were to stop functioning,\u201d Kaneali\u2018i-Kleinfelder said. \u201cIn that light, what I see is a tremendous amount of tax-based resources being applied to nonprofits, which is good when they do something for the community, but on the back end of that is a tremendous amount of tax money from state, federal and county sources being applied directly to nonprofits to the point where they\u2019re competing with staff for the county, competing with staff across the board \u2014 401(k), retirement plans, brand new vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of this, he said, county officials should be seeking proof that the tens of millions of dollars they\u2019ve appropriated in recent funding cycles is producing tangible results.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe feedback that I\u2019m looking for is what the return on investment for the state and county and federal money that\u2019s being applied to the nonprofits is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that Bill 156 was necessary to ensure these organizations were following the rules and being held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of a bill begins to create the backbone of really making sure that nonprofits aren\u2019t (operating) outside of the box and are playing by the same rules that we all play by, and they\u2019re doing the utmost for the community with (that) tax base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Addressing the nepotism provision in the bill, Inaba offered a real-life hypothetical situation using the county\u2019s Waiwai Grant Program as an example. Waiwai is an annual grants-in-aid initiative providing at least $2.5 million to nonprofit organizations funding programs and services that \u201cyield direct benefits to the public and accomplish public purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example \u2026 a real example for myself: my mother being the executive director of Laiopua 2020, if they submitted an application for the Waiwai Program \u2014 which is a council-overseen grant program \u2014 they should be disclosing that I\u2019m on the council as part of their application,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Laiopua 2020 is a nonprofit community center in Kailua-Kona. It\u2019s built on Hawaiian Home Lands and focuses on uplifting Native Hawaiian homesteaders and the greater Kona Coast community through workforce development, affordable housing, cultural education and youth mentorship.<\/p>\n

Before calling for a vote to approve the bill, Kagiwada again questioned Inaba \u2014 this time about potential unintended consequences. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan one council member kind of go after a nonprofit if they have concerns about that nonprofit?\u201d she asked, \u201cor is this really working through the Department of Finance and the body \u2014 I just want to make sure that we\u2019re not opening this up for individuals to go after individual organizations without some checks and balances.\u201d<\/p>\n

To answer this, Inaba deferred to Deputy Corporation Counsel Renee Schoen. Schoen clarified that the main purpose of the bill was about setting eligibility standards for receiving grants \u2014 something that is done by a \u201cpermitted interaction group\u201d or the Finance Department and not by individual council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that the situation you are speaking of would come into play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council considers new requirements for nonprofits – Hawaii News | Hawaii Tribune-Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil considers new requirements for nonprofits - Moving to Hawaii Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=192\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council considers new requirements for nonprofits - Moving to Hawaii Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Council considers new requirements for nonprofits - 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