Aloha Wailea Ekahi Homeowners,
I wanted to personally thank you for your well wishes and congratulatory messages over the past week. I attached a photo in case you have never seen a high school graduate in Hawaii. We really go all out!
First off, our Board President Dan Mckenna announced the recovery of our funds that were stolen due to wire transfer fraud related to our October 2023 data breach. Our local counsel, Jim Geiger, was persistent and worked hard on our behalf to ensure a fair settlement. Last week, we received a check and confirmed deposit of funds in the amount of $420,199, which covered the entire amount stolen minus our $2500 deductible.
In April, we successfully negotiated a new 5-year contract for our landscape and maintenance employees represented by the ILWU. The vacation accrual has been changed so our employees will now receive their 3rd week of vacation after 5 years of service and their 4th week after 10 years. We traded King Kamehameha Day in June for Martin Luther King day in January since MLK is a Federal Holiday and made more sense for our business needs. Our wage increases brought us up to competitive market rates, and we immediately got a couple of well-qualified applicants for maintenance. Filling all 3 open positions will give us the ability to complete more projects in-house and with cost effective labor versus high contractor rates. Special thanks to Lynn Peabody, our Board Vice president, for providing support and helping crunch some numbers in the midst of negotiations!
Maui County is almost ready to impose parking fees on non-residents at some local beach parks including Ulua Beach next door. This has been a hot topic for a while and the Park Maui program is meant to drive revenue to reinvest monies in the parks, open spaces, cultural and town improvements. There will be payment options including, but not limited to, weekly or monthly passes, a pre-pay app, and a parking payment kiosk at each location. Please visit https://www.parkmaui.com/ and pre-register for notifications.
In Maui, Junior and our team installed new pathway lights along the footpath by building 22. We also completed the new lighting installation at the recently improved pathway between buildings 38 and 39. You will notice we posted directional signage at building 38’s pathway to better assist your guests unfamiliar with the property.
Our manager unit at 18C has been furnished and equipped as a vacation rental, and we are anticipating some guest traffic this Summer. We spoke to 3 different agencies with good representation at Ekahi and ended up contracting with Destination Residences Hawaii. I anticipate our unit will go live on their site at the end of the month once marketing completes the professional photo shoot.
I have had some inquiries about Board of Directors minutes and posting on the website. Our Board Secretary CJ worked hard fine tuning the requested edits once approved. There were 6 sets of minutes posted this month.
Attached you will find the minutes from April 19th meeting as well as the April financials.
Our next Board meeting is Wednesday, June 21st at 9:00 AM HST.