Review criticizes
Kamehameha contract
with Mehau

The consulting firm
recommends eliminating the
$470,000 deal

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

A controversial review of the operations of Kamehameha Schools questioned a $470,000-a-year contract with a private security firm headed by Big Island businessman Larry Mehau.

Peterson Consulting L.L.C., in a 190-page report filed in Circuit Court, said the school's contract with Hawaii Protective Association Ltd. may be unnecessary and that the job could be handled by the schools' in-house security guards.

"There is no reason that the schools cannot directly hire trained, qualified security personnel," the report said. "Eliminating the entire contract would save the schools up to $470,000 a year."

A spokesman for the estate had no immediate comment, and Mehau could not be reached for response this morning.

In a court filing last December, Bishop Estate trustees Gerard Jervis and Oswald Stender criticized the contract with Hawaii Protective Association, saying the contract was awarded on a nonbid basis and was never presented to the full five-member board of trustees for consideration.

The contract went into effect in July 1996.

Hawaii Protective Association handles the security for the estate-run Kamehameha Schools' main and back gates. It provides two guards 24 hours a day at the front gate and a single guard at the back gate, which is open 16 hour a day.

On-campus security is handled by Kamehameha Schools employees.

According to the Peterson report, the schools hired an outside security firm after a former student brought a gun on campus and after receiving reports that students were leaving the campus without permission through the then-unguarded back gate.

School officials have reported few security problems since the contract has been in place, the report said. "We agree that safety should be a top priority, but this contract appears to be an overreaction to one incident," it said.

Mehau was an adviser to former Gov. John Burns and former Gov. George Ariyoshi. His company previously handled the security work for Bishop Estate's lands in Hamakua on the Big Island.

The Peterson report, which faulted trustees and Kamehameha Schools President Michael Chun for problems on campus, has been criticized harshly by trustees, teachers and alumni as biased and a waste of trust assets.

Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi - which represents more than 2,000 Kamehameha Schools students, alumni, parents and teachers - today issued a news release, saying the report, which cost more than $500,000 and took about four months to compile, unfairly blames Chun for problems they said were created by trustee Lindsey, who, until last year, served as the lead trustee for the estate's educational programs.

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