MEDIA RELEASE

By Rod Thompson

Hawaiian Paradise Park

In response to various questions, I, Rod Thompson, am confirming that I have accepted the position of editor of the Hawaiian Paradise Park newsletter known as The Conch.

This unpaid position is not one which I sought, but I accepted it when asked to do so by Ron Vizzone, the new president of the Hawaiian Paradise Park Owners Association. I was the Big Island correspondent for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for 31 years until I was laid off in February, 2009.

Normally three seats on the nine-member board of directors are up for a vote each year, but this year the number was six vacant seats, due to various resignations. That allowed a number of newcomers to run, including several with a desire to see greater accountability and openness in the conduct of HPPOA affairs.

Until those newcomers were installed June 27, Ron Vizzone had been a minority of one for much of the last several years, holding out often single-handedly for accountability and openness.

My job will be twofold, to report truthfully about what is going on in Paradise Park and to update the format of The Conch to make the information more easily readable.

I would like to be forward-looking and to write about the good things that are happening in Paradise Park. But the past year has been full of questionable activities, especially expenditures of money, which need to be clarified.

“Questionable” does not necessarily mean wrong. But we won’t know if wrong was done until the new board reviews matters, and until The Conch informs property owners.

Some things we know were wrong or nearly wrong. One of the former presidents of HPPOA proposed to permit only “authorized individuals” to write statements for The Conch. He denied that the intent was censorship, but the intent was clearly to silence me, since I was the primary person making pointed statements in articles I wrote for The Conch. Fortunately that was a “nearly wrong,” since that president didn’t follow through with the threatened censorship.

Another president did censor. He openly told property owners attending board meetings that he would exclude certain statements by them from the minutes of meetings. In my view, if he didn’t like a statement, he simply falsified the record by omission.

Anyone fearful of what I may write in The Conch – and there are some – should be aware that they can avoid criticism if they do what is pono, especially when spending property owners’ money.

The next edition of The Conch will be published in late September. Letters may be sent to the editor at concheditor@yahoo.com. Letters received closest to the publication date will be assumed to be most relevant and will receive preference.