MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2022, AT 3:00 PM
VIA VIRTUAL APPLICATION ZOOM: VIDEO / AUDIO CONFERENCE
Commission Members Present were:
Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, Chair
Maenette Ah Nee-Benham
Snowbird Bento
Māpuana de Silva-

Sylvia Hussey
Jarrett Keohokālole
Jamie Lum-

Richard Onishi
Kēhaulani Puʻu-

Mamiko Carroll
Maka Casson-Fisher
Eric Chang
Lynn Martin Graton
Ngahiraka Mason
Monte McComber
Aaron Salā
Mālia Sanders
Kanoe Takitani-Puahi
Pris Texeira
Margo Vitarelli-

Public Member
Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority
Public Member
Public Member
Public Member
Public Member
Festival Director
Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association
Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association
Public Member
Public Member

Gregg Kinkley
Timothy Tiu
Scott Tome
Marlene Hiraoka-

Office of the Attorney General
DBEDT
DBEDT
DBEDT

Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) Designee
Governor’s Designee
Community Member At-Large
Community Member At-Large (Arrived at 3:10
pm)
Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)
Senate President’s Designee
Department of Business, Economic Development
and Tourism (DBEDT)House Speaker’s Designee
City and County of Honolulu Designee (Arrived at
3:03 pm)

Guests:Staff:

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, February 14, 2022, at 3:00pm via ZOOMPage 2 of 6

CALL TO ORDER
At 3:01 p.m., Chair Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā welcomed all present via Zoom and Facebook Live andconducted roll call of Commissioners: Chair, Ms. Ah Nee-Benham, Ms. Hussey, Mr. Onishi,
Ms. Bento, Ms. Lum, Mr. Keohokālole, Ms. Pu’u.
Chair introduced Ms. Bento to present the wehena (opening) for today’s meeting. Ms. Bento
acknowledged the day as Valentine’s Day and spoke about its history. In historic Hawaiʻi, thiswas a time for the closing of the season of Makahiki, a four-month period when people came
together and engaged in activities such as building loko iʻa (fishponds), loʻi kalo (taro patches),and other community driven infrastructure projects. She expressed that Makahiki represented
abundance and is associated with the timing of the return of Lono (god of peace and agriculture).
Ms. Bento shared that kūpuna (elders) devoted time to starting anew, cleansing, and purification.
In this same way, our Commissioners should be thinking about this during the Makahiki season
and we should all be mindful of our intentions in presenting FestPAC 2024 in Hawaiʻi.
Ms. Bento closed the wehena with an oli (chant) which was representative of sharing with theintention of bringing forth abundance. Chair thanked Ms. Bento for the wehena. At this time, herecognized newly appointed Commissioner Kēhaulani Puʻu, who was attending her first meeting
today. She will be representing the City and County of Honolulu on the Commission and is the
Deputy Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Chair also acknowledged that Ms.
de Silva had joined the meeting.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā invited members of the public to testify on the agenda items. Hearing none, heproceeded with the rest of the agenda items.
APPROVAL OF JANUARY 10, 2022, MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. Chair asked if there were any
comments or changes to the minutes. Hearing none, he asked for a motion to be made and it wasmade by Ms. Ah Nee-Benham, seconded by Ms. Hussey. A roll call vote was requested with thefollowing Commissioners approving the motion to approve the minutes of January 10, 2022:
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā, Ms. Ah Nee-Benham, Ms. Bento, Ms. Hussey, Mr. Keohokālole, Mr. Onishi,
Ms. de Silva, Ms. Lum, Ms. Puʻu.
Motion was unanimously approved.
REPORT ON PERMITTED INTERACTIONS, PURSUANT TO ACT 103, SESSIONLAWS OF HAWAIʻI 2021
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā reported that there were no Permitted Interactions meetings that were held
since the last Commission meeting.
13TH FESTPAC – PAI`I FOUNDATION AGREED-UPON PROCEDURES REPORT
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā provided background on the audit of financials in the Agreed-Upon Procedures
Report related to the State’s previous contract with PAʻI Foundation regarding the 2020 Festival

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, February 14, 2022, at 3:00pm via ZOOMPage 3 of 6

of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC). Chair noted that Ms. Lum will be summarizing theoutcome of the report and that Commissioners will have an opportunity to vote to accept thereport of the agreed-upon procedures on completion of Ms. Lum’s presentation.
Ms. Lum explained that this method of audit was used because it was considered to be costeffective. Because the Festival was not held in 2020, it was decided that the contract did not
warrant a comprehensive audit. As such, the Agreed-Upon Procedures method of the audit was
conducted by Spire Hawai’i LLP (Spire), a certified public accounting firm.
Ms. Lum continued by reporting that Spire reviewed the PA‘I contract, and all invoices andpayments that were made. The expenditures were in alignment with expenses approved by theCommission. All funds were expensed as indicated and PA‘I kept these funds in a separate
account pursuant to the contract. No funds were returned to the State.
Ms. Lum summarized that, together with Spire, ten procedures were agreed upon for review.
They first reviewed PA‘I’s records, Commission meeting minutes, reports to the Commission
and DBEDT. There were no exceptions to the procedure and Spire presented a clean report to
DBEDT.
Chair entertained a motion to accept the report of the Agreed-Upon Procedures. Mr. Onishi
moved to accept the report and Ms. Ah Nee-Benham seconded the motion. A discussion
continued with Ms. Ah Nee-Benham reporting that she was invited to serve as a Commission
representative during Spire’s presentation. They reviewed 34 invoices over $1,000 and she wasimpressed with how Spire conducted the overall audit. Ms. Hussey asked what procedures Spireconducted with regard to administrative payroll. Ms. Lum reported that Spire has all working
papers in their possession and that DBEDT can request access to them. Ms. Hussey said she
thought it would be worth further examination because the Administration and Contract Labor
expenditures were such a large portion of the overall contract amount. Ms. Lum indicated thatthe salary expenses were in line with PA‘I’s salaries that were part of the overall Festival budget
approved by Commission.
Ms. Lum also reported that the cost of the audit was paid for by DBEDT and that the expense did
not come from funds that were appropriated to the Festival. Ms. Lum also informed
Commissioners that she prepared the Supplemental Report that was included in Commissioners’
meeting packet to give them an idea of how the funds were spent. She noted that more than halfof the funds were directed toward venue costs at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, an action
directed by the Commission.
.
A roll call vote was requested with the following Commissioners approving the motion to accept
the Agreed-Upon Procedures report prepared by Spire Hawaii LLP, in December 2021, in
relation to the PA`I Foundation’s Contract: Chair Ka‘anā‘anā, Ms. Ah Nee-Benham, Ms. Bento,
Ms. Hussey, Mr. Keohokālole, Mr. Onishi, Ms. de Silva, Ms. Lum, Ms. Puʻu.
Motion was unanimously approved.
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR REPORTMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, February 14, 2022, at 3:00pm via ZOOMPage 4 of 6

Please refer to the Festival Directors (FD) report included as an attachment to this meeting’s
board packet for further details. FD Aaron Salā prepared a report of the developments since thelast Commission meeting as follows:
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The East-West Center (EWC) has offered office space and a phone number for FestPAC
2024 as part of an adjunct EWC fellowship for the FD.
The Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP), EWC Arts Program, and the State
Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA) have all offered staffing assistance.
The FD met with University of Hawaiʻi (UH) President David Lassner who has affirmed
his support for UH Mānoa (UHM) to host the Festival Village.
FD would like the Venues Committee to begin meeting regularly for ongoing
discussions/coordination with UHM.
Native Hawaiian Hospitality Assocation (NaHHA) has created a bank account to receive
financial contributions for the Festival that will be ongoing through 2024.
The FD is working on a special event that will tentatively be held in June 2022 as anexternal fundraising event.
Partnerships and integrated relationships will begin to be brought forth to theCommission for organizations that have affirmed their support. The EWC, UHM, PIDP,
SFCA, NaHHA, and Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) have alreadypledged their support. These relationships will be formalized with the Commission
through future Memorandums Of Understanding which will be created. The FD assured
commissioners that he will obtain the Commission’s approval before entering into any
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Plans to socialize a fundraising event in June 2022 around the support for FestPAC 2024.
FD will present an initial Fundraising Strategy which will be presented to theDevelopment Committee. It will be presented in the future to the full Commission.
Professor Barbara Smith Endowment for the EWC Arts Program has committed theexpense account of the endowment to the success of FestPAC 2024.

The FD also announced that from May 15 through July 17, there will be a photo exhibit of the
Pacific Gathering from FestPAC Guam 2016. The exhibit is a cooperative agreement between
the EWC and the National Endowment for the Arts. He envisions FestPAC 2024 to be a part ofthe exhibit/presentation that could be a vehicle to launch the fundraising event that will be heldin June.
The FD advised that he has established one email address for the general inbox of the Festival
correspondence and will be taking the website and social media accounts down temporarily andgo dormant. A landing page will go up temporarily while the redesign of the website takes place
and an updated social media strategy is worked on. These activities will be completed post haste.
Chair said that he supports bringing down the current FestPAC website; however, it needs to be
decoupled from Strategies360 who was the previous vendor that hosted the site. Chair indicatedthat he has been receiving all emails until now and wants to avoid chaos as the Festival
approaches with communication from vendors, volunteers, media representatives, etc.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, February 14, 2022, at 3:00pm via ZOOMPage 5 of 6

Ms. Ah Nee-Benham asked how the Commission would move on with the plans the FD has
proposed. Chair advised that no action is needed because it was presented as a report. Mr.
Kinkley confirmed that as the FD was providing an operational update, these actions are noted.
The FD would be able to continue with his plans and activities under his own authority.
Chair asked if there were any concerns or questions in the FD’s report. Hearing none, Chairadvised the FD to move forward as he reported and, for future meetings, inform the Chair and
Ms. Sanders ahead of time if any item requires the Commission’s vote to make it onto theagenda. Mr. Kinkley further advised that it is also possible for the FD to include his report as an
attachment to the agenda/minutes.
Mr. Onishi raised a question as to whether a motion needed to be made to accept the FD’s report.
Mr. Kinkley indicated that motions require language in the minutes and agenda. It would suffice
to note that the FD’s report was accepted by the Commission. For this instance, general
acceptance of the FD report was made by the Commission. Moving forward, the FD report will
be noted as needing action in the agenda.
CREATION OF NEW COMMITTEES
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā moved on to the next agenda item, which was to create two new committees:(1) Development Committee; and (2) Program Committee. He would like to formalize these twocommittees, that would include no more than four committee members.
Ms. Ah Nee-Benham mentioned that fund/friend raising is often discussed during theAdministrative Committee (AC) meetings and she offered to have the AC assume the funddevelopment tasks. She emphasized that Venues and Programming are integral to the overallplanning elements.
Ms. de Silva commented that once the venues have been confirmed, would it still be necessary
for this committee to exist? Chair indicated that once the venues have been selected, theprogramming function can be included.
Mr. Onishi commented that as programs are being developed, requests should be presented to theCommission to determine whether the program or activity should be part of FestPAC or not.
Programming and venues must be viewed together since understanding the needs of the program
or activity will require assigning it to a respective venue.
Ms. Ah Nee-Benham stressed that, while the AC will assume the fund/friend raising function, it
does not preclude other members assisting with fund and friend raising. Chair reminded
Commissioners that pursuant to Act 103, members have the ability to meet outside of committee
so long as the content of the discussion is reported as a PIG during a regularly scheduledmonthly Commission meeting.
Ms. Bento asked whether it would be possible for Commissioners to shift from one committee toanother. Chair confirmed that as long as the committee stays within a framework provided bystatute, members are able to move from one committee to another. Ms. Hussey asked whether

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, February 14, 2022, at 3:00pm via ZOOMPage 6 of 6each member is required to be on a committee. She noted that, to Ms. Bento’s point, she could
join the AC and someone else could join the VC/Programming committee. Ms. Lum indicatedshe concurred with Ms. Hussey.
Chair recommended that the scope of the previous committees be expanded as follows:
Administrative/Development Committee; and Venues/Programming Committee.
Mr. Onishi made a motion for the AC to include Development and the VC to include
Programming, and it was seconded by Ms. de Silva. A roll call vote was requested with thefollowing Commissioners approving the motion to combine the AC with Development and the
VC with Programming: Chair Ka‘anā‘anā, Ms. Ah Nee-Benham, Ms. Bento, Ms. Hussey, Mr.
Keohokālole, Mr. Onishi, Ms. de Silva, Ms. Lum, Ms. Puʻu.
Motion was unanimously approved. Chair requested that the FD coordinate with these twocommittees and report outcomes at the next Commission meeting.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā invited the public to again offer comments. Chair thanked members of the
public who have been attending Commission meetings. Hearing none, he moved intoannouncements.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā indicated that as part of Act 220, the inclusion of accommodating the publicwith a meeting space has been postponed until February 28, 2022. For the March 2022 meeting,the public meeting space will be in Room 436 of the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum building.
Chair also announced that he is requesting that a vice-chair be selected in the event he is unable
to attend a meeting.
NEXT MEETING – MARCH 14, 2022
The next FestPAC Commission meeting is confirmed for Monday, March 14, 2022, at 3:00 pm.
Ms. de Silva asked if the meeting would be conducted virtually. Chair confirmed that it will be a
virtual meeting with added public meeting space located on the 4th floor of the Hawaiʻi State Art
Museum Building.
ADJOURNMENT
Chair Ka‘anā‘anā adjourned meeting at 3:52 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,

Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā
Chair

03/08/2022
Date