BREAKING NEWS!

Posted 7/26/2026

Pass the smell tests???

Aloha,

Pass the smell tests?? No, it’s not about our failing waste water treatment plants. This email is about our County Chief Traffic Engineer, Michael Moule who failed to respond to the Planning Director’s request for a study and report on the roads, traffic conditions and safety for Koloa and its residents before the Planning Commission approved development permits for Mike Serpa and SK Investors, LLC. As you will see in the following, his report was mandatory prior to permit approval. Somehow he never got around to conducting any traffic evaluation in Koloa for the Planning Commission to consider. Our Planning Director failed to require him to submit the requested study in direct violation of Kauaʻi County’s Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) Chapter 8, Article 3, §8-3.1. 

The Planning Director and the County Attorneys allowed the Planning Commission to grant Serpa’s permit applications without first assuring the County’s Codes had been complied with. 

Why did Mike Moule withhold a traffic study and report? Could it be that he received some favor by so doing? Three days after the Planning Commission approved Mike Serpa’s application to build 148 unit dense development on 9.4 acres, Michael Moule opened escrow on one of Serpa’s Koloa Village units. Six days later the escrow funded and closed. Why the rush? How was the funding for his purchase achieved? From a title search, we learned that a small bank in Arizona supposedly lent and funded his escrow in just 6 days with a loan of $434,000, leaving $145,850 for Michael Moule or someone to pay to satisfy his $579,850 purchase of the Serpa Koloa Village Unit:


 

Traffic flow, parking, road width, public safety, the absence of sidewalks, curbs or turning lanes are all issues critical to the public in the proposed Koloa development… apparently not to the County, at least not to the County Traffic Engineer, Michael Moule or our Planning Director, Kaiana Hull who didn’t secure any traffic information for the Planning Commission to consider in their approval of Mike Serpa’s permit applications, which is highly illegal and a direct violation of our County Ordinances. In the case of Koloa Town and the proposed Serpa development, his application for permission to develop relied on an application for a Class IV Zoning Permit and Project Development Use Permit. Both permits require comments/reports from Public Works-Engineering with a traffic evaluation. The Planning Director in his first letter of tentative approval to the Planning Commission said he asked for a study/report from Public Works-Engineering and Traffic for the Planning Commission to consider before it acted on Mike Serpa’s permit applications:

    Page 3, Director’s Letter, December 19, 2025

Page 11, Director’s Report December 19, 2025

Page 12, Director’s Report December 19, 2025

As of his first letter to the Planning Commission, the Planning Director, Kaiana Hull was compliant with County law that required these agency reports before a Class IV Zoning Permit or PDU permit could be considered for approval by the Commission:

Kauaʻi County’s Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) Chapter 8, Article 3, §8-3.1 (General Administrative Regulations) mandates that the Planning Director make a referral to the Department of Water, Department of Public Works and Traffic for any application seeking a Class III or Class IV zoning permit from the Planning Commission. This mandatory referral also applies to any permit application that seeks a variance or use permit.

Class IV Zoning Permits — §8-3.1(f)(2)(A)
Same mandatory language, but broader: the Director “shall refer the application to the Department of Public Works, the Department of Water, and the County Transportation Agency,” and may refer it to any other agency as well. Class IV permits always go to a Planning Commission public hearing under §8-3.1(f)(4).

As you know from a prior email, we shared that the Project Development Use Permit (PDU) Serpa applied for is limited to developments with State and Federally funded housing for lower income/workforce. The use of a PDU to build with extra density and multiplex housing that is not otherwise permitted under the applicable zoning ordinance for the parcel is limited to developments with State and Federal funding. A PDU permit for Serpa’s development is not illegal under the PDU statutes own words:

KCC (Kauai County Code) § 8-10.4(d) ties a Project Development Use Permit (PDU), a permit that allows higher-density/deviation allowance specifically to a project that is “part of a federal/state subsidized program for lower-income residents.” If SK Investors’ project has no state or federal subsidy and isn’t structured as a workforce housing program — it’s private commercial development sold at market-set prices with no government income restrictions or funding — then the PDU permit’s own eligibility condition isn’t met. That’s not a discretionary call the Planning Commission gets to make; it’s the plain text of when the deviation authority even exists. 

Michael Moule has yet to conduct or produce a traffic study or comment for the narrow rural roads that will be impacted in Koloa even though supposedly requested by the Planning Director. Rather than continue the hearing, which does automatically continue the County’s time to act, the Planning Director changed the standard for review. On February 24, 2026 when the Planning Commission next met, rather than reviewing the entire record before acting on the permit applications, Kaiana Hull required the developer to meet with the agencies and meet their requirements which eliminated the Commissions involvement in that process.

So there is no question, the Director stated in his first tentative approval letter that he had requested comments from Public Works/Engineering/Traffic and Department of Water sometime prior to his December 19, 2025 letter. Further, he states that he expected to receive those comments by the first Planning Commission hearing on January 13, 2026, the initial Planning Commission hearing on Serpa’s permit applications.

When January 13, 2026 rolled around, there were no comments in the agenda packet from these agencies. There was a large attendance of Koloa residents who testified in opposition to the project. Most of their opposition was based on the public’s concern for the safety of the children and adults who walked the narrow rural roads where there was already inadequate parking, no shoulders, no curbs and no sidewalks. Their testimony made clear that Mike Serpa had not met with the community. 

In response to the significant turnout and resident complaints that they did not receive notice of this large development, the Planning Commission continued the hearing to February 24, 2026 and required Serpa to have a public meeting in Koloa February 18, 2026.

When the Planning Commission hearing resumed February 24, 2026, there was still no reports from Public Works/Engineering Division/Traffic. Now instead of reminding the Commission they had to consider the entire record “including but not limited to agency comments” (Director’s letter 12/19/25 page 12 – linked above), the Planning Director now stated that it was up to the developer to confer with the relevant agencies and meet all their requirements:

Page 2, Director’s Supplemental Letter for 2/24/26 hearing.

Bottom line, the Commission no longer has to carefully review the entire record (despite the Director’s knowledge that to continue the hearing and wait for the agency comments would be legal and would extend the time for the County to act on Serpa’s permit applications). As of February 24, 2026, the developer will now be responsible to work with relevant government agencies and comply with their requirements. Is this the fox being left to guard the hen house? That is not the law on Kauai! We have Appealed the Planning Commission Decision and our hearing before Judge Char will be on August 12, 2026.  

Our County Ordinances do not permit the Planning Department or the Planning Commission to delegate their responsibilities to the developer. In fact, a Class IV permit, that Serpa applied for, cannot be granted without prior agency comment and review of same by the Planning Commission: Kauai County Code Class IV Zoning Permits — §8-3.1(f)(2)(A) mandating agency comments before the Planning Commission acts on permit applications.

Three days after the Planning Commission granted Serpa’s Class IV and PDU permit applications Michael Moule enters escrow to purchase a unit from Michael Serpa in Koloa Village. Six days later escrow closes. Does that pass the smell test or is our County favoring developers at the expense of our residents and tax payers?

Your financial support is pivotal to our success. Thank you again to our generous contributors. 

Please feel free to share this email.Mahalo nui loa,

Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
Donate
friendsofmahaulepu.org
friendsofmahaulepu@hawaiiantel.net
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell

Posted 7/15/2026

million and Meridian Pacific Holdings, LLC, at least $28 million, is proposing a large multi-million dollar AI tech center in Kansas, that would probably be finished as promised based on his track record in Hawaii.

If you read the following, you will find that Gary Pinkston claims “predatory lending” practices forced him to file for bankruptcy. It seems however, that one of his loan creditors, claimed to be a separate entity, is really Gary Pinkston wearing a different hat because both Gary Pinkston’s debtor company Meridian Pacific, Ltd, and a creditor Meridian Pacific Holdings, LLC lists the exact same address and suite number in a shopping center Gary Pinkston built in Waipahu on Oahu. He may well be the “predatory lender” that drove his personal estate and multiple large developments into bankruptcy filed in Federal Court in the Northern District of Georgia.  

Any questions, don’t hesitate to call or email us.

_______________________________________

Aloha Libby,

The following will best update you on the pervasive nature of Pinkston’s financial instability which you may want to share with concerned citizens and your Council members prior to their approving a multi-million dollar tech center in Emporia, Kansas proposed for development by Gary Pinkston. Hopefully, your community won’t be left with a partial development in bankruptcy leaving a large wave of creditors in its wake. Pinkston has 2 developments in the State of Hawaii, both with a development cost of over $400 million. They are each now bankrupt as the following explains:

Waikoloa Plaza, his big mixed-use development on the Big Island (Waikoloa Village, South Kohala District), is a 45-acre master-planned site includes a shopping center anchored by Foodland (opened July 2023), a westward extension anchored by HPM Building Supply projected for August 2026, two hotels (Candlewood Suites and Holiday Inn Express, expected late 2026), and “The Lofts at Waikoloa” — 342 market-rate rental units rolling out in phases, with the first two already leased. It’s a $420 million project with Meridian Pacific serving as both developer and general contractor.

Pinkston’s legal/financial troubles get messier. On May 14, 2026, Pinkston filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Northern District of Georgia, along with his family trust and 15 LLCs he managed. In that personal filing he declared total assets of $50,000 or less, against $154,000 in Chase credit card debt and $145,000 owed to law firms.