Maui political conversation so juicy it could be a movie

The most delicious political gossip this week comes from Maui, where a group of political insiders were meeting for coffee and one of them was wearing a wire.

Brian Perry, Maui News city editor, reported the details in the paper’s Sunday edition of how back in 2013, the county managing director, the county communications director and the mayor’s chief of staff met at a Kahului Starbucks with former Maui Film Commissioner Harry Donenfeld to chew him out.

Donenfeld taped the meeting.

The meeting was to dress down Donenfeld, who the county brass thought was irritating Ryan Kavanaugh, a Hollywood billionaire, part-time Maui resident and avid supporter of Mayor Alan Arakawa, who was still pitching a scheme for the state to subsidize the local film industry.

The original plan also called for state tax credits and millions in other goodies to help filmmakers, which included building film studios on Maui and Oahu.

Donenfeld was helping in the effort but had been more successful getting another company, Maui Film Studios, to set up a 21,000- square-foot soundstage in a leased warehouse.

When The Maui News ran a 2013 story about the non-Kavanaugh film studio, the billionaire and his firm, Relativity Media, went ballistic.

“We get this article and then we get email. We get phone calls. We’re getting bombarded by people wanting comments, wanting interviews, wanting press releases,” Keith Regan, Maui managing director, is quoted as saying in the recording and story.

Regan quoted Kavanaugh demanding to know why are they reading about this new studio in the paper.

“And (they’re) really upset to the point where they’re like ‘We thought we had a relationship with you guys but obviously we don’t,’” Regan said of the Kavanaugh reaction.

Regan added in the taped conversation that Arakawa and Kavanaugh are tight.

“He (Kavanaugh) likes the mayor, for whatever reason … He’s friends with the mayor. He invites the mayor over to his house. He plays chess with the mayor. He brings celebrities to play chess with the mayor. He gives the mayor money for whatever, for Kokua Fund, for (Aloha) Initiative, for you name it, for the campaign. This guy has even gone so far that he has even brought in people to contribute to other candidates who we support. Example, Mufi Hannemann. Big dollars from all over brought in to support,” Regan said in the recording.

The obvious problem is that if a business can start a film studio by itself on Maui, why does Kavanaugh and company need to be heavily subsidized with a plan costing the state millions?

The Maui County top brass explained to Donenfeld that job No. 1 was getting Arakawa re-elected.

“Let’s just start off by saying everybody here loves Alan Arakawa. Everybody here wants to protect the man and somehow get him elected in 2014. But I think sometimes we disagree on how to do that. That’s fair. The bottom line is we’re all on the same page. It’s not like anybody here wants (Councilman) Mike Victorino to be mayor,” said Rod Antone, a former Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter who is now Arakawa’s communications director.

“Ultimately, I think what Rod is saying is that our primary goal above all else is to get the mayor re-elected. Nothing else really matters because if the mayor is not re-elected, none of us have jobs. Let’s be very frank. We’re all political. We’re very connected to the may- or. If he loses, we lose. Our families lose,” added Regan.

Donenfeld was later let go by the county, according to The Maui News article.

Kavanaugh’s company, Relativity Media, is proceeding with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Arakawa won his reelection campaign for mayor, and Maui Film Studios went out of business.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.