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Wailuku attorney receiver for WMSA assets

Wailuku attorney William McKeon has been appointed by a 2nd Circuit judge to be the receiver for all assets, real and tangible property for the judicially dissolved Wailuku Main Street Association Inc./Tri-Isle Main Street Resource Center.

The appointment by Judge Joseph Cardoza was made public in a court filing on Tuesday.

The action comes after Cardoza in September granted a motion by state Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones to judicially dissolve the 28-year-old organization, formed as a nonprofit to encourage revitalization of Maui’s small towns.

The state said the organization was insolvent because its county grant funding had been terminated, the organization had no office, no executive director and no board members.

The court filing says that anyone with custody or control of the nonprofit’s real or personal property, or any other asset belonging to the association, is ordered to turn over the property to McKeon within 30 days of the entry of the order Tuesday.

It also ordered anyone with WMSA assets not to dispose, destroy or transfer them to anyone else besides McKeon.

McKeon said in a email message late Friday afternoon that anyone with a claim against WMSA may send him a written notice. The notice should include the claimant’s full name, mailing and email addresses and phone number along with the amount of the claim, the nature and basis of the claim and all supporting documents and papers.

The notice may be addressed to: Receiver William McKeon Esq., McKeon Imlay Mehling, LLLP; 2145 Kaohu St., Suite 203; Wailuku 96793.

Questions or inquiries may also be made to McKeon by phone at 242-6644 or by email at bill@mimhawaii.com.

Payment first will be made to any creditors, the filing said. Then any other remaining assets will be distributed in accordance the former nonprofit’s articles of incorporation and section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and WMSA’s bylaws.

WMSA still owes a Wailuku landlord nearly $10,000 in unpaid rent and other fees.

In May, the county filed suit claiming the organization violated its grant agreement and should return more than $11,000 worth of personal property bought with county funds and any remaining funds obtained under the grant.

The court actions culminate a series of events that began in 2012, with Jones’ scathing report about WMSA. That report charged the organization with engaging in nepotism, lobbying in violation of its grant contract, providing little evidence of program services and having a “terribly confused” governance structure.

Last October, Maui County notified WMSA that it was terminating the association’s $243,000 grant. That was the agency’s main source of funding. WMSA received about $60,000 of that grant.

WMSA has received more than $2.2 million in county funding in the last decade.

The organization’s former board chairman, Thomas Cannon, has been a staunch defender of the nonprofit and has insisted the organization has done nothing wrong and that its finances had been reviewed annually and received clean audits.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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