CEO Wes Lo has held this position for nearly a decade. In that time:
• Care has not improved
• Staffing has declined
• Resident outcomes have worsened
• Lawsuits and complaints have increased
• His salary has grown
The only measurable success under Mr. Lo’s administration is his own compensation package. His aggressive push for land acquisition, while kūpuna suffer, reveals a warped set of priorities.
A so-called nonprofit with questionable billing and discharge practices is charging our seniors $18,000 a month — only to leave them sitting in their own waste, waiting hours to be fed or put to bed at the nurse’s convenience. This could be your grandma, your tata, your auntie, your uncle — or one day, even you.
Defer this proposal. Deny it. Audit them. Report them.
Their licensing and accreditation are already under scrutiny. This organization has no business expanding — it cannot even care for the vulnerable lives already under its roof.
Leadership is about stewardship, not self-enrichment. If Hale Makua cannot care for our kūpuna with the resources it already has, it should not be entrusted with new ones. Rewarding failure undermines public trust, disrespects frontline workers, and places our elders at greater risk.
Instead of investing in safer conditions or adequate staff-to-patient ratios, Hale Makua’s administration is aggressively lobbying for real estate, acting more like a developer than a healthcare provider.
Hale Makua’s record of falls, lawsuits, and staff turnover demonstrates institutional failure — not readiness for growth.
Expanding an unstable system will only scale its dysfunction. A forensic review of incident reports, death logs, and discharge patterns is needed before any land is transferred.
This is not just about land or housing—it is about trust, accountability, and service to our kūpuna. If Hale Makua cannot safely and ethically manage its current facilities, it should not be empowered to build and operate more.
We need independent audits, public transparency, and stronger ethical standards—not more deals behind closed doors.
All that’s left is for this Committee to rubber stamp a project already crafted behind closed doors—without public input, without operational readiness, and without any evidence Hale Makua can or should be entrusted with more.
⸻
🧭 My Challenge to You
If you believe this project serves the public, visit the facilities—unannounced.
• Talk to the caregivers.
• Ask them about staffing, pay, conditions.
• Speak with residents and families.
• Look at the locked rooms, the deferred maintenance, and the unspoken trauma.
Then ask yourselves: Is this the organization to receive a piece of our public park to “solve” our housing crisis? Or is this a deal designed to help a politically connected CEO and his private developer friend extract more out of this island?
My name is Uiʻlani Bautista, and I submit this testimony in the deepest sorrow and strongest opposition to the County’s intent to gift land or public resources to Hale Makua Health Services. I urge this Council to halt all rewards, benefits, or partnerships with this institution until a full independent audit and criminal investigation is completed. I say this not as an activist, but as a grieving daughter.
My mother entered Hale Makua on her two feet. She was able to speak. She was able to eat. She was emotionally present. She was alive.
Within one month, my mother was dead.
In that short time, her condition rapidly deteriorated. She was no longer able to speak. She cried constantly. She stopped eating. The life was drained from her — not by natural causes, but by the environment and neglect she was subjected to.
We were told she was being cared for. We were told she was safe. But that was not true.
Let me ask you: What kind of healthcare system watches a woman starve to death under the supervision of so-called professionals? What kind of county rewards that facility with more land and public trust?
Hale Makua is already charging upwards of $18,000 per month for care — more than many of the highest-end private facilities on the mainland, which at least deliver quality service, dignity, and transparency. What are our kūpuna getting in return here?
• Ridicule by staff.
• Hours without help to eat, use the restroom, or be changed.
• Medical neglect and abuse.
• Deadly outcomes with no answers.
While the CEO has remained in power for nearly a decade, nothing has improved — except his paycheck. Meanwhile, families like mine are left with trauma, unanswered questions, and funerals we didn’t expect to plan so soon.
There are open allegations, lawsuits, federal complaints, and a known record of falls and deaths. Where is the County’s due diligence? Why are you offering a reward when there should be accountability?
This organization does not deserve expansion. It deserves a federal audit, an elder care review, a licensing inspection, and, quite possibly, a grand jury. Not a land deal. Not workforce housing. Not one square foot more of public trust.
Do not reward death. Do not subsidize elder abuse.
My mother deserved better. So does every family on Maui.
The County cannot justify giving land to a facility that charges $18,000/month for care that mainland seniors get at half the price with twice the service.
This is not “nonprofit” care — this is profiteering, enabled by silence. Without a full audit of billing, staffing, and outcomes, the County risks subsidizing exploitation with taxpayer assets.
Submitted to the Water Authority, Social Services, and Parks Committee (WASSPC)
August 4, 2025
Opposition to the Intent to Convey County Land to Hale Makua Health Services for Workforce Housing
Resolution No.: 25-139
Aloha Chair Sinenci and Members of the WASSP Committee,
I submit this testimony in **strong opposition** to Resolution 25-139, which declares the County’s intent to convey a portion of the Kahului Community Center Park site to **Hale Makua Health Services** (HMHS) and its for-profit partner, **Alaka‘i Development**, for the creation of workforce rental housing.
While the stated goals—affordable housing for healthcare workers and those displaced by wildfire—are laudable, entrusting public land and millions in future investment to an organization that has failed its core mission is a grave mistake.
Under the leadership of Wesley “Wes” Lo, now nearly 9 years into his role as CEO, Hale Makua’s Wailuku facility is:
CHRONICALLY AND PURPOSEFULLY UNDERSTAFFED, placing both patients and workers at risk.
Operationally underutilized, with at least **six (6) potential resident units sitting empty, locked, and unused—despite Maui’s housing and eldercare crisis.
Charging $600 per day (\$18,000/month) for private-pay residents, while discouraging Medicare and Medicaid patients, effectively favoring profit over public service.
Suffering from **visible deferred maintenance, worn infrastructure, and outdated interiors—without meaningful investment or improvement under current leadership.
There have been NO FACILITY UPGRADES, NO MEANINGFUL WAGE INCREASES FOR NURSING STAFF, and no published plans to resolve staffing shortages. For an organization that touts its nonprofit status, Hale Makua functions far more like a private, exclusionary institution than a public-serving eldercare provider.
Rather than addressing these failures, Hale Makua seeks to expand, in partnership with a for-profit developer, onto public parkland, to manage a 100-unit rental complex. This proposal is being fast-tracked with:
* Pre-committed grant funding.
* A hand-picked developer.
* Preliminary design and survey work already underway.
This is not “intent”—this is a **done deal in disguise**, and the County is being asked to simply **bless a broken process** without sufficient oversight or assurance that Hale Makua has the operational capacity to manage a larger footprint.
Hale Makua’s billing and patient discharge practices deserve investigation. There is credible evidence that:
The facility steers patients away from Medicaid and Medicare, converting vulnerable kūpuna into private pay at excessive rates.
Some residents have been discharged under disputed medical assessments, only to be kept on-site and billed privately.
Family members have faced confusion, pressure, or financial distress from ambiguous or coerced care plans.
These actions violate the spirit—if not the letter—of NON PROFIT TAX EXEMPT OBLIGATIONS under both state and federal law. They are not the actions of a public trust organization deserving of free land, subsidized housing projects, or multi-million-dollar County partnerships.
In the past I have previously supported the County’s consideration of funding this nonprofit—but I urged those funds be directed toward:
* **Staff wages**
* **Basic maintenance**
* **Corrective care protocols**
Instead, the County is now poised to reward a failing nonprofit with expanded responsibility and grant a lucrative opportunity to its preferred development partner—without correcting current deficiencies.
I urge you to pause this process and conduct unannounced site visits to both Hale Makua Wailuku and Kahului. Speak directly to the staff, the residents, and the families. See the conditions, the closed rooms, the stretched employees, and the disrepair. Then ask yourselves whether this organization should be given a single additional acre of public land.
The nursing staff are the lowest paid in their fields, most leave due to the low wages. Traveling nurses make more than the local nurses. The rooms and baths are dirty, there are not enough nurses for the patients already in the facilites which is by design and this organization is salary heavy on the top, while the heart and soul of this NOT FOR PROFIT get paid $20.00 per hour after three years of service?
This is not just about land or housing—it is about trust, accountability, and service to our kūpuna. If Hale Makua cannot safely and ethically manage its current facilities, it should not be empowered to build and operate more.
We need INDEPENDENT AUDITS, PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY, and ACCOUNTABILITY—not more deals behind closed doors.
Please DEFER or VOTE NO on Resolution 25-139 until the above concerns are addressed. This will not help our kapuna, their families or the staff of this organization.
Mahalo for your time, your kuleana, and your commitment to serving the people of Maui.
Disaster mitigation during recent tsunami threat at hale makuas were non existent, so please elaborate? Residents and families would love to know.
CEO Wes Lo has held this position for nearly a decade. In that time:
• Care has not improved
• Staffing has declined
• Resident outcomes have worsened
• Lawsuits and complaints have increased
• His salary has grown
The only measurable success under Mr. Lo’s administration is his own compensation package. His aggressive push for land acquisition, while kūpuna suffer, reveals a warped set of priorities.
Keala Bautista
A so-called nonprofit with questionable billing and discharge practices is charging our seniors $18,000 a month — only to leave them sitting in their own waste, waiting hours to be fed or put to bed at the nurse’s convenience. This could be your grandma, your tata, your auntie, your uncle — or one day, even you.
Defer this proposal. Deny it. Audit them. Report them.
Their licensing and accreditation are already under scrutiny. This organization has no business expanding — it cannot even care for the vulnerable lives already under its roof.
Kaui Bautista
Don’t reward failure, neglect and corruption. Demand accountability, transparency and a new CEO
Leadership is about stewardship, not self-enrichment. If Hale Makua cannot care for our kūpuna with the resources it already has, it should not be entrusted with new ones. Rewarding failure undermines public trust, disrespects frontline workers, and places our elders at greater risk.
Instead of investing in safer conditions or adequate staff-to-patient ratios, Hale Makua’s administration is aggressively lobbying for real estate, acting more like a developer than a healthcare provider.
OPPOSE
Gary Rosen
Wailea Resident
Hale Makua’s record of falls, lawsuits, and staff turnover demonstrates institutional failure — not readiness for growth.
Expanding an unstable system will only scale its dysfunction. A forensic review of incident reports, death logs, and discharge patterns is needed before any land is transferred.
Donovan Meed
Kahului resident
This is not just about land or housing—it is about trust, accountability, and service to our kūpuna. If Hale Makua cannot safely and ethically manage its current facilities, it should not be empowered to build and operate more.
We need independent audits, public transparency, and stronger ethical standards—not more deals behind closed doors.
All that’s left is for this Committee to rubber stamp a project already crafted behind closed doors—without public input, without operational readiness, and without any evidence Hale Makua can or should be entrusted with more.
⸻
🧭 My Challenge to You
If you believe this project serves the public, visit the facilities—unannounced.
• Talk to the caregivers.
• Ask them about staffing, pay, conditions.
• Speak with residents and families.
• Look at the locked rooms, the deferred maintenance, and the unspoken trauma.
Then ask yourselves: Is this the organization to receive a piece of our public park to “solve” our housing crisis? Or is this a deal designed to help a politically connected CEO and his private developer friend extract more out of this island?
Say no to the ordinance
Albert Orta
Haiku
Chair, Councilmembers, and members of the public,
My name is Uiʻlani Bautista, and I submit this testimony in the deepest sorrow and strongest opposition to the County’s intent to gift land or public resources to Hale Makua Health Services. I urge this Council to halt all rewards, benefits, or partnerships with this institution until a full independent audit and criminal investigation is completed. I say this not as an activist, but as a grieving daughter.
My mother entered Hale Makua on her two feet. She was able to speak. She was able to eat. She was emotionally present. She was alive.
Within one month, my mother was dead.
In that short time, her condition rapidly deteriorated. She was no longer able to speak. She cried constantly. She stopped eating. The life was drained from her — not by natural causes, but by the environment and neglect she was subjected to.
We were told she was being cared for. We were told she was safe. But that was not true.
Let me ask you: What kind of healthcare system watches a woman starve to death under the supervision of so-called professionals? What kind of county rewards that facility with more land and public trust?
Hale Makua is already charging upwards of $18,000 per month for care — more than many of the highest-end private facilities on the mainland, which at least deliver quality service, dignity, and transparency. What are our kūpuna getting in return here?
• Ridicule by staff.
• Hours without help to eat, use the restroom, or be changed.
• Medical neglect and abuse.
• Deadly outcomes with no answers.
While the CEO has remained in power for nearly a decade, nothing has improved — except his paycheck. Meanwhile, families like mine are left with trauma, unanswered questions, and funerals we didn’t expect to plan so soon.
There are open allegations, lawsuits, federal complaints, and a known record of falls and deaths. Where is the County’s due diligence? Why are you offering a reward when there should be accountability?
This organization does not deserve expansion. It deserves a federal audit, an elder care review, a licensing inspection, and, quite possibly, a grand jury. Not a land deal. Not workforce housing. Not one square foot more of public trust.
Do not reward death. Do not subsidize elder abuse.
My mother deserved better. So does every family on Maui.
Respectfully,
Uiʻlani Bautista
The County cannot justify giving land to a facility that charges $18,000/month for care that mainland seniors get at half the price with twice the service.
This is not “nonprofit” care — this is profiteering, enabled by silence. Without a full audit of billing, staffing, and outcomes, the County risks subsidizing exploitation with taxpayer assets.
Keoni Hakoda
Maui County is handing public land to a failing nonprofit that exploits kūpuna for profit while its CEO and developer ally cash in on suffering.
Submitted to the Water Authority, Social Services, and Parks Committee (WASSPC)
August 4, 2025
Opposition to the Intent to Convey County Land to Hale Makua Health Services for Workforce Housing
Resolution No.: 25-139
Aloha Chair Sinenci and Members of the WASSP Committee,
I submit this testimony in **strong opposition** to Resolution 25-139, which declares the County’s intent to convey a portion of the Kahului Community Center Park site to **Hale Makua Health Services** (HMHS) and its for-profit partner, **Alaka‘i Development**, for the creation of workforce rental housing.
While the stated goals—affordable housing for healthcare workers and those displaced by wildfire—are laudable, entrusting public land and millions in future investment to an organization that has failed its core mission is a grave mistake.
Under the leadership of Wesley “Wes” Lo, now nearly 9 years into his role as CEO, Hale Makua’s Wailuku facility is:
CHRONICALLY AND PURPOSEFULLY UNDERSTAFFED, placing both patients and workers at risk.
Operationally underutilized, with at least **six (6) potential resident units sitting empty, locked, and unused—despite Maui’s housing and eldercare crisis.
Charging $600 per day (\$18,000/month) for private-pay residents, while discouraging Medicare and Medicaid patients, effectively favoring profit over public service.
Suffering from **visible deferred maintenance, worn infrastructure, and outdated interiors—without meaningful investment or improvement under current leadership.
There have been NO FACILITY UPGRADES, NO MEANINGFUL WAGE INCREASES FOR NURSING STAFF, and no published plans to resolve staffing shortages. For an organization that touts its nonprofit status, Hale Makua functions far more like a private, exclusionary institution than a public-serving eldercare provider.
Rather than addressing these failures, Hale Makua seeks to expand, in partnership with a for-profit developer, onto public parkland, to manage a 100-unit rental complex. This proposal is being fast-tracked with:
* Pre-committed grant funding.
* A hand-picked developer.
* Preliminary design and survey work already underway.
This is not “intent”—this is a **done deal in disguise**, and the County is being asked to simply **bless a broken process** without sufficient oversight or assurance that Hale Makua has the operational capacity to manage a larger footprint.
Hale Makua’s billing and patient discharge practices deserve investigation. There is credible evidence that:
The facility steers patients away from Medicaid and Medicare, converting vulnerable kūpuna into private pay at excessive rates.
Some residents have been discharged under disputed medical assessments, only to be kept on-site and billed privately.
Family members have faced confusion, pressure, or financial distress from ambiguous or coerced care plans.
These actions violate the spirit—if not the letter—of NON PROFIT TAX EXEMPT OBLIGATIONS under both state and federal law. They are not the actions of a public trust organization deserving of free land, subsidized housing projects, or multi-million-dollar County partnerships.
In the past I have previously supported the County’s consideration of funding this nonprofit—but I urged those funds be directed toward:
* **Staff wages**
* **Basic maintenance**
* **Corrective care protocols**
Instead, the County is now poised to reward a failing nonprofit with expanded responsibility and grant a lucrative opportunity to its preferred development partner—without correcting current deficiencies.
I urge you to pause this process and conduct unannounced site visits to both Hale Makua Wailuku and Kahului. Speak directly to the staff, the residents, and the families. See the conditions, the closed rooms, the stretched employees, and the disrepair. Then ask yourselves whether this organization should be given a single additional acre of public land.
The nursing staff are the lowest paid in their fields, most leave due to the low wages. Traveling nurses make more than the local nurses. The rooms and baths are dirty, there are not enough nurses for the patients already in the facilites which is by design and this organization is salary heavy on the top, while the heart and soul of this NOT FOR PROFIT get paid $20.00 per hour after three years of service?
This is not just about land or housing—it is about trust, accountability, and service to our kūpuna. If Hale Makua cannot safely and ethically manage its current facilities, it should not be empowered to build and operate more.
We need INDEPENDENT AUDITS, PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY, and ACCOUNTABILITY—not more deals behind closed doors.
Please DEFER or VOTE NO on Resolution 25-139 until the above concerns are addressed. This will not help our kapuna, their families or the staff of this organization.
Mahalo for your time, your kuleana, and your commitment to serving the people of Maui.
Respectfully submitted,
Lore Menin
Kihei Resident
Kapuna
Maui Bus Rider