HILO —“Fifty-one thousand once, fifty-one thousand twice, sold for fifty-one thousand!”
With that proclamation Tuesday from auctioneer Antonio Roldan, a historic North Kona church was saved to continue hosting religious services another day. Listed at an upset price of $46,641 in back taxes and costs, the 10-acre Mauna Ziona Church property was bought by the Free Church of Tonga, one of several groups that currently use the facilities for their worship.
Pastor Fine Teutau, who held off two other bidders to win the property, said afterward he intends to keep the church in its current use for his congregation, and likely for the others who now use it, including Kahu Norman Keanaaina’s Kekaha Congregational services. The church is also used for Micronesian services.
“It’s going to remain a church,” Teutau said. “It still belongs to people to use this facility for church. … I feel blessed. We feel wonderful for this opportunity.”
Teutau’s bid came toward the end of a long list of about 100 properties to be sold for back taxes. Dealers and deal-seekers perused title documents stapled onto long planks atop tables, then popped up and down from hard wooden benches like so many whack-a-moles when a bid came up on a favored parcel.
Some parcels were scratched off the list as owners scraped together the money to save their property at the final hour. A few properties went for the back taxes alone, but most sold for two or three times that.
Most properties were scarfed up by experienced agents bidding for other people, while a few novices walked away with prizes as well. First-timer Nainoa Kalaukoa, a 22-year-old art student, was out-bid on several other properties before he was the sole bidder on a 12,005-square-foot Glenwood Gardens parcel, which he won by paying the $2,742.18 in taxes owed.
“This is my first time,” he said before the auction. “I’m hoping to find some good land for cheap.”
Assistant Corporation Counsel Bill Brilhante, prior to the bidding, had several words of advice for bidders.
“The county has no obligation to provide clear title,” Brilhante said. “You’re purchasing the property as-is, where-is and how-is.”
Past-due owners have 12 months to buy their property back by paying the auction price, plus 12 percent interest.
Uniformed police officers stood at each corner, keeping a close eye on the cash transactions.
Teutau said his congregation decided to bid on the property after seeing an article in Sunday’s West Hawaii Today depicting the problems the church faced. Property taxes haven’t been paid since 2009, when the Hawaii Conference United Church of Christ turned over the church to Keanaaina as settlement in a lawsuit.
The conference had sued Keanaaina in 2007, after he filed a deed and affidavit with the state Bureau of Conveyances purporting ownership of the church. The Hawaii Conference United Church of Christ, a conference begun by missionaries in 1820, represents scores of primarily small churches throughout the state.
Two families claim ownership of the property, which includes the 10-acre church plot and a 60-acre adjoining parcel. The county’s title search documents show the nonprofit Mauna Ziona Church as fee owner, along with Jean Keka on the larger parcel. Keanaaina is listed as president of the nonprofit corporation in reports filed with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
The adjoining parcel wasn’t sold so cheaply. With an upset price of $120,922, the property garnered a winning bid of $422,000 — the highest bid by far in a long day of properties sold. It’s not yet known who bought the property. The bidder, shielded by three burly police officers, declined to give his name after the auction, saying only that he was buying it for someone else. He declined to say who that was. Attorneys with the county tax office said the new owner’s name won’t be part of the public record until the deed is filed with the county.
Keanaaina, who was interviewed for the Sunday article, didn’t return telephone calls by press time on Tuesday. A man who declined to give his name, but said he’s part of the family who lives on the property, watched the proceedings and declared them irrelevant to the royal patent held by his family.
“We don’t recognize the county having any authority over our patents,” he said.
Activist Shelley Stevens Mahi, with the Native Tenant Protection Council, protested the auctioning of the two properties as well as several others she said were royal patent lands that belonged to the Hawaiian families who lived on them.
“The Hawaiians come with the land,” she told potential bidders of the Mauna Ziona property.
Jessica Keka, answering calls placed to family member Jean Keka, said the family will get its side heard. The Kekas did not attend the auction.
“It’s OK because the title won’t guarantee them the property,” Keka said.
Keka said the county’s actions won’t stand up in court. The family will be seeking damages over the way the entire affair was handed, she said.
“It’s going to be litigated,” Keka said. “It’s just a total scam.”