Since Starwood bought our golf courses, the PHCA has paid $613,335 in legal fees. Here is where the biggest pieces we can document went.
Every figure about our legal bills on this page comes from the Association’s own records (its tax filings, audits and Board minutes) or from Ace Hodgin’s own public posts. The two biggest pieces we can trace lead to the same two places: Starwood, and Rose Krebs and Ace Hodgin’s own dispute with the Association.
Our legal bills, year by year
PHCA legal fees for each fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), from the Association’s own IRS tax filings.
Nov. 2018Starwood’s SOF-XI buys all 27 holes of our golf courses.
May 2021The Board hires Doug Chin’s firm to advise on Starwood’s plans.
June 2025The PHCA agrees to pay Rose and Ace $60,000 to settle their dispute with the Association.
$613,335
in legal fees in the six years after Starwood arrived (2019–20 through 2024–25)
$25,928
in legal fees in 2018–19, the year Starwood bought our golf courses
$147,012
the peak year, 2021–22, the first full year after the Board hired Doug Chin’s firm
Not counted above: the older front-entrance road case brought by Princeville II Community Association, which the PHCA books on its own line ($69,615 in 2018–19, for example). The PHCA won that case, and the courts ordered the other side to repay its legal fees.
Where the biggest pieces went
Two sources stand out in the PHCA’s own records, and the meter is still running.
Starwood
$138,182
Paid to Doug Chin’s firm in 2021 alone
On May 28, 2021, while Sam George was president, the Board hired Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher, where former Attorney General Doug Chin is a director, to advise on the Association’s “potential opposition to plans of and actions taken by” Starwood’s SOF-XI.
That year, the PHCA paid the firm $138,182, according to its own tax return. No other law firm appears on the PHCA’s 2019–2024 returns as paid more than $100,000 in a year.
The next year, Chin filed a brief for the PHCA in Starwood’s bid to have the homeowners’ lawsuit dismissed. It didn’t argue for the Dedication. Its one argument was that the PHCA “wants to resume discussions” with Starwood about future development. The Mulls and Whites opposed it, and the Court turned Starwood down.
Questions members should ask
How much has Chin’s firm been paid in total since 2021?
What has that work done to protect the Dedication and our open space?
Rose & Ace
$156,641
Rose and Ace’s dispute with the Association
By Ace Hodgin’s own public count, his and Rose Krebs’s dispute with the Association cost members $156,641, “spread over 2 fiscal years including the settlement.”
That includes the $60,000 the PHCA agreed in June 2025 to pay Rose and Ace “as and for reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs.” Their lawyers in the dispute were M4, Laurel Loo’s firm, as Rose and Ace have said publicly.
Questions members should ask
What did members get in return for the $60,000?
What has the Association spent on lawyers since the settlement, and at whose request?
And now
Feb. 26, 2026
Rose moved to make her own lawyers the PHCA’s lawyers
At that Board meeting, Rose moved to approve Laurel Loo of McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon (M4), the firm that had represented Rose and Ace against the PHCA, as the Association’s new general counsel. Two directors voted yes, one voted no and two abstained, and the result was contested.
On Rose’s next motion, the Board voted to have Doug Chin find independent counsel to say whether her motion had passed. M4 later became the PHCA’s lawyers, and its recusal was announced in August 2026. The Board has since hired Porter Kiakona Kopper (PKK) to advise it on the removal.
The question for every member
Why would a director move to hire, as the Association’s lawyers, the firm that had represented her against the Association, months after the Association agreed to pay $60,000 toward her and Ace’s legal fees?
The legal web around Rose Krebs & Ace Hodgin
Who has advised our Board, and how they connect. Dashed lines are questions, not findings.
Tap the map to open it full size.
Doug Chin and his firm. Chin was Hawaiʻi’s Attorney General from March 2015 to February 2018. Since December 2018 he has been a director at Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher, which the Board hired on the Starwood matter in May 2021.
Doug Chin and Starwood’s case. In 2022, Starwood asked the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court to order the Mulls’ and Whites’ lawsuit dismissed. Chin filed a brief for the PHCA in that case. Its one argument was that the PHCA “wants to resume discussions” with Starwood about future development; it never argued for the Dedication. The Mulls and Whites opposed it, and the Court denied Starwood’s petition.
The firm and Jeff Stone. The same 2021 engagement letter discloses that the firm “previously represented Mr. Jeff Stone” on “certain past transactions involving the Golf Course.”
Jeff Stone and the Krebs family. Stone’s company, The Resort Group, is Princeville’s master developer. Hawaii Project Development, founded by Rose’s daughter Jen Krebs and Sean Combs, says on its own website that Sean was a vice president at The Resort Group’s Princeville Development and that Jen has designed for it.
A question about the pension. Hawaiʻi’s public pension committed $50 million to Starwood Opportunity Fund XI in 2018. The Attorney General’s office is the pension system’s legal counsel. We ask, and don’t claim: did Chin’s office review that investment?
Starwood and Rose. In the 2024 election, the 1 Hotel cast all 1,008 of its votes for Rose, about two-thirds of her total.
Rose, Ace and M4. M4 represented Rose and Ace in their dispute with the PHCA, as they have said publicly. Members say Rose didn’t disclose that to the Board.
M4 and the Board. In February 2026, Rose moved to make M4’s Laurel Loo the PHCA’s general counsel. M4’s recusal was announced in August 2026. We insisted that Loo be recused from everything involving Rose and Ace.
Porter Kiakona Kopper (PKK), and how it got the job. General Manager Bryan Allen presented Laurel Loo’s legal views on the removal to members. We contested them, because Loo’s firm, M4, had represented Rose and Ace against the PHCA. Loo recused, and the recusal was announced at a Board meeting in August 2026. So, because of Rose again, the Board had to hire a new lawyer for the removal: PKK. PKK wasn’t sure of the answers itself. In September 2026, it reached out to Terry Revere’s office to check them. With this many lawyers involved, there are clearly multiple interpretations.
In our view, letting Rose and Ace’s own lawyers advise our Board created a conflict, and new liability that every member pays for. And it goes further. Loo’s firm has been on both sides: Rose and Ace’s lawyers against the PHCA, then the PHCA’s own lawyers. She should never again be involved in any matter between the PHCA and Rose or Ace, on either side. When the Board takes advice from lawyers tied to the other side, members pay the bill.
Questions every member should ask
How much has the PHCA paid each law firm since 2021, and for what? Where is the matter-by-matter accounting?
How much has Doug Chin’s firm been paid in total for its Starwood work, and what has it done to protect the Dedication?
Members asked the Board in writing this year to file a brief supporting the homeowners’ win in Starwood’s appeal. Why hasn’t it?
Why would a director move to make her own lawyers the Association’s lawyers?
If Loo couldn’t advise on Rose’s removal, should she have advised on any removal at all?
What have the legal fights of 2025 and 2026 cost so far? Those bills won’t show up in a tax filing for months.
Your vote
Your vote decides who hires the lawyers.
The directors we elect choose the Association’s lawyers and approve their bills.
Sources: PHCA Form 990s, FY2018–19 through FY2024–25 (Part IX, line 11b, legal fees; Part VII, Section B, independent contractors, tax year 2021); PHCA audited financial statements, FY2019–20 through FY2023–24 (the front-entrance case, booked as “PV Entrance Dispute”); Starn O’Toole engagement letter signed by Doug Chin, May 28, 2021, including §9 (on file); Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher announcement (Dec. 17, 2018); Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, SOF-XI Kauai PV Golf, L.P. v. Watanabe, SCPW-22-0000526 (Dkts. 31, 33, 48 and 50); PHCA member email update (Sept. 9, 2022); members’ letters to the Board (Jan. 8 and Mar. 18, 2026, on file); PHCA–Hodgin/Krebs settlement agreement (June 27, 2025); Ace Hodgin’s public Nextdoor posts (on file); PHCA Board meeting minutes, Feb. 26, 2026 (approved); PHCA Board meetings, August 2026 (the Loo firm’s recusal); PHCA 2024 election results; hawaiiprojectdevelopment.com; Hawaiʻi Employees’ Retirement System quarterly holdings reports. Characterizations and questions are the opinion of Protect Princeville.
