The hotel takeover

The Hotel Takeover

The Princeville at Hanalei Community Association (PHCA) is run by a five-member volunteer Board elected by the owners. One owner, Starwood’s 1 Hotel, holds 504 of the 3,257 votes, and the hotel’s manager is now the Board’s President. Here is who sits on the Board, how its seats are won, the two removal petitions still waiting, and what every member can do.

The Board today

After the October 24, 2026 annual election.

Patti ThieleDirector at LargeOn the Board since 2021 · term ends 2027

Mark GauthierVice PresidentElected 2025 · term ends 2028

Tom BartlettTreasurerElected 2026 · term ends 2029

Rose KrebsSecretaryElected 2024 · term ends 2027 · under a removal petition

MJ StancilPresidentElected 2026 · term ends 2029 · manages Starwood’s 1 Hotel

In the October 2026 election, community-backed candidate Tom Bartlett and the 1 Hotel’s manager, MJ Stancil, won the two open seats. Vice President Dale Sands narrowly lost re-election, and Starwood employee Isaiah Francis left the Board when his term ended. See everyone’s profile →

After the election, the Board chose its officers. MJ Stancil, who manages Starwood’s 1 Hotel, is now the PHCA’s President. Mark Gauthier is Vice President, Rose Krebs is Secretary and Tom Bartlett is Treasurer. Patti Thiele, who was President, is now Director at Large.

The Starwood 8

Four work for Starwood or its hotel. Four are Princeville owners who, in our view, have sided with it. Tap a name for the full record.

MJ StancilPHCA President since October 2026. Manages Starwood’s 1 Hotel, which holds 504 of the Association’s 3,257 votes.Full record →

Rose KrebsDirector and Secretary. Won her seat in 2024 “with critical backing from Starwood Capital Group” (Civil Beat).Full record →

Ace HodginRose’s husband and a former PHCA President. Requested the members’ mailing list used for the “Friends of Princeville” mailer.Full record →

Bernard MarkowiczSigned the “Friends of Princeville” mailer. Received all of Starwood’s proxy votes when he ran for the Board in 2025, by Ace Hodgin’s own public admission.Full record →

Sam GeorgeFormer PHCA President. Testified for Starwood’s side at the 2025 trial.Full record →

James RavedStarwood’s corporate lawyer.Full record →

Roy ShanholtzStarwood executive. Warned then-President Patti Thiele she could be personally liable.Full record →

Isaiah FrancisStarwood employee who sat on our Board until October 2026.Full record →

The hotel’s manager is now our President

MJ Stancil, elected October 24, 2026, then chosen by the Board as its President.

Not a Princeville homeowner. She manages Starwood’s 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay and was on the ballot through a Starwood corporate designation. We could not find a Princeville property record in her name.
Lives at the hotel she manages. At the October 24, 2026 annual meeting, as members in the room heard it, she confirmed that she lives at the 1 Hotel, in a room the hotel provides. Her job and her home both come from Starwood’s hotel.
Paid for her Board service. At the same meeting, as members in the room heard it, she answered that she is a paid employee of the hotel, that she is paid to serve on the Board, and that her salary and bonus are related to her service as a Board member.
What she knows about Princeville. Members who were there report that when she was asked what she knew about Princeville, she said not much. Asked how she feels about the condition of the Woods, she did not answer the question, saying only that it was the Woods, and then that it was nature.
Asked whether she would recuse: no. When Lorraine Mull asked her whether she would recuse herself from the Board’s legal discussions about the Woods and Starwood, she said no, as members who were there heard it.
Why we believe she is an officer of a Starwood company. Hawaiʻi law requires every director to be a member of the Association (HRS §421J-3(a)), and membership comes from owning property here (Charter, Art. VII). Working for an owner does not make someone a member. We could not find a Princeville property record in her name, so, as we read the rules, she can serve only on behalf of a company that owns property here. Isaiah Francis, the Starwood employee who sat on the Board before her, was seated through a resolution of SOF-XI Kauai PV Hotel GP, L.L.C. that named him one of its officers, an “Authorized Signatory.” That is why we believe President Stancil was seated the same way, as an officer of the hotel’s ownership company. In November 2024, Mr. Francis signed a conflict statement disclosing his conflict over the 2026 Dedication. Community members are now questioning her eligibility on Nextdoor. Members have asked the Board to confirm how she was seated, and to require the same signed statement and recusal from her.
Not yet signed. As of our November 2 letter, no signed conflict-of-interest statement from her had been posted for members. Members have asked her in writing to sign it, with her recusals written out, before taking part in any Board business. Why it matters →
Starwood’s lawyer, on her role. After the election, James Raved, Starwood’s attorney, posted on Nextdoor that the community should not expect her to be a spokesperson for the Starwood entity that owns the golf course.

A homeowners association is run by its owners, for its owners. Its President should not be paid and housed by the company on the other side of the Association over the Woods.

How seats are won

Our 1971 Charter gives each residential lot or unit one vote, and a hotel two votes for every room. The 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay has 252 rooms, so it holds 504 of the Association’s 3,257 votes. In a two-seat election each vote counts once per seat, so the hotel casts 1,008, as one block.

1,008

votes the 1 Hotel casts in a two-seat election

100%

of those votes the hotel cast in 2024

31% · 21%

of single-family and condo votes cast in 2024

In 2022 and 2024 the hotel cast every one of its votes, while most homeowners didn’t vote at all. That is how one corporate owner can decide seats on a Board that represents everyone, and why every owner’s vote matters. More on the hotel’s votes →

Join the Homeowners United Voting Bloc, and we’ll let you know before every vote that matters. Sign up below ↓

Why every director must sign the conflict-of-interest statement

From our letter to the Board of November 2, 2026.

The PHCA is a nonprofit, exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its own Conflict of Interest Policy requires every director to sign an annual statement. Hawaiʻi law requires a director with a conflict “on any issue before the board” to disclose it before the vote, and the minutes to record it (HRS §421J-5(e)).

It protects our nonprofit status. In the annual statement, each director affirms that the Association, to keep its federal tax status, “must engage primarily in activities that accomplish one or more of its nonprofit purposes.” Federal excess-benefit rules apply to 501(c)(4) associations, and directors count as “disqualified persons.” The Association’s best protection is approval by directors with no conflict, written down at the time.
Two directors are tied to the other side. Director Rose Krebs’s household settled its own dispute with the Association in 2025, and in February 2026 she moved to hire her own lawyers as the Association’s counsel; the approved minutes record no disclosure of that conflict. President MJ Stancil manages Starwood’s hotel and, as members heard it, is paid in part for her Board service. Starwood is on the other side of the Association over the Woods Course and the 2026 Dedication.
The Board has done this before. In November 2024, Director Isaiah Francis, a Starwood employee, signed a statement disclosing that he was conflicted regarding negotiations related to the 2026 Dedication expiration. The same answer applies to the hotel’s manager.
The tax return does not add up. The PHCA’s Form 990 for 2024–25 says the Association monitors and enforces its conflict policy, yet answers “No” when asked whether directors were required to disclose conflicts every year, although the policy requires it. Both cannot be right.

What we asked the Board

Keep the Conflict of Interest Policy and annual statement in full force. Every director signs it, with conflicts and recusals written out, before taking part in any further Board business.
Record each director’s disclosures and recusals in the minutes, as the law requires.
Recuse Director Krebs and President Stancil from everything involving the Woods Course, the 2026 Dedication, Starwood and its affiliates, and let the Vice President or the directors with no conflict act wherever the policy would rely on the President.
Post every director’s signed statement on the members’ portal within 30 days of election, and every year after.
Bar any director from helping choose, or voting to hire, a law firm that represents or has represented that director or a family member.
Before any change to the policy, send members the changes 30 days ahead, vote in open session, and say which lawyer advised it and whom that lawyer represents.
Correct the Form 990 answer on yearly conflict disclosures.

If the Board seeks new advice on conflicts, members are entitled to know who asked for it, why, which lawyer gives it, and whom that lawyer represents.

We asked for a written response by November 16, 2026. What you can do →

The petition to remove Director Rose Krebs

Still pending. The Board has not yet noticed the meeting.

More than 500 owners signed a petition to remove Director Rose Krebs from the Board. The PHCA must notice a special meeting for members to vote on it, and it has not yet done so.

Our recommendation: when the meeting is noticed, vote YES to remove Rose Krebs.

Why? Read Don’t Be Fooled, see the Ace & Rose Map and Who’s Driving Our Legal Bills, and compare the Two Futures this vote decides.

The petition to remove Patti Thiele

Still pending. The Board has not yet noticed the meeting.

A petition was filed to remove Patti Thiele and Dale Sands, then the Board’s President and Vice President. The PHCA has not said who filed it. Civil Beat reported on October 21, 2026 that Starwood sponsored it. The part against Dale is now moot: he was not re-elected in October 2026.

The “Friends of Princeville” mailer urged members to remove Patti and Dale. Read Patti and Dale’s response →

Your rights as a member

See the election records. For 30 days after any association meeting, members may view the proxies, tally sheets, ballots, check-in lists and certificates of election (HRS §421J-7(d)). The Board may ask for a short good-faith affidavit and charge for copies, and after the 30 days the proxies and ballots may be destroyed. For the October 24, 2026 annual meeting, the window runs through November 23, 2026.
Know why the Board meets in private. The Board may meet in executive session only for personnel, litigation or attorney-client matters, and it must first say in open session what the private session is about (HRS §421J-5(c)).
Hear about conflicts. A director with a conflict of interest must disclose it before the vote, and the minutes must record it (HRS §421J-5(e)).
Call a meeting. Members holding ten percent of the votes can call a special meeting of the membership (By-Laws Art. II §3(b)).
Petition to remove a director. Hawaiʻi law sets out how members can petition to remove a director (HRS §421J-3.3).

General information, not legal advice. Talk to our attorney → The PHCA’s own site is myprinceville.org ↗.

Sources: PHCA Charter of Incorporation (1971), Art. VIII; PHCA By-Laws, Arts. II and III; PHCA annual meeting minutes of Nov. 6, 2021 and Oct. 25, 2025, and the official 2024 election results; the 1 Hotel owner’s April 9, 2026 filing with the Kauaʻi Planning Commission (252 rooms); Honolulu Civil Beat, Oct. 21, 2026; HRS §§421J-3.3, 421J-5 and 421J-7 (capitol.hawaii.gov). The October 2026 results are as announced at the annual meeting. Characterizations and recommendations are the opinion of Protect Princeville.

Sources: PHCA Association News, “2026 PHCA Board Election – Voting Is Now Open” (Sept. 24, 2026), for voting instructions and dates. PHCA Board of Directors 2024 Election Results (Oct. 26, 2024), for the hotel’s 1,008 votes, turnout by category and invalid ballots. The members’ petition to remove Rose Krebs is on file. Recommendations are the opinion of Protect Princeville.