Photos of grannies making cookies with the kiddos, a grandfather and grandson hand in hand, kicking through fall leaves, and a grandmother reading to a loving child on her lap.
These are among the scenes that, the Tenderlycare.org website would have you believe, are playing out in three Big Island developments: Luna Loa, a 60-unit affordable development in Waikoloa; Westview [sic], a 112-unit complex in Kona; and Crystal Orchid, 30 affordable units in Puna. The first two are underway in one fashion or another. As to the third, it’s apparently lying low for the time being. A company called Crystal Orchid Developments, LLC, was formed in Hawai‘i in July 2020, with its registered agent Zendo Kern – now the county planning director. Its sole member is Terry Kershner, whose listed address is in California. So far as Environment Hawai‘i is able to learn, there is no affordable development of that name in the state.
But there’s more:
The Hilo Tenderly Care project will accommodate “about 50 affordable elderly care units and a childcare center” – if Tenderly Care’s realtor can get a long-term lease from the state for the property depicted. That property is a multi-story stucco building with balconies, backing up against an even taller brick building. In Hilo, there’s no such thing.
That’s not the only made-up thing on the website. Click on the “Team” tab to learn about the people involved, and you’ll see four handsome, multiracial people, two men, two women. The same faces appear on other websites from Australia to Long Island, advertising everything from corporate services to hairdressing salons.
They’re real people – models whose images are sold on stock photo sites. Just like every other image on the website.
— Patricia Tummons
B. Jones
How is Zendo Kern, of Zendo Kern Planning Consultant, LLC, not a major conflict of interest in his position as Planning Director with Hawaii County (not to mention his connections with other real estate related businesses)?