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★★★★★ NEWS FLASH ★★★★★
- Letter to Ombudsman - ■State of Hawaii Office of the Ombudsman Address: 465 South King Street，Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Phone : 587-0770 FAX:587-0773 Dear Administrator, IOND University was established on April 12, 1999 in the State of Hawaii as a non-profit educational organization, whose noble educational purposes and its programs won the organization the privilege of permanent tax exemption from the federal government. However, Mr. JEB, a lawyer of OCP has been trying to prevent the University from continuing its educational activities allegedly according to the Hawaii Law HRS446E. simply because the University is non-accredited. It cannot be at all admitted that Mr. JEB a civil suit on Sept. 7, 2008 against the University which is granted such privilege of permanent tax exemption as a higher educational organization particularly when such University has never violated any relevant aw in any way. The staff, teaching personnel and supporters of this University are all surprised and angry at Mr. JEB for the abuse of his power as an only lawyer of OCP in Hawaii. Becaue of the fact that there is only one lawyer Mr. JEB in OCP,it is hard to expect fair administration. Should there be anything wrong found with him or in his acts, there would be no one else to control him or to correct his misconducts in any way. For nearly seven years the supporters and directors have worked hard to establish a small post secondary establishment named IOND University in Hawaii. The years and costs are daunting, but we have pushed forward in our efforts to provide a cost efficient process for educational services in Hawaii. A lot of experience was gained through hard work. More years of diligent work and hurdles will be needed to overcome as our establishment slowly begins to solidify. Our complaint is against unfair practices by the director and his subordinate at the Hawaii Office of Consumer Affairs (OCP). Our complaint is not a stand alone case but has entangled many small post secondary schools in the State of Hawaii. The Office of Consumer Protection has managed to push through the Hawaii State Legislature new (fairly new) governance laws for all unaccredited post secondary schools. On the surface the OCP seems to be protecting the public against scam diploma mills; yet, through poor judgement, OCP no written procedures to investigate and evaluate the honest, post secondary school (PSS) entities from the illegal scams. IOND University has no problem with protecting the public from such scams. Without a written protocol to follow, OCP has created and protected a monster of poor government. In the past half dozen years, the OCP has contrived and pushed through the Hawaii Legislature laws that are unjustly weighted against small PSS startups. In the near future, we will ask the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge these laws. Our compliant through the Ombudsman's office is of improper conduct and mismanagement in the OCP. Armed with new laws, the OCP has not developed a written protocol to direct themselves to carry out the laws in a fair and open way. While achieving some good, in reality, the OCP has hindered fair business practices, unjustly vilified citizens, and hurt the public. Furthermore, the OCP practices not only deprives the public of competitive business practices, but also helps the big established schools to monopolize higher education. It is our belief that the Executive Director of the OCP, Stephen H. Levins, and his subordinate, Mr.JEB have acted poorly in their jobs and have caused a lose-lose situation for the State of Hawaii's business environment and the common public. The OCP has filed a number of complaints against many small school start-ups WITHOUT giving any written warning of possible error or non-compliance to state law. The OCP offers no time line nor warning for correcting any possible oversight by honest school officials and supporters. Obviously, tripping over ever changing state law is not being dishonest but well withing human frailty to error. Honest errors do happen and can be changed. No person or business is perfect and must continuously make changes to survive. However, the OPC has acted aggressively and offers no chance for corrective measures to be addressed. Bent on a mission to look good, the OCP blatantly files complaint after complaint without following written protocol and vilifies honest (but not always perfect) business entities and people. This aggressive practice by the OCP forces honest startup schools which cannot afford costly attorney fees to default and fold without a fight. The OCP declares victory over the dishonest and the many honest PSS without knowing the difference. Lacking proper governmental (Judicial, legislative, and Executives) oversight and without written protocol, the OCP has caused the public more damage than good. OCP practices are not about consumer protection but instead a monumental act of inappropriate bureaucratic bullyin by a state agency that lacks leadership and proper supervision. The OPC practices stain Hawaii's business climate and destroys true commercial competition. ■The following are a list of our complaints: 1. The OCP has no written protocol to physically investigate possible non-compliance by post secondary school. 2. The OCP has no written protocol in place to help businesses address known/accidental law violations that maybe discovered. 3. OCP often states that they have warned PSS of real/possible violations but has no paper trail showing such a warning for corrective action was given. In nearly seven years of operation the OCP has not once given any written warning of any inappropriate or unlawful activity on our part. 4. The OCP has pressured many small PSS startups into failure without any chance or due process for businesses to correct problems. 5. The OCP has contrived monopolizing barriers for which legislative laws were created which unfairly hinders small school startups to fairly compete in business. 6. The State Attorney Generals Office nor the State Court system has any written protocol to review OCP complaints submitted to district court and are unable to clarify any of the OCP allegations. This leads to a defacto guilty upon without prejudicial recourse. 7. The OCP is completely lacking in oversight by the State Administration and legislature leading to unchecked and abusive use of power. 8. The inappropriate government posting on the World-Wide-Web of complaints by the OCP against a business before conducting a physical investigation or allowing any redress by the named entity is usually found in an oppressive authoritarian governments not found in the United States. In closing, it is hoped that the Ombudsman's Office can investigate this matter and rectify inappropriate actions by the said government employees and administrators. ■Note of Protest to Mr.JEB of O.C.P. It is clear that Mr. JEB of O.C.P. of Hawaii State is exchanging information with Mr. Shigeru Kojima of Japan in close contact with him, because Mr. Kojima says so in his web-site. He is a malicious discriminator insisting on unreasonable discrimination between accredited and non-accredited universities and between leading and non-leading colleges. He also requests that the academic backgrounds and degrees be managed and controlled by the government. Mr. Kojima often contacted Lodzki University of Poland, with which IOND University was in academic cooperation, telling them repeatedly that IOND University was a diploma mill and was a false university, thus urging them to destroy such a good-will relationship and to cancel the relevant agreement made between the two universities. We are now obliged to file a civil suit against Mr. Kojima. If Mr. JEB is misled by the malicious remarks full of falsehood of Mr. Kojima, Mr. JEB should stop believing it and forget what Mr. JEB have heard from Mr. Kojima about IOND University. Cease communicating with Mr. Kojima now. Further for Mr. JEB’s information, This IOND University is a non-profit higher education institute with the privilege of permanent tax exemption granted by the Federal Government. Mr. JEB is seen to try to destroy this IOND University, and this IOND University is obliged to file a suit against Mr. JEB for his abusing of power. Yours truly, （０２／１１／０８） |
