Condo owners across Hawaiʻi are getting a rare direct line to state lawmakers next Saturday, when the islands' first-ever Condo Owners' Forum convenes at the State Capitol Auditorium from 9 a.m. to noon. The free event is open to condo owners and residential property owners in common-interest communities statewide, including association board members, and comes just months before the 2027 Legislative Session opens.
According to The Garden Island, the Nov. 14 forum is sponsored by Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto, who represents House District 25 covering Ala Moana, Kakaʻako and downtown, and was organized by a grassroots advocacy group. Iwamoto framed the gathering as a chance to rebalance who gets heard at the Capitol. “Good public policy is strengthened when shaped alongside the people it directly affects, not only by the professional interests that traditionally have the loudest voices,” she said, per the same report.
The event is designed to let legislators and government officials hear directly from condominium community members, and forum participants will be able to share feedback with legislators ahead of the 2027 session. That access matters in a state with a sizable condo population to begin with — Hawaiʻi counted 1,826 condo associations representing 173,036 units in 2021, according to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, as reported by Honolulu Civil Beat.
Risk Management and Owner Education on the Agenda
Forum speakers are slated to discuss practical strategies to identify and mitigate risks before emergencies happen. Tom Roselli, a national general adjuster with McLarens, will address risk management from an industry perspective, while retired Honolulu Police Department Deputy Chief John McCarthy will speak to it from a safety standpoint, the article notes.
Owner education gets its own speaker too: Raelene Tenno, education chair for the Hawaii Coalition of Condominium Associations, will discuss the essential role that educating owners plays in protecting them. Separately, OHA Trustee and former state Senator Brickwood Galuteria will highlight owner-protective legislation and advocacy efforts, the forum's organizers said.
Why Organizers Say Owners Need a Seat at the Table
Lourdes Scheibert, a condominium owner who helped organize the forum, put the stakes plainly. “Owners pay the bills and carry the risk, but too often they learn their rights only after something has gone wrong,” she said. Scheibert added that the gathering is meant to change that dynamic before problems escalate: “This forum brings owners and lawmakers together in the same room to build solutions proactively.”
Those rights are rooted in Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes Chapter 514B, which provides the legal protections and obligations governing condominium owners statewide. Past legislative sessions have shown how hard it can be to move owner-focused reforms through the Capitol — Civil Beat reported that a 2023 bill allowing write-in ballots for owners who couldn't attend annual meetings, and making it easier to vote out board members, stalled without a vote in the House Consumer Protection Committee. A separate bill that session to create a condo ombudsman to help owners resolve disputes with their boards also failed to advance, according to the same Civil Beat report.
How to Reserve a Spot
Because seating is limited, attendees must make reservations, which will be confirmed upon receipt, space allowing. Anyone hoping to attend can email [email protected] with “reservation” in the subject line, including the name, phone number and ZIP code of each attendee. Admission to the forum itself remains free.
