Lee Elected Chair of Maui Council after Epic 18 Hour Meeting

from Our Correspondent

Who needs telenovelas when there's the Maui County Council?

What's not to find fascinating about the intrigues that go with the governance of a small but deluxe island community and the personal and political agendas of the nine legislators who review what is now a billion dollar plus annual budget?

The latest chapter in that ongoing saga took place on Friday, Jan. 27 in an epic 18 hour meeting which convened at 9 am and did not turn off the video recorder until nearly 3 am.

It was 8:22 pm when veteran council member Alice Lee was elected chair by unanimous vote.

For those who have not been following the saga, Lee, who has served on and off for eight two year terms, won the November election for the Wailuku seat by a narrow margin of slightly over 500 votes.

Her opponent challenged the results and took the case to the Hawaii Supreme Court which ruled in Lee's favor in a 4-1 opinion on Jan. 20, paving the way for Lee to seek her former leadership post at the council meeting of the 27th.

The same 2022 election which saw Lee squeak in, also changed the balance of power in the council from 5-4 for the so called "progressive" faction, to a new 5-4 split which favors a more pro-growth, pro-tourism agenda, a reversal that was helped along by lavish amounts of cold hard cash (estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars). Much of the swag came from the coffers of the building trades and others who saw the progressive agenda as a threat to their real estate and tourism bottom line.

During the first eight hours and twenty two minutes Interim Chair Tasha Kama wielded the gavel and also set forth restrictive rules on public testimony, saying that the those who wanted to testify would have only two minutes instead of the customary three to state their views, and also requiring the testimony to be given only at the time when a specific item came to the floor. This meant scores of Mauians waited an entire day and for some most of the night before their turn to speak came up.

Along the way the council declined to override a last minute veto by prior Maui Mayor Michael Victorino to legislation which had altered the way that eligibility for "affordable" housing was computed, and also voted down a measure which would have given added protection to the ancestral bones of Native Hawaiians.

Tempers grew short and as matters proceeded at a glacial pace, and while most who spoke took the flattery (hoomalimali) route, there were others who peppered their testimony with an assortment of four letters words in English and Hawaiian.

By the time it came to setting up the committees, an event that took place in the wee hours of the morning and was compared by one testifier to "a slumber party," all the participants seemed more than a little groggy.

But not so groggy as to forget who was calling the shots.

The Maui Council which is composed of six women and three men gave a stellar performance of "girl boss" with the duo of Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tasha Kama coming out on top.

Sugimura became budget chair, taking the position away from 'progressive' Keani Rawlins Fernandez, who mustered an impressive array of support, but to no avail. While Kama (joined at the hip to Sugimura) ousted Gabe Johnson from the Housing committee chairmanship.

When it came to deciding just how the committees would be structured and who would be members of which committees it resembled kids trading cards or flipping pogs in the school yard, as subject areas that reviewed millions of dollars were swapped back and forth with little or no discussion, and committees formed and reformed, morphed and re-morphed in an atmosphere that could only be described as, "After you my dear Alphonse."

What these committees, most with new acronyms like DRIP and WASSP (pronounced "wasup?") and grab bags of jurisdictions, will actually do or how they will function, remains to be seen.

And whether the two new council rookies (Nohelani U'u-Hodgins and Tom Cook) both of whom received important chair assignments, is also a matter for speculation, especially for Cook who now heads the critical Water and Infrastructure Committee.

The outcome of the committee assignments as posted on the County website is:

Alice Lee, Council Chair

Tom Cook, Chair, Water and Infrastructure Committee (WAI)

Gabe Johnson, Chair, Agriculture, Diversification, Environment, and Public Transportation Committee (ADEPT)

Tasha Kama, Chair, Housing and Land Use Committee (HLU)

Tamara Paltin, Chair, Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs, and Planning Committee (DRIP)

Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Chair, Efficiency Solutions and Circular Systems (ESCS)

Shane Sinenci, Chair, Water Authority, Social Services, and Parks Committee (WASSP)

Yuki Lei Sugimura, Chair, Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee (BFED)

Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins, Chair, Government, Relations, Ethics, and Transparency Committee (GREAT)

The Maui County Council’s next meeting, in which members are scheduled to discuss who to hire to serve as county clerk, is scheduled for Feb. 3.

This meeting is also expected to be contentious due to the enormous salary that has been preliminarily offered to the two women, both former high ranking members of the Victorino administration, (and very good friends of Chairman Lee) who are filling the post of clerk and deputy clerk on an interim basis.

View the first half of the Jan. 27th meeting at: LINK 1

View the 2nd half of the meeting at: LINK 2

Not that you will, just that you could.