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County housing head resigns to take A&B vice president position

Maui County Department of Housing and Human Concerns Director Carol Reimann has resigned, effective June 1, to take a position as vice president on Maui for Alexander & Baldwin Inc.

“I’m so excited,” she said Friday morning. But she said she would miss working for the department, which she called the “heart and soul of the county.”

Although traveling in Japan on Friday, Mayor Alan Arakawa released a statement. He said: “The state’s homeless crisis was fully underway when Carol joined our administration, and she should be credited for tackling the issue head-on. She’s done good things for this community during her time as Housing and Human Concerns director, and I wish her all the best.”

Reimann said she talked to the mayor to inform him of her plans a couple of weeks ago.

Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said department Deputy Director Jan Shishido would be acting director, at least in the interim until a new director can be found.

Reimann said she’ll start her new job June 4 and will report to Meredith Ching, executive vice president for external affairs.

Reimann was appointed as Housing and Human Concerns director in August 2015. The position pays $127,769 annually.

Before joining the county, Reimann was community and government affairs manager for Monsanto Hawaii. She held that position during the movement to get a genetically modified organism moratorium initiative on the general election ballot in 2014. (Although voters approved the ban with a slim 50.2 percent majority, it was ultimately thrown out by the federal courts.)

Now in the last year of Arakawa’s administration, Reimann said she approached A&B after the September 2017 resignation of Grant Chun as A&B Properties vice president. He went on to succeed Roy Katsuda as executive director of Hale Mahaolu.

Reimann said she has a background in tourism, business and agriculture, and she believed A&B would be a “good fit” for her.

“I approached them,” she said. “We started talking. The conversation continued and here we are.”

Reimann said A&B has restructured, and her role would be different than Chun’s. He concentrated more on development and real estate, she said.

“I’ll be representing all of A&B’s interests on Maui,” she said.

Those include A&B’s Agriculture and Real Estate divisions, East Maui Irrigation Co., Grace Pacific and Kahului Trucking & Storage.

She agreed that it’s a lot to take on, but “I’m excited. I’m looking forward to it.”

In announcing Reimann’s new position, A&B President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Benjamin said: “Supporting Maui’s communities and people, preserving its environment and growing its economy are priorities for A&B. With our wide range of interests on Maui, Carol’s extensive experience, combined with her history of leadership, both professionally and in the community, make her uniquely suited for this role.”

Reimann also has served as director of events management for Kapalua Land Co. and executive director of the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association.

Her community involvement includes being a Rotarian and holding positions on the advisory board of the Hawaii State Adult Education Council, the executive board of the Boy Scout Council of Maui County and the Maui Steering Committee for the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival. She served as chairwoman of the Maui County Salary Commission and as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women, the Civil Service Commission, the Advisory Board of Maui Workforce Investment, the Maui Chamber of Commerce, the Maui County Farm Bureau and Maui Visitors Bureau.

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