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Lawmaker’s commitment and allegiance is to community served

VIEWPOINT

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts concerning the recent political changes in the state House of Representatives speakership position.

Everyone is most certainly grateful for Speaker Joe Souki. He is an asset for all Maui County. However, the political reality was that, for whatever reason, Souki’s support evaporated with a majority of the members in the waning days of the most recent legislative session.

To me, the most salient variable was the fact that the lieutenant governor’s seat is highly anticipated to be open soon, and most legislators in the House were aware that Souki was seriously considering a potential transition to the open seat. Thus, there seemed to be a good chance there was also going to be a void that would need to be filled in the speakership.

I have nothing but the greatest admiration for Souki, however my commitment and allegiance must always be with the community that I have the great privilege of serving. I must consider the current and future interests of Central Maui as it relates to my involvement in the Legislature. Unfortunately, political decisions can and oftentimes are connected to one another. Many times, decisions are even overlapping.

A protest vote to go against what may have been inevitable would have meant a potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for Central Maui and Maui County. It would have meant future proposals that could benefit my community not even being considered. This was the predicament. I had to make a decision and, right or wrong, I ultimately choose to aggregate continual support for Central Maui by supporting the incoming speaker.

I do believe Maui will still receive its fair share of serious consideration because of how the House organization was structured. The House is like a pyramid. Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke and former Majority Leader Scott Saiki represented the base of the top of the pyramid and Souki was the vertex of this leadership base. Most daily operations went through Luke and Saiki with the consultation of Souki.

Under leadership, the chairs would consult primarily with the finance chair and the majority leader. Vice chairs consulted with the chairs, and the remaining members also pushed for potential policy prescriptions through each respective subject matter chair. This, of course, is an oversimplification, but still accurately articulates the previous constructs. Over time, to achieve my legislative goals as they relate to further bettering the community, my conduits in the House were primarily Luke and Saiki.

Furthermore, since I have had the privilege of serving, Luke and Saiki have demonstrated strong support for Maui in many ways. When I requested the leadership team and subject matter chairs come to Maui for a “Legislative Listen” session, the two agreed and even helped organize the event. It was the first function of its kind in a long time, and served as a great opportunity for legislators to hear Central Maui’s concerns firsthand. The gathering ultimately included every single member of leadership, as well as almost every subject matter chair in the House.

Also, along with other members from the Maui delegation, Luke and Saiki have been instrumental in pushing for funding for capital improvements projects across our tri-island county as well as needed grant-in-aids for our nonprofits. The two have assisted with many legislative proposals benefiting Maui.

Most recently, I worked closely with Luke and others to bring the innovative Hawaii Promise Program into fruition, a program that will provide free college to our residents who qualify for any financial aid at the University of Hawaii Maui College or other public community college across the state.

My commitment and allegiance must always first be to the community I serve. Souki deserves great respect, however an unexpected development took place. I wanted to do what was best for my community. It was not easy but, given the circumstance, I made a decision I felt would maximize opportunities for Central Maui moving forward in the future.

* State Rep. Justin Woodson is a Democrat who represents Maui’s House District 9 (Kahului, Puunene, Old Sand Hills and Maui Lani).

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