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If you personalize and quantify the cost of Mayor Alan Arakawa's decision to bench Dave Taylor, director of Water Supply, ordering him to stay home and not report to work, each and every man, woman and child (babies too) in the Maui County must cough up $1.25 for his salary and benefits over the next year.
This is the tip of the iceberg. Poor management costs us in the millions, not to mention the depressing effect failed and arrogant management has on employee morale.
Simultaneously, the County Council, acting through its Policy, Economic Development, and Agricultural Committee chaired by Council Member Yuki Lei Sugimura, refuses to hear a much-needed proposal to bring professionalism to county operations, arguing that improved job requirements for directors, which the committee is trudging through, will be a panacea. They won't be because the current charter leaves a politician in charge of day-to-day operations and relegates the managing director to that of a powerless and politicized aide to the mayor, among other reasons too numerous to itemize here.
Committee Chair Sugimura and council, it's time to get out of the way and let the people decide in November the kind of government we, the people, want. If our 50-year-old charter is working just fine, as you believe, you have nothing to fear from the electorate.
Mark Hyde
Kihei