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Councilors, testifiers upset with hearing schedule

Six bills are up for comment Thursday

Some council members and residents are upset over the timing and location of a public hearing next week on six contentious bills — including the Wailuku civic center complex and a parking lot at Keawakapu Beach.

Council Chairman Mike White has scheduled the public hearing on the bills for 9 a.m. Thursday in Council Chambers. A special council meeting also will be held that day, when council members could give final approval.

Up for hearings are:

• Two bills amending the current fiscal 2019 budget to increase the appropriation for the Wailuku civic complex by $40 million. The complex consists of a multilevel parking structure and community and county office spaces on the current municipal parking lot site.

• A bill to grant a two-year conditional permit to Ruby & Sons Hospitality LLC to allow for the construction and use of an off-site parking lot within the county park district, which is near Sarento’s on the Beach and the Days Inn by Wyndham Maui Oceanfront, both on South Kihei Road.

• A bill to amend the Kihei-Makena Community Plan and land use map from single-family to hotel for 1.119 acres to reflect existing hotel use for the Days Inn by Wyndham Maui Oceanfront.

• A bill to update the Paia-Haiku Community Plan by conditionally allowing short-term rental homes in the community plan area.

• A bill to amend the County Code to prohibit permits for short-term rental homes for properties in the special management area in the Paia-Haiku Community Plan area.

The hearings were called after at least three council members made the request at the Dec. 13 meeting, when all six bills passed on the first of two readings.

Both council members and testifiers last week wanted another chance to testify and vet the bills and asked that the hearings be held at night so those who work could attend. They also wanted the hearings held in the communities that would most be affected by the bills, such as South Maui and East Maui.

White, who has the authority to schedule the public hearings, said Friday evening that there were challenges to setting up the hearings as requested.

For one, he wanted to hold the hearings prior to the majority of the council members leaving office at the end of their terms. He noted that some members who asked for the hearings would not be on the council next year.

Another challenge was getting quorums if separate hearings were held for each bill, White said.

He also pointed out that the council took into consideration concerns raised by testifiers at a Dec. 11 meeting and amended some of the contentious bills on Dec. 13 and that the council has heard from the public on these bills.

The amendments include strengthening the Kihei-Makena Community Plan bill for the Days Inn to not allow “any” hotel to expand its existing footprint on the property and disallowing short-term rental home permits for properties in the special management area in the Paia-Haiku Community Plan area, he said.

White added that the $40 million for the Wailuku civic complex will not be released immediately and that the matter would come back to the new council.

Sarah Pajimola, an executive assistant for Council Member Elle Cochran, said Friday that Cochran probably will not attend the hearing.

“The decision to not attend (is) out of respect of the public,” Pajimola said. “(Cochran) didn’t feel this public hearing was following with requests of the community.”

She said that the hearings come during the busy holiday season and that there is no urgency to hear all of the bills now.

But Pajimola said Cochran “will play it by ear” on attending the special council meeting in case her vote is needed.

West Maui resident Kai Nishiki expressed similar sentiments while testifying Friday. She said people spend time with families during the holidays and criticized White for the hearing’s timing.

White expects “people to leave their families and come down here to testify,” she said. “Now we are going to take a whole day off to come down here.”

“Mike White, I’m pleading with you, do the right thing for once,” Nishiki continued, asking him to pull the Kihei parking lot and the Paia-Haiku Community Plan bills from the hearing agenda.

Nishiki said she is “never going to forget the past two years” and some of White’s actions.

“I urge the next council to take an example from these actions and not repeat it. In the words of Michelle Obama, ‘Bye Felicia,’ and a hui hou, Mike White,” she said.

White chose not to seek re-election this year and will be leaving the council.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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