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Court case hangs over shorthanded council as term begins

Eight of nine council members sworn in, Tasha Kama elected as chairperson

Maui County Council Members Shane Sinenci (from left), Nohe U‘u-Hodgins, Tom Cook, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Gabe Johnson, Tamara Paltin, Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tasha Kama take the oath of office during an inauguration ceremony in the Council Chamber on Monday morning. U‘u-Hodgins and Cook are the newest members of the group, while the other six were reelected in November. Only eight council members were sworn in as the county awaits the results of a lawsuit calling for results of the Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu race to be voided over the county’s handling of deficient ballots. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photos

WAILUKU — Saying they needed to move forward while they wait for a court ruling on a lawsuit challenging the election, Maui County Council members voted Tasha Kama as chairperson of the council with one less member on inauguration day.

Council members unanimously backed Kama, who served as presiding officer pro tempore, the third-highest leadership role on the council, during the previous term.

“It is with great humility that I have accepted the role of Council Chair, even as we await the confirmation of our ninth member,” Kama said in a statement on Monday afternoon. “In that sense, I see my seat as Chair as an interim one, to facilitate the urgent organizational work of the Council until such time that our body is complete.”

Eight council members were sworn in during a ceremony in the Council Chamber on Monday morning — Kama, Tom Cook, Gabe Johnson, Tamara Paltin, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Shane Sinenci, Yuki Lei Sugimura and Nohe U’u-Hodgins.

Absent was Council Member Alice Lee, chairperson of the prior term, who couldn’t be sworn in due a pending legal challenge by her opponent, Noelani Ahia, and 30 Maui County voters.

Council Member Tasha Kama (from right) is congratulated by fellow Council Members Keani Rawlins-Fernandez and Yuki Lei Sugimura after she was unanimously elected as chairperson of the council on Monday afternoon. Kama said she sees her role as temporary while they wait for the results of the council’s ninth seat to be settled.

Lee had finished with a 513-vote lead over Ahia in the Nov. 8 election for the Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu residency seat, but the lawsuit claims that the county and state failed to properly notify more than 800 voters whose ballots had deficiencies and needed to be fixed in the days following the election. The lawsuit seeks to void the results and hold a new election.

Outgoing Deputy County Clerk James Krueger said Monday that Lee couldn’t join the inauguration “until we know what the (Hawaii) Supreme Court’s going to do.”

If the court rules in the county’s favor, the county can finalize the results and inaugurate Lee, Krueger said. But, if the court rules in the favor of Ahia and the 30 voters, the next steps will depend on what the court orders. As for whether that would be a recount or a special election, “it’s too soon to say,” Krueger said.

Ahia wasn’t sure when a ruling might come down, saying that “we just have to be patient.”

“It appears that everyone’s doing a good faith effort to try to work under these unique circumstances and make the best of the situation until the Supreme Court makes a ruling,” she said after council members quickly nominated and approved Kama.

Nohe U‘u-Hodgins, one of two new council members, greets supporters over a tower of lei after the inauguration ceremony on Monday morning. U‘u-Hodgins holds the Makawao-Haiku-Paia residency seat.

“It’s not about me and this race in particular,” she added. “It’s really about transparency in our voting process and our democracy and making sure that every vote counts and every voice is heard.”

While she awaits a ruling, Lee said she still has plenty of paperwork to do and plans to catch up on reports and projects that are carrying over from last year.

“The Supreme Court must understand that we’re waiting,” Lee said Monday night. “We have a lot of work to do as a legislative body and starting a brand new term, and so if we don’t receive a determination soon, we’re going to start to fall behind in our work.”

She said she thought it was “a good move” for the council to choose Kama in the meantime, describing her as “a very fair person.” When asked if she planned to make a run for chairperson if the court decided in the county’s favor and allowed her to be sworn in, Lee said “yes.”

Lee, who served on the council in the 1990s and returned in 2018, said she’s never experienced a situation in which the council had eight members, except when then-Council Member Tom Morrow died in a plane crash off Molokai in 1996.

Tom Cook, one of two new council members, accepts congratulations from Maui state Rep. Troy Hashimoto after the inauguration ceremony on Monday morning. Cook holds the South Maui residency seat.

“At that time we only had eight people, but the council wasn’t evenly split at that time, so we were able to keep on conducting business pretty routinely, and then we held a special election for his replacement,” she said.

Council members weren’t too concerned about the prospect of choosing a chairperson and the heads of committees with eight members, saying they needed to get to work.

“I’m not really concerned, you know, we gotta just be adults,” Paltin said prior to the organizational meeting Monday afternoon. “We were elected as leaders and it’s more than any one person or anything, it’s about the county as a whole, and we gotta be ready to hit the ground running starting tonight, starting tomorrow.”

Paltin, who chaired the Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee during the prior term, said she hoped to lead the new Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs and Planning Committee, pointing out there’s plenty of policy to discuss on sea level rise.

“A lot of our CIP projects are slated for at least 10 to 20 years life span, and you know, in the next 30 years, some of our lower roads will be underwater, so at what point do we pull back?” Paltin said. “And I don’t know the answer, but we gotta at least start asking the questions and start having the discussion because when it happens it’ll be too late really.”

Council members flash shakas during a group photo at the inauguration ceremony. Pictured in the front row, from left, are Tamara Paltin, Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tasha Kama. In the back row, from left, are Gabe Johnson, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Nohe U‘u-Hodgins, Tom Cook and Shane Sinenci.

U’u-Hodgins, one of two freshman council members along with Cook, also was hopeful the council could come to agreement on leadership.

“I’m not too sure how that’s going to play out, but hopefully, ultimately, we all are on the same team. We’re supposed to be,” U’u-Hodgins said prior to the meeting. “We’re all team County Council of Maui, and I hope to all work together happily and effectively.”

She said she was “feeling great, very honored and very excited” to be sworn in Monday.

“I think once everything starts getting rolling, I just want to do exactly what I said I wanted to do this entire election cycle, which was figure out the best way that people can continue to call Maui home,” she said of her immediate plans.

Many testifiers pointed out that Rawlins-Fernandez, the vice chairperson of the last term, was the natural fit to step into role of chair, but Rawlins-Fernandez said before and during the meeting that she wasn’t interested in the position.

“I don’t want to be council chair. I would really like to be able to work hard on legislation, and the council chair has a lot of administrative work, and so it becomes really challenging to spearhead and shepherd through policy and bills so that it can become law,” she explained prior to the meeting.

She supported Kama as the council chairperson, saying she has “shown herself to be really fair and caring.”

As for whether she would take the vice chairperson position again, Rawlins-Fernandez said, “I’m open to whatever. If the body would like me to continue on as vice chair, I’m happy to continue in that role.”

Rawlins-Fernandez said she hoped to hold on to her role as budget committee chairperson, with plans for more tax reform that include creating a new water rate tax category for visitor accommodations, something she’s long been in talks with the Board of Water Supply about.

The council has plenty of work ahead, including choosing its vice chairperson, presiding officer pro tempore and heads of committees, as well as vetting Mayor Richard Bissen’s department director appointees before diving into the annual budget session in March.

On Monday, council members approved Traci Fujita as director and David Raatz as deputy director of the Office of Council Services, and also approved Office of Council Services staff.

However, they only temporarily approved former Department of Corporation Counsel attorneys Moana Lutey and Richelle Thomson as county clerk and deputy clerk, respectively, until the end of the first council meeting in February, saying they wanted to do a full recruitment and consider the list of applicants for the jobs, according to Raatz.

The next council meeting is set for Jan. 20.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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