Lee reelected chairwoman in return to county council

Kama led council while awaiting results of election lawsuit

The Maui County Council on Friday night unanimously elected returning Council Member Alice Lee as chairwoman of the council, the role she held for most of the previous term.

The veteran lawmaker was sidelined for the council's inauguration earlier this month and was not able to take her Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu residency seat while a legal challenge over the results of her race in the general election was pending before the Hawaii State Supreme Court.

Lee's challenger in the general election, Noelani Ahia, along with 30 Maui County voters, filed suit, alleging 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 had sought to void the results and hold a new election.

Lee had finished with a 513-vote lead over Ahia in the Nov. 8 election.

Just a week ago, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in Lee's favor, confirming that she received the majority of the votes cast.

Because Lee was unable to be sworn in with the other eight members on Jan. 2, the council elected Tasha Kama as chairwoman.

Kama said that she saw her role as temporary while the council waited for the results of the final council seat to be settled. She presided over Friday's full council meeting and acknowledged that she did not want to continue to serve as chairwoman.

Around 16 people testified Friday night on the election of a new council chair. Some nominated other council members and at least half a dozen testifiers objected to Lee becoming chairwoman again. Some of the rumblings were due to the way the council handled testimony at Friday's meeting, during which oral testimony could only be given prior to the item people were addressing.

Testifiers complained about having to wait the whole day to testify and wanted to be able to give all of their testimony at the beginning of the meeting.

In supporting Lee as chair, several council members urged Lee to allow people to testify at the beginning of upcoming meetings and also prior to an item being brought up on the agenda, if they so choose.

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