Kalo farmers, former mayor named to East Maui board

Only DHHL nominee pending after council appoints six, mayor appoints four others

Former Mayor Alan Arakawa, along with longtime kalo farmers such as Lurlyn Scott who have fought for more water in East Maui streams for years, were appointed by the Maui County Council on Friday to the East Maui Regional Community Board, some in tight 5-4 votes as council members debated the best candidates for the job.

The 11-member board's tasks will include providing input on the East Maui watershed plan and appointing a director for a new East Maui Community Water Authority. The new board was created by a charter amendment that voters approved in the Nov. 8 election in hopes of allowing residents to have more of a say in how water in East Maui is used and managed.

The council has six appointees and the mayor has four. Another appointee is recommended by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands but vetted by the council. Terms are staggered and the board will focus on the Nahiku, Keanae, Honomanu and Huelo license areas. Each license area is to be represented by at least two board members.

One of the names heavily debated on Friday was former Mayor Arakawa, who qualifies to sit on the board as he has experience in water resource management and is actively engaged in ranching, farming, aquaculture or loko ia in the area where water service is provided -- which is required of one of the board seats.

Arakawa has a farm in Kula and had spent years working in the wastewater division at the county.

Council members who were opposed included Tamara Paltin, who said that while Arakawa sat on the council and served as mayor, he never passed the kind of bills that the council is now considering, such as a bill exempting farmers from water shortage restrictions for longer amounts of time, which passed on first reading Friday.

Paltin, who also ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Arakawa in 2014, also pointed out how Stewart Stant, Arakawa's pick for director of the county's Environmental Management Department, was convicted of accepting bribes from a businessman while working at the county in exchange for county contracts.

"It's a hard 'no' for me," Paltin said of her vote for Arakawa.

But another Arakawa political challenger, Council Member Tasha Kama, who beat Arakawa for his old Kahului residency seat on the council in 2018, said Arakawa knows the East Maui water systems and pointed to his work in water and wastewater services in the county.

During committee discussion, council members had raised some concerns about Arakawa opposing the board when it was initially proposed. But Kama said that like her, Arakawa may not have agreed with establishing the board in the first place, but "once it's here you got to figure out how to make it work."

She said he may be different from other board members and that while the members "do not have to like each other, like all of us," they need to love the aina, the work and the water they will help protect.

Council Members Kama, Yuki Lei Sugimura, Tom Cook, Alice Lee and Nohelani U'u-Hodgins voted in favor of Arakawa, while Council Members Paltin, Gabe Johnson, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez and Shane Sinenci voted against. Arakawa will serve a five-year term on the board.

Another seat council members struggled over was the Huelo license area, as they debated between Scott, who has previously filed petitions to establish East Maui stream flow standards; Darren Strand, a former vice president of business development at Mahi Pono and former general manager for diversified agriculture at Alexander & Baldwin; and Lucienne de Naie, longtime environmentalist and Sierra Club Maui Group chairperson.

Scott won the seat by a 5-4 margin as Kama, Paltin, Rawlins-Fernandez, Johnson and Sinenci voted in her favor and Sugimura, Cook, U'u-Hodgins and Lee voted against. Scott will serve a three-year term on the board.

Johnson said he would not support Strand for the seat, as Strand had initially opposed the charter amendment proposal to establish the board.

Johnson said he would not put someone on a commission that the person did not support. He compared it to having someone opposed to the Americans with Disabilities Act sitting on a board to advocate for it.

Sugimura advocated for Strand to serve in the seat, noting his agricultural experience and saying he is "a true leader."

"I think he will be a logical reasonable voice and with knowledge and experience," she said.

Other appointees, their terms and the areas or expertise they represent are:

• Moses Bergau Jr., five-year term, Nahiku.

• Janet Redo, four-year term, Honomanu.

• Norman "Bush" Martin Jr., three-year term, Keanae.

• Francis Quitazol, four-year term, experience in water resource management who resides full-time in the area where water service is provided.

The council had until July 1 to unilaterally make appointments to the board, said Sinenci, who proposed the amendment. If they didn't meet the deadline, the council would have to wait for recommendations from the new independent nomination board before making appointments.

The council did not fill the DHHL appointee to the board; it is awaiting further response from DHHL, which is having a meeting on Monday where an appointee hopefully can be discussed.

The DHHL twice made appointments to the East Maui Regional Community Board and subsequently took back those recommendations with no explanation.

Maui DHHL beneficiaries testified at previous Water Authority, Social Services and Parks Committee meetings that they did not have a chance to weigh in on the appointees.

In a May 2 correspondence to Sinenci, Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. named his appointees to the board as Kyle Nakanelua, Keanae; Moses Kahiamoe Jr., Nahiku; Hugh Starr, Honomanu; and Lester Wong, Huelo.

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