By MEGAN MOSELEY

Staff Writer

WAILUKU–Local politicians running for office this coming election day on Nov. 5, expressed their thoughts and intentions during a Kula Community Association candidate forum at the Kula Community Center Wednesday night.

Members of the Kula Community Association posed questions about affordable housing, county planning, infrastructure, transportation and water management to forum participants during the more than three-hour long session that started at 5:30 p.m.

Candidates that participated included Gabby Macaraeg, running as a Republican, and incumbent Lynn Decoite (D) for State Senate District 7; Carol Lee Kamekona, running for Kahului Council seat against Tasha Kama, not present; Yuki Lei Sugimura, current Vice-chair of the Maui County Council in her seat for the Upcountry district and opponent Jocelyn Cruz; James Forrest running against incumbent Council Chair Alice Lee, in her seat for the Wailuku-Waihe’e-Waikapū district; Dan Johnson, a Republican running for State Representative District 12 against incumbent Kyle Yamashita (D), not present; John Pele, running against incumbent Keani Rawlins-Fernandez for the county council seat for the Molokai district; incumbent Tom Cook and Kelly King for the South Maui seat and Nara Boone, present, and absent Nohelani U’u-Hodgins, for the county council seat for the Makawao, Ha’ikū, Pā’ia district. Lorien “Lolo” Acquintas, County Council, running for the West Maui County Council, finished the evening.

Elected officials and challengers went back and forth over their perspectives on various issues that differed, especially when it came to the future of Maui’s water supply.

Many agreed that county residents need access to more water.

“As Jeff Stufflebean said, the director of the water department, ‘We don’t have water for affordable housing.’ Say what? You don’t have water for affordable housing; however, there are many a projects that are in the planning stages for luxury development? What happened to taking care of our people? What happened to putting them first,” Kamekona said when asked a question about improving council operations.

Forrest and Lee were asked to respond to the question of, “Much of Maui’s water originates from wells in your council district. How do you feel about large quantities of water from your Wailuku residential district going to new developments in South Maui? Are there limits you might impose on future transfers?”

Forrest said he believes water used by hotels should be restricted, and water rates be increased for the biggest users, such as the hotels, and put into a fund for affordable housing.

“Raising the water tax rates on the hotels, you will incentivize them to use less water so we have to send them less, and also raise money again,” he added.

County Council Chair Lee responded, “We have limited water in Wailuku, in Central Maui. Our biggest aquifer, the Iao aquifer, has a sustainable yield of 21 million gallons per day and we are close, up to that limit,” she said.

Lee also referenced aquifers in Waikapū, and possibly Kahakuloa, and had questions about where two large South Maui projects are getting their water from.

“We have tons of water in East Maui, underground,” she added.

Dan Johnson, a University of Hawaii finance graduate who has a background working with contractors and with public works, said he believes the lack of access to water is contributing to Maui County’s high cost of living.

“I believe that a lack of sustainable water supply is what’s contributing to the cost of housing, the inability to construct new housing,” Johnson said.

Kelly King, who previously served on the county council from 2017-2022, spoke about supporting affordable housing in Kihei during her previous term, her belief in raising taxes on hotels and empty homes, and her efforts to protect the 25 last remaining acres of South Maui wetlands.

She presented a water-specific question regarding her opponent Tom Cook. She asked why his council committee attempted to pass out a proposal to sell the upcountry water system to a venture capitalist.

“Why did you not take that to the community first and did you ever consider looking to see if we could do that drilling ourselves so that we can own the water ourselves?” King said. “That was the intent of the Water Authority Charter Amendment which passed with flying colors in the last election.”

Cook responded in detail about how “It was discussed in detail” and people were informed and that “It wasn’t selling the water to a foreign or somebody else … The water is owned by the people of Hawai’i.”

“It is true that we own the water,” King responded. “The point was we would be selling out the water system into another private entity that was then going to sell the water back to the county at a higher rate,” she said.

Cook said he believes more water access should be given to help build.

“I think our problem with housing is that we’re not building it,” he said. “The County of Maui has to step up and improve the infrastructure, and provide the source, the storage, and the transmission to enable people who own land to build their own homes.”

Cruz and Sugimura were asked, “What is your evaluation of the ability of the present council to meet the needs of the people of Maui? How is the county council failing to meet the needs if this is true? Please give your assessment and suggestions for improving this.”

Sugimura and Cruz both said the shortcoming is water.

“It again goes back to, we need more local control of our valuable resources,” Cruz said.

Sugimura added, “We need more water. Water is the solution for having more affordable housing. I believe the shortcomings of the council is that we do not have control of the water.”

“If we had more control of the water then we could find solutions to solve our water problems,” Sugimura said.

Rawlins-Fernandez and Pele discussed their approaches on ethical decision making, professional backgrounds, accomplishments, Molokai axis deer, the Molokai Hunting Club, and what the county could do to improve the quality of life on Molokai.

Boone spoke passionately about amplifying community voices, increasing taxes on non-owner occupied houses, for the county to receive a sale of luxury homes and fund affordable housing and support infrastructure such as our sewage systems and roads.

Boone would like to see the county work with Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) grant money to help local residents get the water they need.

“Water has been a big topic tonight. There is federal grant money for flood mitigation,” Boone said.

Her opponent in the race is incumbent Nohelani U’u-Hodgins, who was not present at the event.

Lorien “Lolo” Acquintas, County Council, running for the West Maui County Council, showed up to the forum at the last minute. He mentioned the need to address water solutions such as catchment and urgency of rebuilding in Lahaina.

Tamara Paltin, chair of the disaster, resilience, international affairs, and planning committee, and currently representing West Maui on Maui County Council, was not present.

You can watch the forum online on Akakū’s YouTube Channel.