The Maui County Council is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Monday to take steps toward finding a successor for Councilmember Tasha Kama, who died Sunday at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

According to those close to her, Kama expressed to her family her wish that the County Council appoint Kauanoe Batangan to fill her seat.

“It was her dying wish,” said Evan Dust, Kama’s senior executive assistant who was with her family at the hospital.

Dust said Kama had been encouraging Batangan to follow her on County Council, and Batangan called Dust on Sunday to say he was willing to step into the role. Dust said he informed Kama about Batangan’s position before she died.

Batangan, 36, has been the executive director of the Maui Metropolitan Planning Organization, coordinating federal highway and other transit projects on Maui, since September 2024.

He was formerly the deputy director of the county’s Department of Transportation from January 2023 through September 2024.

Kauanoe Batangan

He also was the division lead in the newly created Office of Recovery from September 2023 through August 2024 and an executive assistant to Maui County Council Vice Chair Yuki Sugimura from 2018 to 2019.

The county charter says if an unexpired term is less than 15 months, members of the council can fill the opening by appointing a person by resolution adopted by a majority of its remaining members. If the County Council fails to fill a vacancy within 30 days, the responsibility falls to the mayor.

To be eligible for election or appointment to the County Council, a person must be a citizen of the United States, a voter in the county and a resident in the area that the person seeks to represent for at least one year before filing nomination papers.

Kama was first elected to the County Council in 2018. She was also the presiding officer pro temper and the chair of the Housing and Land Use Committee.