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Change will have positive impact on local government

Professional management of county operations will have several positive impacts on our local government — if at least six members of the County Council let us decide the question in November and the proposed charter changes win.

If you’ve been paying attention to recent stories in The Maui News, you will know that at the end of a mayor’s term, directors look for other work because the charter requires all directors to resign with each administration. They are political appointees on the front end, with job retention tied to the political fortunes of the mayor on the back end. As the chair of the Cost of Government Commission recently testified before the council, “Turnover sucks!” It’s a lose/lose situation.

We want our county administrative leaders to earn and keep their jobs based on performance and results and we want the influence of money and politics in day-to-day county operations reduced if not eliminated.

In a related recent headline (June 17), we are reminded of the mayor’s firing of our former county film commissioner, allegedly because a major contributor to the mayor’s re-election campaign, who also gave $57,500 to the mayor’s namesake charity, wanted him gone.

It’s time for change, where we keep an elected mayor as chief executive but have a hired professional manager, reporting to the mayor, responsible for day-to-day county operations who then hires and fires other administration directors based on qualifications, not political connections.

Mark Hyde

Kihei

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