To anyone believing that Peter Martin, Bob Horcajo, West Maui Land, and their related Olowalu development and water companies are trustworthy and care about the community's well-being, or thinking that their recent criticisms of DLNR Deputy Water Director M. Kaleo Manuel are not in response to Mr. Manuel's efforts to hold them accountable for decades of broken rules – please take a look at the attached documents from whistleblower Chris Salem.

While working for the County in 2019, Mr. Salem submitted reports to various County authorities about firebreaks that were supposed to be created in Olowalu but never were. Mr. Salem's reports were ignored.

 

Email your demand for the County to rescind Greg Brown's SMA Permit Exemption because he's now doing short-term rentals with no permit:
To: mayors.office@mauicounty.gov
kekuhaupio.r.akana@co.maui.hi.us
jordan.hart@co.maui.hi.us
planning@mauicounty.gov
info@exoticestates.com
info@MauiCauses.org

Call the Mayor's Office: (808) 270-7855

Join the Napili Bay Community Assoc at www.Napili.org
and make a contribution to Shut Down Brown.

Planning Director McLean to Brown Development 3/12/2021:
"It is important to note that the Department did not evaluate proposed hotel or vacation rental use or a hotel structure during the SMA or building permit review process.

We also note that there has been no application for a special permit, ... for a use such as the short term rental of a single-family home.

If the structure is used for any purpose other than a single-family home, the basis for the Department's SMA exemption would be invalidated and, therefore, the SMA exemption would be rescinded."

Former Planning Director McLean, in need of a job, because the Bissen Administration rejected her, was hired in January as an Executive Assistant by Council Chair ALICE LEE.

Lee responded to McLean's testimony to the GREAT Committee on 6/29/2021 that the County will never issue a permit for Brown to do Short Term Rentals:

LEE: "I don’t blame you for choosing not to allow vacation rentals because that would mean less traffic in the neighborhood, and it
would be...if this is truly a second home, then the usage would be, you know, fairly minimal. ...I totally agree that vacation rentals are out of the question."

What will Chair Lee and Mayor Bissen do now that Brown is renting his "Hotel" at $20,000 a night for 24 guests?

Brown and his lawyers certainly think he's within his rights to rent this way. Did McLean knowingly mislead us all about never issuing Brown an STR permit because by zoning he doesn't need a permit to rent?

There are only eight parking spots on-site. Why do Brown's paying guests get to park and overcrowd a public street?

Is insufficient parking why Brown changed the labels on four Master Bedroom Suites to "Media Rooms" and "Dens" yet put double and kingsize pull-out couches to sleep eight more guests?

Also, Brown continues to do illegal construction along Hui Rd H, which is public land that the County controls, with no SMA permit or approved plans.

A worker on site tells us that last week Brown "cut a deal" with an inspector over his illegal construction. What deal was that? Why does Brown get such special treatment when other citizens need to get an SMA permit to move an existing mailbox?

Mayor Bissen must know that the community will sue over the lack of enforcement here and that the community has won every similar suit that has been brought where Directors and/or their subordinates overstepped their authority to benefit private developers; Montana Beach, Palama Drive, Kahoma Village... The list keeps growing, at the Public's expense.

Why is Mayor Bissen allowing this to go on knowing it will end badly for the County in court?

Get ready to mobilize so that Brown's guests get an earful as part of their $20,000 rental fee when we take to the streets to protest.

ACTION ALERT: Call Mayor Bissen's office and ask:

1) Why is Greg Brown Development allowed to build in a Shoreline Area on County Land illegally with no SMA permit or approved plans?

2) Why must the citizens file a lawsuit against the County to get the County to enforce its own laws?

Email your complaint to:
mayors.office@mauicounty.gov
and cc:
kekuhaupio.r.akana@co.maui.hi.us
jordan.hart@co.maui.hi.us
planning@mauicounty.gov

Call the Mayor's Office: (808) 270-7855

Join the Napili Bay Community Assoc at www.Napili.org
and make a contribution to Shut Down Brown.

Below is what Brown was required to do and didn't.

Public Works and Planning have confirmed that no SMA permits or plans have been submitted for what Brown is doing on County Land.

Why is Mayor Bissen allowing this abuse to go on?

Research and Planning: The developer should research the specific requirements and regulations for roadway improvements in Maui County.

Project Design: The developer will need to create a detailed plan for the roadway improvements, including design drawings and specifications. This plan should comply with the county's standards and guidelines for road construction and improvement projects.

Permitting and Approvals: The developer needs to obtain various permits and approvals from the relevant authorities in Maui County. This may include submitting plans for review, environmental assessments, traffic impact studies, and obtaining any necessary right-of-way or easements.

Public Consultation and Meetings: Depending on the scale and impact of the roadway improvements, the developer will need to engage in public consultation processes and attend community meetings to gather feedback, address concerns, and ensure compliance with local regulations.

Construction: Once all necessary permits and approvals are obtained, the developer can proceed with the construction phase. It is important to adhere to the approved plans, follow best practices for construction, and comply with any specific requirements or conditions set by the county.

Inspections and Compliance: Throughout the construction process, the developer may need to schedule inspections to ensure compliance with building codes, safety standards, and any other relevant regulations.

For over 40 years Maui’s Corporation Counsel wrote 3-Lot-or-Less infrastructure Deferral Agreements that allowed developers to delay roadway improvements and environmental protections until such time as they could be charged a prorated share of what the County spent at some future date when they initiated a CIP on the associated frontage.

Problems arose and persist to this day because Corp Counsel did nothing to ensure the agreements were tracked for a CIP to trigger collection, nor did they ever create any mechanism or formula to actually collect on what developers owe. To this day, the Dept of Finance has no bank account set up to receive funds collected from any of the thousands of agreements that Corporation Counsel wrote.

Crafty developers and their lawyers linked their deferral agreements to their SMA permits to forever avoid performing roadway improvements and environmental protections that were specifically conditioned in their SMA permits.

By law, a 3-Lot-or-Less Deferral Agreement was to have been a one-time event for a parcel, but knowing that no County agency was tracking them, abusive developers and their lawyers created successive layers of 3-Lot subdivisions and agreements, turning three lots into five, and then seven, nine, and more, to intentionally violate the County's 4-Lot ordinance that mandates that all subdivisions of four or more lots MUST perform all their roadway improvements with no deferrals allowed.

Collecting on these agreements represents tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of recovery to the County but because of professional liabilities over their negligent administration of these agreements and to protect developers who grossly abused them, corporation counsel continues to block any and all efforts to resolve them, including blocking a forensic audit the County’s Independent Auditor agreed to perform at the County Council’s request over four years ago, to asses and create a formula for collection on them.

My extensively researched affidavit on the deferral agreement is below.

Also is an affidavit from Former Council Member and Transportation Director JoAnne Johnson Winer from 2015 titled: Administrative Abuse of SMA Permits & Deferral Agreements

A video of the 45-minute expert witness presentation on these agreements that I was asked to give to the County Council’s Infrastructure Committee in 2018 can be viewed at https://mauicauses.org/maui-causes-show-64

Here is link to a 2013 MauiTime Weekly article titled "Wondering if the County of Maui Will Ever Clean Up the Mess Known as
Deferral Agreements and Collect the Unpaid Debts Owed to Taxpayers” which chronicles what happened after Maui resident Chris Salem discovered and blew the whistle on these previously-hidden, heavily-abused, uncollected agreements.

Ten years later, because of Corporation Counsel's obstruction, there has been no recovery of tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars for projects that you are currently overseeing.

As this committee is deeply affected by this debacle, I implore you to raise yet another red flag in the Administration and the Community to demand this significant financial benefit to the County finally gets resolved and collected.

Respectfully submitted:
Sam Small, Exec Director, Maui Causes
www.MauiCauses.org
(973) 271-0788

1. Maui Causes Presentation on Deferral Agreements for IEM Affidavit docs compressedss_affidavit_notarizedAffidavit JoAnne Johnson Winer Notarized Wondering if the County of Maui Will Ever Clean Up the Mess Known as Deferral Agreements and Collect the Unpaid Debts Owed to Taxpayers - Maui Time

Testify in support of Chris Salem, wrongfully terminated for Blowing the Whistle on Greg Brown's violations, and other misdeeds by Corporation Counsel.

https://bluejeans.com/513107325
Submit ecomments here: 
Agenda

Because of their obvious abuses of authority, Judge Bissen wisely refused to carry over Moana Lutey and Michelle Mclean into his Mayoral administration.

Alice Lee then rewarded both Bissen rejects for their favoritism over the years to her friend’s special interests with new high-power positions; Lutey as our vastly-overpaid County Clerk, and McLean as Executive Assitant to the Council Chair.

All the many court documents I’ve carefully reviewed show me that Chris Salem was wrongfully terminated from his job as Legislative Analyst, a job I helped convince Mayor Victorino to give him, for blowing the whistle on the corruption Chris discovered and reported while a County Employee: such as:

1) Corp Council and Public Work’s bogus “Mistake” that allowed developers island-wide to enjoy an infrastructure exemption that was only ever intended to benefit families on the Upcounty water meter wait list. A “mistake” Chair Lee seemed willing to fix only after one of her friends was able to get an undeserved exemption adding millions of dollars in value to his property in Iao Valley.

2) Greg Brown’s infamous Monster Hotel in Napili where Former Planning Director Michelle Mclean has acknowledged Chris Salem‘s correctness on the issues he blew the whistle on while working for the Mayor. Instead of holding Brown accountable for his many obvious permit misrepresentations, McLean invented bogus new policies to let Brown continue to violate SMA laws and the public’s rights.

3) Another development in Napili where Lutey and Mclean have improperly blocked enforcement of a developer’s SMA permit, which Mayor Victorino himself acknowledged knowing was still in violation and which was the cause of Salem losing his family home to a foreclosure manipulated through obviously false government records that Former Public Works Director Milton Arakawa manufactured to protect his former private clients.

4) Moana Lutey's improper interference with the Independent Audit of the 3-Lot-or-Less Deferral Agreements, worth tens, if not hundreds of millions in financial recovery to the County from private developers.

This settlement is about the agreement that I helped negotiate between Mayor Victorino and Chris Salem to hold developers accountable for their violations in return for releasing the County from all financial liability.

Who’s unclean hands is Corporation Counsel protecting by trying to kill their agreement and who authorized them to redirect that financial liability back onto the County and taxpayers?

Today’s Reso states that Corporation Counsel made: “attempts to reach resolution of this case by way of a negotiated settlement or Offer of Judgment…”  That’s a gross misrepresentation by attorney Tarnstrom. Corp Counsel never once returned a bona fide counteroffer to Chris Salem, as they are compelled by law to do.

This reso should have been posted back in February. It's here now only because Chris Salem promised to file Contempt of Court charges against Corp Counsel. Chair Lee cleverly introduced this reso as coming “At the request of the Mayor”. Was that to deflect any criticism from her exposed “friends” for letting it get this far?

Perhaps it's the missing bona fide counteroffer that you will be asked to facilitate today and if so you deserve to hear more than just Corp Counsel’s deeply conflicted version of all this. Certainly, Lutey and Lee with McLean as her exec cannot be allowed in executive session. Corp Counsel in its entirety is conflicted too, outside counsel is required.

I probably know more about all this than anyone other than Chris Salem himself so if you want to add me as a community resource to describe the reality that I know to be true, I’m happy to appear.

I’ll tell you that Salem’s primary goal has never wavered from protecting the public's interest by getting the County to enforce existing ordinances on developers who are in violation of their permits, like Brown and others, which, sadly, happens to place Corporation Counsel in a seriously conflicted position.

Those enforcement actions are in the hands of the Bissen Administration, not this Council and so for any settlement discussion to be effective, Mayor Bissen must be on-board, just as Mayor Victorino was on-board before Moana Lutey and Michelle McLean interfered.

I’d also share my experience of Judge Kirstin Hamman recusing herself because she misled the court about her prior role as a Council Services Legal Advisor to Mike Victorino’s Infrastructure committee when Chris Salem’s first blown whistle forced an end to Corporation Counsel’s abuse of the 3-Lot-or-Less Deferral Agreement program.

At the time, Council Services attorneys negligently did not advise the Council on a method to actually collect on the thousand of agreements Corporation Counsel wrote for over 40 years. Despite the program’s end Corp Counsel continued to write new agreements for an additional five years, with no way to collect.

Judge Hamman recused herself after ruling to release Mike Victorino as a private citizen. I believe her rulings will be overturned, just as I believe Corp Counsel will be forced to recuse themselves from this case entirely. I’ve seen the proof.

Chris Salem is not going away and has gone Pro se so he’s no longer precluded from going after attorneys personally for their misrepresentations to the court as all the local attorneys I’ve spoken to are afraid to do because they want to stay part of the “club”. It’s only a matter of time before Chris Salem wins this case at a far greater cost to the County.

I also recommend that the County end its practice of self-insurance as an outside insurance provider would assert their independent fiduciary responsibility to assess Corporation Counsel's actions which would help put an end to the undue, conflicted influence Corp Counsel asserts on all aspects of County business.

Thank you
Sam Small
Makawao

The word from Napili Bay is that Brown’s Monster “Hotel” has or is close to passing final inspections and that short-term rentals will start soon.

The picture here shows some final work going on right now to build walls, plant palm trees, and grade the land adjacent to Brown’s property along Hui Rd E with no approved plans, no SMA permit or exemption, no grading permit, and no runoff controls.

Brown has no right to be doing this work in the public’s right of way along Hui Rd E, just as he had no right to get his SMA permit exemption by submitting plans that included four parking spaces on land he does not control.  Insufficient parking is why we believe Brown lied about having eight bedrooms, when in fact he’s got twelve.

Brown built a 12-bedroom Hotel with only eight on-site parking spaces. Why is the community forced to absorb his parking needs? And what will parking be like when Brown rents the place for a party or throws a fundraiser for a local politician?

Brown’s consistent claim that he has the right to do short-term rentals has been refuted by the planning department, yet until now that remains untested.

Ex-Planning Director Michelle McLean promised the Council that no STR permit will be issued to Brown and in this rare instance, we actually support McLean’s public testimony that by doing STRs Brown would invalidate the SMA exemption that he was granted predicated on building only a single-family residence. No one knows what impact that would have but it's a legal fight local residents are preparing to take on.

STRs are not the issue with Brown anyway. The issue is that a select few County employees helped Brown violate multiple County, State, and Federal laws and that even with Judge Bissen as our new Mayor, Corporation Counsel is actively protecting them all from prosecution.

Brown’s Monster “Hotel” is not the first time we’ve uncovered evidence of Corporation Counsel pressuring County Inspectors to look the other way to protect developers who illegally exploited their connections within County departments to violate SMA Laws at great cost to the public and the environment.

In many ways, we should all be thankful to Brown Development for so clearly demonstrating how corrupt Maui’s current administration of land development is, so we have to opportunity to expose it, giving Mayor Bissen the opportunity to fix it.

Stand by for announcements of public demonstrations coming at Napili Bay to demand Maui County block Brown from using his new “Hotel” in ways that further violate our rights.

Join and contribute to the Napili Bay Community Association at www.Napili.org

CALL TO ACTION:

As a former Judge, Mayor Bissen is clearly aware of all the citizen-driven lawsuits Maui County has lost over the years, defending Director's faulty decisions at Palama Drive, Montana Beach, Kahoma Villages, and more.

So why is he setting the County up to lose yet again when the Napili Bay Community Association sues the County for not holding Greg Brown Development accountable for the many misrepresentations they made to get a "Single-Family" SMA Permit Exemption for their massive "Hotel" structure, nearing completion at Napili Bay?

The image here shows illegal construction now taking place along Hui Rd H, where Brown Development's bogus SMA permit application dedicates four parking spaces on land where neither they nor the County can show any jurisdiction, approved plans, or permits to build.

Apparently, the plan examiner looked the other way when Brown Development misrepresented four Master Bedroom Suites as "Dens" and "Media Rooms", to drop the bedroom count down from twelve to eight, reducing the required parking spaces down from sixteen to twelve, and then put four of those spaces on land they don't own.

Contact Public Works Director Jordan Molina at jordan.k.molina@co.maui.hi.us or (808) 270-7845 and Mayor Bissen at mayors.office@mauicounty.gov or (808) 270-7855
to demand they reinstate Brown Development's Stop Work orders based on violations of environmental laws and multiple misrepresentations to wrongfully acquire exemptions and plan approvals that have denied us citizens of our rights.

In 2021, the State Supreme Court ruled that the citizen's rights were violated at Kahoma Village, exactly as what's happening now at Napili Bay. That ruling came well after construction was complete and so there was nothing to be done - Brown is not yet done building so NOW is the time to act!

Here's a notice about Brown Development's violations sent to the County today by the Napili Bay Community Association that references the impending action spearheaded by Senator Angus McKelvey to transfer ownership and control of all the Hui Roads from the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit to the County of Maui to end nearly 100 years of confusion and neglect:

May 2, 2023

Attention:  Director Jordan Molina
Department of Public Works
200 S. High Street
Kalana O Maui Bldg. 4th Fl
Wailuku, HI 96793

RE:  UIPA Request for Government Records - Hui Road H

Good Day, Director Molina;

I am in receipt of the attached recent communication from the Courts to Mayor Bissen regarding the ownership interests in Hui Roads A-I in West Maui.

This government record documents the fact the staff member of the Department of Planning who issued a SMA Exemption to Brown Development without review or assessment of the Planning Director Mclean not only did so in violation of the SMA Rules, but also exempted referenced construction of public parking in land which we believe the County does not have ownership or jurisdiction.

As previously noticed, the dangerous proposed public parking spaces along the narrow Hui Road H referenced in the Brown Development SMA Permit exemption requires a separate SMA Permit and civil engineering drawings and permits.  Public participation in the review of the referenced construction is our citizen's rights, which were clearly violated. Simply stated, there is no lawful SMA exemptions for developments which include public offsite infrastructure improvements.

On multiple claims and counts, we assert the alleged single family home SMA Exemption for the 45 tall Hotel structure was issued in violation of law.  The recent discovery of the exempted public parking referenced in the SMA exemption is just cause for a Stop Work Order to be reissued under your authority and direction. Brown Development has not obtained the necessary permits to perform construction on Hui Road H.

Please be advised, the citizens are now being unfairly burdened with filing a lawsuit to restore and enforce our lawful rights which have been violated by Brown Development with the obvious assistance and oversight of our entrusted County officials.

With the clear evidence of wrongdoing by Brown Development, we hope you will immediately take right action to prevent the Bissen Administration from being embroiled in yet another case of SMA violation driven litigation.

How many lawsuits has the County already lost on these clear violations of environmental laws?

Respectfully;

Christopher Salem
Chairman of the Board
Napili Bay Community Association

Follow this link to Napili.org to view the letter from the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit. 

Honolulu DPP said it is revoking the building permit for a 14-room home on Kamehameha Heights after a review requested by a Council Member and State House Rep revealed that the developer misrepresented their permit application.

That's precisely what we have repeatedly shown Greg Brown did in Napili Bay - but so far, no Maui politician has been willing to support shutting Brown down.

In fact, Maui County member Tamara Paltin has repeatedly misled the public saying the Council is powerless to demand enforcement of Greg Brown's permit violations and even went out of her way to kill a unanimously-approved official Council investigation into the wrongful administration of Brown's permits.

Even former Planning Director Mclean has admitted that Brown's permit applications contained misrepresentations. That means from the outset, Department staff cooperated with Brown to violate County Codes and deny the community of our rights.

Department policies do typically give developers an opportunity to make onsite revisions that bring construction back into compliance if an inspection shows the developer varied from their approved plans.

But Brown's construction was faithful to his approved plans, he did not vary from what was on paper.  Brown's violations were baked into the plans from the beginning and because of that, Brown's permits should have been invalidated and revoked.

Instead, Director McLean unlawfully lifted the Stop Work orders that were issued to Brown by manufacturing a new, bogus policy to let Brown make revisions not just on-site but also to the violations contained in his original building plans.

The problem the community has is that Brown's SMA permit exemption, which denied the community the opportunity to have input into his design, was awarded to Brown on the basis of the original plan violations.

The only way to restore the community's rights is for Mayor Bissen to display the political will to do what Honolulu just did - to have his departments revoke Brown's permits because of the original misrepresentations and force Brown to start all over from scratch, at his own cost.

As predicted, like a zombie rising, Alice Lee has resurrected her Dark-Government new rules, bringing them to the GREAT Committee this Friday.

Alice Lee’s proposed new, authoritarian, anti-open government rules eliminate early public input on any resolution she chooses, fast-tracking around committee hearings and public testimony.

Chair Lee wants the power to skip committee and public input, which currently requires a Super-Majority, 6-to-3 Council vote taken AFTER a 1st round of public input.

Alice would eliminate at will at least three rounds of public testimony and four weeks advance notice, giving us only six days before 1st read, regardless of how controversial the legislation may be.

This minimizes community awareness and drastically limits organizing public testimony, which Council rules in the past have specifically protected.

CM U'U Hodgins' proposed rule changes impose unwarranted restrictions on calling a Community Resource Person, effectively blocking Cultural Practitioners from participating. Why?

This past week the State Office of Information Practices directed Council Chair Lee to stop violating Sunshine laws that require final Council Minutes to be posted within 40 days. Since last June, Chair Lee has posted nothing but unapproved draft minutes, which violates Sunshine and appears to be a further attempt by Chair Lee to limit public participation.

How many other ways can Chair Lee find to exclude the public from the public’s business?

The GREAT Committee hears these Dark-Government Resolutions 23-30 and 23-31 on Friday, Feb 25th, 9 AM Please testify against them.

So far, the new Council Majority has consistently voted against overwhelming public testimony, and they could very well shamefully award Alice Lee the power she wants to skip committee and public input on any new bill she chooses.

A sad day for Democracy on Maui.

MEETING SITE: Online via BlueJeans: https://bluejeans.com/513107325

Phone testimony: 1-408-915-6290, code 513 107 325 In-person testimony and viewing: Council Chamber, Kalana O Maui Building, 8th Floor, 200 South High Street, Wailuku, Hawaii

Email testimony to: county.council@mauicounty.us

SUPPORT MAUI CAUSES IN ANY WAY YOU CAN - THANKS!
Sam Small, Director, Maui Causes www.MauiCauses.org
Contribute via Paypal:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=9G4H8PUWSTDB6

Not that we want to promote Real Estate broker Buzz Moffit's listing for Greg Brown's Makila Farms site, but we include this link so you can see for yourself.

On the Makila Farms website, Brown states "We must be a good neighbor to the communities we build in and listen to their thoughts, ideas, and concerns."

Based on how badly and obviously Greg Brown has violated every possible aspect of the Public’s trust, the Maui County Permitting, and State, and Federal SMA regulations with his Napili Bay permit applications and building plans that former Planning Director McLean admits had code violations built into them from the start, perhaps he now sees that no one trusts him to build anything on Maui?

"A rare offering of a 75 acre property overlooking the ocean in Launiupoko. Located just outside the town of Lahaina, this stunning property would make an amazing family compound or ranch. The property consists of three 25 acre parcels and per current County zoning, can have six homes and multiple barns and agricultural structures. Potable water and power are in the street and the property includes its own high capacity agricultural well. With commanding views of Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe island this will be a legacy property with endless possibilities. Member of the Seller LLC is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Hawaii"

Has anyone noticed that under Alice Lee’s direction, Maui's County Council is in direct and deliberate violation of State Sunshine laws in that none of the official minutes from any council meeting since June of last year has been publicly posted to the Council’s website?

Sunshine mandates official minutes be made public within 40 days but Alice doesn’t seem to want you to know what dirty things she's doing.

This is on top of the Council Rules Lee proposed on Jan 2nd that would have stripped the Council of its long-standing authority to protect public participation, limiting fast-tracking legislation with a required Super-majority Vote, replacing it with her own discretion to skip committee hearings and go to first Council reading, with no advance public notice, on any legislation she chooses.

Lee’s authoritarian rules can easily be resurrected anytime she thinks she's got the game rigged to get them passed. 

How many other ways can Chair Lee find to exclude the public from the public's business? 

Share as you can… And testify this Fri. 9am     

COUNCIL'S NEW RULES Reso 23-5
On Friday, Alice Lee will most certainly resurrect her proposed new, authoritarian, anti-open government rules to eliminate early public input on any resolution she chooses, fast-tracking around committee hearings and your public testimony.

Fast-tracking currently requires a Super-Majority, 6 to 3 Council vote taken AFTER a 1st round of public input.

If the past two sessions are any indication, where the New Council Majority consistently voted against overwhelming public testimony, they will shamefully award Alice Lee the power she wants to skip committee and public input at will.

Alice's authoritarian power grab eliminates at least three rounds of public input and four weeks of advanced public notice, informing us only six days before the Council's first read, regardless of how controversial the legislation is.

This minimizes community awareness and drastically limits any community group from organizing public testimony, something that the Council's rules have historically and appropriately specifically protected.

Forcing testifiers to wait all day to speak for just 2 minutes:
Maui's community is also outraged at the dark-government choice to restrict public testimony to only two minutes and then only when each agenda item is specifically called, rather than allowing us to testify for three minutes on each item all up front, at once, at the start of the session. 

The Council gets paid. What citizen can sit around all day waiting to stand for just two minutes, not knowing what time the council will get around to calling an item if they even get to it at all?

The new Council Majority is abusing every authority they have available in a blatant crusade to make it harder for the public to participate in OUR government.

Intentionally limited Job Search for County Clerks:
Even the job post for clerks was restricted, listed only on the County’s website, skipping Indeed.com where the County now lists 87 other jobs.

MAUI CAUSES spent a couple of hundred bucks posting the jobs nationally at the old clerk’s starting salary of $110k and got over 42 applications.

Once embarrassed by our actions, the Council Chair did post the jobs nationally but misrepresented the salary at only $52K.

Why? It would seem it was intentionally done to limit applicants.

Alice Lee wants to pay Moana Lutey $156,982 (that's way more the even the Mayor gets) for a job that does not require a lawyer. Lutey was rejected by Mayor Bissen who removed her as the County's top lawyer because she is so extraordinarily manipulative, divisive and abusive to the community.

Remember, we all just voted on a Charter Amendment that goes into effect in July to strip the hiring authority of the County Clerk position away from the Council Chair, specifically to block that power from being abused for political patronage and advantage - exactly as Alice is doing on Friday by hiring Moana Lutey.  The half-assed job search they did was just a charade.

Given the importance of Chair Lee's power grab, unless we speak out up-front, now, in any way we can, on Friday, Alice will continue the abusive policy newly set by Tasha Kama to disallow all upfront morning testimony, both can and had been allowed as a discretionary option , forcing us all to sit around all day in order to testify piecemeal when each item is called.

If you can, please make a contribution to Maui Causes so we can buy social media ads to mobilize our community:  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=9G4H8PUWSTDB6

By design and intention, Alice Lee is leading the new Council Majority into a Fascist state.

Be ready to spend some time on this and be EXTRA VOCAL on Friday. Log on at
https://maui.bluejeans.com/295235670

Alice Lee’s proposed new, authoritarian, anti-open government rules eliminate early public input on any resolution she chooses, fast-tracking around committee hearings and your public testimony.

Alice Lee wants the power to skip committee and public input, which currently requires a Super-Majority, 6 to 3 Council vote taken AFTER a 1st round of public input. 

Alice's authoritarian power grab eliminates at least three rounds of public input and four weeks of advanced public notice, informing us only six days before the Council’s first read, regardless of how controversial the legislation is.

This minimizes community awareness and drastically limits any community group from organizing public testimony, something that the Council’s rules have historically and appropriately specifically protected.

On Jan 2nd, the Council violated our Charter by, among other things, not voting in a Vice-Chair and Pro Temp and inappropriately appointing Moana Lutey and Richelle Thomson to the Clerk’s office at massive, unjustified salaries, around $157K. That's more than the Mayor gets.

Both the rules and the Clerk positions will likely be revisited next session, delayed until Jan 27th and it is vitally important you show up as this Council is currently under siege by those desperate to remove you from the process.

Even the job listings for new clerks were restricted, originally posted only on the County’s website, skipping Indeed.com where the County lists 56 other jobs.

Maui Causes posted the jobs nationally at the old clerk’s starting salary of $110k and has so far brought in over 30 applications. 

The day after we shared our listing, Tasha Kama had the jobs nationally posted but misrepresented the starting salary at only $52K. Why?

Oh, and the 1st four minutes of video where the clerks were appointed has mysteriously vanished from the County’s website.

Yes, there is a battle raging.

Sam Small,
Director, Maui Causes
www.MauiCauses.org
info@MauiCauses.org

According to this press release today from Attorney Lance Collins, because of the suit brought by Candidate Noelani Ahia and thirty voters over the 800 outstanding votes, the earliest Alice Lee can participate in any Council Business will be ninety days after the Hawai'i Supreme Court makes a decision. No date has yet been set for the hearing so a decision could be a month away!

Meanwhile, writes Collins, "The Council has 30 days from January 2 to fill the interim vacancy until the election contest is resolved... Otherwise, the mayor is given the power to appoint an interim council member."

PR-Election-Contest

Maui County Council to Seat Eight of Nine Members at Inauguration

For Immediate Release

January 1, 2023

The newly elected Maui County Council will be seated and hold their inauguration ceremony

at 10 am on Monday, January 2 pursuant to the County Charter, at the Council's chambers in

Wailuku. Only eight of the nine council members will be participating because a certificate of election

has not been issued for the Wailuku, Waiheʻe, Waikapū residency area seat.

On November 23, Noelani Ahia and thirty voters filed an election contest over the Clerk's

mishandling of over 800 ballots with the Hawai'i Supreme Court asserting six causes to have the

Wailuku, Waiheʻe, Waikapū council member election invalidated and for holding a new election. The

Hawai'i Supreme Court has not rendered a decision on the contest.

Pursuant to HRS 11-156, the County Clerk cannot deliver a certificate of election until an

election contest is resolved and the period for appeal has ended. The election contest has raised two

federal questions meaning that the period for appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is ninety days. (Rule

13 of the Rules of the US Supreme Court). The earliest possible time for the seating of the Wailuku,

Waiheʻe, Waikapū seat under all scenarios will be ninety days after the decision of the Hawai'i Supreme

Court.

The Council has 30 days from January 2 to fill the interim vacancy until the election contest is

resolved and either a new election is called or a certificate of election can be delivered after the period of

appeal ends. Otherwise, the mayor is given the power to appoint an interim council member. (Section

3-4(2) of the Maui County Charter)

By way of comparison, in 2019, the Hawai'i Supreme Court invalidated a Honolulu city

council seat election between Tommy Waters and Trevor Ozawa due to the Honolulu City Clerk's

mishandling of ballots. The Court held oral argument on January 15 after the election and rendered its

decision on January 25 – invalidating the election and ordering a new election. In the interim, to assure

a fully functioning council, the Honolulu City Council appointed Mike Formby to serve as interim

councilmember. The special mail-in election concluded on April 13, 2019.

The election contestants allege that the County Clerk’s mishandling of 800-plus deficient

ballots has made it impossible to know the true result of the election. On Election Day, the Clerk had

ruled that the return envelopes of more than 800 mailed-in ballots were deficient due to return

envelopes. However, the Clerk did not give uniform notice to voters regarding the deficiency

determination and how to cure, hundreds of voters were not given written mailed notice until the day

of the deadline to fix the alleged issue.

Voter Disenfranchisement is a serious issue and reflects a government's capacity to provide fair

and transparent elections for itʻs people. As only the second all mail-in ballot election, it is of

paramount importance that procedures are implemented in a fair and uniform manner, to protect the

integrity of the election system and our democratic form of government.

Contact:

Lance Collins 808-243-9292

lawyer@maui.net

Mayor Bissen's removal of Moana Lutey and her sidekick Richelle Thomson from Corporation Counsel was a great step towards ending decades of institutionalized corruption on Maui.

As her push towards Fascism expands, Alice Lee wants to hire Lutey and Thomson as County Clerk, and Deputy County Clerk.

With massive salary boosts over past Clerks (Lutey will earn more than the Mayor) to fill jobs that do not require a lawyer.

The County Clerk's office already has access to lawyers at Corporation Counsel and Council Services whenever needed.

Is the high salary Alice wants to give these two a reward for all their past illegitimate acts or to pave the way towards new ones?

$156,982 yearly to Moana Lutey - 42.39% increase for Clerk.
$149,132 yearly to Richelle Thomson - 51.10% increase for Deputy.
$151,979 is the current salary for Maui County's Mayor.
$162,552. is the current salary for Hawaii State Attorney General.

We encourage you to testify against Reso 23-12, the Appointment of Moana Lutey as County Clerk and Reso 23-13 Richelle Tompson as Deputy County Clerk.

Remember that Moana Lutey lied to the Council repeatedly about an investigation into bribery accusations within the Planning Dept over Greg Brown's abusive Naplii Hotel. The investigation she claimed happened NEVER TOOK PLACE!

Lutey also wasted millions of your tax dollars refusing to respect the Council's unanimous vote to settle the Injection Wells case to instead take it to the Supreme Court, where she lost!

Oh yeah, and she lied to the Council in her confirmation hearing about her role in a contested SMA permit case.

All that and more, are why Lutey was removed as Director of Corporation Counsel.

Maui Causes has a petition with 500 signatures demanding that Moana Lutey be investigated by the FBI for corruption.  Add your name here https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/request-for-criminal

Thanks for caring and taking action!

Organizational Meeting of January 2, 2023 2:00 PM
Testify Online via BlueJeans link https://maui.bluejeans.com/295235670
Or by email to: county.clerk@mauicounty.us

In-Person Testimony and Viewing:
Council Chamber, Kalana O Maui Building, 8th Floor,
200 South High Street, Wailuku, Hawai'i

Courtesy Live Broadcast: Akaku - Maui Community Media, Channel 53  website: https://www.akaku.org/channel-53/

Resolution 23-5 - ADOPTING THE RULES OF THE COUNCIL.
There are several substantive changes in Alice Lee's new Rules which significantly reduce the Public's opportunity to Testify for the next two years.

Our old rules required a 2/3 Council Vote to Fast-Track any new law, otherwise, all new laws MUST have Committee Hearings with Public Testimony and a report made to the Council.

In her new rules, Alice gives herself the power to fast-track any legislation she wants, bypassing Committee Hearings and Public Testimony.

This is one of the darkest and most anti-open government practices possible.

Alice Lee wants to restrict your opportunity to provide Public Testimony on any Council issue she chooses. 

Please testify and demand the new rules carry over the old language from 7G. Referral to committees; "In the case of bills or resolutions having the force and effect of law... the Council shall refer the matter to a standing committee and shall receive the committee's report prior to first reading or adoption; provided that the Council may waive this requirement by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire membership of the Council."

Demand the Council amends the new, overreaching language that Alice proposed for Rule 10A. New bills or resolutions. "The Council Chair may either refer new bills or resolutions to the standing committee with jurisdiction or post them on a Council meeting agenda for referral or other action."  

We also encourage you to testify against Reso 23-12, the Appointment of Moana Lutey as County Clerk and Reso 23-13 Rechelle Tompson as Deputy County Clerk.

There is no justification for the pay boost that Alice Lee proposed for these two lawyers who Mayor Bissen saw fit to remove from Corporation Counsel, for damn good reasons!

The County Clerk's office already has full access to lawyers from Council Services and Corporation Counsel. Neither position requires a law degree and there is no reason other than political patronage to hire these two.

Remember Moana Lutey lied to the Council repeatedly about an investigation into bribery accusations within the Planning Dept over Greg Brown's abusive Naplii Hotel. The investigation she claimed happened NEVER TOOK PLACE!

Maui Cause has a petition with nearly 500 signatures demanding that Moana Lutey be investigated by the FBI for corruption.  Add your name here https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/request-for-criminal

Thanks for caring and taking action!

Organizational Meeting of January 2, 2023 2:00 PM
Testify Online via BlueJeans link https://maui.bluejeans.com/295235670
Or by email to: county.clerk@mauicounty.us

In-Person Testimony and Viewing:
Council Chamber, Kalana O Maui Building, 8th Floor,
200 South High Street, Wailuku, Hawai'i

Courtesy Live Broadcast: Akaku - Maui Community Media, Channel 53  website: www.co.maui.hi.us/Archive.aspx?AMID=226

Episode # 6 Corruption comes ashore to Maui

 Welcome to Maui Real News.  I’m your Host bradah Chris.

At Maui Real News we are dedicated to keeping it real.  And, giving it to you straight.  It may be pilau. It may stink, but we want to get the stink out. Clean house.  Bring it out into the air where we can breathe clean again.

Our County Officials are seen as leaders. They need to represent what is good and true, what is our best, and what is pono, especially to the youth?  Corruption in government?

No way, no need, no like, no can.

We cannot be like the three monkeys.

PICTURE – SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL SPEAK NO EVIL

We created Maui Real News to empower residents to know what’s going on.

INSERT MATRIX PICTURE HERE OF BLUE AND RED PILL

As the character Morpheus in the movie the Matrix said, “You take the blue pill…the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.  You take the red pill…you stay in Wonderland, and we show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

INSERT PICTURE OF THE RABBIT HOLE

If you’re still watching, welcome to Wonderland.

In this episode we invite you to take a red pill look at Mayor Victorino and his Administration.

But first, a disclaimer:

But first, a disclaimer: In Hawaii it is not legal to eaves drop and secretly record a conversation you are not participating in. However, anyone participating in a conversation can legally record that conversation even if the others don’t know the recording is being made. We’re going to play for you some audio clips from conversations with Mayor Victorino that were legally recorded by participants in those conversations

INSERT PICTURE OF STATEMENT OF FEDERAL CORRUPTION WITH A QUESTION MARK THROUGH IT

On Sept 16^th Mayor Victorino released this statement about the Federal Corruption charges against a former County Official. (Clip)“I strongly condemn public corruption in all forms. I cannot, and I will not, tolerate such betrayals of public trust.”

Now here’s a clip recorded by Sam Small, the Director of Maui Causes of a conversation with Mike Victorino two weeks before he was sworn in as Mayor.

Starting with :13 I know Pat Wong. I know a lot about his life.

Cut to :24-:46 I know David Goode, I know the Shit he pulled…because I don’t need you.”

Just weeks later Mayor Victorino nominated both David Goode to be his Director of Public Works and Patrick Wong to be his Corporation Counsel, that is, the Director of the Dept. of County Government Attorneys.

I didn’t know about this audio, but, I did know that Mr. Goode was not good. At the time of his nomination Goode’s unlawful manipulation of the 2015 Upcountry Water Bill had just come to light.

When they voted to approve the bill, the Council members stated that they believed they were approving infrastructure improvement exemptions as a courtesy for upcountry resident who’d been waiting for water meters for over 16 years.

In fact, Mr. Goode and Dept. of Government Attorneys had changed the bill to include exempting commercial developers and large landowners, like A&B, island-wide, so you, the taxpayer would pay for their infrastructure obligations.  More on that in another episode.

The Mayor was made aware of this, but,  obviously didn’t care.
It took County residents working closely with progressive Council members to successfully defeat Mr. Goode’s nomination.

On to the Dept. of Government Attorneys, led by the Corporation Counsel, Patrick Wong.

In this next clip, The Mayor-elect is speaking to a man with Sam Small and Chris Salem, who he is hiring to legislative loopholes which many past administrations used to enrich developers at the Taxpayer’s  expense.

Mr. Salem, has both the professional building expertise and public government experience, as well as decades of valuable work product to bring to this the Mayor’s administration

In this clip, Chris, who will later become a Whistleblower within Victorino’s administration, asks the Mayor why we aren't holding Administration Directors and County Officials accountable, when it is clearly established that they violated the County Charter.

1:09 "I think the Council's always been afraid to open that pandora's box.  Once you open one, everything else may come-up."

The Mayor then goes on to acknowledge that because Corporation Counsel represents both the Administration and the Maui County Counsel, they have a lot of power.  They can pick and choose who they defend from litigation. And, as such, they can intimidate Councilmembers to advance whatever may be their own agenda.

1:40 "In my mind, We were always told too, that if you go against us. If you go against us.  You're on your own."

2:03-2:10 Sam "We know the intimidation"  Mayor "Yeah, Thank you.  I think that's always been an 800 pound gorilla in the room"

2:31 "Until that is thoroughly addressed, it's still the 800 pound gorilla in the room"

Well, the Mayor, to everyone's surprise, re-nominated that gorilla, Pat Wong, to be his Corporation Counsel, and sadly, despite evidence of possible wrongdoing, the Council approved his nomination.

Later, if you recall, Mr. Wong was forced to resign, after a domestic violence incident against his girlfriend for which he was arrested, and never charged.

But, that is not the end of the story.  And in another Whistleblower episode, we will explain how Mr. Wong prevented the County from assessing and collecting upon millions of dollars owed by developers to the County. For now, will reveal that the evidence suggests that Pat Wong prevented the Sand Hill lots at Palama Drive from being turned into Federal Tax Credit Affordable Housing. A proposal worked on over year with Mr. Wong’s office which would have settled a case by the developer against the County, and a proposal, it appears now, Pat conveniently concealed from the Council.  Instead, Mr. Wong advised the County to buy back the land from the Developer at a cost of approximately 13 million dollars.

Yup, that’s your tax dollars hard at work. Why would he do that? At that time Mr. Salem and his associates, experts in affordable housing, had spent over $75,000 to develop a plan and got the approval of the developer to do it. Their plan pioneered using Federal Tax credits to provide affordable housing, just like what is finally, more than a decade later, being done now in Kihei.  Thanks to Councilmember Kelly King.  But, this could have started way back then.

What we do know is that Mr. Wong declared in his financial disclosures that he earned between $250,000 and $500,000 (see MauiTime weekly article) two years in a row...in Vegas.  And, what we also know is that Mr. Wong when asked during his nomination proceedings for his tax records said he couldn't find those records. And, yet not one Councilmember told him to go get them from the IRS.  Getting the picture?

And that same Council approved his nomination. Well, NEWS FLASH: Mr. Salem, who has filed a suit against the Mayor and his Planning Director McLean, for retaliating against him for blowing the whistle on the Greg Brown Development violations, and other alleged fraud, including Pat Wong and the Affordable Housing Proposal for Palama Drive, is now subpoenaing those tax records from Patrick Wong.

INSERT: PICTURE OF SOMEONE BLOWING A WHISTLE

We elect Mayors and Councilmembers and yet it always seems to be dedicated County Residents who blow the whistle.  It is residents who have to follow through while being beaten-up financially, psychologically, and professionally by guess who? None other than our own County Government attorneys of the Dept of the Corporation Counsel who routinely defend the unlawful actions of County Officials, under the color-of-law, saying it is their job to “defend the County”.  Not from unlawful actions stupid.  Going back to 2000 with Christina Hemming and Montana Beach in 2000 and then there was Pu u’kahana, Olowalu, Palama Drive, and now Christopher Salem in 2022 addressing decades old corruption.

If Mr. Wong and his associates are watching, these shows are pre-recorded. And if a U.S. Attorney and the FBI are watching, it's all in government records, hiding in plain sight.  You can contact us at MauiRealNews@gmail.com

Sam Small of Maui Causes questioned the Mayor about the fraud that Christopher Salem has been trying to expose for two decades regarding allegations of violations of County and State Environmental law by Developer Lot 48A, LLC and and their engineering firm consultant, Unemori Engineering. These violations, which I have personally investigated as a paralegal going back to 2013 have, in fact, been covered-up by the County, and caused Mr. Salem to lose his property and his home which he spent his life savings to build for his family.

I should add that in addition to his professional qualifications, Mr. Salem has been both a coach and the director of youth sports programs in Lahaina for over two decades. He is presently the ......

I say this because one of the overused tactics of the Department of the Corporation Counsel is to make rude, abusive and disparaging remarks about Whistleblowers exposing them and the unlawful acts of the County Officials whom they represent.  To me, it really seems like the Mob representing the mob.

In his conversation with the then Mayor Elect, Sam Small concluded by saying:

2:50 "how long can the County persist with that poisoned fruit laying a bedrock of destruction over everything that happens.

3:14 "the ongoing cover-up gets deeper and deeper and deeper.

INSERT STATEMENT:  A PERSONAL NOTE

Mayor Victorino, you promised you would clean-up decades old corruption which poisons the well of County Government, but you haven’t.

As to Mr. Salem’s claims, you said:

5:22-27  There is a definite…I hate to use the word collusion, but there is… 5:31-5:33 there are other words I could use that are not nice

Let me repeat that “There is a definite…I hate to use the word collusion, but there is…there are other words I could use that are not nice.”

And as you stated about Corporation Counsel when you were Mayor Elect:

7:34-7:45 ”Instead of trying to really settle the issue, they continue to fight the issue.”

And now, almost two years later, as Mayor, and now as their boss, you have continued to allow Corporation Counsel to fight the issue.

I am not an attorney Mr. Mayor, but I can tell you what is most obvious.  County Attorneys are not allowed to conceal unlawful acts which they are fully aware of, by County Officials; which includes themselves as County Officials as well.

So, you said if you see something, say something.  And then one of your own loyal public servants did just that…and you fired him for it.  And the collusion between the County, the Developer and the Engineering firm, in that matter, you continue to conceal.  You said you won’t tolerate those who betray the public trust.  But, Mr. Mayor isn’t that what you’re doing.  Haven’t you betrayed that trust?

That is now for you the viewer, the Islander, the resident and the citizen of the County of Maui, to decide for yourself.

SOME SUITABLE UPLIFTING PICTURE OF STANDING UP

CLOSING

So, stand by, stand back, stand down….No, that’s not right. That’s not it.

Stand-up for Honest Government Maui County.

Until next time.  We’re keeping it real, and giving it to you straight.

Just the way you like it.

A hui Kaua.

Aloha mai e

THE END

Mayor Mike Victorino just lied through his teeth about his knowledge and tolerance of corruption within Maui County Gov't.

Listen to the audio below where Mike boasts that as Mayor he hired prior Mayor Alan Arakawa's tools, Pat Wong and David Goode, BECAUSE he knew they were corrupt and thinks he can use that to control them.

Pat Wong never provided his tax records claiming he won $500K in Las Vegas. Like Choy's payments of gambling chips to Stant, were Wong's poker winnings a payoff for the Palama Drive settlement he personally negotiated with his law school pal Ron Ugomori?

Wong keep it secret from the County Council that the developer had already approved an alternative settlement agreement generated by a team of nationwide affordable experts led by Chris Salem to turn those 52 lots into 100% affordable housing, at zero cost to the County.

It sure looks like Pat Wong swindled the County to spend upwards of $20 million in order to get a half million for himself.

Hello, FBI?

After over 18 months of ignoring us, the County Council is finally moving to do something about Greg Brown's monstrously oversized and illegitimate "Hotel" at Napili Bay.

Please testify Tues 6/28 live via Bluejeans, or by email to support Reso 22-158 to acquire the property for public purposes.

Click here to testify Live starting at 9am.

Or send an email RIGHT NOW to county.clerk@mauicounty.us

Last week our community submitted over 28 emails in support of shutting Greg Brown down and launching an investigation into Public Works, Planning, and Corporation Counsel's abuse of their authority.

See those emails and join the Napili Bay Community association here: Napili.org    Scroll down or Click on "Public Testimony"

Let's see if we can top last week's excellent community activism! Send an email RIGHT NOW to county.clerk@mauicounty.us

Talking points:
Support the Eminent Domain process with certain conditions:

Corporation Counsel must be excluded:
The County Council must secure legal advice that does not come from Corporation Counsel. Moana Lutey, John Rapacz (retired), and others are deeply conflicted and have repeatedly misrepresented the facts to the Council.

This must not turn into a "Payday" for Greg Brown:
The many proven layers of misrepresentations by Brown, to secure exemptions and permits that he was never entitled to, must limit the "fair market" value of the property and the public's outlay to "take" the property.

Michelle Mclean has been lying to the Council!
This property is in a Mixed-Use district that includes Hotels. Short-term rentals with no permits are how it's done in Napili Bay because it is zoned for that. McLean's promise that the County "will never issue a short-term rental permit to Brown" is intentionally misleading because he's not required to ask for one.

With your support, our community is forcing a new level of accountability that has never before existed in Maui County government, in the Council, and in the Administration.

The pushback from several groups of entrenched exploiters will be fierce. Expect it to be a bumpy ride! But with your support, we can move Maui County into a new era as a modern municipality that serves the best interests of its residents, not the Fat Cats.

Join and make a contribution to the Napili Bay Community association here: Napili.org
IMUA!

Earlier this week, Maui County Clerk Kathy Kaohu rejected all five Voter Challenges submitted including the Voter Challenge based on violation of the Council Term Limit in Maui County Charter Section 3-2.5.  Here's a pdf of the letter portion of the rejection - with the Clerk's attached Exhibits - the entire ruling is 1303 pages.6.20.22 Clerk Ruling on Term Limit Challenge

The essence of the ruling is based on prior case law that "No law has any retrospective operation, unless otherwise expressed or obviously intended."

Clerk Kaohu's ruling does not acknowledge or address the June 2018 Maui County Clerk ruling which clearly stated that the removal of the word "consecutive" creates a lifetime term limit of no more than five full terms, regardless of when served.

Clerk Kaohu's ruling also does not acknowledge or address what appears to be at least four separate instances in which the Council falsely asserts that they approved a "revised" version of Resolution #20-98 at the 6.23.20 GET Committee meeting. Per the official records of that meeting, no such approval ever happened!

The Clerk's ruling also does not explain why the term limit ballot questions were the only questions that did not include an effective date.

In summary, the Clerk's ruling does not acknowledge or address what appears to be the deliberate failure on the part of the Council members to clearly indicate "their" self-interested intent that the new stricter term limit would only apply to future Council members.

In other words, under the Council's "intent" only future Council members would be limited to no more than five full terms. All current and past Council Members would be entitled to an additional five terms on top of any full terms they have already served! If this were the Council's intent, it should have been clearly indicated to the voters in the ballot question and the change to the Charter language but it was not!
If the Council members only intended to apply the new stricter no more than "five full terms of office" limit, then the new language of Charter Section 3-2.5 should have read "No FUTURE NEW member of the county council may serve more than five full terms of office. All current and former members may serve an additional five full terms of office on top of any full terms they have already served prior to January 2, 2021." That would have been a complete, truthful and non-misleading statement of the Council's intent but that was not how they chose to present this issue to the voters.

The only remaining option appears to be pursuing this issue in the Second Circuit Court or the State Supreme Court and soon! But we need a resident or multiple resident voters willing to file a lawsuit. A fantastic, Oahu-based attorney has tentatively agreed to take the case but not on a pro bono basis.

If anyone out there is willing to pursue this and/or take the lead on a crowdfunding campaign to cover the $25,000 fee, please reach Anmarie Mabbutt at acu@umich.edu

The wide-spread abuse of process that is allowing Greg Brown to build his monster hotel in Napili Bay provides us all an education into the loopholes in our existing legislation that promote fraud and abuse in the administration of SMA permits, as well as a deeper dive into the general dysfunction and ignorance among our Council Members who seem to not at all understand what the Council's authorities and responsibilities really are.

Committee Chair Molina, and others, appear completely ignorant of the Council's investigative powers to assess whether a Director's actions are consistent with existing ordinances. At my insistence, David Raatz, the chief legal advisor to the Council spelled it out for Mr. Molina in a zoom call a few weeks ago, that the Council does have the authority and responsibility to launch an investigation into any department or issue that comes before them, if for no other reason than to effectively assess whether existing ordinances are achieving their desired results, and what legislative changes may need to be made.

Such an investigation, which is not a TIG (Temporary Investigative Group) as mistakenly identified by Chair Molina, but rather a formal investigation with subpoena powers to conduct questioning under oath, can also determine whether a Director has actually violated the Charter and perhaps other laws with punishments for the first and referrals to Prosecutors for the latter. That level of accountability has never, ever been asserted here in Maui County as, amazingly, the Council, in its entire history, has never, ever, launched such an investigation.

The favoritism that Planning Director Michelle McLean is showing Greg Brown's project is rapidly evolving to trigger the same kind of citizen-driven lawsuits that the County's lawyers always lose, at great cost to the taxpayers, just like at Montana Beach, Palama Drive, and Kahoma Villages.

The Hawaii State Supreme Court recently ruled that at Kahoma Villages the public's rights were indeed violated but it happened so long after the completion of the project as to be a moot point - damage done and too far gone to reconcile. Greg Brown's project is violating our rights in much the same way but it is going on now in realtime and the opportunity to right the wrong is still alive if action is taken now!

Josh Downer in his testimony explains to Council Member Palin, that the legislative changes she promoted for the Napili Bay District actually weaken the community's position against Greg Brown rather than strengthen it. Whether knowingly or not, Ms. Paltin served Greg Brown's interests, not the public's.

Josh Downer is the founder of the new Napili Bay Community Association www.Napili.org that has formed to use the courts to stop Greg Brown's abuse and possibly hold the County and the Council responsible for not stopping it while they have the chance.  The NBCA has over 130 Napili Bay resident members in just a few weeks of its existence. All are welcome to join and support the cause.

A first-of-its-kind County Council investigation into Planning Director Michelle McLean's consistent misrepresentations and violations of due process, bestowing enormous favoritism onto Greg Brown, would be a total game-changer for Maui County and a historic win for our community.

Watch these three short videos for a fairly full education into Greg Brown's abuse that Chris Salem 1st blew the whistle on almost a year ago.

Mike Victorino has started a war between Public Works and Planning over his proposed Waikapu Country Town public-private partnership and Greg Brown’s monster Hotel that destroys the quaint character of Napili Bay.

The partnership proposal Mayor Victorino just announced was brokered by Mancini, Welch, and Geiger, attorneys for both Waikapu developer Mike Atherton and Napili developer Greg Brown.

Victorino and Planning Director Michele McLean, a long-time foot soldier for Mancini, sold out the Napili Bay community allowing Greg Brown to violate every rule in the book in an apparent trade for Victorino’s ego-driven Waikapu project.

Planning Director McLean’s relentless and illegal protection of Greg Brown’s violations triggered the war with Public Works, the latest casualty of which is Public Works Director Rowena DagDag-Andaya, who resigned last week.

A previous casualty was DSA Supervising Inspector Derek Hyland who resigned a few weeks ago citing workplace intimidation flowing from the Mayor’s office over the Stop-Work Orders he issued to Greg Brown.

Inspector Hyland based the Stop-Work Orders on Title 19’s “Validity of Permit” ordinance which nullifies any permit acquired through misrepresentation.

Director McLean continues to ignore Brown’s misrepresentations and this week illegally forced a lifting of the Stop Work orders. Construction has now resumed on Brown’s ”monster hotel”.  (Look for coming calls to support community and legal action to shut Brown down.)

But the war between Public Works and Planning is escalating in some very interesting ways with a newly-leaked internal investigation that alleges Michelle McLean violated her professional standing as Planning Director to personally earn $385,000 in 2021 by flipping a Maui residence, performing massive structural renovations without any of the required building permits.

The report includes time-stamped, high-resolution aerial photography that DSA inspectors use to track construction to show that McLean's husband Paul, who is a builder but not a General Contractor as required for flipping, began making major structural renovations with no permits just as Maui went into Covid Lockdown in April of 2020. The McLeans sold the property less than a year after construction.

In a text exchange with Chris Salem, who blew the whistle on Greg Brown almost a year ago and was wrongfully terminated from his job in the Mayor’s office for doing so, former DSA Inspector Hyland suggested the report was leaked because it is being suppressed by the Victorino administration and was a factor in Director Dagdag-Andaya’s resignation.

"I have heard she wanted to pick up where I left off on Validity of Permit and a higher hand shut her down,” wrote Mr. Hyland, “I was told she was sick of the corruption and looking the other way within DSA and Planning, and she bailed."

McLean has called it “fiction” but the 52-page report is filled with internal County documents and public records that seem legitimate.

You can read the entire report on Maui Causes’ website:

This war is sure to continue and the casualty list is likely to grow, perhaps with Director McLean following in the resigning footsteps of other Planning Department personnel, Rulan Waikiki and John Rapacz, both original facilitators of Brown’s unlawful permit abuse.

However it plays out, Mayor Victorino’s amazingly negligent and unprofessional management continues to  drive Maui County into chaos and enormous financial waste.

McLean investigation2

In 2002, Mayor Alan Arakawa admitted to blatant and intentional violations of County Code by developers, consultants, and the Planning Dept, implying the promise of change.

One trigger for his comments was Montana Beach, where a citizen's complaint famously revealed a Director's faulty decision, causing a permit revocation. Mike Victorino sat on the County Council in 2008 to approve well over $ 4 million of public funds to settle multiple lawsuits.

In 2011, Mike Victorino was also on Council for the $ 14 Million Palama Drive debacle, this time when citizens exposed Mayor Arakawa himself for acting outside his authority and the law to benefit a developer at the public's expense. The County now owns and wastes our tax dollars yearly to maintain that land and its huge and crumbling retaining walls.

So over nine years time, Mike Victorino was a direct witness of Alan Arakawa's transformation from "Defender" to "Violator".

The same transformation of Mike Victorino seems to have happened much quicker.

Having personally witnessed the damage corruption can do, in 2019, Mayor Victorino hired Chris Salem as his Legislative Laison to work with the County Council to close the loopholes that for decades, the Mayor acknowledged, have allowed a small group of developers, consultants, and corrupt County officials to cheat the rest of us.

Just two short years later, Mayor Victorino wrongfully terminated Chris Salem as retribution for responding to community complaints and exposing Greg Brown's collusion with County officials. The most responsible of those in the Planning Dept. have recently resigned.

Today, instead of taking a firm hand to protect the community, Mayor Victorino is allowing Planning Director McLean to manipulate the issues at Napili Bay in favor of allowing Mr. Brown to keep building his monstrosity or, at the very least, set the stage for an eventual settlement with Brown at the public's expense.

In reality, regardless of any approvals that he may have paid someone to get, because of his sloppily-applied permit misrepresentations, Greg Brown has himself invalidated both his building plan approval and more importantly, his SMA permit exemption, which robbed Maui's citizen's of our rights under several laws.

Virtually everything Director McLean is currently saying publically is a lie:

Greg Brown's violations were not just recently discovered, they have been widely known since last April when Chris Salem first blew the whistle to his boss, Mayor Victorino.

Mr. Brown's plans are not vague, they clearly included details that are in direct violation of County Code, from the beginning.

Director Mclean has absolutely no authority to allow Greg Brown to simply make a few changes to what he's building and continue. Her direction will surely land the County in court, again, as several citizen groups have already pledged to sue if Mr. Brown is allowed to continue.

The local media keeps quoting Greg Brown saying that he has been building in strict accordance with his approved plans. And from what we hear, he has been faithful to those plans.

Mr. Brown's problem is that his plans, as approved, violate multiple County codes and it is very clearly laid out in Title 16 of the Maui County Code's "Validity of Permit" that getting illegitimate plans approved by the County does not magically make them legitimate .

Regardless of any previous approval, illegitimate plans, once discovered for what they are, are invalidated. This is because the County puts its full faith and credit into the Architect or Engineer who stamped the plans. If they lie, boom, Game Over!

Because the plans his architect stamped and submitted to get his SMA exemption violated code, Mr. Brown must go back to square one and re-apply for a new SMA Permit and this time he will NOT receive the exemption that robbed the community of our rights .

Our community is tremendously fortunate to have had Chris Salem as our advocate on these matters for the past 20 years. Chris's contributions have been enormous and have come at great pains to him and his family.

Before Mayor Victorino wrongfully terminated Chris Salem as Legislative Laison, Chris had been working on revisions to the County's administration of SMA rules with Council Member Shane Sinenci's office. Member Sinenci has a degree in Architecture and is well-positioned to champion the changes that will support our community. Hopefully, he will pick up the gauntlet and run with it.

We believe that effort can be greatly supported by the recent advancement of Mr. Derek Hyland to his position as DSA's Supervising Inspector.

Mr. Hyland has stellar credentials and experience in the municipal administration of development and appears more than willing to educate the Council on how badly Maui's historic and current administration of Public Works and Planning is both violating the law and failing the community.

The community gives thanks for Inspector Hyland's insistence that the County abide by both professional best practices and our established ordinances, which has resulted in the two Stop Work orders that were issued to Mr. Brown.

Based on what has been officially documented of Mr. Brown's violations, there are more violation notices and Stop Work orders that Director McLean is required to issue. Her refusal to do so is a further violation of law.

If you can, please support Maui Causes and others in our community who are working hard to expose corruption and get Maui's County Council to approve legislation that plugs the loopholes in Public Works and Planning.

For the first time ever, there are individuals in positions of authority within the administration who agree that change is needed and are taking action to stop the madness.

Support us in supporting them by making a non-tax-deductible contribution. Click here to show your support:

Thanks
Sam Small
Director, Maui Causes

PS. If you have not yet done so please sign our petition:

https://www.change.org/p/tamara-paltin-revoke-greg-brown-s-permit-exemption-tear-down-his-monster-hotel-build-a-public-park/u/29981986

Eight months after Chris Salem first notified Mayor Victorino of Greg Brown's violations and six months after Mr. Salem was terminated as retribution for responding to community complaints and pressing the matter within the administration, Greg Brown has finally been ordered to stop all work on his Napili Bay “Hotel”.

Today’s Stop Work orders were signed by DSA Supervising Inspector Derek Hyland after protracted internal battles between Public Works, Planning, and Corporation Counsel that have resulted in several resignations of high-level, long-standing Planning Dept staff who were directly involved with wrongfully issuing Mr. Brown an SMA permit exemption and approving building plans that were, from the beginning, in violation of existing County code.

Back In June, inspector Hyland affirmed Mr. Brown’s violations which Mr. Salem, Junya Nakao, and Maui Causes first documented to Planning Director McLean at a public meeting we collectively called for at the site on May 10th.

It is primarily because of Inspector Hyland’s insistence that the County abide by both professional standards and our established ordinances that today’s Stop Work orders were issued.

Mayor Victorino and his Department heads have done everything in their power, from wrongfully terminating Mr. Salem, to lying in Council testimony, to the manufacturing of false government records, and violating state laws, wasting an enormous amount of county resources, to try to protect Greg Brown from what he deserves - being forced to tear his monstrosity down and restore the property to its original condition, all at his own expense.

Ironically, their resistance has brought to light several other developments where Inspector Hyland has discovered the same kind of protective favoritism of code violations actively at play among the same cast of characters.

Among them is the subdivision just up the road from Mr. Brown’s debacle, on Hui Rd E. In 2019 Mayor Victorino signed a written agreement with Mr. Salem to have another SMA permit violation notice issued to the developer there. In a complete about-face, and in violation of his signed agreement, the Mayor and his Department heads have manufactured every illegitimate excuse they can to protect the developer’s interests at the public’s expense. Just like at Mr. Brown’s.

Maui Causes has for years been informing the FBI about these illegitimate acts within the County Administration but with no evidence of direct financial gain by County employees, they had no way to pursue it. Now, the recent resignations of several key County players in this manipulation shine a light on where to look for that proof.

There continue to be some very simple legislative changes that only the County Council can make, which will plug the loopholes that allow fraud by licensed professionals to go unnoticed and be protected by a small group of corrupt administrative staff.

Typically, as in Mr. Brown’s case, SMA permit applications fraudulently stamped by licensed professionals are used to deny the public of our rights to give input into local development and allow developers to avoid paying for environmental protections.

Maui Causes will continue to offer the Council a roadmap to those changes and we believe it safe to say that Inspector Hyland will be more than happy to provide insight and a professional best-practices perspective to the Council as well.

For his part, Mr. Salem is not just a well-loved and respected basketball coach and west-side community leader. Mr. Salem deserves to be recognized for the enormous contributions he continues to make to help clean out corruption and legitimatize the land development process across all of Maui County.

As a whistleblower, Mr. Salem has brought enormous financial recovery to the County; on the 40-year, Three-lot Deferral Agreement scam, the 2015 Upcountry Water Bill scam, failure to pay Park Fees, and others, all perpetrated by Corporation Counsel.

Mr. Salem’s expertise is extensive and is a direct result of the harm that he and his family have suffered by being on the wrong side of the same favored developers and consultants who Mayor Victorino and his team are desperately trying to protect.

Mr. Salem’s wrongful termination suit against Mayor Victorino recently survived Corporation Counsel’s 500-page motion to dismiss and the court agreed to also add Planning Director Michelle Mclean as a defendant for her refusal to issue multiple SMA permit violation notices to trigger the Stop Work orders that were finally issued today.

Mr. Salem’s case is moving forward and is intended to hold developers accountable for manipulating County officials to circumvent County ordinances and citizens’ rights to enforce environmental laws and community standards.

If you can, please support Maui Causes and others in our community who are working hard to expose corruption and get Maui’s County Council to approve legislation that plugs the loopholes in Public Works and Planning.

For the first time ever, there are individuals in positions of authority within the administration who agree that change is needed and are taking action to stop the madness.

Support us in supporting them by making a non-tax-deductible contribution here:

Thanks
Sam Small
Director, Maui Causes

We believe Director Mclean is acting outside her authority to manufacture opportunities for Greg Brown to sue the County and avoid severe fines for his misrepresentations.

All the applicable County Codes clearly state that if there are conflicts between the requirements of any State law or County ordinance, the more restrictive requirements shall apply.

Director Mclean has repeatedly cited a meaningless excuse that the Napili Bay District Overlay lacks a height limitation, but that in no way wipes out island-wide zoning that limits a private residence to 30 ft.

Mr. Brown wrongfully received an SMA exemption specifically claiming he was building a single-family home. Public Works Supervising Inspector Derek Hyland has now officially certified that what Mr. Brown has built instead uses Hotel standards, in violation of the Napili Bay 2-Story limit which for over 50 years protected the village feel there.

Council Member Paltin asked, "Is there anything else that the Council should be doing on this matter?" There most certainly is!

This very petition, started back in August and signed by nearly 1,300 residents, requests Ms. Paltin as Chair of the Planning Committee to specifically ask for a legal opinion from Council Services whether an applicant filing for an SMA permit in the "Residential Category of the Napili District" must actually build according to "Residential Building Standards"?

It is a simple question. We’ve asked Council Services ourselves but they will not respond to anyone but a Council Member. Outside experts have done the research and their answer is "Yes". Public Works now agrees too but is being blocked from issuing a Stop-Work order by Director McLean and Corporation Counsel. It’s time for Council Member Paltin to step up to the plate and break the deadlock.

Regardless of who made mistakes or may have been paid off in the Planning Dept for Mr. Brown to get this far (several individuals who approved plans and publically defended Brown have recently resigned) Title 16's Validity of Permit clause holds Mr. Brown responsible for the conflict of seeking an SMA exemption under single-family use but using hotel standards to build. Because of his misrepresentations, which Director McLean seems to be doing everything she can to obscure, Mr. Brown cannot sue the County at all.

Two separate lawsuits have already been announced if Mr. Brown is NOT shut down, from a citizen and lawyer living just up the road, and from a developer who previously tried to do a similar project at the same site but was held to a completely different set of standards than what Director McLean seems intent to allow Mr. Brown to get away with.

Such favoritism seems common to Director McLean as she is also currently named in a lawsuit for specifically refusing to issue violation notices to another favored developer just up the road from Greg Brown’s monster.

Not surprisingly, both developers are represented by the same lawyers who were formerly employed by Corporation Counsel.

Reach Council Member Paltin at (808) 270-5504 or Tamara.Paltin@mauicounty.us and let her know how you feel.

It's Giving Tuesday. Maui Causes could sure use your support!

If you can, please support Maui Causes and others in our community who are working hard to expose corruption and get Maui's County Council to approve legislation that plugs the loopholes in Public Works and Planning.

For the first time ever, there are individuals in positions of authority within the administration who agree that change is needed and are taking action to stop the madness.

Support us in supporting them by making a non-tax-deductible contribution here:

Thanks
Sam Small
Director, Maui Causes

YOUR TESTIMONY HELPS - CLICK HERE BY WED: 

The Council is wisely looking at the schedule of extremely low fees for various Public Works and Planning permits and appeals that greatly subsidize professional developers’ speculation, at the public’s expense.

Please consider here the enormous departmental costs that Planning Director McLean and Corporation Counsel continue to waste by steadfastly refusing to acknowledge what was made perfectly clear last April, that in Napili Greg Brown is building to hotel specifications and never was eligible for the SMA permit exemption he misrepresented to get.

Last Wednesday Jordan Molina, Deputy Director of Public Works, publicly acknowledged that Public Works was processing a Stop-Work Order that was expected to be issued to Greg Brown's Napili Bay construction by last Friday, citing that Mr. Brown's Three-Story-Plus structure violates the Napili Bay District Two -Story limit, as documented in an official inspection report posted in the County's Kiva system on Monday 11/22/2021.

That stop-work order did not get issued last week specifically because Corporation Counsel inappropriately stepped in to block Public Works from performing their legitimate municipal function.

It seems Public Works lost patience with Planning Director Michele McLean who has repeatedly ignored obvious evidence to delay Brown's shutdown for over seven months, since Christopher Salem first reported Brown's misrepresentation to the Mayor, Planning and Public Works last April.

In those seven months, Mr. Brown brazenly continued incurring construction costs that he will sacrifice when he is ultimately forced to tear down his eyesore, at his expense.

Mr. Brown will have no standing to sue the County for convincing (or paying) Planning Department officials to approve his misrepresented building plans because of language in Title 16 of the Maui County Code section 105.4 Validity of permit:

“The issuance or granting of a permit or approval of construction documents shall not be construed to be a permit for, or an approval of, a violation of any of the provisions of the Maui County Code. Permits presuming to give authority to violate or cancel the provisions of the Maui County Code shall not be valid. ”

Essentially, because of Mr. Brown's own misrepresentations, his building permit and his SMA permit exemption are now both rendered invalid.
The substance of Chris Salem's original claims have been validated by inspectors at Public Works:

Mr. Brown never did qualify to apply for the SMA permit exemption he was granted and not only because his square footage count exceeds the 7,500 eligibility limit.

Mr. Brown's plans are labeled “Single Family” but they also clearly show elevations of 35 ft with 10 ft additional for elevators and staircases, which is only allowed for Hotels. Regardless of the Napili Bay District not having any height restrictions, Hotels are just not eligible for SMA exemptions, at all, anywhere!

For reasons that have been widely suspected to involve payoffs, officials in the Planning Department “mistakenly” approved Mr. Brown's plans even though they are clearly in violation of Title 19. Two senior planning officials who issued Brown's exemption and approved building plans have recently and suddenly resigned.

Mr. Brown's stop-work order was to be issued by Public Works, not by Planning Director McLean who may be held personally liable for acting outside of her authority by delaying the issuance of violation notices to both Mr. Brown and to Developer Lot 48 LLC, another well-documented, west side development where Mr. Salem has blown the whistle on falsified SMA documents which allowed developers to deny citizens of our rights to public hearings.

Had public hearings not been blocked by professional consultants committing fraud and covered up by County officials, neither of these projects would ever have gotten built. Director McLean's resistance to issuing notices of obvious violations seems intended to protect that fraud from being exposed and prosecuted.

If Corporation Counsel continues to block the issuance of this stop-work order, that too will be only in their misguided attempt to protect past and present corruption from being exposed. Let us note again that Mr. Brown's attorney in all this only just recently removed himself from his position at Corporation Counsel.

Director McLean has repeatedly claimed that she was not personally involved in issuing Mr. Brown's SMA exemption or approving his building plans. The approval was made shortly after she became Planning Director and her name is on the approvals, yet she has stated repeatedly that she wished those approvals had never happened.

The Planning Department did recently issue a notice of violation to Mr. Brown over a retaining wall that he brazenly built that was never included in his original SMA permit application. It has now been discovered that just prior to his resignation, a Planning Department official took the very questionable step of issuing an "After-The-Fact" SMA permit for just the controversial wall. How can a wall which is supposed to be based on steel-reinforced concrete footings be approved "after-the-fact" with no visual inspection of those underground footings?

Just like Kanamu Balinbin who came forward to admit in County Council testimony that in the past he delivered brown envelopes of cash to the Planning Department, there are professional contractors who have worked at Mr. Brown's site who have now come forward to admit knowing that the grading and walls at Mr. Brown's site are grossly insufficient for the purposes, in violation of building codes and dangerous to the surrounding community.

Director McLean has the authority to override and invalidate the after-the-fact permit for the bogus retaining wall and should do so today.

Many thanks to the honorable officials of Maui's Public Works Department for standing up to the small group of apparently corrupt staff members of the Planning Department, several of who have recently resigned, and Director McLean who's resignation the community is now calling for as well.

It's up to the County Council to legislate closing the loopholes identified by Chis Salem that have allowed this kind of abuse to happen on Maui repeatedly for decades.

Online Only Phone testimony: 1-408-915-6290, meeting code 175 115 369 Video testimony: https://bluejeans.com/175115369 View live: Akaku, Channel 53 or www.mauicounty.us/agendas

Tuesday the GREAT Committee will hear Planning Director McLean's update on Greg Brown’s Monster "Hotel' in Napili. 

Rather prematurely, Director McLean has several times now publicly characterized this disaster as the “department’s mistake” which seems an intentional misdirection to set the stage for the Council being amenable to some financial settlement with Mr. Brown should litigation arise when the County shuts his project down.  

Derek Hyland, the Supervising Building Inspector Maui County DSA, who is qualified to make determinations that Director McLean is unqualified to make, has now made and communicated several determinations that affirm the whistleblower assertions communicated to the Mayor, the department's staff, and Council Members by Christopher Salem repeatedly since last April, that Greg Brown Construction willfully misrepresented the project as a Two-Story Structure when it is, as per Title 19, Three-Stories Plus. 

It is clear then that Mr. Brown is indeed in violation of the Napili Bay District "Two Story” limit. 

Mr. Hyland has also determined that Mr. Brown’s permit application failed to include his third-floor square footage count. As such, Mr. Salem is also correct that Mr. Brown improperly secured his SMA permit exemption and denied the community our right to public hearings to protect Maui’s shoreline areas, as mandated by State and Federal law.

Mr. Brown further misrepresented the fair market value of his project at $1.5 Million. Up until the listing was pulled off the market a few weeks go it was listed for sale at $14 Million.

Mr. Brown’s SMA permit application clearly states that misrepresentations are just cause to revoke his SMA permit exemption and that specifically absolves the County of any financial burden for shutting the project down. Counter to Director McLean’s misdirection and fear-mongering of financial risk to the County, our tax coffers could easily benefit from fines levied against Mr. Brown for his subterfuge.  

Unlike Director McLean, who is appointed by the Mayor and is free to petition the Council to have her appear to lobby and prejudice the Council for political gains, Mr. Hyland is a Civil Servant and is not allowed to solicit the Council to hear from him. 

If the GREAT Committee is to hear of Mr. Hyland’s important determinations, a Council Member must invite him to appear and speak on Tuesday.

"Third Story" violates Napili Bay District "Two Story" limit.
Building over 7,500 sq ft, Brown's SMA Permit Exemption is INVALID.

Greg Brown's "Hotel", misrepresented as a "Single-Family, Two-Story" home, denied the community's right to public hearings to protect shoreline areas, as mandated by the State and Feds.

But will Corporation Counsel Director Moana Lutey block both Planning and Public Works from issuing a well-justified Stop Work Order and rescinding Mr. Brown’s fraudulently acquired SMA permit exemption - with fines added?

How many costly lawsuits does Corporation Counsel need to lose (Palama Drive, Montana Beach, the Injection Wells) before we all agree that defiantly defending the faulty decisions of senior County officials is a misuse of public funds?Especially when their decision benefits a private interest and may have been motivated by a bribe?

Mayor Victorino has a duty to enforce the laws and supervise the County Directors to issue a stop-work order now. Will he do what is right or be intimidated by Corp Counsel yet again to serve a developer's interests, not the public?

Tear down Brown's "Monster" and build a park with public restrooms so beachgoers can stop using Napili Bay as their toilet!

In June, long-time west-side resident Kanamu Balinbin testified at some personal risk to the County Council about his direct knowledge of bribes taken by certain staff members of Maui's Planning Department, possibly with regard to Greg Brown's Monster Hotel.

Mr. Balinbin offered to name names. Is the following a result of that testimony?

In September, Whistleblower Christopher Salem requested the source of the oft-stated, yet inaccurate opinion expressed by Planning Department officials in public testimony over Greg Brown's monster house that: "For the NBCID (Napili Bay Civic Improvement District), there is no stated maximum height in feet...just "two stories".

Mr. Salem asserts that the more restrictive, established Count Code applies island-wide. The Code clearly sets the maximum height for all single-family residences at 30 feet and for Hotels 45 feet, and that, either way, Mr. Brown's structure is a violation.

The apparent false determination has been officially attributed to the Administrator, Zoning Administration and Enforcement Division, Department of Planning, who just recently, suddenly resigned.

Has yet another County official made a false public statement that explicitly benefits favored developers and their lawyers (former Corp Counsel employees), and is the County now engaged in yet another coverup?

Maui Causes will be airing new shows soon that offer solutions to the loopholes and administrative failures that allow this kind of abuse to happen. Stay Tuned.

And if you can, please make a non-tax-deductible contribution to our work, click the Paypal button at the top of this page.  at www.MauiCauses.org
or click here

Every bit helps, Thanks

Here's the County's transcript of Mr. Balinbin's testimony:
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, ETHICS, AND
TRANSPARENCY COMMITTEE
Council of the County of Maui
June 29, 2021
- 17 -
MR. BALINBIN: Aloha. My name is Kanamu Balinbin, and I represent, I guess, the Upper
West Maui community. I want to thank you for allowing me to testify today. There’s a
lot of frustrations with the community over this project and the way it was handled.
You know, my...there’s so many questions, but it...it kind of was brought up by Junya,
the other lady, and the previous testifier. So what...what I want to...what I want to come
across is, is that when...for me, when I was working construction, we would always have
somebody come and make sure that we’re following our plans, an inspector would come
in at least once a week. I don’t see why nobody came and...and checked this project.
That’s...that’s kind of strange to me. I’ve...I’ve talked to other developers saying yeah,
you know, inspectors come, they’re here...they’re here like on a weekly basis, but why
hasn’t anybody gone to that particular project to inspect it to see if it was doing what it
said it would do in the permits? Another thing is, you know, my...my friend
Danny (phonetic) lives right below that...that project. And the...the...the retaining wall
that’s supposedly there, he saw it being dug and it was only like two or three feet deep.
And he’s afraid that that wall is going to come crashing down on his...on his property.
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, ETHICS, AND
TRANSPARENCY COMMITTEE
Council of the County of Maui
June 29, 2021
- 18 -
You know, for...for a lot of us West Maui residents, we’re really frustrated because we
don’t...we don’t feel like we get our fair share of the pie when it comes to developments,
affordable housing, just things in general. A community...a community center, you
know, we’re frustrated here. And with the lack of, I guess, due diligence on the people
in charge, it’s...it’s compounding this...compounding this frustration that we have. So
I would...I...for...for me, I would just like...you know, I...you know, there’s so much
things that I want to say. I...I...I going to be honest, I was...when I worked construction,
I...I...I dropped envelopes of cash with...with...with things that I needed to drop off to
the Planning Department. I don’t know who it went to or what it was...what was
doing...what it was...what was being dealt with the cash that I sent there, but
there’s...there’s...there’s a payoff plan going on there. And if you people are...if people
are not going to...are...investigate this or have an audit on the Planning Department and
what’s going on, on O‘ahu, then we’re just going to keep getting into these messes. So
thank you very much. Aloha.
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay. Mahalo for your testimony, Mr. Balinbin. Members, any need to clarify
Mr. Balinbin’s testimony? Seeing none. Mahalo for your testimony, Mr. Balinbin.
MS. ESPELETA: Mr. Chair --
MR. BALINBIN: You’re welcome.
MS. ESPELETA: -- would it be possible to clarify that testifier’s first name and spelling please.
CHAIR MOLINA: Oh, yes. Mister...Mr. Balinbin, can you state your full name for the record
again and spelling of it? Just to make sure we have it correct for the record.
MR. BALINBIN: Oh, Kanamu, K-A-N-A-M-U, last name Balinbin, B-A-L-I-N-B-I-N.
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Balinbin.
MS. ESPELETA: Mahalo.
MR. BALINBIN: Thank you, Mike. (audio interference)
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay. Hang on...Mr. Balinbin, hang on, yeah? I have a couple of --
MR. BALINBIN: Yeah, go ahead.
CHAIR MOLINA: -- Members with questions.
MR. BALINBIN: Go ahead.
CHAIR MOLINA: Member Paltin, followed by Member Sugimura.
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, ETHICS, AND
TRANSPARENCY COMMITTEE
Council of the County of Maui
June 29, 2021
- 19 -
COUNCILMEMBER PALTIN: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Balinbin. I just wanted to
clarify, are you saying that you participated in bribing the Planning Department to get
permits?
MR. BALINBIN: No, what I’m saying is like...well, when I worked construction back in the...I’d
say late...late 1999s, I...I’ve worked...I’ve worked...you know, I not going name...I’m not
going to name the people that...that I worked for, but it was...it was...it was pretty...there
was like three or four different companies that we would kind of...but we...we...I...I...I
dropped...I’ve dropped off money over there on...on couple occasions, several occasions.
I’ve had...I...I...I sat on...I sat in on a member from the Planning Department when my
friend had fines...fines at his property in Huelo. He sat down with one of the ladies from
Planning and she offered...she said, I can make your fines go away if you want to help
me pay my credit card debts, things like that. And there was an investigation...there
was an investigation. It was Arakawa’s...it was during one of Arakawa’s terms, and it
was investigated.
CHAIR MOLINA: Mr. Balinbin, I think you answered Member Paltin’s question. Member Paltin,
do you have...is there need to clarify Mr. Balinbin’s question [sic]?
MR. BALINBIN: . . .(inaudible). . . I’ve done it before . . .(inaudible). . .
COUNCILMEMBER PALTIN: One last clarification was, is this a civil service you’re talking
about, civil service employee or appointed?
MR. BALINBIN: For the Planning Department. I not going mention names. I can tell you
names later, Tamara, if you like call me up, and the specific name that...that...that had
bribed...had offered my friend to...to take away his fines if...if she got help, say, with her
credit card bills. It...it’s...I...I...I seen things like this happen before, and it seems like
it’s...it’s more rampant now. I...I...you know, it...I...I...I don’t know things can get
approved and then later get turned over by the Supreme Court. It’s frustrating for us
because...because we have no...we have no really...you know, we’re waiting for
Pulelehua, we’re waiting for something so...so we can get by with...it’s hard for us here
on the West Side. You know we’re dealing with all these...
CHAIR MOLINA: Mr. Balinbin, thank you. I think you answered. Member Paltin, do you have
another clarification question for Mr. Balinbin before I go to Member Sugimura?
COUNCILMEMBER PALTIN: No. Thank you, Chair.
CHAIR MOLINA: Oh, okay. Mr. Balinbin, just real quick question for you. So --
MR. BALINBIN: Yeah.
CHAIR MOLINA: -- are you saying the...there was any, I guess, alleged bribery related to this
project? Just to clarify your testimony. Was it just another...
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, ETHICS, AND
TRANSPARENCY COMMITTEE
Council of the County of Maui
June 29, 2021
- 20 -
MR. BALINBIN: I’m not...I’m not...I’m not saying that there is. There’s...there’s talk about it.
I...I don’t know firsthand knowledge. I’ve heard...I’ve heard that...that...you know, Mike,
some of the things I no like...I no like mention names --
CHAIR MOLINA: Yeah.
MR. BALINBIN: -- but if...if I can call your office and I can tell you some things then --
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay.
MR. BALINBIN: -- I...I feel more comfortable that way. I no like throw anybody under the bus.
CHAIR MOLINA: No. Okay. Yeah.
MR. BALINBIN: . . .(inaudible). . .
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay. I just want to make sure that...that it ties into the project or the
agenda item that we have here today with your...your statements, yeah.
MR. BALINBIN: The one thing I’m worried about the project because everything was answered
was that retaining wall by my --
CHAIR MOLINA: Yeah.
MR. BALINBIN: -- friend Danny’s house that he just built --
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay.
MR. BALINBIN: -- he built his --
CHAIR MOLINA: Yeah.
MR. BALINBIN: -- dream house. And the retaining wall that he...he...he swears by that it’s
not at the proper depth, and that wall could come crashing down at any big rain or
anything like that, that we have in Nāpili in...or that Upper West Side. It can happen,
you know, and...and...
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Balinbin. I have a question for you from
Member Sugimura. Member Sugimura, question for Mr. Balinbin?
COUNCILMEMBER SUGIMURA: Thank you. Hi, Kanamu. I was just going to ask the same
question that Tamara was...got clarification on, so --
MR. BALINBIN: Okay.
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, ETHICS, AND
TRANSPARENCY COMMITTEE
Council of the County of Maui
June 29, 2021
- 21 -
COUNCILMEMBER SUGIMURA: -- thank you. I have no further questions.
MR. BALINBIN: Okay. I believe...I believe that person is still working in the office, so if you
guys...if...if...if Mike or...or whoever is the head of this . . .(inaudible). . . thing,
if...if...I...I...I...I’m not afraid to...to...to mention names face to face, but not over this --
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay.
MR. BALINBIN: -- because...you know.
CHAIR MOLINA: Thank you, Mr. Balinbin. I appreciate your thoughts.
MR. BALINBIN: Okay. Thanks. Thanks.
CHAIR MOLINA: Okay. Members, any further clarification or questions for Mr. Balinbin before
we let him go? Okay. Seeing none. Mahalo for your testimony, Mr. Balinbin.
MR. BALINBIN: (audio interference)
CHAIR MOLINA: Thank you. Okay. Ms. Espeleta --
MR. BALINBIN: Thank you.

https://youtu.be/gfTtjoYRl88
Council Members, please view this 3-minute video, an excerpt from a 45 min presentation that I was asked to give to Elle Cochran’s Infrastructure committee in 2018 that details the loopholes between Public Works and Planning that allows projects like Greg Brown's to violate our community's rights and degrade our shoreline.

There is a revolving door between the departments and land developers that is consistently abused by a small group of individuals who exploit the loopholes for profit at the expense of Maui’s taxpayers and our environment:
As an example, Public Works Director David Goode signed off on the Olowalu Subdivision even though the conditions of their SMA permit had not been met. And, even after the developer was 10 years later forced to return to the project because of a citizen complaint, some of those conditions are still unfulfilled to this day.

The main portion of the presentation was on the 3-Lot-or-less Deferral Agreements which are also an example our extended systemic abuse that continues to this day. The County Auditor appears to now also be complicit in obstructing the community in that it has taken over three years for his office to deliver the audit he committed to and has stated he’s put it on hold, falsely claiming that legal action by Christopher Salem against Mayor Victorino requires him to pause. That’s not the least bit true.

Here’s the link to the longer presentation on Deferral Agreements that was the trigger for the Council to request the audit: http://mauicauses.org/maui-causes-show-64/

There are simple changes that the council can initiate by ordinance that will close the loopholes and I urge you to communicate with Christopher Salem who has been a consistent whistleblower of these abuses.

Thank you for all you do.

Sam Small
Director, Maui Causes
https://youtu.be/gfTtjoYRl88

A peaceful meeting was held in Napili yesterday regarding the massive structure which received an SMA Permit Exemption from a staff member
of the Planning Department.
Our Planning Director stated she did not review the SMA Application before the exemption was signed on her behalf.
The question was asked of the Director; How many staff members can sign your name under the Director's authorities granted under the Planning
Commission Rules and County Charter? The Director's answer was not clear.
Questions were raised about the permit for and integrity of a retaining wall, about misrepresentations of the structure as a single-family home, height restrictions, misrepresentations of the number of bedrooms, and misrepresentation of the total square footage of living space that have major impacts on the permitting and exemptions that were granted.
Negotiations with the builder Greg Brown are said to be ongoing, to bring the height of the structure back down to 30 ft, instead of 45 ft.

A video of Charlotte O'Brien produced by Sam Small ten years ago was a part of International Earthday's 15-minute keynote video on Biochar.

This link will take you to the replay of the entire day's online live stream cued up to our portion of the celebration:
https://youtu.be/kICYfJ0qdrE?t=5173

Here's a link to the Pope's Earthday message from the same live stream (pretty cool):
https://youtu.be/kICYfJ0qdrE?t=2052

Apparently 10 years ahead of their time, Maui residents and environmental educators Charlotte O’Brien and Sam Small made a video about how the manufacturing on a global scale of something called Biochar is the best way we have to draw down the massive amount of carbon in the atmosphere from our reliance on burning fossil fuels for power.

The rest of the world seems to be finally catching up as their 10 ten year old video has been selected by the International Earthday committee to help celebrate and educate over 8 million viewers expected online at the 51st global Earthday celebration.

There’s a second Maui connection too as Earthday will also show animation from the award winning documentary “The Need To Grow” which details the closed-loop, bio-digestion process developed by inventor Michael Smith, doing in a matter of days what nature takes 400 years to do.

Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Maui County Council, Inventor Michael Smith and Char O’Brien are currently collaborating on a tropical efficacy study of biochar saturated with liquid biostimulants and the feasibility of using tropical flora and algae as feedstock for an Earth Power Lodge on Maui to produce Biochar, Biostimulants and power for homes and industry.

Earthday’s video also features James Gaspard, CEO of Biochar Now the only manufacturer of Biochar that is EPA, FDA, USDA approved. Their extremely pure biochar can absorb heavy metals, and chemicals like Round-Up and Atrazine from polluted water and soil.

Of particular interest to the Earthday committee was Char O’Brien’s proposal for poor, rural communities worldwide where evermore local forests are stripped to make Charcoal for sale. By providing simple stoves to make Biochar instead, carbon will be kept out of the air and local incomes will triple or more.

Note from Sam Small, Director Maui Causes:

My apologies for the typo in the comic. I spent way too many hours researching, writing, and working up this graphic. Way too many hours wasted, revealing Mike Victorino's lies and being careful with the story to make sure it is accurate and not sensationalized.I could have spent more time, it seems endless the exploitation taking place on Maui, but I made one final revision to the text this morning for accuracy and tone and hit send. And sure enough, there's a typo.

I spent a good amount of time this week too revealing to you all the negligence of the Grand Wailea's management by under-staffing and not adhering to Gov Ige's edict that hotels that house covid quarantines disclose it to the public and have proper protocols in place.

The GW did none of that and created the unfortunate situation where a family found out that what they thought was a covid-safe environment was nothing of the sort when they came upon the death scene of a quarantining guest a few doors down from their room on Easter Morning.

No one should have to do this and I'd certainly rather have spent the time writing a press release about the two Maui-connected regenerative AG initiatives that are being recognized by Earthday International in a video on their website that I contributed to that they expect tens of millions of viewers to see next week.

I don't get any compensation for what I do with Maui Causes, there's no super PAC or corporate sponsor for exposing corruption and abuse of authority on Maui.

If you appreciate what I do with Maui Causes please consider making a contribution. I'll probably just use it pay Facebook to more widely distribute the messages we post but at least it will validate the work and help the cause.

Despite a reasonable fear of retribution as other County employees have faced for whistleblowing on environmental issues, Ashley Hooks, a Water Treatment Operator with the County of Maui, informed the State Dept of Health's Safe Drinking Water Branch of a chemical spill that impacted Makawao residents, which in violation of law the County had not previously made public.

When the State issued a violation to the county for their negligence, Hooks was promptly fired.

It is common for the Victorino Administration to deny employees of their rights and protection from retribution for blowing the whistle on criminal acts and negligence perpetrated by Department Directors, their Deputies, and Corporation Counsel.

STAY TUNED: Similar, unrelated cases of employees being denied their due process by the Victorino Administration are making their way to the Courts too.

DOC1-HOOKS 21.02.05 Complaint

Complaint-to-Hawaii-Department-of-Health

These suits filed against Mayor Victorino and Moana Lutey for ignoring County Council's vote to settle the Injection Well case were dismissed not on merit, but because none of the Council Members themselves were party to the suit and the judge ruled the plaintiffs didn't have standing.

Corporation Counsel here appears to be in violation of a number of procedural requirements.
Their acts are typical of an apparent belief that they can do whatever they want with impunity, including violating our County Charter and Hawaii’s professional rules of conduct.

Members of the County Council are exploring filing on ODC complaint against Moana Lutey and citizens have already filed with the Court of the Second Circuit.

This high profile case is a perfect opportunity to shine a light on longstanding professional misconduct here and hopefully can drive our initiative to bring transparency and accountability
to Maui County government.

Additional info on other issues that also demonstrate Corp Counsel’s pattern of abuse of authority are here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/erh7h394dhx9qov/11.22.19Taguchi.pdf?dl=0

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/request-for-criminal

https://www.change.org/p/county-auditor-assess-our-financial-loss-and-close-permit-loopholes-that-hide-ongoing-corruption-and-environmental-harm?use_react=false

The attention that the injection well case is getting is a big deal here and perhaps our one big shot to drain a swamp that facilitates every opportunity for established interests to continue to exploit Maui’s Taxpayers and our environment.

Pltfs' MSJ Filed 11-29-19-200827

McKelvey v Victorino Complaint

Sign our petition calling for a criminal investigation into Corporation Counsel Moana Lutey and others. 

Councilmember Alice Lee told the Maui News that she did not lead the effort to remove Kelly King as Council Chair.

Then who did?

No other Council Member was listed as the author of the resolution to remove Kelly King as Council Chair.
Only Moana Lutey’s name is associated with the resolution.

Why would Moana Lutey want to see Kelly King removed as Council Chair?

Maybe it’s because Kelly King promised to file charges with the Hawaii State Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel against Moana Lutey for Professional Misconduct over Lutey’s choice to ignore the County Council’s vote to withdraw the Injection Well case and instead represent to the Supreme Court only the Mayor’s opinion.

A similar suit with the Second Circuit Court naming Moana Lutey for refusing to get the Court’s opinion about the Mayor’s authority to overrule the Council before she represented to the Supreme Court was filed by State Rep. Angus McKelvey, Maui Tomorrow, former Maui County Council Member Joanne Johnson Winer; former Maui County Ocean Safety captain and waterman Archie Kalepa; and Native Hawaiian rights activist Ke`eaumoku Kapu.

Regardless of what side of the Injection Well debate the Council Members may be, they all have a responsibility to uphold the Council's legitimate vote.

Lawyers at Council Services stated that Moana Lutey and Mayor Victorino are overreaching in their opinion of the Mayor's authority to override the Council's vote.

Members who voted against the County Council securing its own legal representative to contest Moana Lutey and the Mayor have sold out the citizens in favor of off-island financial and political interests.  Their misrepresentation sets a new precedent that will have lasting negative impacts on the Council's ability to represent the people's best interests.

Sign the petition to investigate and remove Corporation Counsel Moana Lute, who after 20 years of serving special interests is so professionally compromised that she can no longer possibly serve the public's best interests.

Take control of Maui County back from the lawyers!

AFFIDAVIT OF JO ANNE JOHNSON WINER

I, JoAnne Johnson Winer, state as follows; 8/7/15
1. I am a citizen of the United States of America, a resident of the County of Maui, State of Hawaii and I am over 21 years of age.

2. As a resident of West Maui, I was elected to the Maui County Council on November 2, 1999 and served for ten years until reaching term limitations and I currently serve as Director of Transportation for the County of Maui.

3. On or about 1999, I hired Kathy Kaohu as my executive assistant to the Maui County Council. Ms. Kaohu is currently an executive assistant to Maui County Council Member Don Guzman. She also assisted me in research on issues while on the Council and on issues related to "deferral agreements."

4. On or about late in 2000, my office was contacted by West Maui resident Christopher Salem regarding questions and concerns over the proposed design for a County of Maui Capital Improvement Project for Phase IV of Lower Honoapiilani Road relating to public safety, environmental impacts and view planes, since the project ran adjacent to his property.

5. In cooperation with Austin, Tsutsurni Associates, Inc. (project consultants for Phase IV) and County Project Manager Joe Krueger, Mr. Salem volunteered his professional knowledge and expertise to help create a more sensitive and safe redesign of the Phase IV roadway improvements, which I believe are still on file with the County.

6. As a member of the Maui County Council, I approved the expenditures for this Phase IV Capital Improvement Project during our annual budget hearings as a part of our annual budget process. During this process, I understood from the information provided that the project would begin in 2002 and the construction would take about a year.

7. I do not believe that Council members were aware at the time the funding was approved that the Department of Public Works had failed to acquire the numerous land rights and necessary easements to initiate the field construction of the Phase IV roadway upgrades. To the best of my knowledge the Phase IV Capital Improvement Project is currently stalled and I am unclear if approvals and/or funding are in place.

8. In late 2000, Mr. Salem also brought to my attention outstanding obligations owed to the County ofMaui from developer contractual agreements commonly known as "3 Lots or Less" roadway improvement "Deferral Agreements."

9. We met with Councilmember Riki Hokama to determine if his historical knowledge could help us to understand this process and how these obligations could still be outstanding. Councilmember Hokama was not aware of who was tracking these obligations and was also concerned about these obligations. He did not want to use public monies to pay for improvements that were the responsibility of either developers or owners.

10. Since Mr. Salem owned a property along Phase IV of Lower Honoapiilani Road he shared his firsthand knowledge of how this worked with us. He advised us that in accordance with terms of a "3 Lots or Less" subdivision agreement recorded on his land title by our attorneys in Corporation Counsel, the original developers deferred the cost of roadway and drainage improvements. Mr. Salem explained that this obligated current and future property owners within the 3 Lot subdivisions to pay to the County of Maui their "pro rata" share of the Phase IV Capital Improvement Project.

11. I later learned from Mr. Salem's ongoing inquires and notices to our County departments, the Department of Corporation Counsel, Department of Finance, and Department of Public Works that no department was assigned to track the collection and assessment of an unknown quantity of developers contractual financial obligations owed to the County ofMaui. As a result, it was unknown how many of these agreements existed or how much money might be owed to the County of Maui. I believe I also received a letter from Public Works confirming that no records were being kept by their department of these agreements.

12. Through this process I also learned that subdivisions of 4 lots of more were required by ordinance to mitigate the impacts of their developments by installing complete roadway and drainage improvements along their frontages without any form of deferral or developer exemptions available.

13. I recall receiving a copy of a letter sent from Mr. Salem to Mayor Alan Arakawa alerting the administration that public funds were likely being used to pay for private developer's financial obligations without any form of reimbursement to the County of Maui, since deferral agreements were not being tracked.

14. From 2002 and for years thereafter, I continued to raise my concerns in annual Maui County Council budget hearings regarding how these deferral agreements actually obligated the County ofMaui to pay for and incur private owner's financial obligations.

15. Prior to my tenure as a council member, I learned that the first three phases of Lower Honoapiilani Road had been upgraded and improved as County of Maui Capital Improvement Projects with County of Maui and Federal funds. However, no funds were provided through deferral agreement collections.

16. As I came to learn over time, on these 3 phases, the County ofMaui paid with public taxpayer funds the entire costs of developer's roadway frontage and financial obligations without making any attempts to notice or collect upon the development debts owed.
17. My numerous inquiries to then Department of Public Works Director Milton Arakawa, requesting a list of developer's subdivisions that were subject to assessment and collection throughout Maui County, failed to achieve any results.

18. In 2007, out of frustration, I proposed legislation to the members ofMaui County Council to Title 18 that was adopted (I think it was ordinance 3 513 and Bill Number 77) by Maui County Council in 2007. I believed that by doing so, it would limit the expenditure of public funds on private developer's or owners financial obligations that had been ongoing since 1974.

19. On October 12, 2009, I proposed further language to a proposed Title 18 bill that would insure that financial obligations set forth in previously executed and recorded "deferral agreements" would be assessed and collected by the County of Maui.

20. The resulting Ordinance 3731 was enacted and insured that proper advanced Notice oflntent to Collect would be sent by the director authorized to administer the developer agreement at the commencement of future funding of roadway Capital Improvement Projects and at the time land right of way acquisition was initiated by the County ofMaui.

21. Ordinance 3731 insured that developers and their heirs would be obligated to pay a pro rata share of roadway capital improvements in order to prevent those costs from being shifted to Maui County taxpayers.
22. In compliance with the adopted ordinance, I recall that Director of Public Works, Milton Arakawa, then sent letters ofNotice oflntent to Collect to multiple property owners along the Phase IV Capital Improvement Project of Lower Honoapiilani Road, including Mr. Salem.

23. Director Arakawa informed property owners that the County would ask them for a payment of the pro rata share of costs of the Phase IV roadway improvements as per the terms of their deferral agreements. Director Arakawa also notified the property owners that Phase IV construction would now commence in 2012.

24. Director Arakawa, I believe also informed the affected property owners that their pro rata share would likely be determined in consultation and agreement between other property owners within their subdivision. However, I could never fmd any authorization within our legislation that would allow such a notice and determination.

25. It was not until November of2010 that Public Works Director Milton Arakawa finally disclosed to the County Council that he believed there were perhaps as many asl800 open-ended deferral agreements affecting the land title ofthousands of properties in Maui County that had been executed and recorded by Corporation Counsel. This was very disturbing to many of us.

26. I was also made aware by Mr. Salem that Director Arakawa had informed the property owners in Mr. Salem's subdivision that 5 property owners from two separate overlapping 3 Lot subdivisions were obligated to pay a pro rata share of the 3 Lots or Less Subdivision Agreement. Mr. Salem asked me if I was aware of how this could happen and I advised him that I knew of no ordinance adopted by the Maui Council that would allow two separate overlapping subdivisions of the same parcel of land to twice defer their roadway infrastructure and financial obligations and I had no explanation as to how this could even happen.

27. In early 2011, I met with Mayor Alan Arakawa and Mr. Salem and I was instructed by Mayor to work with Corporation Counsel Attorney Ed Kushi and Mr. Salem to see if there was a possible formula or process for assessment and collection of the deferred developer financial obligations that the Mayor might present for consideration to the Maui County Council. The knowledge that both Mr. Salem and I had of the subject matter was why I believe we were asked to come up with some possible suggestions to the Mayor.

28. The effort to provide input never came to fruition since Corporation Counsel advised the Mayor that our input was not needed. I was also questioned by Corporation Counsel as to why I was even involved in this matter inasmuch as I was no longer a Councilmember. I explained that I had specific knowledge of the issue and felt that I could contribute to resolving the matter to the benefit of all concerned. I am aware that after Corporation Counsel countered Mayor Arakawa's directive, Mr. Salem took it upon himself as a private citizen to meet with Council members and their assistants to draft legislation to adopt a fair and reasonable process for collection and assessment of the developer's deferred financial obligations.

29. I read what I term the "Fairness Bill," prepared with assistance from Mr. Salem in cooperation with Council Member Elle Cochran's executive assistant Jordan Molina. The bill provided what I thought could be the start to achieving a fair and responsible process for collection and assessment of developer's deferred financial obligations. Mr. Salem advised that the bill also appeared to have support from members of the Maui County Council. I do not know what happened to the legislation beyond what I was told by Mr. Salem.

30. I am unaware if the Department of Public Works or Corporation Counsel ever addressed the concerns raised by Mr. Salem regarding the five owners with two overlapping three lot subdivisions. There should be some type of response as it does not appear to be allowed under our county ordinances. If it is not legal, then how can Corporation Counsel allow it to be permitted?

31. Corporation Counsel informed Mr. Salem, and I believe, during public testimony, our County Council as well as the general public, that releasing copies of the developer contractual agreements would be "an interruption of a legitimate government function". I did not agree with this interpretation.

32. I recalled reading in a Maui News article that Public Works Director David Goode publicly stated that Corporation Counsel deemed the "Fairness Bill" illegal. From what I understood, the "Fairness Bill" was reviewed by Council Services attorneys prior to being forwarded to the County Council for consideration and no issues regarding illegality were raised.

33. I question whether or not a written memorandum was ever issued by Corporation Counsel to the members of the Maui County Council explaining why the "Fairness Bill" was unlawful or inconsistent with the 2010 Ordinance that was approved by Corporation Counsel. This was always a part of the standard procedure when I was on the Council.

34. During my years of public service as a Council Member of the County of Maui, the attorneys in Corporation Counsel always led me to believe that the "3 Lot or Less" contractual agreements drafted and recorded by the Department were collectable debts owed to the County of Maui.

35. Why the Fairness Bill that was submitted was not considered or an alternate proposal drafted so that monies owed to the people of Maui County were able to be collected? I was disturbed with the way Mr. Salem's integrity was questioned and how his motivation to resolve this issue was portrayed both privately and publicly during the discussions surrounding the bill.

36. I believe Mr. Salem's efforts in seeking responsible government over the past fifteen years were on behalf of the best interests of the citizens ofMaui County. From what I personally witnessed, his dedication and commitment to the youth programs of West Maui has been exemplary despite the suffering his family has endured and continues to endure by bringing these issues into the public light.

37. It was recently brought to my attention that Public Works Director David Goode advised that the County of Maui "may or may not" be collecting upon the developer contractual obligations previously noticed for collection to property owners by Public Works Director Arakawa. I do not agree with this position as it contradicts the intent and stated language of ordinance 3 731 that was publicly adopted by our Maui County Council. Consistent with all legislation adopted by the Maui County Council, Ordinance 3731 was reviewed and approved by Corporation Counsel and is a law.

38. I have reviewed a letter from Director Goode, which was approved by Mayor Arakawa on January 9, 2012, wherein he stated his department has completed the cataloging of all known deferral agreements and it is his intent to work with the Department of Finance and Corporation Counsel to arrive at fair formula for calculation and assessment and notify the affected land owners of their required contributions.

39. I have also reviewed a letter from Director Goode on Apri116, 2012, which provided the projected revenues from collection of developer deferral agreements on affected parcels along the South Kihei Road Capital Improvement Project.

40. I also reviewed a recent document showing Mr. Salem's analysis of the developer deferral agreements on residential, commercial, and industrial properties recorded by the Department of Public Works and Corporation Counsel throughout Maui County.

41. Why are public officials not bound to follow ordinance 3 731 which required that Notices oflntent to Collect deferred developer contractual financial obligations were distributed? Why does it appear that the County is shifting private obligations to the public in violation of the County Charter?

42. An additional concern is the obligation to insure that there are no unfulfilled SMA Permit obligations wherein developers have failed to complete their roadway improvement and drainage mitigations that also may end up being paid for with County funds during Capital Improvement Projects. What is being done to insure that these obligations and being met and who is tracking them?

43. During a Maui County Council Infrastructure Management meeting on February 1, 2010, Attorney Galazin of Corporation Counsel informed the Council members of the different situations in which a developer may have to pay for roadway improvements and drainage mitigations, including obligations set forth in subdivision applications and SMA Permit studies and applications.

44. As I learned during the final years of my tenure as a Council Member, the Planning Department was not tracking SMA requirements that would insure compliance of developers in completing their SMA Permit roadway and drainage mitigations. They appear to rely solely on the integrity of developers and complaints from citizens to administer developer compliance.

45. I am deeply concerned that the SMA permitting process has become a means for private developers to skirt their infrastructure and environmental mitigation responsibilities, since enforcement may be absent or selective.

46. During my latter days as of member of the Maui County Council, I became aware that developers of Olowalu Mauka subdivision had failed to complete their subdivision obligations and environmental mitigations conditioned in an SMA Major Permit issued almost 10 years prior and as a result a lawsuit was filed by a private resident who was sold a property in the developers Olowalu Mauka subdivision.

47. My understanding was that the Olowalu subdivision received final subdivision approval from the County even though there were incomplete SMA Permit conditions. This occurred during the very same time period that Mr. Salem raised his concerns that developer's "3 Lots or Less" contractual agreements executed by Corporation Counsel were not being kept track of, assessed, or collected upon. Mr. Salem also complained that his 3 lot subdivision was being re-subdivided a second time by Developer Lot 48A, LLC in violation of the Maui County Code and the SMA Permitting process.

48. As I learned from being called as a witness in legal arbitration proceedings involving a dispute over Developer Lot 48A, LLC's obligations to pay their pro rata share of the Phase IV Capital Improvements affecting the land title of Mr. Salem's property, the County Department of Public Works signed off on Developer Lot 48A, LLC's oceanfront subdivision with what I viewed as an incomplete and unfulfilled SMA Permit during the same time period whereby the same county department granted the Olowalu subdivision approvals with unfulfilled SMA Permit obligations.

49. I also learned that the Developer Lot 48A, LLC's attorney was working for the County of Maui Department of Corporation Counsel at the same time she was employed by Lot 48A, LLC in the legal proceedings. I saw nowhere in the procurement reports that this was disclosed to the members of the Council. I also learned Developer Lot 48A, LLC's SMA Permit studies were not provided to the arbitrator and they included the disputed roadway and drainage improvements to the frontage of Mr. Salem's property along of Phase IV of Lower Honoapiilani Road.

50. When I was infonned that the former land planning finn of a county official was the same SMA consultant retained by the County of Maui to complete the SMA environmental studies and permitting for Phase IV of Lower Honoapiilani Road as well as being the SMA Permit consultant for the Developer Lot 48A, LLC for the resubdivision of the "3 Lots or Less" subdivision I became extremely concerned. This is the same subdivision in which Mr. Salem owned an original parcel of land abutting Phase IV of Lower Honoapiilani Road. To my knowledge there was no disclosure made to this effect.

51. I witnessed Mr. Salem' s vehement protest and complaints that the overlapping subdivision of the original "3 Lots or Less" subdivision by Lot 48A, LLC required developer Lot 48A, LLC to obtain a SMA Major Permit through public hearings. My belief is that the one time exemption from an SMA Major permit was exhausted on the original 3 Lots or Less Subdivision. I still question how this could happen if laws are in place to protect the rights of the public?

52. Mr. Salem further argued that the engineering valuation for the Lot 48A, LLC's SMA permit underestimated the impacts of the oceanfront subdivision and costs associated with the development to intentionally avoid environmental studies and public review. Even after my inquiries to the Planning Department about this issue and also the SMA requirements I do not believe this has ever been resolved or investigated.

53. I was made aware that deferral agreements recorded by Corporation Counsel on Mr. Salem's property along with Director Arakawa's written notice to Mr. Salem caused residential appraisers and real estate brokers to refuse to represent his property for sale.

54. I was also advised that Mr. Salem attempted to pay the County ofMaui a pro-rata share of the "3 Lots or Less" subdivision agreement to try to remove the open ended lien on his property during an open escrow even though it was developer Lot 48A, LLC's obligation to do so. I was told by Mr. Salem that Corporation Counsel refused to accept his payment or remove the lien on his property to facilitate the escrow.

55. I remain dedicated to the people ofMaui County and I truly believe that our citizens expect all public officials to protect their interests and act with integrity.

56. As a former member of the Maui County Council, I witnessed time and again where private citizens were forced to uphold the ordinances adopted by the Maui County Council to protect citizen's individual and public property rights, when this should in effect be the obligation of the County ofMaui.

57. I have gone through Mr. Salem's lengthy and detailed timelines and also his analysis of what has taken place and I would agree that what he has uncovered appears to reveal a failure to enforce laws uniformly, collect monies due the County, adhere to SMA and subdivision laws and disclose possible conflicts of interest. These issues should be thoroughly investigated and resolved, which I believe Mr. Salem has attempted to do on a number of occasions.

58. Mr. Salem should not be punished for shining the light on these issues but thanked for having the courage to bring them to the County in the first place.

59. I am prepared to testify under oath to the events described in this affidavit to insure that the public's trust is fairly represented.

NOTARY CERTIFICATION Flyuza Wasaho Notary Public, State of Hawaii

Affidavit JoAnne Johnson Winer Notarized

Faith Ewbanks, Elle Cochran's then Campaign Manager, Faith's paid legal consultant Daniel Cohen, Chris Salem and myself, Sam Small, spend 8 hours on Easter Sunday this past spring, and the entire next day, co-authoring a call to action for Elle to launch in order to address Elle's obviously disastrous record on Infrastructure issues since joining the Council in 2012 and turn them around into a political win.

Faith went into this process understanding it was the right thing to do, yet she was removed as Elle's campaign manager for collaborating with Chris Salem and myself.

Here's the letter we proposed Elle send that she vehemently refused to send.

elle to don proposed

This is a sworn affidavit that details research I've done over the past 3 years on manipulations of Maui's land development process and cover-ups of fraud that have now extended to the manufacturing of false documents by Department heads and Corporation Counsel.   I believe these manipulations warrant an investigation into Racketeering.  Download by clicking here:

ss_affidavit_notarized

Below are the support documents that substantiate everything presented in my affidavit. Download by clicking here:

Affidavit docs compressed

John-Bull English is in the Primary Election as a Democratic Candidate running for State House Rep District #13.

John-Bull is the new leadership we need to represent the people's best interests, not big business.

Contribute here:

Visit John's Website

Maui Causes is producing a documentary on the destructive impacts that unregulated overdevelopment has had on Maui’s Shoreline.

Our extensive research has uncovered public documents that clearly show how politically appointed county officials systematically manipulate Federal shoreline management regulations and County ordinances to allow certain private land developers to circumvent public input, avoid building environmental protections and low-income housing, and to unlawfully redirect hundreds of millions of State and Federal STIP funds and Maui taxpayer dollars to pay for private infrastructure improvements.

Systemic loopholes within the existing Maui County Code (that allow outright fraud to go unchecked) non-enforcement of clear violations of permits and ordinance conditions (a “culture of Leniency” as one past Planning Director put it), repeated abuse of discretion by Department Directors (which a sea of attorneys in Corporation Counsel defend at all costs, in defiance of their ethical duty to serve solely the public interest) have, over time, destroyed ours reefs, destabilized our shoreline, drained our tax coffers, and weakened our resident community.  

Our research reveals that a Deferral Agreement program, created in 1974 to help parents share land with their children, was secretly used by the Administration for decades to allow select developers to shift their financial obligations onto the public.

The public first learned in 2001 that the County had never created any mechanism to track or ever collect on the amounts deferred and that for decades developers were allowed to simply walk away from their obligations. The Departments of Public Works and Corporation Counsel flagrantly continued to write new Deferral Agreements, with no plan to ever collect on them, until 2007 when Council Member Joanne Johnson forced an end to the program. Years later, no collection mechanism has yet been created and only just recently has Council Member Guzman proposed a new administrative fund to receive and disperse the dollars, should the collection of the amounts due to the county ever occur.

At the request of Council Member Elle Cochran, Maui Causes recently gave a 45 minute presentation to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee on the cumulative value lost to the public, and the damage done to our shoreline because of these secret exemptions.  Link to that presentation:

Our presentation was based almost exclusively on public documents, including emails, obtained through Freedom of Information Requests and was fully vetted by Council Member Cochran’s staff. We did slip into our presentation a short description of the proof we have uncovered of fraud perpetrated by licensed land development professionals who submitted falsified Order of Magnitude Estimates as part of SMA Minor Permit Applications, so that their clients could avoid public input, costly environmental protections (in violation of the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act) and even having to pay annual County park fees. We shared with the committee documents that reveal instances where permit applications were submitted and subsequently approved by the same individual who left his land development job to go to work for the County as a Deputy Director.

We are currently investigating a new, secret giveaway to developers that was created by the 2015 Upcountry Water Bill. All public discussions of the Bill stated an intention to benefit only families on the Upcountry Water Meter Waitlist, however the language that Corporation Counsel inserted into the bill at the last minute didn’t include any geographic specificity or “family" conditions to the new Roadway Exemption for 2-Lot-or-Less Subdivisions that was written into Title 18 of the Maui County Code.

But for recent Freedom of Information Requests, the public and even our Council Members would not know that exemptions, worth millions of dollars, have already been given away to commercial developers islandwide, with hundreds more conditional subdivision approvals currently in the County’s developer giveaway pipeline.

We bring all of this to the public's attention at this time because Maui County is about to engage in a purging of the very email system that has produced much of the proof we have acquired of these secret actions by the Administration. June 1st is the stated day that all emails 3 years or older, and not previously identified by staff to be saved, will be deleted, wholesale, effectively covering the tracks of misdeeds done that we as citizens have every right to investigate.

There are two in-depth investigations we believe should be pursued by the highest authorities:

*  The first is for racketeering, where licensed land development professionals submitted fraudulent permit applications, to benefit their clients financially, at the expense of Maui’s taxpayers and the State and Federal governments. This they did in coordination with politically appointed Department Directors. Together, this cabal has for years and is still today obstructing any investigation by illegally withholding public documents that reveal fraud, going even so far as to actually manufacture new documents to try to cover their tracks.

*  The second is our "Mauigate", as Corporation Counsel is currently using public monies to defend the Directors and their own illegal cover-up of the racketeering.

Please join Maui Causes in our attempt to save Maui County from this indiscriminate data purge and the suspension of our rights, as Whistleblowers, to hold the Administration accountable for their actions.

Reach us at info@mauicauses.org or at (973) 271 0788

Sam Small
Executive Director, Maui Causes  www.MauiCauses.org

Axel Beers, the new Editor of MauiTime Weekly wrote an excellent piece on the Administration's shenanigans. Beers questions whether the process of law is being followed or managed properly and says "Individual county employees should not have the power to decide what has, or what may someday have, informational value without appropriate oversight."  Click here to read it:

https://mauitime.com/news/politics/is-the-county-trying-to-cover-their-tracks-with-a-mass-email-purge/

The Case for Better Management of Tourism
This brief was prepared for the Hawaii Economic Association panel, Rethinking Hawaii Tourism: 21st Century Solutions for 21st Century Challenges, with Frank Haas, Paul Brewbaker and John Knox.

While there are remarkable economic benefits from tourism generating significant revenues, governments largely do not invest in managing environmental, social, or cultural environmental impacts as part of the cost of doing business in destinations around the world. - Megan Epler Wood, Director International Sustainable Tourism Initiative Harvard University

RethinkingHawaiiTourism

http://uhero.hawaii.edu/assets/RethinkingHawaiiTourism.pdf

Maui Pono Network

"Empowering community action in service to the common good"

First Meeting:
Monday, March 19th, 7pm - 9pm
Ahimsa Sanctuary Farm, 4505 Hana Hwy, Haiku

Featured Speaker: Alika Atay

Did you vote for the GMO Moratorium?
Where you disappointed that your vote was not upheld?
Will we allow Maui to become the next Oahu or will we come together for the ‘Āina and the people?
The upcoming 2018 county elections are critical. Now is the time to support and elect representatives who serve the common good. We can also amend our county charter to create a more accountable and transparent governance. For example an amendment could mandate a professional County Manager to oversee Maui's $800 million budget.

Be a part of shifting Maui from plantation era, big money interests to progressive leadership for the people and the ‘Āina.

Come together for the launch of the Maui Pono Network and be part of the power of community collaberation for peaceful change.

Inspiring speakers include progressive County Council Member Alika Atay, Maui Pono Network Director Paul Deslauriers (Grassroots organizer for 34 years and author of three books on the subject.), SHAKA co-founders Satya and Bruce Douglas, and more.

"Maui Pono Network

Our Mission:
Empowering community action in the spirit of Aloha
for the common good of the ‘Āina and all People.

Strategic Vision

Co-creating an culture of Aloha in Action. By electing representatives who serve the common good and by changing the system, we will eliminate major blocks to affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, sustainable development, producing abundant nutritious food, and reclaiming and restoring the land. The Maui Pono Network is dedicated to this transition.

Goals

Goals for the first 9 months (March - November 2018)

Ensure that the majority of elected Maui County Government seats are filled by the Ohana Candidates who will support the common good.
Increase voter registration and absentee ballot use, and provide information about the Ohana Candidates county wide.
Hold two large community music events, regular committee meetings, and potluck gatherings to support the candidates.
Help change the County Charter with amendments such as having a professional County Manager for county operations instead of a Mayor.
Develop a community network and membership.
Create media and social media campaigns with video spots, promotional features, and an informative website.
Produce a one hour, weekly show on AKAKU, “The Pono Network”, featuring and learning from local grassroots organizations and people who are serving the common good.

Goals after the election
Support sustainable development in balance with environmental needs
Increase affordable housing
Develop solutions to homelessness
Increase local nutritious food supply and food security
Increase Minimum wage

Transition to the Common Good

“Common Good” in Hawaiian is “Pono Mau”. The Hawaii State Constitution, Article 11, the “Public Trust Doctrine”, describes this common good that the residents are entrusted to uphold. Pono is used in many ways on the Islands to mean things that are right, good, balanced and correct, It is also a commonly recognized term on the mainland. To “make things right and in balance” for the people, the land, water and the resources of Maui County requires a deep systemic change involving stages.

An important stage is Maui county government. Maui is on the brink of gaining enough county seats so that its governance serves the common good instead of big money interest. Certain charter amendments would empower the voice of the people and ensure our resources are used wisely. The 2018 election cycle is critical for Maui’s future.

This change can be far reaching as residents can protect their health and environment instead of allowing outside interests to harm the people and land for generations while profiting only a few. Removing key blocks in our system opens up a new possibilities. The totality of the vision is expansive: transparent political governance, fair monetary exchange structure, wise environmental management, abundant nutritious food, free health care for all, improved education, and comprehensive social services. These are our rights as citizens. There are many proven effective models already exist. It is the fiscally responsible thing to do, but the present system prevents this from happening.

The disenfranchisement of the Maui’s citizens and the existing power of corporate control became very evident when the SHAKA Movement petitioned a ballot initiative and won the vote, the first ever in Maui. The citizen’s vote resulted in a Moratorium on GMO activities until those activities could be proven safe. The big money interests disavowed the citizens’ vote and went to a California judges resulting in corporate control by Monsanto trumping citizens’ demand for their health and well being.

Several SHAKA founders, Paul Deslauriers and others are coming together for the next wave of a deeper systemic change that enhances the common good. Maui has been the spearhead in confirming what is possible for the other Hawaiian Islands. Let us take it to the next level.

Structure

Steering Committee: This collaborative team steers the organization through its development. Representatives from each committee, as well as key contributors, will be a part of a team with a common focus and core values. Group size limited to 12.

Advisory Committee: Supporters who hold great wisdom and who are willing to share it at appropriate times.

Working Committees:
Community Networking: Outreach to groups, social service organizations, and clubs. Develop membership and a presence at gatherings. Participate in celebrations such as Earth Day.
Meetings/Events: Organize two large events: one for young voters prior to the primary; the second for the community at large prior to the election. Hold regular committee meetings and potluck gatherings to get the candidates known. Generate voter registration and petition signing.
Media: Access social media, produce video spots, create flyers that support candidates, and activate an effective media strategy. All outgoing representation to be approved by committee.
Akaku Weekly Televised Series: "The Pono Network" TV Show on Akaku is focused on grassroots organizing and local solutions. Important insights provided during each show can be used for personal growth, community initiatives, and system change.
Fundraising: Use various platforms.
Charter Amendments: We can also amend our County Charter to create a more accountable and transparent governance. For example an amendment could mandate a professional County Manager to oversee Maui's $800 million budget.

Membership: The foundation of an organization is comprised of its members, and those who participate in the network. Members have a say as to who holds leadership positions. Membership demonstrates grassroots participation and ownership. Membership helps hold those in leadership to standards. Membership sets the stage for non-profit status.

The Maui Community: Community is the power we are tapping into. Information sharing, potluck meals, music events, and inspirational speakers are sources that unite community and tap a potent force for change.

Contact for Info: (808) 264 3536

GRAPHICS YOU CAN DOWNLOAD, PRINT AND SHARE...
Launch Poster-1 4up Launch Poster-1

Please sign our petition and make a contribution the help spread the word.

Hundreds of Millions of Dollars is missing from Maui's tax coffers because Mayor Arakawa and his lawyer, Pat Wong refuse to collect on the thousands of Deferral Agreements that the County has extended illegally over the years to private developers, sometime two or three times on the same property.

We also now have clear evidence of collusion in the Planning Director's acceptance of fraudulent Special Management Area Permit applications to allow licensed consultants and their developer clients to intentionally avoid both public review and the cost of environmental protections, in violation of Federal Coastal Zone Management Laws.

All of this systematically sucks our tax money out of the budget to the benefit of private developers, while our environment suffers ongoing harm.

Over the years Individual County Council Members have tried to stop this abuse but the Mayor's lawyers have stonewalled them all.

So, just as in Montana Beach, Palama Drive, and Olowalu, where only citizen action brought corruption to light, a private citizen has now filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the departments of Corporation Counsel, Public Works and Planning for fraud and their ongoing cover up of that fraud, which includes obstructing access of public documents to citizens and Council Members, and lying in their declarations to Court Judges.

Without doing any investigation into possible wrongdoings, Mike White, as Council Chair and Chief Procurement Officer, has taken it upon himself to approve spending our tax dollars to blindly and vigorously defend the Administration's acts.

With little hope that the Current Council, under Chair White, will ever do the job the people need them to do to protect our interests and our environment,  Maui Causes conceived and has executed a public petition calling on the County's Independent Auditor to assess our financial loss, make the legal determinations that will facilitate millions of dollars of financial recovery, and identify what administrative loopholes to close in order to shut this Good Ol' Boy exploitation down for good.

Our petition asks the auditor to addresses both 3-Lot-or-Less Subdivision Deferral Agreements and SMA Permit abuse, as they are both areas where those in-the-know know, no one has been watching. Dollars to donuts if the auditor looks at a parcel with multiple overlapping deferral agreements and an SMA permit application with an order of magnitude statement just below the threshold to get an SMA Minor permit instead of an SMA major, that order of magnitude statement will be fraudulent.

Maui Causes brought our petition to Council Member and Chair of the Litigation Committee, Don Guzman, who embraced the idea, at least in part, proposing to the council a resolution also asking the County Auditor to investigate, but only the deferral agreements.

Maui Causes was proud to submit to the Council nearly 1500 signatures in support of our petition, which we feel helped propel the Council to approve Guzman's resolution 9 to 0. Even Mike White embraced the idea of the Council pawning the issues off onto the County Auditor.

Maui Cause has launched a crowd funding campaign so we can continue to collect signatures on our petition for a deeper, more through investigation, which we will soon present to the County Auditor for his consideration.

With your help we can end the decades of corruption and use these issues to help launch of our next petition to put on the ballot a revision to our County Charter that will change the structure of our county government so that it better serves the people's and our environment's best interests, rather than allowing big money and Good Ol' Boys to exploit us all.

Guzman 10:25:17

Dear Council Member Guzman,                                                                         10/25/2017

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me Oct 9th to discuss the liabilities transferred to taxpayers from private developers via the thousands of uncollected "Three Lots or Less" subdivision infrastructure deferral agreements and apparent SMA (Special Management Area) permit manipulations.

To recap: Public Works Director David Goode essentially admitted in public testimony to the Budget and Finance Committee on April 19, 2012 that by writing overlapping deferral agreements on certain parcels repeatedly, Public Works and Corporate Counsel violated the clearly stated requirement of the Subdivision Ordinance that deferrals are to be a one-time event: “The land so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting parcels."

The transcript of Goode's testimony reads: “...some deferral agreements, three lots, had another future three lot and a future three lot, so it got subdivided again and again, had different deferrals. And in some cases especially in West Maui, the original three-lot subdivision was a huge piece of land that went halfway up the mountain, and so there's a possibility there's going to be some deferral agreements where theoretically there's 1,000 different owners and they each owe us $25. I mean it's getting... it potentially is getting really crazy as it relates to us trying to administer it.”

Goode's "crazy" comment fits, especially since a well-intended code amendment in 2010 only addressed part of the problem and actually made the situation worse.

Before 2010 the county just ignored the agreements it wrote, doing its own roadway improvements and not bothering to collect on any of the deferrals. SInce the 2010 amendment however, if the county does a start an improvement project they are required to issue a "Notice of Intent to Collect" to property owners.

The problem is that the notice triggers the conversion of what was a slumbering, undefined and easily ignored "encumbrance" on a landowner's title, into a full-fledged, yet still undefined "lien", with no set dollar figure, that needs to be satisfied before any Real Estate transaction can be completed. What was missing from the amendment was any scheme to assess values or any mechanism to actually collect and release the liens.

Dealing with an undefined lien is an impossible situation that would bankrupt almost any landowner; an assessor can't make an assessment, so they can't refinance nor sell their property and there's no way to pay off the lien to clear their title even if they had the cash to do so.

It appears that at least two roadway improvement projects that the county saw the need to initiate were killed rather than deal with the fallout created by continuing to send out open-ended Notices of Intent to Collect. How long can the county and the County Council, ignore these problems?

Council Member Cochran attempted to pursue the matter with Goode back in 2012 but ultimately hit a brick wall with a response coming from the Mayor's Office stating that ”After our meeting with our Corporation Counsel on this issue, we are unable to respond at this time on the matter as we are 1) researching the applicability of certain agreements on the ability to seek compensation, and 2) working out a formula for compensation on certain agreements. Rest assured we (Departments of Public Works and Corporation Counsel) are actively working on this issue… ”

Now, five years later, Public Works and Corporation Counsel still have done nothing to resolve any of the deferral agreements. Thousands of homeowners still have no way to remove these open-ended encumbrances from their titles and roadways are deteriorating and flooding because the County is avoiding much-needed improvements.

On March 22, 2014 Goode publicly set the stage for the County’s continued inaction by writing a Viewpoint for the Maui News. Goode relates what County Ordinance 18.20.040, in effect from the 1970’s up to 2007, requires of subdividers: “If the subdivider elected to defer the improvements, he/she would be required to compensate the County of Maui for the cost of the improvements when performed by the county. To ensure that this was done, the subdivider was required to enter into an agreement to compensate the county for the improvements when performed”

Later in the same editorial Goode completely misrepresents the ordinance and casts uncertainty upon the requirements made of the subdividers when he ignores the consistent use in the language in the ordinance of the word “shall”. Goode wrote “As explained, the agreements state that if and when the County of Maui does a capital improvement project along a roadway fronting a property that has one of these agreements recorded against it, the county may recover the costs of doing those improvements that were specifically deferred.” The actual ordinance never once includes the word “may”, only the word “shall” is used.

Goode wrote that should anyone, "wish to legally challenge the agreements, they may do so, but will be unsuccessful as the agreements were authorized by law." Clearly Goode is wrong. The deferral agreements that were applied over and over again to the same original parcel, in direct violation of the ordinance, actually violate the law and are likely not legally enforceable at all. Whether Public Works and Corp Counsel knew they were writing unenforceable agreements is another question.

One possible avenue that Maui Causes is considering is to petition the County Auditor to assess the amount of recovery to the taxpayers that has been lost by not collecting on these deferral agreements and how to recover that value. But perhaps asking the auditor to spend time and taxpayer's dollars to assess deferral agreements is premature. Perhaps the action should be instead to demand through the Mayor's office, that Corp Counsel do what they said they were going to do back in 2012, to make a determination as to which, if any, of the deferral agreements can be collected on and, if so, what the calculation of those collections would be.

Is this a demand that can reasonably come from your office?

Council Member King brought this matter forward in May of this year and it was redirected as Item 32 of the Infrastructure Management Committee, waiting to be scheduled by Committee Chair Cochran. Meanwhile I can share with you that a grassroots initiative is rapidly gaining traction that would launch a class action suit which, in addition to Corp Counsel, would also name the County Council negligent for not adopting a formula to assess, collect and clear these encumbrances from thousands of homeowner's titles. To facilitate being able to act on Item 32 and to protect the reputation of the Council, I think it prudent to demand Corp Counsel make the determinations they promised back in 2012 and place the burden of inaction squarely back onto the Administration.

Deferral agreements aside, Maui Causes still intends to create a public petition of the County Auditor to assess the losses to the taxpayers that appear to result from exploitations of loopholes built into the administration of SMA permits, and inappropriate permit exemptions issued at the sole discretion of the Planning Director, a political appointee of the Mayor. It seems to us that Public Works and Planning facilitate well-connected private developers using these loopholes and exemptions to subvert County zoning ordinances, shift financial burdens from private developers onto the backs of taxpayers, and avoid installing such things as storm water retention ponds, the lack of which does irreparable and incalculable harm to our beaches and reefs with every heavy rain.

Olowalu is a recent example of a private developer being brought back almost 10 years later to fulfill their SMA permit obligations which fell through the cracks when they thought no one was looking. We believe the thousands of exemptions and SMA permit minors issued by politically appointed Directors, which denied citizens of our rights to public hearing, shoreline preservation, public right of ways and even park fees, should be audited. The Council needs to act to ensure all developers meet their obligations and, as well, enact legislation to close the loopholes and bring a more appropriate level of professional oversight and checks and balances to the politically appointed Planning Commission, to stop future abuses.

Thanks so much for your attention to these important matters.

Sam Small
Executive Director, Maui Causes
www.MauiCauses.org

Evolving out of Vote Yes Maui, the Community Outreach arm of the SHAKA Movement, Maui Causes has been working for years to promote Progressive and Environmental Causes on Maui.

Our Facebook page and weekly TV show on AKAKU Ch 55 give voice to our community's leaders not found in the Corporate Controlled media on Maui.
We also now produce the Kimokeo Foundation Talk Story show on Akaku.

We exist through your contributions - Please CLICK HERE Make One!

Mahalo and Aloha

Terez Amato ran for State Senate in 2014 in the South Maui district against incumbent Roz Baker. Terez's campaign did extraordinarily well for a first time candidate and she's contemplating running against Roz again in 2018.

Just a few months ago Terez was paralyzed by a stroke that is most commonly fatal. She's the 1% of survivors of this particular brain aneurism and its a testament to her will and dedication that, not only is she working and progressing daily to regain her full mobility, but she seems more committed than ever to be of service to the people our community and take control of Hawaii Politics out of the dominating hands of big business interests represented faithfully by Senator Roz Baker.

Let Terez know you support her and her political agenda to empower the people of Hawaii.

Mahalo!

https://www.facebook.com/TerezAmato

Hometown
Kihei, HI

Affiliation
Democrat, The Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii

About
2014 Hawai'i State Senate Candidate (D), District 6: South and West Maui

Biography
Terez Amato grew up in South and Central Maui. As a hardworking, single mother of four, she believes in our basic human rights to clean air, clean water, and locally grown food. Her vision is for a sustainable Maui nui where education, health care, and preserving the rights of all citizens and workers is both progressive and rational.

Working in a small family business from a young age, she learned the importance of integrity and always doing her best when serving others. Terez Amato’s honest, thoughtful, and responsive approach to issues and considering the good of all—especially the future of our children—defines our future Senator’s campaign.

Political views
Liberal

Activities
Please support the campaign!
VOLUNTEER for Terez! EMAIL: campaign@TerezAmato.com
DONATE: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/terezamato
OR Please send checks payable to
FRIENDS OF TEREZ AMATO
47-732 Hui Kelu St. Suite 4
Kaneohe, HI 96744

About Me
Terez Amato WILL ALWAYS
• work for the people of Maui, not corporations or lobbyists
• support Maui’s workers and local businesses.
• protect our people and environment from toxic pollution and corporate abuses.
• fight for clear labeling of our food.

Terez Amato WILL NEVER
• take money from corporations or lobbyists.

WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE !

Slapping WESTPAC, that "greenwashing" group The Nature Conservancy, and Gov Ige in their respective faces, Hawaii's Supreme Court just unanimously agreed that "DLNR’s practice of blindly doling out aquarium collection permits without studying environmental impacts is illegal,” said Earthjustice attorney Summer Kupau-Odo in a press release.  “The law demands and Hawaiʻi’s people have every right to expect more from the agency charged with conserving our natural resources.”

And we have more to expect from both Gov Ige and Collenne Hanabusa who have both shown how truly dedicated they are to preserving Corporate Entitlements regardless of the loss to our communities. Hanbusa pushed for and Ige took the bait when he vetoed Senate Bill 1240, which the legislature recently approved, trying at least to do right by our dwindling natural resources.

The state Attorney General’s office is reviewing the decision to determine what action the state will take in light of the ruling. “Today’s ruling from the Hawaii Supreme Court reverses all lower court decisions since 2012 and more than 60 years of previously unchallenged practice by the Department of Land and Natural Resources,” Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement.

And it's about time.

U. Hawaii law professor David Callies revealed a stunning statistic back in 2012. He noted that the Hawaii Supreme Court "has managed to find in favor of Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice ... 90% of the time, 70% of those decisions overturning the [Hawaii] Intermediate Court of Appeals."

But any batting average only becomes meaningful after you have enough times at bat to reveal the trend, in other words, 90% of just a few is still just a few.

To us that high score underscores just how out of control in favor of corporate exploitation the DLNR has been for decades and that better balanced management needs to better protect what's left of our precious natural resources.

Photo by Brooke Everett

By Mark Hyde, Guest Blogger.

The future of south Maui will be decided this coming week, July19 and 20, when the state Land Use Commission (LUC) convenes on the 19^th of July at 2 PM at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center to assess a proposed final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for what has been appropriately dubbed the “Mega Mall.”

You may recall that in late January 2012 prior owners of the land, with the backing of the Arakawa administration, announced that construction was about to begin on what was going to be the largest retail shopping center in Maui County, making the intersection of Pi’ilani Highway and Kaonoulu Street the busiest in the county. The people of south Maui were shocked, appalled and surprised by the news, having never heard anything about it and never having had an opportunity to comment on it.

In response, Kihei Community Association convened a public forum to learn more, inviting then south Maui council representative Don Couch and current Planning Director William Spence to appear and tell the community what was up. They did, telling the standing-room-only crowd that the project was fully entitled, there was nothing anyone could do about it and chiding the audience for not having spoken up about the project when they had a chance. None of this was true.

In fact, the project was entirely rogue. In 1995 Kaonoulu Ranch gained approval from the LUC to develop a 123-lot light industrial park on the 88-acre site. All was above board. Then in 2005 the Ranch sold the property, undeveloped, to a group of investors who immediately began converting use of the property to retail, in the process subdividing the parcel into 4 large lots, not 123. Simultaneously, these owners ceased filing mandated progress reports with the LUC.

After the 2012 Kihei Community Association meeting, and sensing something amiss, examination of the state’s files in Honolulu revealed that the proposed Mega Mall development clearly violated the LUC’s 1995 Order, which required development of the land in substantial compliance with the plans and representations made to the LUC.

Upon return to Maui, the violation was immediately brought to the attention of the Arakawa administration through its directors of Economic Development and Planning, pointing out that under state law, counties have the legal duty to enforce LUC orders.   They refused to act. One’s response was to say he’d served 5 years on the LUC and had chaired it, a way of communicating he was connected. That meeting lasted less than 5 minutes.

So Maui Tomorrow, South Maui Citizens for Responsible Growth and Daniel Kanahele filed an action with the LUC, challenging the development. After a three-day contested case hearing during which the county sat with the developers, the LUC found the owners in violation of the order - for failure to develop the land as represented and failure to file ordered reports, etc.

Next week the Mega Mall will be back before the LUC, this time for consideration of the owner’s proposed final environmental impact statement. The proposed FEIS shows the southern half of the property still destined for a retail shopping center. Earlier depictions of this portion of the site show large spaces for “big box” stores (but not the document before the LUC). The northern portion of the property is proposed for additional retail, some apartments and, maybe, some light industrial use.

Here’s the rub. The development violates the lawful Kihei-Makena Community Plan, which the developers dismiss based largely on the claim that the county says the development need not comply with the community plan or that it does in fact comply.    Please know, it does not comply, no way, no how.

So, if you believe residents should have a say in how our communities are developed, expressed through the community planning process, and if you believe in the rule of law as essential to good community planning and health, then stand up, come to the LUC meeting and demand integrity in county government and respect for our community plans, knowing that the Hawaii Supreme Court and a state Court of Appeals have declared our community plans have the force and effect of law.

June 14, 2017  Former Maui official claims her firing was retaliatory
By Nelson Daranciang Posted June 14, 2017

The former Maui County highways chief says in a federal whistleblower lawsuit that she was fired for reporting and investigating county worker abuses, including the repairing of private motor vehicles at county facilities on county time and with parts purchased using county pCards.

Lesli Lyn Otani says in the lawsuit that she was chief of field operations and maintenance for the county’s Department of Public Works when she reported the alleged abuses to the department’s director, David Goode, and deputy director, Rowena Dagdag-Andaya. Otani says Goode ignored her reports, tried to discourage her from investigating them, then fired her after she took her concerns and findings to the county’s Department of the Corporation Counsel.

Otani returned to her previous job as a county civil engineer. She is suing the county, its Department of Public Works and Goode. Otani filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. She says the Corporation Counsel has placed six employees of the highways division on paid leave while it investigates her reports.

The administrative investigation of the Public Works Department uncovered other alleged misconduct by two former employees. The county prosecutor charged Raynard Oshiro, a former district supervisor, and Lea Cadiz, a former Oshiro subordinate, with theft in December for allegedly taking uncharged vacation. Oshiro retired in 2015 after 38 years of service with the county. Cadiz was fired.

Otani says she was promoted to highways chief in April 2016 after the previous chief, Brian Hashiro, retired amid allegations that he used his county pCard to outfit the Wailuku base yard with a commercial-grade kitchen. She says she immediately started receiving reports of other alleged worker misconduct, including employees being forced to repair private vehicles at the Makawao Garage on weekends with parts purchased on county pCards, one employee driving an unmarked county vehicle for personal use and the undervaluing of county vehicles at trade-in.

She said when the county bought a new bulldozer, a supervising employee had the old one turned in to the dealer for zero trade-in value. The dealer then sold the old

bulldozer for $15,000 to $30,000. Otani says Goode extended her six-month probation in September, then fired her in March. She said during her probation Goode undermined her authority in front of her subordinates, which encouraged one to refuse to do the work necessary to clear debris from a September flood. She also said Dagdag-Andaya disclosed to others matters they discussed in a confidential conversation.

Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said the county does not comment on pending litigation, and he declined to comment on Otani’s claims.

As a prelude to the trainwreck that will be Maui County's 2018 Budget Hearings, starting tomorrow, the County has created a survey so you can express your opinions on spending.
CLICK HERE TO VOICE WHERE YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR TAX DOLLARS SPENT IN 2018's BUDGET.
They even made a video!

The survey is a pretty crude approach; on several broad categories you get to choose to keep current spending, increase or decrease by 5%. The fun part is that you have to jigger your choices till you come in at a balanced budget. You want this? Then that has to go! You do come away with some sense of the balancing act the budget must go through, but the real process is much more nuanced than this.

They also want your opinion on a few specific projects:

* Do you want the County to continue operating the Waiehu Golf Course at a financial loss? Would you prefer that the County keep, sell or lease the Golf Course?  If privatized, would you support a County program to subsidize efforts to assist youth and elderly golfers who currently frequent the course?
Where would you like to see the approximate $3 Million dollars re-allocated within parks (if course operation by the County is discontinued)?

* Are you in favor of construction at the Kamehameha Ave. and Maui Lani Parkway intersection in order to alleviate traffic congestion? How important is this issue to you?

* Are you in favor of a $1.9 Million project to retro-fit street lighting in order to create a more environmentally friendly street lighting infrastructure? The project is projected to eventually save taxpayers close to $700,000 per year due to rebates and less energy use.

Come join in the fun. This is our chance to press our legislators to evolve the existing Good-Old-Boy network of political and economic patronage into a county governance that truly serves its people.   

• March 30, Kihei Community Center, Main Hall, 303 East Lipoa St., Kihei
• April 3, Lanai Senior Center, 309 7th St., Lanai City
• April 5, Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center, Social Hall, 91 Pukalani St., Pukalani
• April 6, Paia Community Center, Social Hall, Hana Hwy., Paia
• April 10, Mitchell Pauole Community Center, Social Hall, 90 Ainoa St., Kaunakakai
• April 13, Helene Hall, Social Hall, 150 Keawa Pl., Hana
• April 17, Lahaina Civic Center, Social Hall, 1840 Honoapiilani Hwy., Lahaina
• April 18, public hearing at the Council Chambers, 200 South High St., 8th floor, Wailuku.

All district meetings will begin at 6 p.m., with the exception of Molokai with a 6:30 p.m. start.

Visit MauiCounty.us/2018budget for meeting schedules, documents, agendas, announcements, and other information relating to the budget session. Testimony may also be emailed to bf.committee@mauicounty.us, referencing BF-1.

For special accommodations during any of the meetings, please call 270-7838 at least three days in advance.

CALL THE PARKS DEPT AND DEMAND OUR EARTHDAY EVENT PERMIT BE APPROVED!  (808) 270-7230

Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa is striking back against his many critics by denying our community the opportunity to assemble, celebrate our connection to Mother Earth  and organize for political change that supports sustainability rather than corporate exploitation.

Maui County Parks Director Ka'ala Buenconsejo, who Awakawa appointed to his job as a reward for running an illegal smear campaign against Elle Cochran in 2014, and who has no qualifications to be Parks Director, cites PONY RIDES as one of the reasons to deny the Earth Day 2017 event application.

Maui resident Bruce Douglas has been staging Earth Day celebrations in Maui County parks for 19 years and for the past seven years its been a very successful gathering at the Keopuolani Amphitheater.

The event features information booths for over 50 environmental and social awareness organizations and governmental agencies.  This year the event was to feature the new pilot program championed by Elle Cochran that brings Maui's Parks Dept. together with the environmental group Beyond Pesticides to find alternatives to heavy chemical use in selected county parks.

But because our community has become increasingly vocal and successful in supporting political change that protects, rather than exploits the environment, the Mayor has killed Earth Day.

Below is Buenconsejo's denial letter which offers only minor issues from past events as the reason for this year's denial. It includes Pony Rides as a problem. Seriously? We know better.  This is an attempt to muzzle our community's voice and we must stand up to this kind of oppression. Please call the Parks Dept. at (808) 270-7230 and demand our event permit be approved.

Here is Bruce's rebuttal to the County's allegations of wrong doings:

1) Parks:  “With an anticipated attendance of 800 participants, has grown to exceed safe usage of that facility.”
Earth Day:  The number of participants of the Earth Day event has remained steady since it was move to Keopuolani Park Amphitheater 7 years ago, and is well within the park’s capacity with no residual effects to the park grounds.

2) Parks:  “Failure to dispose of trash generated from the event within the time allotted by the issued permit.”
Earth Day:  This occurredonly once, 2 years ago, when a heavy rain on Sunday night filled the trash cans with water.  On clean up day Monday the volunteer vehicles could not move heavy wet garbage and the dump closed at 3pm.  We hired a truck and move it Tuesday morning, 12 hours late for our permit.  This is a case of extenuating circumstances.

3) Parks:  “Non-compliance of permitted event hours.”
Earth Day:  The published facility hours are from 7am to 10pm.  We shut down main stage at dusk.  We have sometimes allowed acoustic music to continue in the dome stage after dark that has never cause a noise complaint that we are aware of.

4) Parks:  “Allowing of unsafe vehicle access in prohibited areas during the event.”
Earth Day:  Vehicles have always been out of the event area before opening ceremonies start at 10 am.  Vehicles have never been allowed into the event area until after the main stage has been shut down and most of the participants have dispersed.  The lower entrance (jogging trail) is used for handicap access as well as musician and vendor drop offs, as is done for every other event held at this amphitheater.  Sometimes people have parked along the jogging trail even though we post signs saying forbidden.  This has never created an unsafe situation.

5) Parks:  “Unauthorized addition of activities not approved by the issuing permit, such as pony rides.”
Earth Day:  We have had pony rides on 3 different years under the observation of parks officials and this is the first time anyone has called this use a problem.  We see nothing in the permits or parks publications calling this use unauthorized.

6) Parks:  Failed to satisfactorily clean or restore any park or recreational facility.
Earth Day:  In the spirit of environmentalism, we have consistently restored the park to a cleaner situation then when we found it.  There has never been any lingering impact to the park with the exception of one sprinkler head being damaged, which our park deposit was used to pay for.

Respectfully, Bruce Douglas, Director of the Maui Earth Day Festival

Mahalo for your support.

Christopher Fishkin is a Legal Assistant and Public Advocate. Here Chris discusses some of the conflicts of interest that have resulted from Maui's Planning Dept. and  Corporation Council's manipulations of SMA (Special Management Area) permits that have allowed countless developers to defer significant infrastructure improvements with absolutely no accountability. This shady practice has cost taxpayers (that's you) millions and millions of dollars and benefitted only those who are well connected to the power elite.

Its a smoldering scandal that the Mayor, Corporation Council and specific members of the County Council are doing their best to hide, but which is slowly making its way to the public.

One of the things to watch is the upcoming budget approval process. Mike White has intentionally not included an assessment of the value owed to the county in order to keep the issue under wraps, but public advocates are forcing the issue to the surface.

Maui Time Weekly published an article on this scandal several years ago and it is still smoldering. You will be hearing much more about all this in the coming months.

Maui Time Weekly Jan 17 2013 Article

A Case of Illegal Agro-chemical Experimentation Without Informed Individual Consent on Maui and Molokai
by Lorrin Pang, M.D., M.P.H. and David Klein, B.S., Ph.D., Naturorthopathic Doctor Maui, Hawaii, USA

Physicians Coalition for Responsible Agriculture on Maui (PCRAM) https://www.facebook.com/groups/100764643749895/

To safeguard the public’s health and respect individuals’ rights, we do not want to allow
exposure of unknown (experimental) harm to individuals without their informed consent. This
has been happening for longer than a decade as experimental genetically modified organism
(GMO) agro-chemical testing conducted by Monsanto has resulted in pesticide chemicals
drifting and flowing into Maui’s and neighboring island Molokai’s communities with unknown
health effects. The potential harm from pesticide drift and polluted overland runoff and
groundwater infiltration from these activities is the issue in question. In principle, this is
ethically wrong because it knowingly violates individuals’ rights to choose to be free of the
risks of such experimental activity.   MORE BELOW:

Maui-Illegal-Experimentation

A Case of Illegal Agro-chemical Experimentation Without Informed Individual Consent on Maui and Molokai by Lorrin Pang, M.D., M.P.H. and David Klein, B.S., Ph.D., Naturorthopathic Doctor Maui, Hawaii, USA Physicians Coalition for Responsible Agriculture on Maui (PCRAM)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/100764643749895/

Primary Principle

To safeguard the public’s health and respect individuals’ rights, we do not want to allow exposure of unknown (experimental) harm to individuals without their informed consent. This has been happening for longer than a decade as experimental genetically modified organism (GMO) agro-chemical testing conducted by Monsanto has resulted in pesticide chemicals drifting and flowing into Maui’s and neighboring island Molokai’s communities with unknown health effects.

The potential harm from pesticide drift and polluted overland runoff and groundwater infiltration from these activities is the issue in question. In principle, this is ethically wrong because it knowingly violates individuals’ rights to choose to be free of the risks of such experimental activity.

Terminologies

It is necessary to clearly understand the meanings of the germane terms and compare this issue to other past examples. For example, what did we do when we did not fully know the harm of cigarettes, second-hand cigarette smoke, flu vaccines, disinfectants in public drinking water, and prisoners on death row who need a “better” lethal injecting drug that causes less suffering?

What Does “Experimental” Mean?

“Experimental” means unknown. This can be unknown benefits and unknown harm. Some public health interpretations compare potential benefits to risks. There may be a different risk benefit ratio for each different type of individual (children, asthmatics, elderly, etc.). Many experiments are great—they turn out well. This is what moves medical science forward. However, proof of success after an experiment is over is never an excuse for not having obtained informed consent from individuals prior to the start of the experiment. This kind of hindsight argument is not valid since there are many examples when things did not turn out well. Test subjects must be fully informed of the risks and given the opportunity to opt-out. Even when things do turn out well, without prior informed consent, the project and those associated with it are unethical.

What Does “Informed Consent” Mean?

“Informed” Defined
“Informed” means explaining at an eighth grade level of understanding the risks (potential and known), benefits (potential and known), the actual experiment activity (randomized, controlled or blinded), and how subjects will be monitored under both good and bad outcomes. When something is not fully known (e.g., health effects of mixtures of chemicals, or distances that drift will occur and produce health effects), subjects must be told how much we do know, and how we know this. Another key disclosure is the individual’s alternatives to not participating in the experiment. This can be specific to (1) the subject (e.g., he will be given standard care with no retaliation for non-participation, etc.) or (2) to society in general (e.g., there may or may not be alternative drugs, each with their own good and bad points—toxicity, cost, ease of administration). Finally, there is disclosure of the sponsoring agencies, who must be readily available at any time to answer questions to prove that the experiment’s information is valid and that the experiment’s guidelines are followed.

“Consent” Defined
“Consent” by each individual who participates in experiments must be given freely and in private. The experiment information can be provided en masse; however, questions must be allowed to be raised in private by each individual. Records must be kept of those who participate and those who decline. Records of whether or not a person participated should be kept private, but sometimes this is impossible. There must be no enticement or coercion (retaliation) directly or indirectly based on participation. It must be clearly stated that once subjects have entered an experiment, they can freely choose to quit at any time for any reason.

Experiment Considerations

Even before seeking informed consent to enroll subjects, the whole experimental process (including informed consent procedures) must be approved and monitored for compliance. This is the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRB). Experimental activities which do not submit for IRB approvals cannot argue that they do not have IRB “disapproval” and they are, therefore, ethical. On the other hand, IRBs cannot claim that they only review what is formally submitted to them. If an IRB hears of a questionable unethical experiment, it is obliged to follow though with its formal assessment, otherwise, unethical experiments would be conducted by simply skirting the IRB application process.

Institutional Review Board Oversight

Oversight of experiments performed on any world citizen must be carried out by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the sponsoring agency(s) and/or by a community IRB to review all activities. IRBs insure that the experiment information is valid and that the procedures will be adhered to by those in charge. In general, IRBs will determine (1) if the activity is ethical at all, (2) if the experiment’s scientific merit outweighs the risks. If these criterion are met, then the IRB will determine whether or not an informed consent is needed on an individual basis.

IRBs must evaluate informed consent forms (when deemed necessary). If there are two levels of IRBs involved in a study, the approval of both are needed to proceed. In U.S. research circles, we used to argue that local IRBs should review first so as not be influenced by the decision of the higher IRB authority. There is the possibility of implicit enticement and/or coercion in the recruitment of potential subjects in such settings as prisons, military, elderly, refugees, etc. In such cases, it can be difficult for IRBs to assess informed consent procedures and determine if they are valid or not. IRBs will require the opportunity to review forms of those who refused to participate in experiments after being informed. IRBs will also conduct sample spot check interviews of those who consented in order to confirm that there was a true understanding of the experiment risks and potential benefits, and no coercion or enticement. Once a study is underway, an IRB will monitor those test subjects who have chosen to leave the study for any reasons, and periodic reports will be made to assess the experiment’s safety. IRBs will also sample and spot check those who remain, to insure that they are free to leave for any reason.

It is possible that one can ethically conduct human experimentation without an IRB if one simply interprets and follows accepted ethical guidelines (i.e., the Nuremberg/Helsinki Accord). Conversely, an IRB which strays from international guidelines (perhaps due to political or financial influence) can do more damage than good. As pointed out by the framers of the Helsinki Accord, there are numerous cases where regulatory bodies (including the courts) biased the judgement of ethics because of unintentional or intentional inappropriate arguments (e.g., national security, economic stability, advancement of science, tacit consent, etc.). Yes, informed consent is very important. It is tantamount to the difference between organ trafficking and organ donation.

Informed Consent Exceptions

Why is there no explicit informed consent requirement for some known potentially hazardous activities (e.g., smoking and drinking water systems), while there is a requirement for others (e.g., flu vaccines and cancer chemotherapy trials)?

Example 1

If the safety or harm of an activity is known to a reasonable degree of certainty, then the activity is not an “experiment” and needs no informed consent. These are examples of “nonexperimental” hazards: water boarding (other than individual variation of response), marketed products after clinical trials (such as Narcan for suspected opiate overdoses), over-the-counter drugs, and volcanic lava fumes emissions when downwind closer than a certain distance. Sometimes the effects are very bad, misused, and in and of themselves unethical, but they are known and do not fall under “experimentation.”

Example 2

If a certain activity’s effects are unknown (or not known well enough), but a reasonable person has been informed of the risk AND can avoid exposure, then there is tacit agreement that those participating give “informed consent” and the others who don’t want to participate can simply avoid exposure. So, after intense public education there may be no need for informed consent in this situation. For example, first-hand cigarette exposure (but not second-hand smoking effects), lava emissions at greater than a certain distance, municipal drinking water additives when purer bottled water is available from another source (as in Flint, Michigan), and tourists risk warnings for such events as lava flows, vog drifts, rough surf conditions and shark sightings at beaches. When people can avoid a situation of risk but the risk is not so obvious, then we should consider explicit informed consent. Examples are: vaccines, GMO food which “looks” like other foods (hindsight of claims of GMO food safety is no excuse for not having gotten upfront informed consent), drinking water with undisclosed additives, cancer chemotherapy, and invisible chemical exposure.

Example 3

An interesting paradox occurs when (1) there is known harm (non-experimental) to some and unknown harm to others AND (2) a person cannot reasonably avoid exposure. This points to a case we have faced on Maui where sugarcane burn smoke drifts into the surrounding communities really affecting those close by and possibly affecting those farther away (after decades of practice, this will cease at the end of 2016, for economic rather than ethical reasons). This raises the question: should we be given the opportunity to give informed consent or should the sugarcane company just be ordered to stop the activity under the threat of suit for damages? There was a similar situation cited as an example of unethical conduct (“That Time Scientists Tested Sulfuric Acid on Prisoners for No Reason”: http://io9.gizmodo.com/that-time-scientiststested- sulfuric-acid-on-prisoners-1565474612). In 1907 “negro prisoners” in Louisiana were openly experimented on to see how much sulfuric acid in their molasses they could tolerate. There was no attempt to hear their objections (consent) because “it would not do any good if they did.”

Example 4

Another paradoxical case that the islands of Molokai and Maui face is of utmost concern: pesticide drift from nearby experimental agro-chemical fields. The question arises: If harm of chemical mixtures and drift at great distances is unknown (experimental), and people cannot avoid exposure (unlike distributing bottled water to families in Flint Michigan), then shouldn’t each individual within any drift range be asked to either give informed consent or to opt out of exposure? If everyone gives valid informed consent, then the activity can continue. But if just one exposed person decides to avoid exposure, then the ethical thing to do is to stop the activity. One’s right to have his/her choice respected in this decision is not overruled by the majority decision, nor can it be nullified by legislative or judiciary bodies. Most absurd, in the context of the experimental setting, is the argument that others have the right be profitable at the expense of chemicals drifting to others.

Field researchers have been faced with similar situations where the majority have asked for a study when a few refused. When a testing agency could not respect the wishes of the few, the experiments were cancelled by the IRB. Obviously, the economic scale and potential economic value of the experiment should have no bearing on the ethical decision for the individual, especially when the economic advantage to the subject is minimal. One senses this wrong when there are great enticements offered to subjects to enter experiments.

The Legal Impermanence Issue

We should bear in mind that the recent media, court and legislative wrangling to determine who has the authority to make decisions on experimental agro-chemical activities on Maui may have resulted in an ephemeral decision. For example, the Hawaiian county island of Kauai’s previous precautionary GMO measures are now being reversed by a newly elected county council. In all of this confusion we have forgotten the rights of the individuals to choose for themselves and their children. There is absolutely nothing like an informed, concerned, engaged community to police its own rules of ethical individual rights. Ironically, we also should not have blind faith in those who framed the rules of the Helsinki Accord. Bodies can change and become corrupted. But it was this body which codified, introduced and gained recognition of the rights of the individual regarding human experimentation.

Maui Opted Out

The Maui County vote in 2015 to moratorium experimental GMO field practices was our de facto informed consent opt-in/opt-out exercise. We informed our legislators of our choice: to opt-out. During the campaign leading up to the vote, coercive (loss of jobs) and enticing (economic stimulus to the economy) arguments were made. Those tactics would not have been allowed if an IRB had overseen this vote. Often those supporting the moratorium were accused of fear mongering—but fear, no matter how “unscientifically” based, is a valid personal reason for individuals to opt-out of experimentation. Voters freely chose what “science” they wanted to believe, if any. They voted confidentially, free of personal coercion or enticement. The optout vote prevailed despite coercive propaganda enticement from different sectors of the business community which made claims of economic damage and job loss.

In addition to the human risk, many voters were also concerned about the risk to the environment and to non-GMO crops. Whether or not these concerns would be “legitimized” by an IRB focusing on human risk is unknown. Issues were raised largely unfiltered.

In the end, the moratorium vote was ruled invalid after Monsanto took the case to federal judges who ruled that states have jurisdiction over pesticides and Federal Agencies have authority over experimental GMO field activities. The issue of individual ethics and risk of experimentation was not allowed to be raised. U.S. county, state and federal review bodies were made aware that pesticide drift constituted an experiment, but they chose to avoid this framework (ethics). In fact, some governmental officials have intentionally excluded arguments of human health risks.

Individual Rights Preside

In matters of safeguarding the public’s health, we must always consider each individual’s point of view when deciding if his or her safety should be sacrificed for the greater good. It was wrong that the Nazi doctors during the Nuremberg trials tried to justify their experimental actions with their claims that medical knowledge gained from unethical experiments could benefit other Nazi soldiers and all future mankind. The claim of benefit is certainly true but the means of getting this knowledge was grossly unethical. The potential benefit is a wrong justification; in our world’s legal system, individual ethical rights come first. One has a “gut” feeling for the rights of the individual. It follows the Golden Rule. Are those in power deciding the fate of individuals just because they are in power? What if the roles were reversed?

The Violation Of Our Individual Rights Is Clear

A good test to see if we are acting free of bias when applying the above ethical criteria is to change the parties involved. For example, suppose that an enemy regime is experimenting on our citizens (taken prisoner) for the sake of national security, as did Germany’s Nazis. Then consider our own country’s agencies or its private corporations experimenting on our own citizens for the intended purpose of increasing the world’s food supply. Now ignore who runs the experiments and consider who are the subjects and what is the objective of the experiment. Some situations seem more unfair than others. However, under the guidelines of the Helsinki accord they all abuse individual rights if there is no informed consent…..and this is what is happening on Molokai and Maui.

Mounting World Opinion

Our Hawaii situation regarding pesticide use on GMO experimental fields was raised at the Hague Tribunal where Dr. Pang presented our case in October of 2016. A ruling will be made in April of 2017. Our position has been accepted for presentation at the International Public Health Forum (to be held in Melbourne, Australia in May of 2017). To enforce this clear violation of our citizen’s ethical rights and to uphold the county’s and state’s charge to safeguard the welfare of its people, we will ask the World Medical Association (who follows guidelines of the Nuremberg/Helsinki Accord) for a ruling on Maui’s case of agro-chemical experimentation with regard to the ethics of this situation when framed as an “experiment,” which it truly is. Now and hereafter, this issue must be raised on a grassroots level and the agencies in charge will have to address these concerns and the World Medical Association’s ruling. As always, we will put our faith in the opinion and actions of an engaged public. Let this paper serve as a catalyst for public discussion and action. Our inalienable ethical rights, the integrity of U.S. health safeguard laws, and lives are at stake.

Please support our cause by joining the Physicians Coalition for Responsible Agriculture on Maui on Facebook and contacting us.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/100764643749895/ For more information, please watch Dr. Pang’s video: “Ethical Violations of Pesticide Use in Hawaii on Experimental GM Fields” https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGCC6WKByX89-_LZ7Swp7tg 77

About the Authors

Lorrin Pang (writing here as a private citizen) was born and raised in Honolulu. He was an honors graduate from Princeton University with a degree in Chemistry. He received M.D. and Master Public Health degrees from Tulane University (New Orleans). He holds a Board Certification in Preventive Medicine. Dr. Pang worked for 20 years with the U.S. Army’s Walter Reed Overseas Research Laboratories, assigned to Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro and Geneva, developing drugs and diagnostics for tropical diseases. He was a consultant to the World Health Organization from 1985 to 2005 for tropical diseases. In the year 2000, Dr. Pang retired and moved to Maui taking the position of the District Health Officer. He has had approximately six dozen papers published in peer reviewed medical journals covering rabies, HIV, malaria, hepatitis E, and most recently dengue. From the years 2007 to 2009, Dr. Pang was selected to America’s Best Doctors Listing (comprising 3% of our nation’s physicians). Since 2013, he has worked (1) as a reviewer for research proposals for the U.S. Congress, (2) as a consultant to the DNDI (an international group developing drugs for neglected diseases), and (3) has been a visiting professor of medicine for Federal University of Brasilia. Contact: panghi71@gmail.com

David Klein is a six-year resident of Maui. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University and worked eight years in the field of environmental engineering in New Jersey, New York and California. He also holds a Ph.D. in Natural Health and Healing and a Naturorthopathic Doctor degree from the University of Natural Health. He directs the Colitis & Crohn's Health Recovery Center, is the author of the bestseller, Self Healing Colitis & Crohn's, and enjoys permaculture farming with his wife Annette. Contact: dave@colitis-crohns.com

The practice of deferring infrastructure improvements that began in 1974, mainly to help local families avoid becoming full-fledged developers yet still divide up their land in 3 parcels or less for their offspring, has turned out to have been a really bad idea. Through either negligence or corruption, the county never set dollar values to or created a mechanism to collect on the deferred improvements. Taxpayers countywide have ended up absorbing the costs of the uncollected deferred improvements, and the vagueness of the liens that have been placed on deeds now plagues homeowners who cannot satisfy the debt nor clear title to sell their properties.

Where this gets really interesting is that unknown to the public for almost four decades, the administration and corporation counsel secretly expanded the same deferral agreements to include large subdivisions, commercial properties, and multi-family condominiums.  Those huge untracked and uncollected deferments represent untold millions of dollars lost to Maui Taxpayers as well as lost opportunities to have big developers build the low income housing Maui so desperately needs.

Chris Salem, a past administrative assistant for the County Council, discovered all this the hard way, when he unwittingly purchased a property with one of these nonspecific liens and got stonewalled by the county when he sought a solution. After years of the County trying to duck the issue by withholding evidence, making up lies and ignoring obvious conflicts of interest, Chris is doing the only thing left to do, he's gone to Federal Court to sue everyone involved as officials and as individuals, including: Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, Managing Director Keith Regan, Corporate Council Patrick Wong, Public Works Director David Goode, former Public Works Director Milton Arakawa, Planning Director William Spence and others.

Obstructionism is what Maui County's Corporate Council seems to do in all cases, including all instances where unqualified Department Directors appointed by the Mayor make bad or illegal decisions. And it is why the proposed charter amendments to place minimum standards on the hiring of Directors and creating a way for the County Council to secure legal advice that is not controlled by the Mayor are so important.

Read More on Maui  Now

And more on Maui Time Weekly

SMA Violations Only

Hui Council Letter Johnson

SALEM v. ARAKAWA by LESLIE E. KOBAYASHI, District Judge | Leagle.com

Come testify on Friday Aug 5th to support two proposed Charter Amendments that will have significant impacts on the balance of government in Maui County.
Resolution 16-96  proposes to additionally require council approval of the managing director and the directors of the departments of Finance, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Planning, Housing and Human Concerns, Transportation and Environmental Management. If the resolution is adopted on second-and-final reading, which requires a yes vote by at least six council members, the proposed charter amendment will be placed on the general election ballot for the public’s consideration.
As noted in Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee Report 16-110 , requiring council concurrence for all of the mayor’s appointments of department directors will “ensure transparency in the appointment process and the appointment of qualified candidates.”
Resolution 16-96 also would allow additional qualifications for department directors to be established in the Maui County Code. As stated in the committee report, “the charter sets forth general qualifications for department directors,” but the committee determined the council should be allowed to “establish more specific qualifications by ordinance.”
If the proposal for council approval of all department heads is endorsed by the public on Nov. 8, it will take effect after the next election for mayor in 2018.

Resolution 16-97, also up for second-and-final reading on Friday, would allow the public to consider giving council staff attorneys the authority to render formal legal opinions to council members. Currently, the Department of the Corporation Counsel, housed in the executive branch and led by a mayoral appointee, employs the only attorneys who are authorized to give legal advice to the council.
Committee Report 16-111 recommended approval of this charter amendment by citing “a need for the council and its members to have ready access to independent legal advice, particularly when there is an actual or potential conflict or disagreement between the executive and legislative branches.”
Taken together, these charter amendments have the potential to establish a more equitable balance of power between the mayor and council.
Resolutions 16-96 and 16-97 were approved on first reading at the July 15 council meeting. A video replay of the meeting is available on demand at mauicounty.us.

9:00 a.m., in the Council Chamber, located on the 8th floor of the Kalana O Maui Building, 200 S. High St
Wailuku, HI 96793

PLEASE READ AND FORWARD TO FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, AND FELLOW CITIZENS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: JUNE 27 @ 9 AM, 8TH FLOOR, COUNTY BUILDING

ALERT.  To have any chance of getting the council-manager proposal on the November ballot, the Council must hear from you when the Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs (PIA) Committee takes up the Special Committee’s recommendation in favor of council-manager government on June 27.

Some argue this is a "rush job” (after years of inaction by the county) and that more time is needed to educate the community.   Some simply say “kill it.”  Based on past behavior, more time means no action. There are three + months before the November election during which this and other issues will be vetted in every corner of our community.  Every council seat is being contested this election.  Many council candidates favor a change in structure.  While every candidate’s position has not been identified, at least one candidate in 7 of 9 council districts supports the council-manager structure and letting the people decide.  So too do candidates in the south Maui and Upcountry state representative contests.

Yet, some Council members believe the people should not decide this question in November.  We disagree.   Voters are able to assess whether Maui County government is working well or whether it’s time for a charter change supporting council-manager government - to bring professionalism and expertise to management of county operations (roads, water, waste management, planning, finance, etc.)

We think you, the voters, know

• Whether the relationship between the mayor and council is effective, collaborative and working in the people’s best interests, or not;
• Whether the county’s planning and implementation functions are timely and working, or untimely and broken;
• Whether the mayor and managing director put the interests of citizens before their own political interests;
• Whether the complexity and population of our county have increased significantly since our “Strong Mayor” form of government was adopted almost 50 years ago;
• Whether selecting our chief executive/operating officer (mayor) based on criteria in the current charter (can vote, is at least 18 years old and a county resident for at least 1 year) is adequate, or not;  
• Whether department head selection is subject to rigorous screening, based on updated job descriptions and minimum requirements, or whether some appointees have little or no background, education or experience in the fields they are to lead;
• Whether showing all directors to the door with each mayoral election promotes continuity, cost effectiveness and selection of the best directors; and
• Whether our local government is transparent and accountable to the people.
  

So come and let the council hear your voice.  You will not have another opportunity like this for decades to come if the council does not advance the question!

Maui News Editorial, 2/28/16: “Go directly to the people.  As the Special Committee on County Governance continues its study of whether to maintain the current strong mayor-council form of government or to recommend a change to a council-manager setup, we have a suggestion: Urge the County Council to put the measure on the ballot this fall and let the residents of Maui County decide . . . .”

IN A NUTSHELL: THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATION:

1. Three Basic Changes:

• The managing director should be hired by and report to the council through a selection process that is open and based on defined job-requirements.

Now: The mayor appoints the managing director in a closed process. The managing director is an aide to the mayor with limited authority. Job requirements are minimal. The job term is defined by elections, not performance.

• The managing director should hire directors.

Now: The mayor appoints directors, except those hired by commissions. Job requirements are minimal. Job terms are defined by elections, not performance.

• The length of service of the managing director and his/her hired directors should be based on job performance.

Now: All must resign with each mayoral election. Job retention is not performance based. The structure is political.

1. Three Key Goals:

• Bringing professionalism to the managing director role and to department directors: length of job service should depend on performance, not elections, and management selection should be based on professional criteria, not politics. The role is that of a fully accountable manager.

Now: “We are all political,” per the current managing director. Every appointed director must resign with each new mayor unrelated to performance on the job. The managing director’s role is weak. Getting the mayor re-elected is a key job focus[1].

• Creating continuity of management and career opportunities.

Now: Director terms are limited to 4 or 8 years based on political fortunes.

• Creating a collaborative work environment.

Now: Squabbles and poor communication between branches characterized by posturing. name-calling, communication barriers, and finger pointing.

[1] “Ultimately, I think what Rod [Antone] is saying is that our primary goal above all else is to get the mayor re-elected. Nothing else really matters . . . .” Keith Regan, current managing director, quoted verbatim in the Maui News, 10/11/15, at p. A4.

For more info reach Mark Hyde via forthegoodofmaui.org <http://forthegoodofmaui.org/>

SHAKA in Court
Wednesday, June 15th, 9am

Watch Live Streaming Video from Courtroom

Click HERE to Watch LIVE Streaming Video
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/live_oral_arguments.php
Wednesday, June 15th, 9am
9th Circuit Court Hearing on Hawai’i GMO Cases
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals announced that they will hear The SHAKA Movements Appeals of Judge Mollway’s decisions at 9:00 AM, on Wednesday June 15th, at the Federal Bankruptcy Court Building in Honolulu. The Court also announced that the same 3 Judge Panel that will be considering the two SHAKA appeals will also hearing the Appeals of the Kauai and Hawaii County – cases as decided by Magistrate Judge Kurren. The oral arguments presented will all be distinct and not combined.

Visualize these 3 judges making the highest and correct decision for the people.

Sidney Runyan Thomas is a 62 year old Chief United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was appointed by Bill Clinton. His chambers are located in Billings, Montana. He has a reputation for being even handed.

Consuelo María ("Connie") Callahan (born June 9, 1950) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Her chambers are located in Sacramento. On February 12, 2003, Callahan was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

On September 20, 2005, the New York Timesnamed Callahan as a possible successor forUnited States Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor[2] She was supported by someDemocrats and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as being more moderate than many of Bush's other appointees.

Mary Helen Murguia (born September 6, 1960) is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Murguia is one of seven children of Alfred and Amalia Murguia, who emigrated from Mexico in 1950. On March 25, 2010, President Obama nominated Murguia to a fill a vacancy on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Watch Court Live starting 9am Wed, 6/15

tinyurl.com/HiGMCourtRuling

I am writing to let you know about an important new petition, asking concerned citizens to stand in solidarity with the People of Hawaii, the SHAKA Movement, The Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice in their historic effort to overturn the democracy-threatening Monsanto Doctrine: which is the shocking new power of agrochemical corporations to do whatever they want in defiance of local laws.

Click Here to Sign da Petition!

On June 15 a panel of federal judges from the Ninth Circuit Court will meet in Honolulu to hear oral arguments from four important cases that may result in the most important GMO-related decision in history, the environmental equivalent of a Citizens United decision.

The appellate court will either uphold or overturn four recent decisions by the lower federal District Court in Hawaii that invalidated the power of county governments to enact laws that protect public health and the environment.

In cases involving the islands of Kauai and Hawaii a federal judge struck down local government laws that would have required buffer zones to prevent pesticide spraying near schools, and open air genetic engineering experiments that were seen as threatening to local organic agriculture.

A different federal judge from the same Hawaii court made history last year when in two separate court decisions (involving the islands of Maui and Molokai) the result of a citizen's initiative, that passed during the 2014 election, was invalidated.

Under this new Monsanto Doctrine (you can watch an animated two minute video about it here), the regulatory agencies created to protect public health and the food supply of our citizens have been reinvented as legal shields to protect the world's most toxic agrochemical companies from the authority of local government to provide that very protection to its citizens.

If left standing, this same Monsanto Doctrine will be employed as a weapon against common sense health regulations around the world, through international trade agreements like NAFTA, the TPIP and (if unstopped) the TPP, preventing entire countries from safeguarding public health.

Please join the people around the world who are signing this petition to restore the essential human right of the people, through our democratic institutions, to protect public health and our environment.

With gratitude, affection and ALOHA,

For immediate release: June 13, 2016

Press Release by:
Danny Mateo, County Clerk (808) 270-7748
Office of the County Clerk
County of Maui

Community Farmland Council fails to get required number of signatures

WAILUKU, Hawaii – The Office of the County Clerk has certified that the Community Farmland Council has not collected the required amount of valid signatures needed to advance to the Council a petition to establish a program to acquire and lease agricultural lands, County Clerk Danny Mateo announced today.

Initiative Organic Farm Land

“On April 18, the Community Farmland Council submitted an initiative petition that contained 11,339 signatures, and a supplemental petition on June 1 that contained 6,827 signatures,” Mateo said. “Our office has reviewed both submissions and determined that 7,305 registered voters in the County of Maui have signed the petitions, while 10,861 signatures have been deemed invalid.”

Twenty percent of the total number of voters who cast ballots in the last mayoral general election, or 9,201 registered voters, were required to sign the petition to have it formally submitted to the Council.

“Our office has carefully and diligently reviewed each line of the petitions to ensure a thorough and fair review for all sides of the issue,” said Mateo.

As examples, Mateo noted that signatures may be deemed invalid due to duplicate signatures, insufficient or incorrect information provided, or illegible handwriting. Signatures would also be counted as invalid if a signer was not registered to vote in the County of Maui.

According to the Charter requirements, each individual signing the petition must also provide their printed name and place of residence.

“Our office looks forward in assisting the public to utilize their rights as citizens of Maui County,” said Mateo. “We will continue to provide fair and unbiased assistance on all issues presented to us.”

Mateo said the ratio between valid and invalid signatures on the Community Farmland Council petition is fairly consistent with previous initiative petitions made in other counties in the State of Hawaii.

The 2014 GMO petition in Maui County submitted by the SHAKA Movement had approximately 46 percent of those signatures deemed valid. Additionally, the Hawaii County Clerk’s Office received initiative petitions in 2006 and 2008, where approximately 45 percent of those signatures were deemed valid in each year, respectively. In comparison, the validity rate for the Community Farmland Council’s petitions is approximately 40 percent.

To access the Maui County Charter or to find additional information, visit www.mauicounty.gov/clerk.

# # #

June 13, 2016: Certification of results letter

Download (PDF, 81KB)

June 8, 2016

Worst State in the Nation: HAWAII
To rent a modest 1 bedroom, working at minimum wage, you need to work 124 hours a week. Thanks to Don Couch and Alan Arakawa for making Maui work, for Developers.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE

A new report released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) reveals the disparity between rental housing costs and renter income in every jurisdiction across the country. Hawaii ranks worst.

State Office of Information Practices has opened a case on behalf of West Maui resident Marilyn McAteer relating to Don Couch's failure to respond to a request for public information
involving an alleged "investigation" into unaccounted for developer agreements which by Charter should be accounted for in the annual Budget as revenue to offset capital improvement
expenditures.

MM-OIP-State-of-Hawaii-Letter-Signed MM-to-Couch.doc-April-7-2016

By NICHOLAS BERGIN / Lincoln Journal Star

Three Nebraska farmers and an agronomist, all diagnosed with cancer, have filed a lawsuit against Monsanto alleging the seed and chemical giant of purposely misleading the public about the dangers of the world’s most widely used herbicide.

Monsanto markets glyphosate, the active ingredient in its herbicide-brand Roundup, as being able to kill nearly every weed out there yet being completely safe for people. It’s sold alongside Roundup Ready seeds that can be sprayed with the chemical without harm.

The New York Times in 2010 reported that 90 percent of soybeans and 70 percent of corn grown in the United States are from Roundup Ready seeds.

In March 2015 World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer labeled glyphosate as a probable cause of cancer in humans and said it is most associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other haematopoietic cancers, including lymphocytic lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

Those most at risk, the agency said, are farmers, farm workers and others with workplace exposure to Roundup.

The four Nebraskans who brought the lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln have all been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The lawsuit alleges Monsanto “concealed or systematically sought to discredit” research showing a link between the chemical and cancer and continues to do so.

“Monsanto championed falsified data and has attacked legitimate studies that revealed Roundup’s dangers. Monsanto led a campaign of misinformation to convince government agencies, farmers and the general population that Roundup is safe. Its continuing denial extends to the date of this Complaint,” the lawsuit says.

On its website, Monsanto says the labeling of its herbicide as a possible carcinogen conflicts with the consensus of regulatory bodies and science organizations, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“’Probable’ does not mean that glyphosate causes cancer; even at 100 times the exposure that occurs during normal labeled use glyphosate is not a human health risk,” the company’s website says.

The chemical works by inhibiting an enzyme essential for plant growth. Monsanto says that because that enzyme isn’t present in humans or animals, glyphosate is safe when used according to label directions.

Since being classified as a possible carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, several countries have banned or restricted the sale of glyphosate, including the Netherlands, France, Bermuda and Sri Lanka.

Monsanto has sued California to keep glyphosate off the state’s list of known carcinogens.

The plaintiffs in the Nebraska case include farmers Larry Domina and Robert Dickey both of Cedar County, York County farmer Royce Janzen and Dodge County agronomist Frank Pollard. They are being represented by a Omaha-based Domina Law Group and New York-based Weitz & Luxemborg.

Similar lawsuits have also been brought against Monsanto by agricultural workers in other states, including California and Delaware.

The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7304 or nbergin@journalstar.com.

Dear organic farming friends of the world!

We are "Jadam," a group based in Korea that promotes "Ultra-low cost" organic farming.
After decades of research and studies, Jadam has come up with a system of organic farming
where the farmers can make their own fertilizer, microbe input, and even pesticide.
The making of, and use of inputs are extremely easy and effective, and have been open to the public.

You all remember The Citizens Against The Maui County Farming Ban, the fake citizen's group founded by Maui's local radio personality Tom Blackburn-Rodriguez, that in 2014 spent $8 Million of Monsanto's and Dow's money spreading lies about the GM Moratorium?

Well, not only is Tom back on the air with big corporate backing, we are now seeing the influence of conservative political forces like ALEC, The Franklin Center for Gov and Public Integrity and the Koch Brothers in the convoluted notions offered in an op-ed piece from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii printed today in the conservative run Maui News.

This viewpoint infers that the only agriculture of value in Hawaii is large-scale, corporate-backed, chemically-dependent Ag that feeds no one and strips resources and profits out of the islands, with only toxic chemicals left behind.

The Grassroot Institute says it promotes Libertarian principles of small government but it seems that they do so not to empower individuals to express themselves and control their own and their community's destinies but rather they do so to allow off-island controlled corporations (endowed with the rights of free speech under the disastrous Supreme Court's Citizens United decision)  to do whatever they feel will generate the most profits, at the expense of the well-being of the people who actually live here.

Large scale, corporate controlled, chemically-dependent agriculture, as it has evolved over the past 25 years or so, is exploitative and never was sustainable. It is dying on Maui for the same reasons it is dying on the mainland and in countries that are standing up to the World Bank's and Monsanto's influence: consumers want to eat clean food and don't want to be poisoned by the Military Industrial Complex that is attempting to take over control of the world's food supply and profit from the sale of dangerous chemicals.

As people who make Maui our home we have the responsibility to stand up to these external economic and political forces, to protect our fragile environment and Tourist economy from the fallout of rampant chemical exposure, and to support the transition back to local, affordable and sustainable food production, so that we can return to growing 90% of what we eat rather than importing it.

How disingenuous for the libertarian Grassroot Institute to overlook the fact that HC&S's sugar production on Maui was financially viable only through Federal subsidies and price supports. That's small government?

Maui Causes's Mission:

Most agricultural land in Hawaii was essentially stolen from the Hawaiian people by the children of the missionaries, who, the saying goes, "came here to do good and ended up doing very well".

Over the years a few corporations and big money interests have become the beneficiaries of that theft and they are now doing all they can to protect their entitlement to exploit Hawaii's people and natural resources.

These pages are dedicated to exposing off-island influence, stripping away their entitlement, and returning control of Hawaii to the people who make it their home.

Exposing Conservative and Corporate Influence:

The Grassroot Institute has ties to very well funded conservative groups like the ALEC-connected, Franklin Center for Gov and Public Integrity and has been funded by CATO (Koch Brothers).  Malia Zimmerman, the secretary of the institute's board of directors, is also a co-founder of "Hawaii Reporter” a networked news organization funded by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity

The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, publisher of the site "Watchdog.org," is a national 501(c)(3) journalism organization based in Bismarck, North Dakota and started in 2009.[1] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-1>  According to a previous iteration of the organization's website, the group's mission involves "networking and training independent investigative reporters, as well as journalists from state based news organizations, public-policy institutions & watchdog groups."[2] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-2>  The Franklin Center funded state reporters in more than 40 states as of August 2011,[3] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-3>  and in 34 states as of May 2013.[4] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-2013_list-4>  Despite their non-partisan description, many of these websites have received criticism for their conservative bias.[5] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-5> [6] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-6>
At a time when there are fewer and fewer statehouse reporters -- as of the American Journalism Review's most recent count in 2009, there were 355 in the entire country, down from 524 in 2003,[7] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-7>  bluntly called a "statehouse exodus" by the same journal[8] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-8>  -- former Reuters chief White House correspondent Gene Gibbons described the rush of groups like the Franklin Center to fill the gap as follows: "an army of Internet start-ups, some practicing traditional journalism in a new medium, others delivering political propaganda dressed up as journalism -- are crawling all over the picnic. . . . At the forefront is the one-year-old Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity . . ."[9] <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity#cite_note-GibbonsKennedy-9>

Over 10,000 petition signatures submitted to the Maui County Clerk supporting the Maui Community Organic Farmland Initiative.

For more information or to show your financial support go to: www.communityfarmland.org

Thanks to our amazing Maui Ohana,
and to Nahko Bear of Medicine for the People for his support.

Maui County Agrees to Get Pono on Injection Wells!

This Friday, the injection well issue comes before the the County Council Committee of the Whole again. (See litigation matters (COW-1(3) Click Here)

Ellie Cochran's office now actually supports the current process. As we understand it today, Maui County is no longer fighting this issue, they are actually moving to resolve it.

The Council on Friday will hear a proposal to authorize another $350,000 to actualize a good settlement that has already been reached by all the involved parties.

Part of the settlement is for The County to work towards remediation of the injection well pollution. As well, they will be paying the legal fees of the plaintiff, who brought the lawsuit that forced their hands, and for a procedural appeal that is seen by all parties as the fastest way to resolve the whole legal issue.

Council Member Ellie Cochran has long advocated that Maui County stop fighting this battle in court and put our resources toward fixing the injection well problem instead. And that's why she is now suggesting that we, as a community, support this particular proposed $350,000 expenditure.

Please share your thoughts on this matter by emailing testimony to cow.committee@mauicounty.us or by testifying in person on the 8th floor of the county building on Friday, April 15 at 1:30 pm.

2016 Maui Earth Day Festival
Sunday April 17th, 2016, 10am-6pm
Ke‘opuolani Park Amphitheater, Kahului
(located behind Maui Nui Botanical Gardens and
opposite War Memorial Stadium Parking Lot)
$7 entrance fee, keiki free

Sign up now: Organizations, Vendors, Volunteers & Silent Auction Donations!

email: info@MauiEarthDay.org

Website: www.MauiEarthDay.org

Reposted From Maui Sierra Club:

Healoha Carmichael, a Native Hawaiian gatherer, stands in Honomanu Stream in East Maui near her home. The stream is completely dry due to Alexander and Baldwin’s water diversions. Carmichael and her ‘ohana face significant hardship in gathering food to feed their ‘ohana because of the diversions.

Tell Your Senator To Ask Senator Jill Tokuda Not To Hear HB 2501!
HERE’S WHY:
HB 2501 DOES NOT ADDRESS THE INJUSTICE IN EAST MAUI

Thank you for supporting the restoration of East Maui streams. The fight to protect East Maui kalo farmers and families is just beginning.  In the coming weeks, we are going to need your help to defeat HB 2501 because we are up against a multi-billion dollar corporation.

HB 2501 would allow, Alexander and Baldwin, a private corporation to continue de-watering the streams of East Maui despite having no use for this public water.  HB 2501 is still working its way through Hawaii’s legislative process. We need your help to stop this bill.

On March 21, 2016, HB2501 was amended by the Senate Water, Land, and Agriculture Committee.  The amendments appear to acknowledge the harm and injustice of the current diversions because they seek to shorten the time Alexander & Baldwin is allowed to take all the water from East Maui and appropriate funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources so that it can properly administer the law.  While these amendments may make the bill less egregious, it is not enough to address the incredible harm long-suffered by residents and farmers who do not have access to sufficient water on a daily basis because A&B takes so much water from East Maui streams.

HB 2501 HARMS EAST MAUI KALO FARMERS AND FAMILIES

Before a corporation diverts water from a stream, it must prove its diversion will not cause harm to downstream users. A&B has never done this. A&B has used BLNR’s illegal “holdover” authorization to avoid ever having to prove that its diversions cause no harm. Manipulation of the process has allowed A&B to divert millions of gallons of water every day regardless of the consequences. This must stop.

KNOW THE FACTS. DEMAND THE TRUTH.

HB2501 is tailor-made for A&B. It is the only entity with a “holdover” revocable permit and it is the only entity with a pending water lease application before the BLNR.
HB 2501 would reward a multi-billion dollar corporation for improperly taking water from the public, even if the courts conclude that the water diversions are illegal. The bill attempts to interfere with the judicial process and short change East Maui kalo farmers.
Giving A&B three more years to complete a process that started 15 years ago is UNFAIR – particularly after they have admitted that they do not need as much water as they have been taking. And they have not used the time they already had wisely. Where is the EIS? Where are the stream measurements?
Temporary bills do not address the issue.  They have a tendency to last a long time. Often the Legislature will repeal the provision to terminate a law at a later date.
There is no reason to continue this injustice any longer.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP.
The next step for the bill is the Senate Ways and Means Committee. East Maui residents and their supporters from across the Hawaiian Islands are currently working to convince the Chair of WAM to not hear HB2501.

You can help by contacting your own senator right now and asking him or her to ask Sen. Jill Tokuda to NOT HEAR HB2501 (phone numbers at the bottom).

CALL YOUR SENATOR TODAY!

LIST OF SENATORS
Baker, Rosalyn H.
Phone 808-586-6070
Fax 808-586-6071
E-Mail: senbaker@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 6 South and West Maui

Chun Oakland, Suzanne
Phone 808-586-6130
Fax 808-586-6131
E-Mail: senchunoakland@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 13 Liliha, Palama, Iwilei, Kalihi, Nu‘uanu, Pacific Heights, Pauoa, Lower Tantalus, Downtown

Dela Cruz, Donovan M.
Phone 808-586-6090
Fax 808-586-6091
sendelacruz@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 22 Mililani Mauka, Waipi‘o Acres, Wheeler, Wahiawa, Whitmore Village, portion of Poamoho

English, J. Kalani
Phone 808-587-7225
Fax 808-587-7230
E-Mail: senenglish@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 7 Hana, East and Upcountry Maui, Moloka‘i, Lana‘i, Kaho‘olawe

Espero, Will
Phone 808-586-6360
Fax 808-586-6361
E-Mail: senespero@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 19 ‘Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe, ‘Ewa by Gentry, Iroquois Point, portion of ‘Ewa Villages

Gabbard, Mike
Phone 808-586-6830
Fax 808-586-6679
E-Mail: engabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 20 Kapolei, Makakilo, and portions of ‘Ewa, Kalaeloa, and Waipahu

Galuteria, Brickwood
Phone 808-586-6740
Fax 808-586-6829
E-Mail: sengaluteria@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 12 Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kaka‘ako, McCully, Mo‘ili‘ili

Green, Josh
Phone 808-586-9385
Fax 808-586-9391
E-Mail: sengreen@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 3 Kona, Ka‘u

Harimoto, Breene
Phone 808-586-6230
Fax 808-586-6231
E-Mail: senharimoto@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 16 Pearl City, Momilani, Pearlridge, ‘Aiea, Royal Summit, ‘Aiea Heights, Newtown, Waimalu, Halawa, Pearl Harbor

Ihara, Les Jr.
Phone 808-586-6250
Fax 808-586-6251
E-Mail: senihara@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 10 Kaimuki, Kapahulu, Palolo, Maunalani Heights, St. Louis Heights, Mo‘ili‘ili, Ala Wai

Inouye, Lorraine
Phone 808-586-7335
Fax 808-586-7339
E-Mail: seninouye@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 4 Hilo, Hamakua, Kohala, Waimea, Waikoloa, Kona

Kahele, Kaiali’i
Phone 808-586-6760
Fax 808-586-6689
E-Mail: senkahele@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 1 Hilo

Keith-Agaran, Gilbert S.C.
Phone 808-586-7344
Fax 808-586-7348
E-Mail: senkeithagaran@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 5 Wailuku, Waihe‘e, Kahului

Kidani, Michelle N.
Phone 808-586-7100
Fax 808-586-7109
E-Mail: senkidani@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 18 Mililani Town, portion of Waipi‘o Gentry, Waikele, Village Park, Royal Kunia

Kim, Donna Mercado
Phone 808-587-7200
Fax 808-587-7205
E-Mail: senkim@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 14 Kapalama, ‘Alewa, Kalihi Valley, Ft. Shafter, Moanalua Gardens & Valley, portions of Halawa and ‘Aiea

Kouchi, Ronald D.
Phone 808-586-6030
Fax 808-586-6031
E-Mail: senkouchi@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 8 Kaua‘i, Ni‘ihau

Nishihara, Clarence K.
Phone 808-586-6970
Fax 808-586-6879
E-Mail: sennishihara@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 17 Waipahu, Crestview, Manana, Pearl City, Pacific Palisades

Riviere, Gil
Phone 808-586-7330
Fax 808-586-7334
E-Mail: senriviere@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 23 Kane‘ohe , Ka‘a‘awa, Hau‘ula, La‘ie, Kahuku, Waialua, Hale‘iwa, Wahiawa, Schofield Barracks, Kunia

Ruderman, Russell E.
Phone 808-586-6890
Fax 808-586-6899
E-Mail: senruderman@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 2 Puna, Ka‘u

Shimabukuro, Maile S.L.
Phone 808-586-7793
Fax 808-586-7797
E-Mail: senshimabukuro@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 21 Kalaeloa, Honokai Hale, Ko ‘Olina, Nanakuli, Ma‘ili, Wai‘anae, Makaha, Makua

Slom, Sam
Phone 808-586-8420
Fax 808-586-8426
E-Mail: senslom@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 9 Hawai‘i Kai, Kuli‘ou‘ou, Niu, ‘Aina Haina, Wai‘alae-Kahala, Diamond Head

Taniguchi, Brian T.
Phone 808-586-6460
Fax 808-586-6461
E-Mail: sentaniguchi@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 11 Manoa, Makiki, Punchbowl, Papakolea

Thielen, Laura H.
Phone 808-587-8388
Fax 808-587-7240
E-Mail: senthielen@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 25 Kailua, Lanikai, Enchanted Lake, Keolu Hills, Maunawili, Waimanalo, Hawai‘i Kai, Portlock

Tokuda, Jill N.
Hawaii State Capitol, Room 207
Phone 808-587-7215
Fax 808-587-7220
E-Mail: sentokuda@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 24 Kane‘ohe, Kane‘ohe MCAB, Kailua, He‘eia, ‘Ahuimanu

Wakai, Glenn
Phone 808-586-8585
Fax 808-586-8588
E-Mail: senwakai@capitol.hawaii.gov
District 15 Kalihi, Mapunapuna, Airport, Salt Lake, Aliamanu, Foster Village, Hickam, Pearl Harbor

If you aren’t sure who your Senator is, then go the to Hawai‘i Capitol website:http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/findleg.aspx… <http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/findleg.aspx…> )

Click Here for more instructions and to see who to call and what to say (If you have trouble, Click here to send an email to stuikol@gmail.com for help

Jane Sanders speaks on Maui about her husband Bernie Sanders, his many successes in getting legislation passed in the US Senate, and the changes he'll make as President to move the country away from Corporate and Big $ influence, to serve the People's Interests not the Banks. March 21st 2016.

Please Contribute to MAUI CAUSES - Crowd-Funded, Progressive Media Production on Maui

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ Associated Press  HONOLULU

A top Hawaii lawmaker is delaying a public records request because of a dispute that could hold up similar requests for years. The outcome will likely determine whether legislators can withhold emails, calendars and other information from the public, which watchdog groups see as crucial to government accountability.

The Associated Press recently sought emails and schedules of legislative leaders in all 50 states, and the request was met with more denials than approvals. Some lawmakers claimed legislative immunity from the public records laws that apply to most state officials, while others said secrecy was essential to making laws.

But a response from the Hawaii Senate president stood out because the reason for not providing records was a pending appeal of a different records request, suggesting the Senate could be walling off similar information requests for a year or more.

The issue began when a non-profit group asked for copies of communications between several senators, representatives and the agriculture industry on pesticides and genetically engineered crops, sensitive topics in Hawaii.

Two representatives denied the request, so the group — The Center for Food Safety — appealed their case to the state office that resolves disagreements about access to government records.

Hawaii law states all government records are open to the public unless access is restricted by law. There are exceptions allowed in state law for certain records, including draft working papers of legislative committees and personal files of members of the Legislature, meaning those can be withheld from the public.

The House and Senate are treated the same way in the public records law, and their lawyers' arguments in the Center for Food Safety case show a shared interest in limiting the amount of public records lawmakers are obliged to provide.

According to Amy van Saun, legal fellow for the Center For Food Safety, senators provided limited information in response to the center's request, while two representatives denied the request entirely, prompting the center to appeal both denials.

When The Associated Press asked for emails and calendars of Senate President Ronald Kouchi, a Senate attorney in a letter said Kouchi wasn't able to respond because of the pending appeals involving the Center for Food Safety, adding that the appeals are likely to determine the legislators' rights and obligations under the state Constitution and open records laws.

Kouchi and the attorney declined, through spokeswoman Jill Kuramoto, several requests made over a week to answer follow-up questions about the letter, including whether the Senate planned to delay all public records requests until the completion of the pending appeals.

Arguing against the Center for Food Safety appeals, an attorney for the House of Representatives said that based on the state constitution, individual legislators are immune from such requests. The Senate weighed in with letters making similar arguments to the House, saying any decision in the case would also impact the Senate.

The arguments made by the House prompted Brian Black, president and executive director of the Honolulu-based Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, to file a motion intervening in the Center for Food Safety case.

"Because they essentially said the individual legislators are exempt from the public records law, that just impacts way too many records on a wholesale basis," Black said in an interview. "I couldn't just let it pass."

When resolved, the appeals involving the Center for Food Safety could determine what emails, communications and meeting information individual lawmakers are required to disclose to the public.

"The reason that Hawaii passed their public records law is so that citizens can have some oversight to what the elected officials are doing," van Saun said. "And when they completely deny that access, in violation of that law, it just begs the question, what are they trying so desperately to cover up?"

House Speaker Joseph Souki said the Legislature is excused from providing emails and personal records because it allows lawmakers to talk freely with their constituents.

Black said he understands that argument, but it shouldn't be relevant to the Center for Food Safety case because they're asking for communications with lobbyists, not constituents.

Resolving the Center for Food Safety appeal will likely take a year or more, said Cheryl Kakazu Park, director of the state Office of Information Practices. The staff is working on finishing older cases, including two filed in 2013, she said. Once Park's office is done with the appeals, either party can take the matter up with the courts, meaning further delays.

"The Legislature is balking, and the public records law is not a law for providing information that you're comfortable disclosing," Black said. "It's a law that is intending to provide access to what the people are interested in getting, not what you're comfortable producing."

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/article67065457.html#storylink=cpy

Give your testimony today before 2 PM. It's not hard. Log in, or create an account at the State Website. http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/home.aspx
Search SB2659 and enter your testimony. You may want to write it out first and just copy and paste it into the state's site as there is a tendency for the site to log you out if you take too long writing.

Here's the testimony page for this bill http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=2659&year=2016

Here what we testified:

I find it absurd and insulting that testimony on Hemp research from A&B would be emphasized by Chairman Tsuji in his referral of this bill.

With all due respect to the institution, Hawaii's Government has long been measured as one of the most corrupt in America. Who is the face of that corruption? They are sitting in the room right now, look around!

A&B is not a farming operation and knows nothing about Hemp or any other crop research. After years of ignoring it, in Hemp they now see profit potential and they want to own it for their shareholders exclusively, to the detriment of the real farmers and people of Hawaii.

A&B's subsidiary HC&S also knows little about any real agriculture as they have only ever been engaged in sugar "production", which isn't really farming is it? HC&S is run by diesel mechanics not farmers.

Anyone who understands agriculture understands that Hawaii has an extremely wide range of climates and that there are a great number of varieties of Hemp.  A great part of the research to be done is to determine which climate is best for each variety of hemp so that we can maximize the many benefits of this important crop. To suggest that research should only be conducted at one site is ignorant at best.

At worst A&B's testimony and Chairman Tsuji's support of that testimony signals an attempt to create an unfair monopoly in Hemp production and they should all be called out for it.

In fact, I will go so far as to call for Clift Tsuji resignation as Chair of the Ag Committee. He has repeatedly abused his position to favor corporate interests that do not serve the larger agricultural community or the people of Hawaii. Tsuji represents institutional corruption at it's worst.

A&B also testified about making accommodations for a potential increase in THC levels above the Federal limit of 0.3% as a result of growing Hemp in Hawaii's tropical climate. That Federal limit, though written in law, was arbitrarily chosen and has no functional basis in reality. Across the board, every variety of Hemp has so little of THC in it that one would need to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole to get high. Though in the same Cannabis family, Hemp is quite different from Marijuana. It's just like the poppy seeds in your morning muffin are in the same plant family yet different from the poppies grown to make heroin.

Hemp production offers tremendous opportunities for both farmers and the makers of consumer products here in Hawaii and research into how best to grow it here should be pursued as openly, as widely and as vigorously as possible.

A&B and Clift Tsuji can go to Hell.

Respectfully submitted,
Sam Small,
Director, Maui Causes

If A&B would sell the land at market value, a compelling alternative emerges: forming an island-wide Maui Farm Cooperative. Every citizen of Maui could be either a worker-member or consumer-member with voting rights, profit shares, access to healthy island-grown food, even health care.

Under the umbrella of the Maui Farm Cooperative, independently managed divisions would oversee each main business branch: livestock, treecrops, vegetable crops, agritourism, composts, marketing, distribution, irrigation, education, and so on.

Maui Tomorrow and Permaculture Designer Jenny Pell have come up with ideas and possible solutions that would not only put Maui on the map as a leader in this systemic and holistic approach to agriculture, but could also create MORE jobs than our community is losing.  View or download the 52 page report from the Maui Tomorrow website...

It's worth noting that Maui Tomorrow and this proposal are not associated with the Community Organic Farmland Initiative that has recently held community meetings about creating a legal mechanism by with the County could force the sale of HC&S's land.  Two separate groups, two separate initiatives, two separate paths to a somewhat similar goal.

The Dept of Ag was giddy with anticipation in its Testimony on S.B. No. 2659, S.D. 2, entitled: A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP, "...we will establish an agency relationship with licensees throughout the State who will operate as extensions of the Department for the purposes of research on the growth, cultivation, and marketing of industrial hemp." The Dept praised the bill for providing "far more detail to moving industrial hemp forward than that proposed in Senate Bill No. 2787..."
There was a lot of testimony in favor of the bill which would allow and regulate Hemp research across the state and so The Committee on AGR recommended that "the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED." See testimony: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/Session2016/Testimony/SB2659_SD2_TESTIMONY_AGR_03-17-16_.PDF

Not so fast says A&B and Clift Tsuji.

A&B wants to amend the bill Big Time, and was kind enough to completely rewrite it such that all Hemp Research in Hawaii would be restricted to only ONE SINGLE SITE, to be determined by U. of H. (with, you can assume, input from A&B) closing the door on anyone else being able to advance the cause and get a foothold on the coming huge Hemp market.

How convenient for A&B to establish a monopoly on Hemp in Hawaii. And what a betrayal of the public trust for Tsuji to support it.

Even though his own committee recommended that the bill pass UNAMENDED, Tsuji wrote to Joe Souki to say "Should the Committees on Judiciary and Finance deliberate on this measure, your Committee on Agriculture respectfully requests that ... The Committees on Judiciary and Finance examine and evaluate the merits of the proposed revisions to this bill submitted by Alexander & Baldwin, Inc."  http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2016/CommReports/SB2659_SD2_HSCR1098-16_.htm

Just another day in Hawaii where the interests of Corporate Profits trump the public's well being and our Senate Lap Dogs lick up the Juice.

So keep your eyes peeled for notice of the next hearing and be ready to testify against A&B's suggestion that there be only one site for hemp research in Hawaii.

And to be fair, one of A&B's suggested changes is not completely without merit, they astutely observed that the THC content of Hemp grown in the tropics could push the legal boundary of 0.3% (which is meaningless really, you would need to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole to get high from industrial hemp)  but because of the way federal laws are written that eventuality should be planned for.   But restricting Hemp research to only U. of H. and  only one site is absurd.

Administration Shifts Developers’ Costs to Taxpayers
By David Cain, Attorney, Wailuku

The County of Maui holds a recorded lien on thousands of properties in Maui County which have no formula or ceiling for assessments to property owners. The county administration has taken the position they can send out random bills to property owners and if left unpaid, the property can be taken through foreclosure by the County of Maui in the same fashion as property taxes.

This form of assessment by the administration violates the Maui County Charter. Assessments must be adopted by ordinance by the Maui County Council and placed in the County Budget after annual public hearings. A politically appointed director cannot dictate the amounts owed.

As a bankruptcy and criminal law attorney who has just learned that my own home has one of these defective liens on my property, I conclude this form of infringement of land title is unconstitutional. Simply put, a government cannot record an encumbrance on a citizen’s land that can lead to a taking without some form of valuation or ability for the property owner to remove the cloud on title.

The liens are a result of incomplete developer subdivision improvements along property frontages that were “deferred” by the Department of Public Works through a subdivision ordinance adopted by the Maui County Council in 1974. My findings conclude the original intent of the ordinance was to provide relief for local families wishing to divide their land into parcels involving 3 lots or less.

Unknown to the public for almost four decades, the administration and corporation counsel has secretly expanded the recordation of the “3 Lots or Less” deferral agreements to include massive tracts of land resulting in large subdivisions, commercial properties, and multi-family condominiums.

Unknowingly, citizens end up picking up the developer’s entire roadway improvement tab costing taxpayer’s millions of dollars. The developers end up paying nothing. The administration and corporation counsel continue to deny any wrong doing. The fact they have concealed these developer deferral agreements from our elected council members and the public for 13 years speaks otherwise. They have deemed the public requests for full disclosure “an interruption of a legitimate government function.”

Through the exhausting efforts of West Maui resident Christopher Salem, a 13 year battle to obtain copies of these subdivision agreements from corporation counsel has been accomplished with the quiet efforts of unnamed employees of the County of Maui. One by one, thousands of properties affected by the illegitimate recorded agreements have been cataloged and plotted on Google aerial maps. The degree of manipulation of the Maui County Code is appalling. Evidence now suggests a similar abuse has occurred with uncollected developer park fees.

The administration and corporation counsel have knowingly and intentionally shifted private developers’ financial obligations to the public. This is an inexcusable violation of Section 9-12 of the Maui County Charter which allows for government officials to be held personally liable and be removed from office for incurring a public expense in violation of the policies and procedures adopted by ordinance. It doesn’t take a lawyer to figure out how the dishonorable exploitation of the Maui County Code has already resulted in public funds being spent on private developer obligations.

Mayor Arakawa attempted to clean up this mess by instructing JoAnne Johnson Winer and Christopher Salem to adopt through legislation a formula of assessment. Going against the mayor’s wishes, corporation counsel slammed the door on a resolution to shield their questionable decision-making.

For property owners, the harmful effect of these open ended liens is just beginning to be realized. Prominent professional appraisers and real estate brokers in Maui County have denied representation of properties with these unexplainable county clouds on citizens title. The potential ripple effect on bank loans and real property disclosures is overwhelming.

I am stepping forward to alert my fellow citizens of the destructive impact of these unexplainable clouds on our property titles. Citizens of Maui County are called upon to demand their elected officials to investigate this administrative misconduct to prevent escalation to the courts. These developer liens must be immediately removed from our property titles.

To protect your property rights, contact Public Works Director David Goode (270-7845) and your elected representatives to demand full disclosure on the county website of all properties affected by these illegitimate county liens.

Here's a write up by Maui Time Weekly from 2013 http://mauitime.com/culture/wondering-if-the-county-of-maui-will-ever-clean-up-the-mess-known-as-deferral-agreements-and-collect-the-unpaid-debts-owed-to-tax payers/

Administration’s Estimate of Waste-to-Energy Net Cost Off by $35M

Reposted from Maui Now

An audit of the county’s Solid Waste Division reveals the county’s 20-year waste-to-energy contract is projected to cost $1.7 million per year more than presented to the council, Budget and Finance Committee Chair Riki Hokama announced today.

In January 2014, Mayor Alan Arakawa signed a 20-year agreement with Maui Recovery Facility LLC and Anaergia Services, with the administration stating annual savings to the county would be $916,500, compared to current landfill operations.

The audit, transmitted to the Budget and Finance Committee today by Council Chair Mike White, reveals the project will actually cost the county $835,000 per year over and above current operations, according to a press release.

“So, instead of a cost savings of $18.3 million, as announced by the administration when the contract was signed, there is a projected extra expense to Maui County taxpayers of $16.7 million for the term of the contract,” the press release stated. “This results in a $35 million cost disparity, according to the audit,” according to the announcement.

The cost savings were predicated on significant reductions in labor, operating and construction costs at the Central Maui Landfill, according to the audit, conducted by CB&I Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc.

“The analysis done by CB&I raises many concerns with the contract signed by the mayor,” Hokama said. “Instead of savings, the county may now see higher costs in the amount of $35 million over the 20-year life of the contract.

“Most important, I question the authority of the administration to sign off on such a project with large cost implications.”

Hokama said the waste-to-energy agreement was proposed by the administration as a “no-cost” contract. So there was no legal basis for council approval of the contract.

CB&I’s audit estimated cost reductions at the Central Maui Landfill would not be directly proportional to the reduction in landfill tonnage, as assumed in the Department of Environmental Management’s projected model.

The audit was initiated by the Maui County Council after concerns over staffing and regulatory issues arose during discussions for the fiscal year 2015 budget. The council questioned why additional staffing was needed when a significant staff reduction in staff was anticipated with adoption of the waste-to-energy project, Hokama said.

CB&I’s audit also concluded the county’s Solid Waste Division of the Department of Environmental Management is positioned to operate its solid waste facilities at current levels and maintain regulatory compliance. Hokama said the department was afforded an opportunity to provide comments on the audit and did not provide justification to dispute CB&I’s findings.

CB&I Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc. is a nationally recognized solid waste consulting group with extensive experience in assessments of public solid waste systems and has completed solid waste projects in island settings.

The committee will discuss and receive a presentation on the audit on Tuesday, March 15, 9 a.m. at Council Chamber. A copy of the audit is posted on MauiCounty.us/solidwasteaudit and testimony may be submitted to bf.committee@mauicounty.us.

By Nation of Change Staff - February 28, 2016

HC&S's fields below Makawao seem to have been planted with Thistle. Really gnarly thistle. Anyone know if it's just to keep people out of the fields? or is this a crop or soil amendment?

What HC&S does with it's fields after sugar cane will effect us all. Do you have a voice in the matter? The Water and Burn Permits they pulled for years, and the burning of coal are now being seen as violations of the public trust. Right to Farm bills are intended to strip you of your rights.

Click on image to hear more from Gov. Ige who claims Hawaii is a leader in Conservation. Really? 

Gov Ige shares his excitement that Hawaii was selected as the first ever US venue for the The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the world’s largest conservation event to be held here Sept 1 -10 2016, because, says Ige, Hawaii is such a shining example of conservation efforts, a model for the world. Really?

We suggest that just the opposite is true. It’s just as easy to assert that Hawaii was chosen for this once in 4 years event because what’s going on here is among the most critical, evolving, man-made environmental disasters in the world. The conservationists are coming to try to save Hawaii not praise it.

It wasn’t so long ago that farms in Hawaii grew 90% of our food, with tons more going to export. Today farming in Hawaii has been given over to corporate driven, chemical-based “agricultural manufacturing” of seed products for export. So complete has this takeover been that we now are forced to import 90% of the food we eat and our delicate environment is being subjected to the massive risks posed by world’s largest array of open-field testing of unique biological creations and chemical cocktails, including and especially Round Up. whose active ingredient Gylphosate is a weak antibiotic and endocrine disruptor. Persistent exposure to weak antibiotics is a known path to disease as it fosters resistance, expressed as super bugs and super weeds and throws off the natural balance of beneficial bacteria that all life forms life rely on. Glyphosate is suspected to cause Leaky Gut Syndrome, Obesity, Gluten Intolerance http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/ Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and a host of other dysfunctions http://ecowatch.com/2015/01/23/health-problems-linked-to-monsanto-roundup/ including many women's issues because Round Up has been found to hinder Lactobacillus bacteria which is necessary for proper vagina flora balance. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22362186 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginal_flora

Here on Maui Monsanto and Dow spent millions and still failed to ward off a community-driven electoral initiative to require independent testing of their field practices. The community here still desperately wants to know that their children are not being harmed by corporate abuse of our deeply-flawed, corporation-designed federal regulatory system and woefully understaffed and underfunded state oversight. In spite of Big Ag's massive spending, the most ever for any local ballot initiative, Maui's voters approved the motion and the companies are now spending even more fighting the people's wishes in court.

HC&S’s decision to suspend sugar cane production was not only based on wet weather and a drop in sugar prices. The permitting process by which the company takes its water from public lands and which allow it to fill our air with toxic cane smoke are now being reviewed by the courts as violations of the public trust by state agencies. As well, a scam that was recently exposed whereby HC&S sold electricity generated from burning coal instead of bagasse in their sugar mill (that has no air pollution scrubbers), also contributed cane’s downfall.

Hawaii’s current agricultural system is not at all sustainable and with any luck this confluence here of people who know what they are talking about will serve to blow this issue up to world exposure and force our state and county governments to right this deadly wrong. We grow only 10% of the food we eat. Who will feed our people if the boats stop coming or a tsunami destroys our ports? The state’s efforts to re-establish food security here have been anemic at best.

The governor does mention trying to establish diversified Ag parks on all the islands, enhancing the Ag loan program to facilitate opportunities for small farmers, and skewing the Dept. of Ag's attention away from corporate Ag towards the needs of small farmers. We applaud all these actions, they can't happen fast enough. The Governor also acknowledges that the state has a problem when it comes to staffing it's agencies. For some reason they can't seem to find and hire qualified people. What is up with that?

One would think, especially with such a gathering happening here, that the Governor would be racing to enhance and increase Hawaii’s bragging rights on sustainability by supporting demonstration projects of farming techniques like ultra low-cost Korean Natural Farming. KNF has been adopted by the entire nation of South Korea and is winning favor the world over wherever Monsanto, Dow, Pioneer, Syngenta and the other chemical companies have not been allowed to dominate agricultural practices. Korean Natural Farming relies on enhancing the biodiversity of soil microbes and bacteria rather than killing them with Round-Up. The chemical companies view KNF just as they do GMO labeling and Maui’s GM Moratorium, as their enemy against which they will go to no end to stop.

Hawaii should be racing to support clinical studies of techniques like ultra low-cost Korean Natural Farming rather than allowing Monsanto to support a UH student’s Masters Thesis that explicitly seeks to discredit KNF.

There are a few measures before the legislature currently that will support the development of diversified non-chemical based Ag. HB2568 makes an appropriation for a nutrient cycling center pilot project on Maui. Testify at http://capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=2586&year=2016

SB1043 on invasive species would fund a pilot project to deal with little fire ants, coconut rhinoceros beetles, and coqui frogs. Testify at http://capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=1043&year=2016

Also please join and support your local chapter of Hawaii Farmers Union United​
They support pilot programs across Hawaii that support all forms of diversified AG.

Gov Ige’s campaign organization staged this “Chow Fun with the Governor” talk story event in a Kahului elementary school. His campaign only announced the event a few days before. The Maui News, after initially posting the event, for some reason subsequently removed the notice from their website. Members of the press were told it was by invitation only, which wasn’t the case. Hardly any press or community activists showed up. In fact there wasn’t much of a turnout at all. But there were good questions from the audience and we’ll air a full length version on our Akaku show, Mondays and Sundays at 7PM on Ch 55.

Thanks for viewing.

Thanks for viewing.

The fire is ours,
The hour is now,
The tide is set to turn...

Rise up and BERN

Aloha Hempsters…please submit testimony and share with your lists
The Hemp Bill we've been waiting for!!!
The first hearing for Hawaii's Industrial Hemp Bill HB2555 has been set. This bill supports opening up the growing of industrial hemp to all of Hawaii! The bill was introduced by Rep Ing and has been signed by 35 House Reps!!!!

TESTIMONY NEEDED NOW
The first hearing for Hawaii's Industrial Hemp Bill HB2555 has been set. This bill supports opening up the growing of industrial hemp to all of Hawaii! The bill was introduced by Rep Ing and has been signed by 35 House Reps!!!!

Your voice is greatly needed!
Please take 5 minutes and submit testimony...it's easy and necessary for this bill to become law.

Copy and Paste link below to submit testimony:
http://tinyurl.com/zd8n7fy <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fzd8n7fy&h=mAQFjauJCAQFwU3gVrp4spT1yCY8RWLWp0niSugXhiXtoew&enc=AZO24WstAOi7NMlyGobSn48jgNBSBkXCndGndSNGTeGjxeIvxYKmFdR-Xm7lmRbAoB7lY7shL0aQ1nu8PjZG6ojnl9RW5N_kyrmjtyVi4z0P09o1YCnScf2McAa1TQ-wBTo3N0KwAqDRXYjpAu2jM-t6gSanb_K98emDUPsyTkU3jKlc5JAYajc49mWgm1jZluwXSFGlOUmvnVnidCgq79dA&s=1>

When submitting testimony Remember to check the SUPPORT button or it defaults to comment only
If you would like to write in testimony you can copy and paste the sample testimony below or write your own.
You can also just click support and not add a testimony.

Sample testimony:

I strongly support HB2555
27 US states have already passed industrial hemp legislation. Hawaii is in a unique position to grow industrial hemp year round proven by the research done by UH over the past 2 years with it’s pilot program .It’s time to expand this program to all Hawaii’s Farmers and Ag companies alike. If Hawaii is to be on the leading edge of this multi-million dollar industry Hawaii farmers and Large Agriculture companies need to be able to grow this crop now!
Expanding the growing of industrial hemp to all Hawaii will give farmers the opportunity to grow this crop and develop seed and strains that will boost our economy while helping to clean our soil and reduce our dependency on imports.

Respectfully yours

(your name)

Please submit your testimony by Thursday 2/11/16 , 2 PM

Steve Rose
President / C.E.H.

Maui Hemp Institute for Research & Innovation
95 Lipoa Street  Kihei, HI 96753
“It’s Hempin’in …Maui Style"
808-357-4564

Copyright

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments about whether to overturn a federal judge's ruling last year that struck down a Maui County voter-approved moratorium on genetically modified organisms.

As we've been saying - electricity sales is why A&B kept farming sugar long after it became difficult to make a profit. So this is a double win for the environment: Shutting down the coal plant (that didn't have proper pollution control because of it being a sugar mill) and stopping the cane burning.
-------------------------------

January 10, 2016  Honolulu Star-Advertiser  By Andrew Gomes

Two heavy body blows and maybe a near knockout punch.

That’s what Hawaii’s only remaining sugar plantation took before its owner decided last week to throw in the towel and close the 36,000-acre Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. farm on Maui by year’s end.

The body blows — low sugar production and prices — were nothing new in the sugar farming industry. But the other punch was an unusual one with a stinging impact.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc., the kamaaina owner of HC&S, said its main reasons for ending 146 years of sugar cane farming and shuttering the plantation with 675 employees was two bad years of low sugar production and prices that put a roughly $33 million dent in net income last year and had little prospect of being turned around.

But the company also lost a lucrative deal late last year to supply Maui Electric Co. with power that would have provided HC&S with $19 million in projected revenue this year and next year, according to documents filed with the state Public Utilities Commission.

HC&S generates electricity by burning the fiber known as bagasse left over from processed cane, as well as coal, in a boiler to power its sugar mill and irrigation pumps. A smaller hydroelectric system on the farm also provides power. Historically, HC&S sold extra power to Maui Electric on terms that significantly helped the agricultural operation.

For instance, Maui Electric used to pay HC&S $1.8 million a year just for its commitment to provide power.

However, Maui Electric, which once relied on HC&S for about 10 percent of its electricity supply, sought in recent years to amend the power-purchase agreement in part due to its effort to move electrical generation toward more renewable sources and reduce use of dirtier sources such as coal.

HC&S, which ships raw sugar to California on a company-owned ship, would fill the ship with coal for the return trip to Hawaii. In 2014 the company burned 57,100 tons of coal, according to A&B’s most recent annual financial report.

Efforts to amend the power-purchase agreement resulted in HC&S reducing its power supply to Maui Electric at the beginning of last year to 8 megawatts from 12 megawatts. Then in October, Maui Electric stopped buying power altogether from HC&S except in emergencies under another amendment the PUC approved in September.

A loss of millions

According to the amendment request, Maui Electric is expected to pay HC&S $323,936 this year instead of $19.5 million under the prior agreement. Next year the expected payment is $94,736 instead of $19.4 million.

A&B declined to confirm the cuts described in the Maui Electric filing but said the loss of power sales, taken together with challenging sugar production volume and anticipated prices near 30-year lows, made prospects for continued losses high.

“...

Like other plantations, HC&S used technology to reduce labor. The company’s workforce of 675 is down from 776 in 2008, 1,300 in 1985 and 3,390 in 1949.

...

The yearly sugar production goal for HC&S had been 225,000 tons, which was last achieved in 1999. Benjamin said the “magic number” to generate more revenue than costs is around 200,000 tons. Last year production totaled 136,000 tons, and the operating loss for A&B’s agribusiness division, mainly HC&S, was $30 million.

The year before, production was 162,100 tons, and the operating loss was $12 million.

...

Benjamin said he doesn’t expect the recent weather patterns to change. And on top of the production outlook, low prices and lost power sales, changing regulatory restrictions and growing community opposition to historical practices such as burning cane added to HC&S’ headaches and resulted in the decision to shut down.

Karen Chun, a Maui cane burning activist, explains why HC&S is really shutting its sugar operation down.

"All the other sugar operations went out of business because Hawaii's land, water, power, tax and labor costs are higher than the mainland, Australia and Brazil with whom they compete.

A&B kept their sugar going because it gave them cover for their scam to sell MECO coal energy and call it "renewable" by pretending it was generated by bagasss (left over cane).

Due to our actions, the EPA and PUC became aware of this scam and the price A&B got for their coal-power was adjusted downward. That is most likely the biggest cause of the huge $30million loss last year.

Note to A&B - if you had just stopped burning cane, you might still be making a ton of money by cheating Maui ratepayers with your coal as renewable energy scam - karma is a bitch."

See more at http://stopcaneburning.org/

Sugar cane production on Maui is ending, nearly 350 jobs will be lost and as many more are at risk. The sad truth is that it didn’t have to happen this way.

For decades members of the Maui community have been trying to engage HC&S in a dialog to carefully construct an intelligent exit strategy to move away from sugar cane burning. HC&S steadfastly refused to seriously consider alternatives to sugar cane production and they now find their backs up against an economic wall because of, they say, rainy weather.

Cane burning may indeed stop before the end of 2016 if, as expected, Judge Cardoza grants in February a preliminary injunction resulting from a current lawsuit that shows that the regulatory process through which HC&S is granted it’s burn permits is unconstitutional.

They blame the weather. I blame their arrogance and greed.

If the company really cared for the community here, the way they claim, they would have long ago embarked down the diversification road they are now being forced, and are ill prepared, to take.

If left to their own devices HC&S will surely continue to exploit the natural resources and people of Maui with no regard to what is righteous or pono. The company is, after all, in business today as a result of the shameful and illegal practices of the colonial, plantation takeover of Hawaiian lands and indentured servitude (slavery).

For example:

The company pays next to nothing for water that EMI diverts away from streams. Water that would otherwise support indigenous farming. They do little to maintain the integrity of the water system such that much of the water that is diverted is lost to anyone’s use.

The company and regulators refuse to acknowledge years of proof that the poisonous chemicals that are regularly sprayed leave the fields and adversely effect agricultural practices and lives elsewhere on Maui.

The company and regulators also refuse to acknowledge that the air monitors they have placed to monitor cane smoke are the wrong type and poorly placed to do the job.

Predictably, signs are already showing of new forms of exploitation being devised. In anticipation of expanding the cattle industry here The Cattleman's Association recently removed from their website their oath (written in 1996) to provide protection from the elements for cattle. President Alex Franco has reportedly already approached the Council to remove animal welfare protections on Maui so they won't have to provide shade.

What’s next, changes to Maui’s zoning laws that would allow A&B more real estate to develop? Leases to Monsanto for more under-regulated, mixed-chemical, open-field experimentation?

Our hope is that with the power of the internet and social activism this community will be able to reveal, track and block each new ugly attempt the company makes to transfer profits off the island and avoid doing what is right for Maui.

With the end of sugar cane mono-cropping the extremely depleted soils in those fields will need remediation before other diversified crops will grow there. Erosion control will be essential. If HC&S's narrow-minded practices persist and A&B continues to withhold infrastructure investments, the transition out of cane will surely be a disaster for Maui.

What will happen to Maui's energy costs and air as they keep their ancient power plant going by burning more and more coal instead of sugar cane?  That plant is near the end of its life and after all these years of taking profits out of Maui they have made zero investments in what comes next.

Not so long ago very little food had to be imported here. Today Maui eats 85% to 95% imported food. As well, the islands are already saturated with more agricultural chemicals than what our delicate ecosystem can tolerate. HC&S wouldn't bother to consider it before but now they must be led into developing crops like industrial hemp, bamboo and regenerative food producing agriculture that are decidedly not dependent on chemicals.

There are many, many options that can evolve our agricultural economy in sustainable, non-chemically dependent ways that don’t require federal subsidies, so that Maui’s agricultural workers can stand proudly and not on the backs of taxpayers.

We support legislation that would allow Hawaii’s public school lunches to stop serving millions of pounds of imported apples and off-island bananas, to be replaced with tropical fruits that can be grown here.

Shame on HC&S for arrogantly refusing change, for ignoring the obvious, eventual demise of sugar on Maui and for not doing what they could sooner to protect those 675 jobs.

Many pundits say both. On the positive side, 185 global leaders have finally acknowledged a unified understanding of the scope and seriousness of the climate crisis.

Here is a photo of climate activists in a demonstration at the Eiffel Tower demanding the shift to 100% renewable energy.

Join GO GREEN at the Sustainability Summit 2016.

Many say that the levels of CO2 reduction set by the voluntary national programs of COP 21 are not enough. Left at their current levels, this will result in ecological disasters, severe and broad scale human suffering, and costs that are expected to exceed $250 billion per year. We need to do more than our leaders have set out for us.

Bill McKibben stated in Paris, “Now the real work must begin in earnest.” 

The global leaders have spoken. Many experts are saying it will be up to sustainability leaders and professionals on the local and regional levels to make the substantive shifts needed in carbon output, renewable energy, restored ecosystems, and more.

The Sustainability Summit 2016 is designed to support the accelerated success of local sustainability professionals and activists. Hundreds of proven projects and programs, including the 100 Top Best Practices of Sustainable Communities, will be shared at the Summit in July, a mere 8 months away. Don’t miss out on this important information. You will be empowered to more rapidly and cost effectively advance your corporate, organizational, and/or municipal sustainability goals. We expect Delegates to use this knowledge and wisdom to save their companies and local governments hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on future sustainability investments.

Sign up now to be a Delegate at the Sustainability "Solutions" Summit 2016. Help your group avoid being part of the $250 billion short fall next year.

Here is a photo of San Francisco modified to show what the city could look like in 2050 based on a 12 foot rise in sea level.

Copyright © 2015 Go Green Culture Foundation, Used by permission. 

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Free event with Keali'i Reichel, Bishop Silva of Honolulu and more.  Hosted by Mary Omwake.

Maui Seasons for Peace - Interfaith Service Ceremony

Fri, 11 Dec 2015 @ 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM HST

UH Maui College Pilina Multipurpose Bldg
310 W Kaahumanu Ave.
Kahului,HI 96732

Maui Seasons for Peace invites you, friends and family to attend its interfaith ceremony on December 11, 2015 at the University of Hawaii Maui College Pilina Multipurpose Room from 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

One of Maui Seasons for Peace signature yearly events is to honor Peace Heroes of Maui. These are individuals, groups or organizations that are contributing to the well-being of our community and making a positive difference. We are proud to annouce that this year we will be presenting the Peace Hero Award to: Kealii Reichel, Jonathan Keyser and Ian Romanchak of Kula Native Nursery, and Kainoa Horcajo.

Maui Seasons for Peace Program

Maui Seasons for Peace -

This Friday at 7:00 PM - UH Maui Pilani Room

Free event with Bishop Silva of Honolulu, Keali'i Reichel, Ram Dass, Bodhi and Leilah Be.

Hosted by Mary Omwake.

Honoring Peace Heroes Keali'i Reichel, Kainoa Horcajo and Maui Native Nursery.

Toxic pesticide banned on genetically engineered crops  From The Pesticide Action Network

Washington D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), responding to litigation, has announced it is revoking the registration of “Enlist Duo.” Approved by the agency just over a year ago, Enlist Duo is a toxic combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D that Dow AgroSciences created for use on the next generation of genetically engineered crops, designed to withstand being drenched with this potent herbicide cocktail. In its court filing, EPA stated it is taking this action after realizing that the combination of these chemicals is likely significantly more harmful than it had initially believed.
This action resolves a year-long legal challenge filed by a coalition of conservation groups seeking to rescind the approval of the dangerous herbicide blend. EPA had approved use of Enlist Duo in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and North Dakota, and had intended to approve it in additional areas in the near future.
Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety, on behalf of Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Working Group, the National Family Farm Coalition, and Pesticide Action Network North America, had challenged EPA’s failure to consider the impacts of Enlist Duo on threatened and endangered plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Act requires that every federal agency consider the impacts of its actions on our nation’s most imperiled plants and animals and seek input from the expert wildlife agencies before plunging ahead, which EPA had refused to do.
"The decision by EPA to withdraw the illegally approved Enlist Duo crops is a huge victory for the environment and the future of our food," said George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety's senior attorney. “We will remain vigilant to ensure industry does not pressure the agency into making the same mistake in the future."

“With this action, EPA confirms the toxic nature of this lethal cocktail of chemicals, and has stepped back from the brink,” said Earthjustice Managing Attorney Paul Achitoff. “Glyphosate is a probable carcinogen and is wiping out the monarch butterfly, 2,4-D also causes serious human health effects, and the combination also threatens endangered wildlife. This must not, and will not, be how we grow our food.”

Dow created Enlist crops as a quick fix for the problem created by “Roundup Ready” crops, the previous generation of genetically engineered crops designed to resist the effects of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. Just as overuse of antibiotics has left resistant strains of bacteria to thrive, repeated use of Roundup on those crops allowed glyphosate-resistant “superweeds” to proliferate, and those weeds now infest tens of millions of acres of U.S. farmland. Enlist crops allow farmers to spray both glyphosate and 2,4-D without killing their crops, which they hope will kill weeds resistant to glyphosate alone. But some weeds have already developed 2,4-D resistance, and the escalating cycle of more toxic pesticides in the environment will continue unless EPA stops approving these chemicals, and USDA stops rubber-stamping new genetically engineered crops.
“This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for EPA taking this important action to protect people, rare plants, and animals from Enlist Duo,” said Lori Ann Burd, Environmental Health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “As we gather with our families for the holiday feast, we can all breathe a little bit easier knowing that EPA has protected our food from being drenched with this poisonous pesticide cocktail.”
Judy Hatcher, executive director of Pesticide Action Network, commented: "EPA is taking a step in the right direction, but Enlist Duo shouldn’t have been given the green light in the first place. Too often, GE seeds and the herbicides designed to accompany them are rushed to market without thorough evaluation of their real-world impacts on community health and farmer livelihoods."

Earlier this week, a Monsanto research facility in France was burned to the ground. Monsanto and investigators suspect an arsonist was responsible for the blaze.

Monsanto representative Jakob Witten told Reuters that investigators “strongly suspect it was a crime as no electrical or other sources were found.”He added that “No Monsanto sites in Europe have so far been the victim of fires of criminal origin, this is unprecedented violence.”

The fire had multiple points of origin, meaning it is unlikely the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction or other natural causes. Investigators also noticed a strong smell of gasoline in different areas of the site.

France announced in June that it was banning sales of Roundup, Monsanto’s flagship herbicide, amid public pressure and the World Health Organization’s announcement that the product is probably carcinogenic. Further, last month the country announced it was strengthening its ban on genetically modified crops. Monsanto is one of the most hated corporations on the planet and faces particularly strong resistance in France. If the fire is confirmed to have been arson, it is possible this vociferous opposition might have been a motivating factor.

Nevertheless, the recent fire is merely the tip of the iceberg with regard to Monsanto’s recent problems.

The company recently moved to close three different research facilities to save money in the face of declining profits. As Reuters reported last week, Monsanto research centers in Middleton, Wisconsin, Mystic, Connecticut, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, will soon be closed to cut costs.

Last month, the infamous company announced it would be cutting 2,600 jobs — 12% of its workforce — in order to lower costs. Monsanto also announced a loss of 19 cents per share in the most recent quarter. Profits are expected to remain low throughout the year.

The Associated Press reported that Monsanto lost $156 million in the final quarter of last year alone, and this year is expected to be even worse.