kcerizo@mauinews.com
The Maui County Council is mulling whether to again push back the adoption deadline for the Maui Island Water Use Development Plan, a blueprint for protection, management and water use over a 20-year period.
Members of the council’s Agriculture and Public Trust Committee indicated during their meeting Tuesday that they will likely postpone the deadline until September or longer. The council voted last November to extend the deadline from Dec. 31 to June 30.
Committee Chairman Shane Sinenci said council members and the community want several updates to the plan, and funding is not available to contract out the job. Instead, Office of Council Services staff has agreed to do the work in-house.
mtanji@mauinews.com
A diverse slate of nine residents was recommended by a Maui County Council committee on Tuesday to sit on a commission tasked with updating Maui County’s main guiding document.
If approved by the full council, the nine nominees will join two mayoral appointees on the Charter Commission, which will meet from March 1 to July 1, 2022 to study and review the Maui County Charter, which outlines the responsibilities of the local government from the mayor to the council and each department. The commission convenes every 10 years and proposes charter amendments that are put to the vote in the next general election and can change the way the county operates.
The Maui News
Every 10 years, a group of residents gather to review the Maui County Charter, the guiding document for local government. This year, the council will nominate nine members of the Charter Commission, while the mayor will nominate two. Here are the nine council nominees:
⢠Grant Chun, current executive director for Hale Mahaolu; former managing director of Maui County from 1999 to 2002; A&B Properties vice president, 2002-17. Nominated by Council Chairwoman Alice Lee (Wailuku).
⢠Keoni Kuoha, interim executive director, Maui AIDS Foundation, February 2019 to May 2019; executive director, Papahana Kuaola, 2016-19; coordinator, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries/NOAA, 2011-14; faculty, Kamehameha Schools Maui, 2007-11. Nominated by Council Vice-Chairwoman Keani Rawlins-Fernandez (Molokai). Kuoha is from Maui, as there were no applicants from Molokai.