Gladys Baisa, 2010 candidate for Upcountry Maui Council, Transcript: Introduction: My Name is Gladys Coelho Baisa and I am currently the Upcounty Council Member serving a second term, and I’m running for a third term on the County Council–thankfully unopposed.  Some of the items that I’m very concerned about, and continue to be concerned about from [...]

Nearly 4,000 Hawaii households will receive a final knock on the door from local Census workers within the next few weeks, as the U.S. Census Bureau wraps up data collection.   The operations, called Nonresponse Residual Followup, will seek to clarify information on 2010 Census forms that were either mailed back late, incomplete, or unclear [...]

Today is the county’s first government imposed furlough Friday.  Closed today are all county service centers and satellite offices, payment windows, administrative offices, permitting facilities and senior centers as well as the Maui fire department’s fire prevention bureau and the police department’s records and id section.  Pools are open—following a previously announced one-day per week [...]

Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares returned to the council yesterday (Tuesday, May 18, 2010) urging members to restore full funding for the South Maui Park and the Fire Department’s helicopter.  Tavares said the deletion of $250,000 for Countywide Parks Facilities would hamper the completion of Phase 1A of the South Maui Community Park.  She said reduction [...]

“I heard today a number of the departments defending their turf, and that’s fine, I understand.  I’ve been through those kinds of exercises when I was in the business world—you come in and you justify your expenses, positions, expansions and deletions.  They did a good job and I respect that.  It’s our responsibility now to [...]

“I think this morning was quite difficult for me to just listen to some of the testimony, especially when the bulk of the testimony came from a good number of our own departments,” said Molokai council member Danny Mateo. “It bothered me to hear some divisions talk about: ‘if the proposals says as it is, [...]

“When I listened today to the different departments and their reasons for restoring funding, their reasons make sense; however in this time of three years of constant cuts, still we see from property taxes and the general fund that it is diminishing,” said councilmember Wayne Nishiki. “We in Maui County have not laid off one [...]

Governor Linda Lingle today announced that the State is moving forward with plans to build an estimated $235 million jail facility in Puunene, Maui.  The project, planned for location within the former Puunene Airport area along Mokulele Highway, is aimed at replacing the aged and overcrowded existing Maui Community Correctional Center and provide for anticipated [...]

By Wendy Osher The County’s Air Ambulance could be saved under a proposal raised today before the Council’s Budget and Finance Committee. After initially requesting the elimination of the service last month, Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares issued a follow up request to utilize real property revenues combined with emergency funds to cover the county’s share [...]

By Wendy Osher The Maui County Council’s Budget and Finance Committee will begin review of the Mayor’s FY 2011 Budget next week after officially receiving the document from the Mayor today (Monday, March 15, 2010). “The news was certainly sobering in terms of the amount of revenue, or lack thereof that the county will be [...]