David Raatz joins MEO Board of Directors

David Raatz, newly approved director of Council Services, has joined the nonprofit Maui Economic Opportunity Board of Directors, representing the Maui County Council.

His appointment to the board was approved on June 11. He replaces Traci Fujita, who resigned from the board after leaving her position with the county.

The 21-member board consists of representatives of government, businesses and the community served by the anti-poverty Community Action Agency. The board sets policy for the nonprofit agency and hires and evaluates the CEO.

The Office of Council Services, which Raatz leads, provides administrative services to the chair of the County Council, council members’ offices, and the council’s district offices. Council Services also staffs council committee and subcommittee meetings and provides objective assistance to individual council members.

Prior to becoming director of Council Services, Raatz served as deputy director from July 2021 and succeeded Fujita as director. This is his second run as director, leading Council Services from 2013 to 2017.  

His resume also includes working as county administrative planning officer, 2017-19; Maui Economic Development Board program manager, 2012-13; and county legislative attorney, 1996-2012. In addition, he has taught business law and newswriting at the University of Hawaiʻi-Maui College and legal writing at the UH William S. Richardson School of Law.

Raatz received his law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California.

In the community, he has been a court-appointed auditor, volunteer attorney with the Judiciary’s Self-Help Center, member of the American and Hawai‘i Bar associations and board member with Leilani Farm Sanctuary of Maui.