Salary Commission boosts pay for mayor, council members, department heads

The Maui County Salary Commission has given hefty pay raises to elected and appointed executive and legislative branch public officials, based on a “classification and compensation report” carried out by government consultant MGT.

In a letter to County Council members, acting Salary Commission Chair Grant Nakama reported that the commission voted in favor of the salary increases on March 28. The pay raises go into effect July 1. The raises are on top of 5% increases that went into effect July 1, 2024.

When the new raises kick in, Mayor Richard Bissen’s pay will increase from $159,578 to $211,119, a jump of $51,541 or 32.3%. Council Chair Alice Lee will see her pay go from $86,336 to $106,367, which is $20,031 more or 23.2%. The eight other council members’ annual pay will rise from $80,299 to $101,302, a $21,003 raise of 26.2%.

But those raises pale in comparison to Managing Director Josiah Nishita’s. His hike from the Salary Commission will boost his annual compensation from $172,154 to $325,104, a jump of $152,950 or 89%.

Maui Now wasn’t immediately able to find a copy of Nakama’s letter to council members posted online on Maui County government websites, but Wailuku resident Susan Halas posted two pages of the three-page letter on her Facebook page here and here. In an email to Maui Now, Halas called the pay raises “eye popping.”

“How sweet it is!” she said.

To see a listing of current and previous annual pay increases for Maui County officials, view this Salary Commission spread sheet from June 2024 by clicking here.

When Maui Now asked the Communications Office in the Office of the Mayor for comment about the pay raises, the answer provided was that the authority for setting salaries of elected and appointed Maui County officials is in the Maui County Charter, specifically Chapter 17, Section 8-17.1. That section says:

“The commission shall determine the salaries of elected officials and appointed directors and deputy directors of all departments of the county; in establishing the salaries of appointed department heads and their deputies, the salary commission shall consult with those boards and commissions that have appointing authority for department heads.” 

The Communications Office said: “As outlined in the Charter, the Salary Commission has sole discretion to set these salaries. In its February 2025 and March 2025 meetings, the Salary Commission reviewed a Classification and Compensation Study conducted by an independent consultant. As stated in the study: ‘The purpose of a well-designed Classification and Compensation Study is twofold. First, it establishes internal equity (ranking) among employees across Departments in the County. Second, it assures external equity/competitiveness by comparing the compensation of County of Maui employees against market data.’ The Salary Commission also reviewed correspondence from the boards and commissions which have appointing authority for department heads, as well correspondence from the Council Chair and information from the Administration.”

The consultant’s “Classification and Compensation Study” details how MGT arrived at its recommendation for Maui County pay raises.

“Human resource management is a significant concern as governmental services continue to increase in cost and complexity, and resources are constrained,” an executive summary to the report says. “Day-to-day operations present challenging administrative problems in planning, organizing, and directing human resource functions in order to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of municipal services.”

It says that a properly developed and administered classification and compensation plan “forms the foundation” for meeting administrative challenges.

“It helps to ensure that the County can not only recruit the best and brightest employees but can also retain those employees, even in a competitive marketplace,” the consultant’s report says. “By retaining qualified, experienced employees, the County avoids the costs of re- recruitments and lost productivity while maximizing the benefits of the investments it has made in employees and the institutional and agency knowledge acquired by those employees over their tenures.”

Among other things, the study examined salaries of public officials in other jurisdictions, specifically those with populations between 120,000 and 400,000 in Western Region states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaiʻi, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); plus consolidated city-county entities nationwide within the population parameters; plus Hawaiʻi, Honolulu and Kauaʻi counties. Maui County’s resident population is approximately 165,000, according to the 2020 US Census. The county is unique in Hawaiʻi in that it has residents living on three islands: Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi. The uninhabited island of Kahoʻolawe also falls within its jurisdiction.

The study used the following government locations as having “comparable organizations” to Maui County. In Hawaiʻi, these were the State of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi County and the City and County of Honolulu. In California, the following were comparable: Glendale, Ontario, Oxnard, Riverside, Roseville and San Luis Obispo. In Georgia, the consultants picked Augusta-Richmond and Columbus-Muscogee. In Arizona, Chandler, Gilbert and Glendale were comparable. In Washington state, the consultant picked Spokane and Vancouver. In Nevada, they were North Las Vegas and Henderson. Other jurisdictions deemed comparable were Anchorage, Alaska; Boise, Idaho; Fort Collins, Colorado; Kansas City-Wyandotte County in Kansas; Lexington-Fayette County in Kentucky; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Salary Commission’s next meeting is at 9 a.m. Friday. A link to the agenda is here. Members of the public can view and participate in the meeting via Webex interactive conference technology. Or, residents can join toll free by calling 1-650-479-3208. The in-person location of the meeting is at the Department of Planning Conference Room in the Kalana Pakui Building at 250 South High St. in Wailuku.

According to its agenda, Nakama is the commission’s acting chair. Other commission members are Lindsay Ball, William Curtis Jr., Andrew Ho, Gerri Lewis, Lois Prey, Uvette Josette Sakamoto and Lester Iwao Yano. Department of Personnel Services Director Cynthia Razo-Porter serves as an ex-officio member.

Editor’s note: A three-page March 28 letter to Maui County Council members was from Grant Nakama, acting chair of the Salary Commission. An earlier version of this post was incorrect about the number of pages in the letter and erred in attributing the letter to Mayor Bissen.