Maui Council approves staff pay raises after contentious debate on transparency

After a tense 90-minute debate, the Maui County Council voted 6-3 on Friday to give its staff a 15% pay increase, plus an additional 5% for experience- and performance-based “step” increases.

The raises, passed on first reading in Bill 49, were a compromise from an initial 30% proposal that drew criticism from other county employees. Council Chair Alice Lee explained the up-and-down path to Friday’s vote, noting the proposal was dropped to 10%, raised to 20%, and finally settled at 15% for about 30 staff members.

“Facing reality, I don’t believe we have the votes for 20%,” Lee said, calling the final version a move made “in the spirit of compromise.” The cumulative annual cost of the pay adjustments is estimated at $737,646, or 11.7% lower than the earlier cost of $835,000 for the initial 30% raise.

The final vote came after a contentious amendment passed 5-4 to strip the Office of Council Services director of the discretion to grant salary adjustments, instead requiring full Council approval in public.

Council Member Tasha Kama, who proposed the amendment, said it would bring “greater transparency.” She was supported by Council Member Yuki Lei Sugimura.

“I believe that we need to understand what is happening,” Sugimura said, “and that we have a right as council members to understand what’s happening within the OCS.”

The proposal was immediately labeled as “egregiously wrong” by Council Member Tamara Paltin, who argued that council staff, unlike elected officials, “didn’t sign up to be a public spectacle.” Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez echoed that, warning that public performance reviews could deter qualified people from applying for jobs that lack long-term security.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose good employees with this thing,” Paltin added.

Despite their objections, the transparency amendment passed. Lee, along with Paltin, Rawlins-Fernandez, and Shane Sinenci, dissented on the amendment vote. Lee then “reluctantly” joined the majority for the final 6-3 approval of the amended bill.

Council Member Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins said Council staff members are paid “really well”; more, in fact, than a journeyman carpenter.

She said she was happy to support a pay raise; 15% is “a lot of money; 30% was a little bit egregious. I’m not gonna lie.”

Lee said Council staff are appointed to two-year terms. “They have no job security. None whatsoever,” she said.

In other business:

Hoʻonani Village project referred to Maui Planning Commission

The Council sent land-use proposals for the 1,600-unit Hoʻonani Village project in Kahului to the Maui Planning Commission for review. The mixed-use community, planned for 166 acres behind Walmart and Lowe’s, intends for half its units to be workforce housing. Kula resident Dick Mayer testified against the location due to “cruel” levels of noise from its proximity to the Kahului Airport flight path.

Attorney Jeffrey Ueoka, representing the developers, said the project located behind Walmart and Lowe’s would be a community to “give local people a place to live, work, and a little bit of play too.”

Lahaina housing and D.T. Fleming Beach

Members passed on first reading Bill 77 authorizing an agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to place four temporary housing units on former county property at 767 Luakini St. in Lahaina. “Every family that we can keep in Lahaina is worth any amount of time,” Paltin said.

Separately, the council adopted a resolution accepting a $12,670 donation of labor from the Kapalua Resort Association for removing 15 coconut tree stumps and trimming trees at D.T. Fleming Beach. The stump removal will help prevent the spread of the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle.

Closing on a contentious note

The meeting’s tense atmosphere from the Council staff pay debate spilled into the final moments of the meeting as members clashed over scheduling a meeting on legislation that requires passage before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

A heated exchange over accommodating travel schedules culminated in a sharp rebuke from Kama, chair of the Housing and Land Use Committee, to Rawlins-Fernandez, who holds the Molokaʻi residency seat.

Rawlins-Fernandez fumed over the juggling of future meeting dates and asked for better management of schedules and a “little more consideration” because she lives on Molokaʻi and needs to make flight and other arrangements in advance to be on Maui.

“It’s just super inconsiderate,” she said. “And it’s… really stressing me out.”

Kama said she would work with committee staff to work out scheduling. Then, she added:

“You’re getting to be too much of a bully, and you’re micromanaging,” she said while participating online. “As far as I’m concerned, the meeting that we held this morning for our Council is over, and I am leaving.”

Chair Lee gaveled the meeting to a close shortly thereafter.

The revised Bill 49 is scheduled for a final vote on June 27.