This special segment focuses on the Maui mayor’s race, featuring discussion on important issues facing Maui County voters. The race features incumbent Mayor Richard Bissen, who is seeking reelection to a second term, and Maui County Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura, who is vying for the County’s top government job.

Maui Now Managing Editor and Pacific Media Group News Director Wendy Osher explores key topics relating to transient vacation rentals, water, the economy, cost of living and a commitment from candidates to voters ahead of the November General Election.

WO: Please introduce yourself to voters, including why you’re running, what your key priorities are, and how you plan to make Maui a better place.

BISSEN: I’m Richard Bissen. I’m currently the mayor of Maui County. We have built up relationships over the last four years, with our federal government, with our state partners, of course, with other counties as well.

We have worked hard to keep our people home, which is our number one priority is keeping our people home on Maui, especially through the recovery that we’ve been through. We’ve also made it a priority to keep our people safe. And we’ve increased that emergency management agency and the, personnel and the response and the technology advancements.

And so those are our priorities—keeping people home, keeping people safe. We are doing this through building homes, affordable housing, also by increasing our infrastructure and acquiring water. These are all things that I think are necessary as we move forward. The reason I’m asking you to vote for me again is because we have come this far with all of the progress that’s being made in our county and in our community, and we’d like to continue that effort and continue that work.

As I said, building the relationships, building the infrastructure and building the foundation, has really picked up momentum. There’s consistency and there’s continuity that I think we should continue with. And that’s the reason I’m asking you to continue to vote and vote for me.

WO: The first question that we have is focused on Bill 9. As you know, it involves the phase out of short term vacation rentals in certain hotel zones, which drew passionate testimony both for and against its implementation. Now there’s an effort to soften the impact with proposals that include hotel rezoning. What are your thoughts on this issue and how do you hope to address Maui’s housing shortage?

BISSEN: So, as you recall, Bill 9 is an attempt to restore balance in housing in our community. And Bill 9 went through the legislative process. It went to all of the planning commissions and went before the county council, the committees, and then the full council, and it received the support of a majority of the council. And so this was passed by the process that was in place. And again, it was supported by the testimony and, you know all of the passionate testimony that was submitted.

Bill 88 is designed to create H3 and H4 hotel zoning. And that was always the plan. When we initially submitted Bill 9, it was with the understanding that there would be properties that would be operating more like hotels in these zones, and what needed to be corrected is the zoning they needed to be zoned as a hotel rather than an apartment.

And so our administration was in favor of that from the beginning. We signaled that to the council. We signaled that to the TIG—the temporary investigative group. I testified before the temporary investigative group. We’ve not made it a secret that that was the intent—that those properties that could meet the criteria of being a hotel would be treated as such.

But again, the whole idea was to convert units in order to get, people to be able to purchase these as long term housing and or rentals—long term rentals.

WO: The next question is about keeping families here at home on Maui. A newly released Quality of Life survey from the University of Hawaiʻi shows that well-being is on the rise, but out-migration concerns continue to grow due to cost of living and widening income gaps. What single policy would do the most to keep local families here at home? And how will voters know that it’s working?

BISSEN: Well, it’s interesting because the first question that I was asked is probably in line with that question. Bill 9 was designed to increase housing, to keep people home on Maui—It is the quickest way that we could increase housing, but it’s not our only strategy or our only plan.

We also, have been working on affordable housing, building affordable housing. We’ve increased that by 190%. There will be over 2,000 units, both affordable and market, created by the end of 2026. And our plan and our policy is to build an additional 5,000 by the next four years—at the end of four years.

And so we’ve increased infrastructure (focus on infrastructure), building on county owned lands, which we’ve already done. And we’re in the process of doing more in Nāpili, in Wailea, on Lānaʻi [and] in Wailuku. And again, we’ve already built one in Lahaina as well. So I think for us, it is the expansion of the infrastructure and the water, which will lead to more housing.

That is probably the single policy that will have the biggest impact on people’s quality of life and their ability to have affordable housing, and so it will make them able to remain on Maui. And again, when we are in recovery in Lahaina. I wanted to make it clear—our goal wasn’t to just build structures. Our goal was to build homes that the families who lived in them before the fire would be the ones living in them after the fire.

And in fact, the Hoʻokumu Hou project, which just gave keys to our 100th family, were first time renters who are first time homebuyers. And that’s all part of that.

WO: You touched upon it bit—water. So “Water is life” or “Ola i ka Wai I”—It’s a motto that the county Department of Water Supply has used for years. Some questions that remain include who pays for expanding the water supply? And whose needs come first when housing, agriculture and Native Hawaiian rights compete?

BISSEN: So I think the pursuit of water is probably one of the biggest things that an administration can do for its community. These are generational changes. In some cases, it’s been over 150 years since we’ve owned our own water in some places—in some of the parts of Maui.

For us, the cost of that will—(well, I mean)—people understand that the Department of Water Supply does not get funding through the county to operate. They are an enterprise operation so they survive on the rates that they charge customers to provide their services. That would continue to happen.

We have over 200 employees in the Department of Water Supply. We are able to take over water systems throughout the county. EMI has about 12 people that run their system. Wailuku Water Company [has] four, Maui Land and Pine [has] five. Those are the number of people that run their systems. We have, in my opinion, the most sophisticated water company on the island.

By our sheer numbers, our equipment, our apparatus, our personnel, The council granted us 10 additional positions for the water department. So we’ll be able to handle those systems, and our team is confident that they can take over those systems. Of course, we’d offer jobs to those people that are currently running those systems as well.

But we know we can do that. And as far as the cost of that–that would become negotiations with these respective private companies. There will be an appraisal of the system, and we’ll be enacting negotiations to decide how much the cost would be. But again, water is an enterprise system, so the rates that are paid is what keeps the water company and the department going.

WO: Tourism has been a key sector of the island economy for years. Name one sector besides tourism that the county should invest in for jobs and economic development. And what would you do in the next four years to grow that?

BISSEN: So I’m not able to name just one, but I’ll start with one. That’s obvious health care. That’s a huge, part of our plan.

Taking people from students who can get exposure in their schools, to getting them certified. They can become, CNAs, LPN, RN’s. We have one of the finest nursing programs in the state at UH Maui. We are also interested in workforce development in our construction and building trades.

You know, we’re talking about diversification, in part in this answer, which doesn’t mean replacing tourism. It means offering people an opportunity of employment, that they can remain on Maui, whether they want to work in the tourism industry or not. We understand how important that industry is to us here. That’s that’s not a question.

But we have other ways we can do this innovative and creative industries, filmmaking—those are all areas that, can lead to rewarding careers for our students that go away to college and return to Maui. So we want to offer them alternatives for them to be able to find a career that they can have at home, because that’s really success. Success for us is defined by our young people finding a pathway to remain on Maui and still find rewarding work.

And so I know you asked for one. And then I’d start with health care. But we have so many other industries that we can offer our students, our young people—especially for those who choose to return to Maui.

WO: Three years after the 2023 wildfires, recovery needs are still being addressed. On top of that, Hawaii has had four major disasters in 2026 so far alone, including the March Kona low storms that heavily impacted Maui. With an active season upon us and wildfire recovery still underway. Where do you place your priorities and and what are your funding tools to do so?

BISSEN: [The Maui] Emergency Management Agency has grown in 2023 from nine positions to 31. EOC has grown from a location that could accommodate 55 people to 198—gone from three screens to 27 screens.

Our communication system has advanced, so we have paid attention to the after action reports that came out after ’23, with recommendations and suggestions. We’ve increased the fire department by 29 new positions, thanks to the council’s approval of those requests. And we’re expanding [with] two more fire stations coming online in Olowalu and Haʻikū.

And so I think we’ve made it a real priority, and we’ve demonstrated that by where our funding has gone, to be more prepared for future disasters. And you’re right—we’ve not only had four disasters in 26, we’ve had two presidential declared disasters on Maui in three years. I don’t think any of us can remember having even one in our history, and now we’ve had two.

So I think we see where things are going. And for us, I think what’s significant and what I’d like to hear from Amos, who is our head of MEMA—is we need to prepare for that disaster we haven’t yet had, and not just the ones that we’ve already experienced. I think the key, I would say, is we need to prepare for disasters every day, not just when they happen, not just when there’s a wind warning or weather is rolling in. We need to be prepared every day for disasters. And that’s the approach we’ve had.

The recent fire that happened at Ukumehame, milepost 14. I think we all know [that] in 2025, in December, 42 acres were cleared out at milepost 13.5, just a half mile down the road. Cars, tires, batteries, boats—If they had not removed that, that fire would have gone on for days, the fuel load.

And again, that’s an example of being prepared for possible things that can happen. We didn’t know that fire was going to happen, but just in case it did, they made sure fuel loads were down. And there are several other areas that we’ll be focusing on, doing the same thing.

WO: So now we’ve reached the end of our time. We’d like to hear from you on a closing commitment. Please provide us with a closing remark, including one measurable result you’ll promise voters by the end of your first year, and how they can hold you to it.

BISSEN: So I promise to continue to commit all of my energy and effort to the well-being of our community. The building of affordable housing will not stop.

That will continue again, using county owned land, County putting in infrastructure, and the continuation of maintaining supply and inventory where our where our folks can remain home. But that comes with the building of not only infrastructure, water, roads, sewer—all of those things will come with that. We are looking at 5,000 homes over four years.

So I guess broken down, that’s about 1,500 homes that we expect will be online at the end of our first year in office. And as we retain office and the commitment that we make is again, keeping our people home on Maui, not having this mass exodus—keeping our people safe. And we’ve talked about both of those things in this interview.

I will commit to continuing to put our people first. That’s a guarantee you can have from me as your mayor. I will continue to put our citizens first.

Note: Maui Now extended the invitation to participate to all mayoral candidates. Candidate Yuki Lei Sugimura was unavailable for an in-studio appearance due to prior commitments. In keeping with our structured format and fairness guidelines, this segment is offered as is, as outlined in communication with each campaign.