Council gives initial approval for new investigator to target Lahaina contractor fraud

The Maui County Council voted 8-0 on Friday to pass on first reading a bill that would add a prosecutor’s office investigator to focus on contractor fraud tied to the 2023 wildfires.

Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura was excused from the vote.

Bill 147 (2026), introduced by Council Chair Alice Lee at Mayor Richard Bissen’s request, would raise the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney’s equivalent personnel by one position, from 85.6 to 86.6. The bill amends the county’s fiscal year 2027 budget. It takes effect on approval.

The bill adds no money to the department’s General Prosecution Program budget. An Oct. 15 transmittal letter from Budget Director Lesley Milner says no additional funds will be needed for the position this fiscal year. Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin told council members his department would pay for the salaried position through cost savings.

Milner’s letter says the request stems from the “unforeseen scope and complexity” of investigating possible contractor fraud related to the 2023 Maui wildfires. The work includes reviewing financial and contractual records, interviewing witnesses and victims, and preparing cases for potential prosecution.

Martin said the new investigator would work full time on active investigations into possible contractor fraud in Lahaina. His office began the effort in May 2025, after receiving tips on contractor fraud and referring them to the Maui Police Department. To move cases faster, his department opened its own investigation, and it is now starting a second.

“These investigations are incredibly time-consuming,” Martin said. “The number of financial records that we are gathering through search warrants and subpoenas duces tecum (Latin meaning “you shall bring with you”) are voluminous. These cases, because of the need to be able to distinguish between whether or not this is a civil complaint or a criminal complaint, is complex and involved.”

On the legal side, Martin said one attorney has worked almost exclusively on the cases since the start of the year. He has also hired two former assistant US attorneys with complex white-collar experience in the past 12 months. One starts Nov. 6 and will be assigned to the project full time.

Martin said the department’s investigative services division has six investigators, and the new hire, an Investigator III, would be the seventh. He described the new position as a civil service investigator. Council Member Tamara Paltin said the position is an SR-20. The Investigator III class would belong to the BU-13, SR-20 salary schedule. It comes with a pay range of $5,107 to $7,278 per month, or $61,284 to $87,336 per year, according monthly pay information provided by the County Department of Personnel Services.

After the Council approves the position, Martin said, his office will create it with the Department of Personnel Services and seek a list of candidates. The department will not need a reorganization and will add the position to its organizational chart. Martin said he expects no shortage of qualified applicants.

The department’s investigators have police powers like those of Maui Police Department officers, but the office has not traditionally used its full investigative powers, he said. Martin said he wants to build expertise in complex white-collar crime, which he said the police department’s criminal investigation division does not currently have. He said he did not mean that as criticism of the police department. The expertise would also help the office tackle elder financial abuse, which he called one of the fastest-growing fraud areas in the country.

“We’re going to need to be able to address that in a meaningful way and do it quickly,” he said.

Council Member Tom Cook, who said he worked as a contractor for 35 years, asked whether the office is working with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and its Contractor Recovery Fund, which he said pays out up to $10,000. Martin said the department has brought DCCA into its work. Cook said he wants to see the fund used and suggested victims could get quick relief from it.

Sugimura asked Martin earlier in the meeting whether the fund cap should be raised. Martin said the fund is a state matter, but added, “if it can be increased, it should.” He said losses to victims in these cases go far beyond five figures.

Paltin said people she knows were defrauded, including a former co-worker who lost $500,000.

“There’s just a lot of people out there that have taken advantage of it,” she said.

Cook said Martin’s office is “filling a hole” that police officers aren’t equipped to fill, and told Martin, “I think you need 10 investigators.”

The bill moves on to second and final reading on Nov. 13.

Waikapū housing resolution tabled

In other action, the Council tabled Resolution 26-159, which would allow up to 130 market-rate homes in the Waikapū Country Town project receive certificates of occupancy before the 212-unit Aikanaha affordable rental project is finished. Several members said they wanted more discussion first.

The Council agreed to send the resolution to the Housing and Land Use Committee, chaired by Council Member Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins, for a discussion tentatively set for Nov. 19, and to return it to the full Council for a decision later, tentatively Nov. 25.

The resolution would approve an adjustment by the county Department of Housing to the timing of completion requirements for the project’s residential workforce housing. Uʻu-Hodgins said Maui County Code Section 2.96.060 does not allow market-rate units to receive certificates of occupancy or final inspections unless the workforce housing units receive them at the same time or sooner. The adjustment would let the 130 market-rate homes receive them at any time after the Aikanaha affordable project receives its building permits.

Attorney Jeffrey Ueoka, representing project developer Mike “Coach” Atherton, told the Council the market-rate builders want certainty, and they won’t close on land sales if their ability to sell completed homes depends on the affordable project receiving its certificates of occupancy.

The 130 homes are a fraction of the project’s more than 1,430 units, and that proceeds from the sales would pay for backbone infrastructure, which would unlock the affordable project, a school and the 130 market-rate lots, he said.

Ueoka asked the Council to pass the resolution at the meeting, saying Uʻu-Hodgins had told him her committee’s agenda is full for the rest of the year. The Council should feel comfortable the affordable project will be built because it has a county Affordable Housing Fund award with a signed grant and an award from the state, he said.

Paltin said she would vote no if pushed to vote on Friday. The proposal “flies in the face of everything we did” to bar market-rate sales before the affordable component is done, adding that the county has been burned before, she said. She added that she is not satisfied with meeting individually with the developer’s lawyer and wants the explanation given publicly, before a single vote.

Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez said she wanted a full discussion, including what leverage the county has to make sure the affordable project is built. She said Ueoka had given her some assurances, but she did not want to be rushed. She offered to give up her own committee day on Nov. 19 so the Housing and Land Use Committee could meet.

Cook said the project has been in the pipeline for a long time and that the request makes sense. The Council has much to do before the end of its term, he said.

Lee said she understood both sides, noting that developers have failed to meet obligations in the past but the county has also worked with this applicant for years. Saumalu Mataafa, deputy director of the Department of Housing, told the Council the revised schedule works for the department.

List of other Council action

Council members passed on first reading:

• Bill 143, which would authorize the mayor to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, for a mutual aid agreement.
• Bill 144, which would amend the fiscal 2027 Maui County budget relating to the reclassification of $10 million in bond funding and $10 million in lapsed bond funding.
• Bill 145, which would amend Ordinance 5994 (2026), relating to the issuance of general obligation bonds, relating the the county Department of Transportation.
• Bill 146, which relates to lapsed bond proceeds for the Department of Public Works.
• Bill 148, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget for a new grant appropriation of $400,052 from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Emergency Solutions Grant).
• Bill 149, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget to update conditional language for the affordable housing fund, relating to A0745 Lānaʻi L.P. and A0746 Lahaina L.P., and adding a new condition reappropriating $2 million for the Kaiaulu o Nāpili project.
• Bills 150 and 151, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget to provide $30 million in general obligation bond funding for potential land acquisitions on Molokaʻi.

Council members passed on second reading:

• Bill 85, which would amend the Maui County Code regarding the publication of public hearing notices.
• Bill 124, which would authorize the mayor to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Kauaʻi County for mutual aid and assistance related to Hurricane Lowell.
• Bill 125, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to an increase in a grant appropriation of $1,457,065 for the US Environmental Protection Agency.
• Bill 126, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to new conditional language for Grassroots Ministries Inc. and the Kipahulu Community Association for $7,500 each.
• Bill 127, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to an increase of $95,202 in the grant appropriation for the Victim/Witness Assistance Program.
• Bill 128, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to $3 million for countywide water upgrades and replacements from the State Revolving Loan Fund.
• Bill 129, FD1, which would authorize the mayor to enter into an intergovernmental agreement for a loan from the State of Hawaiʻi’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for water supply projects, including those in the fiscal 2027 budget.
• Bill 134, FD1, which would authorize the mayor to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the US Department of the Interior, US Geological Survey, Pacific Islands Water Science Center, for water resource investigations.
• Bill 135, which would amend Maui County Code Section 3.48.410 on claims for real property tax exemptions.
• Bill 136, FD1, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to new appropriations from Hawaii Water Service Co. Inc. of $29,467, and US Department of the Interior of $52,318.
• Bill 137, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to a new appropriation for a $75,000 grant from the state Department of Health, Chronic Disease Prevention Health Promotion Division.
• Bill 138, which would amend the fiscal 2027 budget relating to updating language for the Aloha Classic.