Maui Council shakeup: Chair Lee won’t seek re-election to Wailuku-Waiheʻe-Waikapū seat

Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee will not seek re-election this year. Instead, the veteran council member will support the candidacy of Marvin Moniz, a longtime state Department of Transportation airports manager, to succeed her in the Wailuku-Waiheʻe-Waikapū residency seat.

Lee confirmed her decision Wednesday evening in an email responding to a Maui Now query about her candidacy.

“I am not seeking re-election, and I am supporting Marvin Moniz for my seat,” Lee wrote. “He is highly experienced in public administration and working with the community. He is a dedicated family man and one of the nicest people I know.”

Lee also praised Moniz’s wife, Jocelyn, who previously worked for the Office of Corporation Counsel and the County Council. “We’d be fortunate to have them both be a part of the County Council ʻohana,” Lee said.

Lee has been Council chair since early January 2020 days after council members voted 7-2 in December 2019 to remove then Chair Kelly King. At the time, Lee said she brought to the Council “a collaborative type of leadership” and a management style that was more “unifying.”

Moniz: “I want to help my community”

Moniz, 66, a 1977 St. Anthony High School graduate who has served as the state DOT’s Maui airports district manager for nearly 20 years, filed nomination papers May 1 as a candidate for the Wailuku Council seat.

He said he plans to retire from the position sometime this summer before turning his full attention to the race.

He said his decision to run was sparked by what he witnessed on the job — families leaving Maui for good.

“I see these two kids. They must have been about maybe 7, 8 years old. And they were crying on the curb,” Moniz recalled. The parents told him the family was moving away because jobs are scarce and they could no longer afford to live on Maui. “And then the two kids are like, ‘Bye, Papa, bye Tutu’ — just crying and crying. And I could see that there was not enough being done to help keep our people at home.”

He said he witnessed a similar scene just two weeks later. “I said, ‘I want to help. I want to help my community.'”

Moniz acknowledged the job is “a lot of work” with the community, council members and state legislators and members of Congress. But his focus would be on “keeping our people at home; finding a better quality of life.”

Moniz said he sees economic diversification as central to addressing the affordability crisis, pointing to tourism, agriculture, and technology as the sectors Maui needs to cultivate. “We can’t totally depend on tourism, as we can see what happens when global crises happen,” he said.

On the Council’s existing 5-4 ideological split, Moniz declined to align himself with either bloc. “My ideas, my intentions, me serving our community is based on what the community needs — not to fall into any group that’s gonna go against another group. That’s far from where I want to be,” he said.

Asked about Lee’s endorsement, Moniz said he is “honored” by her support and called her a mentor. “I want to be sure that I can take the knowledge that Alice has possessed for many years and be able to apply that to our community,” he said.

Regarding the controversial Bill 9, which was passed and signed into law in December 2025 to begin a phase-out of transient vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts, Moniz said he followed the measure’s passage into law and expressed a willingness to “revisit it if it needs tweaking.”

He said he understands a lot of the bill was “kind of rushed” and “maybe going back and revisiting some of it.”

Bill 9 is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2029, for West Maui; and Jan. 1, 2031, for the rest of Maui County. 

Council balance of power at stake

Lee’s departure marks a significant shift in the Council’s political dynamics heading into the 2026 primary and general elections.

Her decision not to run, combined with Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura’s exit from her Upcountry seat to mount a mayoral campaign, means the Council’s slim five-member moderate-conservative majority bloc will lose two of its most prominent members — reshaping the Council’s makeup going forward.

Further complicating the majority’s prospects, incumbent South Maui Council Member Tom Cook faces a stiff challenge from former Council Member Kelly King, who lost to Cook by just 97 votes in the 2024 election.

The convergence of Lee’s retirement, Sugimura’s mayoral run, and the competitive South Maui race sets up what could be a significant reshuffling of power on the nine-member body.

The candidate filing deadline is June 2. The primary election is Aug. 8, followed by the general election on Nov. 3.

Other candidates

Also filing for the Wailuku seat is James “Nahele” Forrest, 50, a Wailuku attorney and current deputy public defender who unsuccessfully challenged Lee in 2024. In that campaign, Forrest ran on a sharply anti-incumbent platform. He was especially critical of Lee’s financial support from pro-business and development sectors.

In the general election, Lee pulled in 28,246 votes or 44.4% while Forrest took 22,341 votes or 35.2%.

Now, saying he wants to put “local workers first,” Forrest, who has 25 years of legal experience including stints as a legislative attorney for the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives and the Maui County Council’s Office of Council Services, is running on a pro-union, pro-worker platform.

“My goal is to make Maui County a place where a union worker, teacher, firefighter, hotel worker, nurse, carpenter or local small business owner can afford to live a dignified middle-class life again,” he said. “County government should use its contracting, permitting and taxing powers to strengthen local workers and local ownership–not enrich off-island corporations.”

Without directly mentioning Bill 9 and the phase-out of vacation rentals, Forrest had this to say about tourism: “Maui’s greatest economic asset is our tourism economy, but too much of that wealth leaves the islands instead of staying in our local communities. I support policies that encourage local ownership over foreign and off-island ownership, including tax incentives and economic policies that help keep more tourism dollars circulating on Maui and in the hands of local workers and local businesses.”

Forrest said he does not accept campaign contributions from off-island corporations, luxury hotel corporations, or luxury developers.

Commenting on Lee’s decision to stand down, Forrest thanked Lee for “her many years of service and dedication to Maui County.”

“Public service is difficult work, and I appreciate her long commitment to our community,” he said.

Alan Peter Lloyd has checked out nomination papers for the Wailuku Council seat, but he has not filed officially as a candidate.

Lloyd, who has lived on Maui for approximately seven years, works as a health care provider for veterans. His professional background includes work as a teacher and social worker, and he has been an organizer with the Hawaiʻi Workers Center for the past five years.

Lloyd holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree in acupuncture, and a Master of Social Work from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Lloyd said he is running because he wants to address problems he believes the Council majority has been avoiding.

“It is too darn expensive to live here,” he said, adding that he believes the Council can take action on affordability.

If elected, Lloyd said his priorities would include more affordable rentals and homeownership for working people, free preschool for children and families, and more decentralized services for kupuna.

Lee’s future plans

Lee said she plans to focus her energy on a family nonprofit called New Leaf, which helps formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate into the community.

“I plan to help grow our family nonprofit called New Leaf, a program to assist people formerly incarcerated reintegrate into the community,” she wrote. “I am really excited about turning a new page in my life’s journey to help people turn their lives around and become successful. Hopefully, one day they can help someone else too. Our motto is ‘Each One Lift One.'”

Lee was as a member of the Maui County Council for five consecutive terms from 1989 to 1998, leading as chair from 1995-1997. Lee served as director of the Department of Housing and Human Concerns from 1999 through 2006. She returned to the Council in 2019.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated to include information and a comment from candidate Alan Peter Lloyd.