#tamara paltin

The Maui County Council moved forward two bills this week aimed at bolstering island agriculture, but one — Bill 75, which seeks to establish agricultural tourism — sparked a debate over safeguarding indigenous Hawaiian cultural practices from commercial exploitation. In a less contentious move, Bill 76 received unanimous final Council approval to allow food trucks […]

In a marathon session that stretched from Friday morning to past midnight Saturday, the Maui County Council narrowly approved amendments to the controversial Honuaʻula project in a 5-4 vote at 12:26 a.m. Saturday. The decision followed several hours of passionate public testimony with most of the approximately 50 speakers opposed to the development. The Council’s […]

The long-debated Honuaʻula master-planned community project is returning to the Maui County Council’s agenda for its regular meeting on Friday. The “hot button” issue has been whether to approve the developer’s request to remove a requirement to build 450 affordable units in the South Maui project district development. Council Member Keani Rawlins Fernandez is proposing […]

Overflow crowds turned out Monday to support or attack the hotly debated vacation rental phase-out bill, but the action started early, on the sidewalk outside the Kalana O Maui Building in Wailuku. Wearing red Lahaina Strong and yellow ILWU shirts, supporters of Bill 9 formed a circle and prayed. Their signs read “Maui People First,” […]

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.

Almost two years after the disastrous August 2023 wildfires brought to light shortcomings in Maui County’s emergency response, the Maui Emergency Management Agency has completed a comprehensive Strategic Plan and an Integrated Preparedness Plan aimed at reshaping the county’s approach to disasters. While the plans presented by agency Administrator Amos Lonokailua-Hewett were met Wednesday with […]

Council members ended their work on the fiscal 2026 budget Tuesday, giving final approval to a $1.558 billion spending plan that sets the course for Maui County government beginning July 1.

West Maui state Rep. Elle Cochran missed 51 of 60 House floor sessions — an 85% absence rate — during the 2025 legislative session while collecting $22,725 in per diem payments intended to cover off-island living expenses, according to House records. Her near-total absence from legislative proceedings in Honolulu, coupled with her acceptance of these taxpayer-funded […]

The Maui County Council gave initial approval to its version of the fiscal 2026 budget Friday, retaining full $12 million funding for Maui United Way’s Countywide ALICE Initiative: Kamaʻāina Credit program.

The $1.56 billion budget, which is $55 million more than Mayor Richard Bissen’s, is up for first reading today.

Maui County taxpayers spent $240,000 for a “homeless strategic plan,” but that’s not what they got. On Monday, officials told Maui County Council members that the county’s all-hands-on-deck response to the devastating August 2023 wildfires made creating that plan “infeasible,” leading instead to a “community-informed report” titled “Recommendations to Address Homelessness in Maui County.” Now, […]

Molokaʻi residents could be the first to benefit from a county-funded, voluntary deed restriction program, a measure that cleared its first hurdle before the Maui County Council on Friday.

Plan on track to be submitted this week, with applications taken for programs in the summer.

By a 5-2 vote, the Maui Planning Commission is recommending approval of proposed amendments to project district zoning conditions attached to development of the controversial Honuaʻula master-planned community in South Maui. After a meeting recess on March 11, the commission passed a main motion on March 25 to approve all amendments proposed by the Maui […]

Council members say they’ll be combing the budget for savings in case the county is impacted by cuts to federal programs or agencies helping with the Lahaina wildfire recovery.

Maui Planning Commission members heard nearly six hours of public testimony Tuesday in Kīhei, with 58 of 66 testifiers opposed to developer requests for land-use amendments for the Honuaʻula master-planned community, a hotly debated 670-acre development south of Maui Meadows and mauka of Piʻilani Highway in South Maui.

Maui County Council members voted 9-0 Friday morning for first-reading passage of Bill 105, which would allow disaster-impacted property owners to rebuild their homes and other structures to their original condition, even if they were decades old and didn’t meet current building codes. The measure advances to second-and-final reading.

The Maui County Council’s Water Authority, Social Services and Parks Committee has recommended full Council confirmation of Jonathan Likeke Scheuer as the Hawaiian Homes Commission representative to the East Maui Regional Community Board.

A council committee backed the $1.7 million purchase of land that could be used in the short term to house volunteers helping with rebuilding and to store construction materials.

A Maui County Council plan to contract its own study of the economic impacts of Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposed phase-out of Maui County vacation rentals has fallen to the wayside, and Council legislative analysts will conduct research in-house instead.