#Tasha Kama

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.

Maui County’s Community Action Agency, Maui Economic Opportunity, was praised as a “second government” for its far-reaching work assisting county residents in need by Maui County Council members, who declared May as Community Action Month.

Honuaʻula Partners will go before the Urban Design Review Board on May 6 for a design review of its project plans for widening a portion of Piʻilani Highway from two to four lanes in Kīhei. The board’s design review is a preliminary step before taking the $48 million highway improvement project before the Maui Planning Commission […]

The Maui County Council has approved a resolution for a time extension — to May 2029 — for completion of the Kuʻikahi Village project, now apparently scaled back from its original plans. According to information presented to council members, the project was originally designed as a 202-unit workforce housing development mauka of Honoapiʻilani Highway and […]

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 […]

More than 270 supporters and staff of Maui Economic Opportunity, including state House Speaker Nadine Nakamura, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and Mayor Richard Bissen, helped the nonprofit celebrate 60 years of Helping People, Changing Lives, and retired Hale Mahaolu Executive Director Grant Chun at a fundraising Gala on March 22 at the King Kamehameha Golf […]

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.

Retired Maui Economic Opportunity staffer Bishop Pahia, who continues his work to help those released from jail and prison transition to life in the community, was named MEO’s Volunteer of the Year on Friday at the nonprofit’s Valentine’s Day luncheon at the Maui Beach Hotel.

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.

Just three meetings into the new year, the Maui County Council’s five-member majority has shown its upper hand, with minority members chafing at being on the losing end of 5-4 votes in contested issues on the Council floor.

It was mostly smooth sailing for the Maui County Council’s first regularly scheduled meeting of 2025, but then decorum hit choppy waters as the Friday agenda drifted to a planned referral of three bills to the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee.

By a 5-4 vote, Maui County Council Member Tasha Kama maintained chairmanship of the Housing and Land Use Committee last week, although it came with diluted committee responsibilities and no jurisdiction over proposals for increasing housing availability or affordability.

After receiving praise as being fair and even-handed, veteran Council Member Alice Lee was unanimously re-elected as Maui County Council chair Thursday. Her return to the Council’s top post appeared to signal collaboration with the Council’s four-member minority, but then came the vote for vice chair.

Maui County Council members celebrated their inauguration for the 2025-2027 term with Hawaiian oli, singing and hula this morning at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater.

The club has been through a lot since the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, which claimed the life of one member and the homes of 40 members. While the December gathering last year was subdued and a reunion of members scattered across the island, this year’s event was a more traditional, festive holiday gathering.

The long-debated Honuaʻula master-planned community will come up for action on two bills this week Friday before a divided Maui County Council.

The two-lane Puʻunēnē Avenue bottleneck has long been a headache for Central Maui motorists. Traffic slows to a crawl during get-to-school and pau hana times, morning and afternoon, from Wākea Avenue to Kūihelani Highway.

Money is flowing into the most closely contested races for the council, including the South Maui race, and contributions from vacation rental organizations reflect the hot-button proposal to ban short-term rentals that the council will have to consider.

Even with the political factions that have split the council in recent years, candidates on both sides of the aisle are cautious when it comes to the mayor’s proposal of completely phasing out short-term rentals.

More than three years after it broke ground in February 2021, the Central Maui Transit Hub is built in Kahului but remains unused by bus riders for reasons left unexplained by the Maui County Department of Transportation.