This is community civic education. We run these audits for the people of Maui — so anyone can follow the money, read the record, and hold power to account. Sourced. Plain. Yours.
What’s Coming Before Your Council — July 27–30
Maui, here’s what they’re deciding this week, in plain words. The money already has a seat at that table. So do you. Read it, and go speak — this is our kuleana, and aloha ʻāina means showing up for the land and each other.
Bringing the water home — the $6M Launiupoko & Olowalu buy
The County wants to buy the Launiupoko and Olowalu water systems and put that water back under public trust. Water isn’t a product — it’s life, it belongs to all of us, and it should never sit in private hands for profit.
The real question: is $6M an honest price, who are we paying, and does any of that land carry crown or ceded history we’re owed a full accounting of? Bringing water home is pono — as long as it’s done in the open.
Cleaning our own house — ethics, nepotism, lobbyists
Three bills at once: Bill 55 puts teeth in the ethics penalties, Bill 99 bans nepotism in county hiring for the first time, and Bill 100 finally regulates the paid lobbyists. This is the people trying to clean the house from the inside.
The real question: watch who moves these forward and who quietly slows them down — because the ones who take lobbyist and insider money are the ones being asked to fence it in. Over in Budget, they’re touching the visitor tax (TAT) and how the County reports its own spending — follow that money too.
How land changes hands — Bills 89, 90 & 91
Three moves on the same land: a district boundary amendment, a community plan amendment, and a zoning change. That’s the exact machinery that turns one kind of land into another — and it’s where the biggest money on Maui gets made or lost.
The real question: who owns this land, what do they gain when the lines move, and who loses — the family priced out, the neighborhood changed, the ʻāina paved. Ask it out loud before the vote, not after.
How the aupuni governs itself — HR & strategic planning
A review of the County’s own human resources and strategic planning. Less headline, but this is the bones of how our government is staffed and where it’s headed.
The real question: is the aupuni being built to serve the people and the land, or to serve itself? Good governance is aloha ʻāina too.