Moving forward here. You get them two minutes to basically convince everybody here
Why we should continue to vote for I'm really like you as the
Consul member for some some soft Maui
Thank you, and aloha everybody. My name is Don couch and I'm your current County Council member from South Maui
And I'm asking you to vote for me in November 8th
You guys know me you know me well in 2003
I was assigned. I was an executive assistant to the mayor, and I was assigned to South and West Maui
I came out here. I worked hard with Theo when she was at the lion action committee
Kiyoki when he was at the Lahaina Restoration Foundation
Auntie Patty who is here tonight of the Nakapuna Maui and
Especially with Joe
We worked hard on getting the helicopter here
With this help of senator Baker. We all got the medical helicopter, so
You guys know what I've done, and that was before I was elected to office
Then I was out of government service for a little while and I was at president of the boys and girls club and we created a
Really good youth center here out of a shed that they had been going to for years
So I've been work working here in the West Maui community for a long time when I got into office
The first thing we did was we passed Pula Lehua, which has 300 and some
Affordable homes supposed to be built. There's some issues with that
We're hoping to see if we can get that turned around
We also did recently the Kahoma both Kahoma projects both 201H and
Most a lot of affordable 100% affordable on the Malka side
50% affordable on the Makai side
we also
Bought some land
When I was working with the mayor we bought Ukemihami. I really really pushed and forced the issue on
Lawniapoko land we got the Lawniapoko land. I
Also work for him on the MPO Metropolitan Planning Organization. I'm the vice chair our
First my first priority and I'm good. I think I convinced most of my
Members is to realign Hono P. Lani highway
All right, I just want to say I'm for balance and common sense. So please vote for me in November. Thank you
Aloha, Aloha, I'm Kelly King. I'm the challenger in South Maui
And I think a lot of folks here know me as well
I've been on Maui for close to 40 years and when I first came here at the tender age of 19
One of my earliest jobs was on this side. I worked in the tourist industry on the west side first in Lahaina then
Kanapali then Kahana, so I know this side of the island
I know the tourism industry and some of the issues here
But I've spent my entire adult life on Maui and most of it live as a resident of Kihei as a homeowner
Was able to afford our first home through a a an affordable home loan
It wasn't a county program was a federal program, and I know these these programs are out there. We're not accessing them
quickly enough
most of my involvement comes through being a
Parent I have two children that are born and raised on Maui that went to Maui High School and graduated with their master's degrees from UH
Minoa
I've been involved in education issues all my life
I served on the state board of education and through that
Advocacy was able to lengthen the school year one whole week
We had the shortest school year in the in the country back then I was also able to strengthen
School community-based management for our schools. I've I've worked on numerous boards and and commissions on in this in Maui County
one of my most important
Positions was being on the board of directors of hui malama because I joined that organization when we were terribly in the red
I don't know why they asked me to come on because it looked like the organization was going out of business in the next month
but within six months of
Me being on the board of working with two other really strong board members. We had that organization in the black
I also started a company with my husband Pacific biodiesel takes used cooking oil turns it into renewable energy
For 20 years you've been running this business and you can't do that without major accountability and fiscal responsibility
So in the environmental sector the nonprofit sector the sustainability sector the business sector
And I look forward to answering the questions. Thank you
Thank you Kelly
My question again would be in regards to the workforce housing and the lack thereof
What will you do if elected or in a case for down reelected to facilitate and increasing the inventory of workforce housing units on Maui?
How will you work to streamline the subdivision process so as to make it less expensive and less cumbersome for developers to satisfy chapter
2.96 and include a number of residential workforce housing units
Equivalent to at least 25% of the total number of market rate units in their developments
All right. Thank you for that question. I think the first thing we need to do is
First of all stop blaming the laws that we have for our economy because our economy tanked in 2008
And that's why we don't have development right now
But that being said there are issues with some of the laws that we have in place for
Getting affordable housing one of them is holding developers accountable, but also looking at that the
I'm looking at the reduction that's being proposed right now from 50% to 25% and talking to folks at Maui tomorrow
Who actually back when they when that law became a county law had proposed 33%
We're affordable housing for for affordable housing outside of a development and 25 within so there I think there's some room
For movement in that. I think we have to look at the permit issue over here. It's very cumbersome
We got our biodiesel refinery built on the big island and it took us 34 days to get permits
Because we worked with the county administration over there and they sent our permit request out to all departments at the same time
They all signed off on it came back
There's something wrong with our system here that it takes so long to get developments to get for the permits through the permitting system here
Go ahead
Okay
They've heard it
No, go ahead. I'm fine
Yeah 2.96 the most important thing about 2.96 is that it requires the developers to build affordable housings
These are at the same time or before they build their marketplace
So that is one of the good things about 2.96 the fact that we already brought it down the 25%
We listen to a lot of the community
not just one sector of the community we had a lot of testimony and
We brought it down the 25% and since then some things have started going
As far as affordable housing if you hear me on the floor over and over and over again
I asked for affordable rentals first. Can you make it rental?
or
Affordable housing in perpetuity for an example. We had Waikapu Gardens 210 affordable homes 10 years ago
None of them are affordable now because they can now flip them at the market rate
So we need to have affordable housing in
perpetuity, thank you
Thank you Don
Thank you the next question Kelly it would be our homeless situation. It's a crisis and what would you do if elected to address our homeless crisis?
the homelessness crisis right now is and what's happening in Kanaha is really
Worrisome because all we're doing is moving people around we need to solve the problem
There's a lot of good ideas out there
I've been meeting with folks in that in the homeless alliance
Since I decided to run for this office and there's some very good ideas that are falling on deaf ears right now
The county's not hearing them. I even talked to a a park ranger who said I deal with the homeless every day
They're in the parks. Why can't we hire them to help clean up the parks and give them jobs at the same time?
There's some solutions out there that we're not listening to and the task force that was talked about earlier needs to include all sectors
We need to have people that are homeless on there. We need to have developers on there
We need to talk about the affordable rentals
We need to talk about what we're doing and what we're not doing and I really want to look at the other program
Someone mentioned Oahu. Oahu has a program called housing first
It gets people into housing with no requirements and then once they once they're in housing, they're easier to reach they're easier to help
Recognizing that there are different categories of homelessness and there are different approaches for those those homeless those
Situations we can deal with this problem if we just start we just keep talking about this every year and that's one of the reasons
I'm running. I'm tired of talk. We want action
And I agree with Kelly on that we want action
Unfortunately, we are the legislative board brought board and we aren't allowed to tell the administration what to do sometimes we
like to
You know give them a pat on the back and say let's go. Let's get this done
However, what we're trying to do is work with some people in the administration
To change the law so that we can have for instance a tiny home village. I've been a proponent of tiny homes
I have one of my constituents who has been working with me for four or five years my the members all know
Oh, yeah, Don. He's got all he's got the tiny homes again. So we're trying to get tiny homes
We're trying to get for the housing first housing first is very important and that has come from the
homeless alliance the part about getting the people to work in parks. We've just submitted a
A question to corporation counsel to see if that is allowable with the certain laws that we have about privatization
So we are working on it. It's very difficult to push the administration sometimes, but we are working on it. Thank you
Now we got a chance you have a chance to ask Kelly a question you ask her first and then she can ask you one
Thank you. Okay. Thank you
so
My question is more on the infrastructure. You say that we need a lot of infrastructure
My question is how are you going to pay for it?
when
If the developer pays for it it adds up to 150 to 250 thousand dollars per home if the county pays for it
Everybody else has to do it. We would have to raise taxes or cut expenses. So how would you?
Get the infrastructure in that is needed in Maui County
Well, we do need we need impact fees for one thing from the developers
We're going to pay for it one way or the other. We're going to pay if we don't do infrastructure
We pay for it when we sit in traffic for 30 minutes takes us away from our jobs
It takes us away from our families. It takes us away from the reason that we live here
So we can't sit here and say well, we don't we can't pay for the infrastructure
So we're going to just go ahead and develop the infrastructure is determined in our community plans
And we need to respect those plans a lot of work went into those community plans
We have hours and hours of people expertise in those plans and we're not paying attention to them
But the the infrastructure can be paid
You know, I mean if we have specific pieces of infrastructure like when you look at the county on the the island of Oahu
They raise their GT tax by point five percent to pay for the
The rail I'm not proposing we do that until we look at what we're getting from what we aren't getting from the developers
That we should be getting I mean years ago
There were things that we we got that we still haven't even held them to the the school in Wailea is one one
Prime example that were supposed to be an elementary school in Wailea that never happened
So we're not we're not even following through with the obligations. We're supposed to be getting
Okay, my question to Don is many of us feel strongly that we should have a say in our governance and especially when it comes to the county manager situation
we we lost an opportunity to vote on this issue in November and
You are the one of the deciding votes that voted against it in the PIA committee
We felt I mean the the majority of people that I know have felt that that there was time to fix the details
that you've been talking about between
between
Then in November and certainly there's two years to work out those details
Before it ever comes to a start date because it was supposed to start in two years and before the next mayoral election
so
people have sent me emails and put on Facebook quotes that you were
Responsible for saying that people have a right to vote on this
And we have to get this together and get it on the ballot and yet you voted against it
So I wonder if you could explain that
Thank you, and I'm glad you think that I have that much power that I was the responsible one for that vote
There were five of us that voted that way and I was the third one to vote no the reason I voted no is yes
I want everybody to have their say
Problem is you have to have a good bill
The bill was rushed and it was deemed illegal by corporation at not corporation council the attorney general
Kauai tried to do it attorney general said Kauai you can't do it unless the
County manager was a civil servant. That's the worst thing you can do is have a
Person that runs the county become a civil servant
So the first thing that has to be done is we have to be able to change the law
in Honolulu talk to your legislators miss Baker mr. McKelvie and
Allow for a county manager to become an
Exempt from civil service
That's the first thing and then you have to go through all the Maui County code that nobody did that group did not even touch
Maui County code and there's a hundred spots where it refers to the mayor and what the mayor's responsibilities are so thank you
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Don
