More East Maui Disaster Capitalism? Concerns raised as state resolution gut-and-replace cites ‘Aha Wai o Maui Hikina, questions Maui County budget increases

by Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 5.5 minutes

On the cusp of the Maui County Council’s annual budget negotiations in April, members of the newly formed ‘Aha Wai o Maui Hikina received an unexpected message from the Mayor’s office: state legislators in Honolulu were proposing to “gut and replace” a state resolution, to all but urge the county not to fund their fledgling, voter-approved effort to deprivatize the largest stream diversion system in Hawai‘i.

As originally drafted, resolution HCR117 concerned the use of vehicles as shelter by houseless individuals. However, House Finance Committee leaders were proposing to remove and replace its contents with new language, explicitly calling out new county charter amendments including the establishment of an East Maui Regional Community Board (also known as the East Maui Community Water Authority) – an entity intended to end the century-long corporate control of East Maui’s streams. 

Reciting the human and fiscal impacts of the Maui wildfires, the final clauses of the proposed new resolution language urged the Mayor and the Maui County Council to “adopt a financially prudent budget” for the next fiscal year, and to adopt a 2025-2026 budget that “maintains current operational levels” rather than increase county expenditures – such as those needed by the new community water board.

 Just why the East Maui Regional Community Board was mentioned in the resolution seemed to be a mystery - the $400,000 the Mayor had budgeted for its operations and equipment constituted 0.03% (three hundredths of one percent) of his $1.2B proposal. For those familiar with the politics of water on Maui, however, the resolution appeared to be a thinly veiled attempt to provide political ammunition to those opposed to the board – renamed the ʻAha Wai o Maui Hikina – after development interests and their political allies repeatedly failed to influence its composition and leadership.

“Plan D” for Developers?

In early June, e-mails from Maui developer Everett Dowling claimed that County Council Chair Alice Lee had instructed him to reach out to Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) Director Kali Watson, and ask that he withdraw renowned water law expert and Hawaiian rights advocate Dr. Jonathan Likeke Scheuer as DHHL’s appointee to the community board.

According to Dowling’s email, Dr. Scheuer was “generally disliked by the development community, large landowners such as [Maui Land & Pineapple], A&B, the construction trade unions and the ranches.” While Watson initially obliged, beneficiary outcry led the Hawaiian Homes Commission to overrule his decision, reinstating Dr. Scheuer as the DHHL representative.

Council Chair Lee would then successfully nominate former Mayor Alan Arakawa as the council appointee “actively engaged in ranching, farming, aquaculture, or loko iʻa,” despite his previous opposition to the very creation of the community board. Arakawa, long known for downplaying the rights and concerns of Native Hawaiians – including with regards to industrial development on sacred summits and the sacred nature of pōhaku – would fail in his bid to become chair of the ʻAha Wai, losing to Dr. Scheuer in an 8-1 vote.

With a DHHL representative and Hawaiian rights advocate now at the helm, many hoped that generations of injustice arising from water hoarding, waste, and the abdication of the public trust in Maui Hikina’s waters could finally begin to be healed.

Undeterred, Arakawa nonetheless circulated a letter accusing Council Member Sinenci and Dr. Scheuer of “acting beyond their authority” in formulating a budget for the ‘Aha Wai, accusations that would turn out to be groundless.

This letter came on March 27, just a few days before the current Mayor’s office alerted the ʻAha Wai to the gut-and-replace proposal for HCR117.

Elected Officials in the Dark – and in the Know?

 While the Mayor, the ‘Aha Wai, and certain Maui County Council members were taken aback by the proposal at the state legislature, other officials from Maui Nui did not seem quite as surprised.

At the gut-and-replace Finance Committee hearing on HCR117, held on April 2, Council Chair Lee appeared live via Zoom to support the new resolution language; her written testimony was one of only two that had been submitted before the 24-hour deadline. Upon pointed questioning by committee members, Chair Lee noted that even charter amendments, such as those establishing the East Maui  could go unimplemented “if we don’t have the funding.”

Finance Committee members from Maui Nui, however, expressed surprise and concern regarding the “gut-and-replace” maneuver, which the Committee chair acknowledged would likely be unconstitutional had the measure been a bill instead of a resolution. In casting her “no” vote on the new proposed language, Lahaina Representative Elle Cochran voiced her deep discomfort in the process, and expressed her full confidence in the demonstrated fiscal prudence of the Maui County Council.

Moloka‘i, Lānaʻi, and Maui Hikina Representative Mahina Poepoe, also voting “no,” likewise questioned the purpose of the resolution. “I’m not completely sure of what it’s implying besides some sort of imprudence,” she reflected, further emphasizing the “huge win” the ‘Aha Wai represented for her embattled Maui Hikina constituents, her personal experience with the county budgeting process as “a good process,” and the importance of county home rule in determining how county funds are to be spent.

Nonetheless, despite the concerns from Maui Nui legislators themselves, the majority of the committee members present voted in favor of the new resolution language.

Disaster Capitalism vs. Our Wai Future

For many observers, the use of the Maui wildfires to once again push back on efforts to uphold the public trust in wai was yet another example of state-aided disaster capitalism, exploiting the tragedy to perpetuate corporate control of our islands’ most precious resource.

Nonetheless, water protectors and advocates refused to lose heart, urging Maui county council members throughout the budget hearing process to protect the wishes and vision of Maui County’s voters for a just wai future. 

As ‘Aha Wai o Maui Hikina Chair Jonathan Scheuer testified to the council’s Budget Committee:

“Hawai‘i has been in a decades’ long struggle of, what can we do after the plantation?...[Maui Hikina] is the only community that said, ‘You know, we think we are capable of running our own water future as a community, honoring the public trust and serving the highest needs of our community. And so, yeah, is it complicated? Are there chances for failure? Are there a lot of questions to answer? Of course. But is it worth doing? Should we work with our best hearts and our best efforts to do that? Absolutely.”

(As of this writing, their efforts appear to be successful - the latest draft of the Maui County Budget includes $590,160 for the “East Maui Water Authority,” funding four positions, a planning consultant, and equipment - an increase of nearly $200,000 from the Mayor’s own proposal. Final reading for the FY2025 Budget is scheduled for Wednesday, June 5, at 1:30 pm.)