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Maui County voters are about to elect their legislative body for the first time since the devastating August 2023 fires.

All nine County Council races are on the ballot, and while the 16 candidates must reside in the district they seek to represent, voters can cast ballots in all the races. That means everyone in Maui County has a say in the council’s balance of power, in which one faction is viewed as more pro-development than the other.

It also means the candidates meet up frequently. Twelve of them are expected to attend a Civil Beat pop-up forum Wednesday in Wailuku at the J. Walter Cameron Center, 95 Malahani St., at 6 p.m. Last week, 13 of them showed up for a Lahaina Strong forum.

All of them also responded to Civil Beat’s candidate survey, and their answers can be found here.

Maui’s most pressing issues were on the menu at the Lahaina Strong forum at Hanakoo Beach Park: the housing shortage, skyrocketing rents, water rights, Lahaina’s reconstruction, fire prevention, public safety and the threat of land grabs by outsiders.

Currently, a delicate balance of power tilts toward a council majority of five that is generally considered pro-development and supported by the construction industry. It includes Tom Cook, Alice Lee, Yuki Lei Sugimura, Nohelani U’u-Hodgins and Tasha Kama.

The other faction includes Tamara Paltin, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Shane Sinenci and Gabe Johnson.

Much of the attention has been focused on a competitive South Maui District race between incumbent Cook and former council member Kelly King, who gave up her seat two years ago for an unsuccessful mayoral run. King trailed Cook by less than 150 votes in the primary.

There are incumbents in every race, including two who are unopposed. If all the other incumbents were reelected, a victory by King could re-shift the council’s balance to a more aggressive stance toward raising taxes on high-end developers and the hotel industry to make them fund county programs, especially housing and water.

The current council majority fears such measures may scare off investors on an island in dire need of affordable housing and infrastructure growth.

In addition to King and Cook, Upcountry council member Sugimura and challenger Jocelyn Cruz also battled in the primaries. Both races had three candidates, with the top two advancing to the general election. But unlike the tight King-Cook contest, Sugimura emerged way ahead with more than 16,700 votes against a little over 5,200 votes for Cruz.

Hana’s Sinenci and Lanai’s Johnson are running without opposition, while the rest of the field consists of two-person races that went straight to the general election.  

Cruz comes from the same political camp as Forrest, King, Lanai council member Johnson, East Maui council member Sinenci, Molokai council member Rawlins-Fernandez, West Maui council member Paltin, Paia challenger Nara Boone and Kahului challenger Carol Lee Kamekona.

Wailuku District: Lee Vs. Forrest

While the King-Cook contest may be the main event, it was Wailuku District challenger James Forrest who took the initiative first at the Lahaina Strong forum, going after his opponent, council chair Lee.

“My opponent has a history of taking donations over her whole career,” Forrest said, displaying a spread sheet. “Everything you see in red is a donation from a corporation that is not in Maui. This tells the story of the career and the money that’s funding her campaign.”

Forrest proposed raising property taxes on hotels that he said “are obviously benefiting the most from the resources of the island, but they’re not actually paying back enough.” This, he said, would funnel hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenues to the affordable housing fund.

Responding to community criticism of the council’s progress on housing solutions for fire-displaced residents, Lee said the council worked “very, very hard, a lot harder than you would even know” on housing issues. But unlike the mayor, she said, council members don’t have staff members following them around taking photos and issuing press releases.

Lee noted the council is a legislative body and is not directly involved in building homes, but it can approve housing funding and policy. This year, the council passed the Ohana Assistance Program, which provides $100,000 to qualified applicants to build additional long-term rental units on their properties, she said.

Forrest criticized Lee for proposing , that would undo past work that had on county lands.

“I just don’t think anyone here wants to have our community parks filled with pesticides where our children are playing,” Forrest said.

Lee said the council only had one meeting on the bill so far and invited the public to attend future meetings and share suggestions. She said her concerns are public health and safety, but it is “unfortunate” that the county does not have the capacity to control weeds in large areas such as the 700-acre Waiehu Golf Course.

“It’s hard for us to ask the players to weed the grass,” she said.

Data from the  shows Lee received $24,800 from 24 donors through Sept. 24 for the current election season. Six out-of-state donors gave her a total of $6,500, while seven Oahu donors gave her a total of $10,500. A $300 donation came from Molokai, and the remaining donations came from Maui.

Forrest received $4,827 from seven donations. Author Sulara James, of Kihei, donated $2,000, and the rest came from the Maui Pono Network.

Upcountry District: Sugimura Vs. Cruz

Moderator Chelsea Davis asked Sugimura and Cruz whether they would consider a proposal to raise taxes on nonowner-occupied and vacant homes, similar to what Honolulu is currently considering, to aid Lahaina’s recovery while addressing potential budget deficits.

Cruz said she would support raising taxes on vacant homes as “one step in the right direction.” She said she recently spoke with economist Dick Mayer, from Kula, who said Maui’s property taxes are lower than Honolulu’s, which are already among the lowest in the nation.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly implied Honolulu already has a tax on vacant homes.

Sugimura said Maui already has a tax schedule that charges and vacant homes. The problem, she said, is the thousands of short-term vacation rentals in South Maui and Lahaina that some in the community want converted to long-term housing. She was referring to a recent recommendation from the Maui Planning Commission for the council to approve Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposal to turn more than 7,000 short-term rentals — known as the Minatoya list — into long-term housing.

Maui’s short-term rentals are scheduled to pay $246 million in property taxes this fiscal year, and nonowner-occupied homes are expected to pay $137 million. Hotels only contribute with $51.5 million.

Sugimura warned that if the county gets rid of taxes paid by short-term rentals, it may have to raise taxes on residents.

The audience was also allowed to ask questions. Lahaina fire survivor Michaellyn Burke said many families are “deeply concerned” with potential land grabs from outside investors who might take advantage of displaced residents struggling to rebuild. Burke asked Cruz and Sugimura what they could do to protect homeowners.

Cruz said she has been working closely with Forrest to identify potential bills to address the threat. The first thing that needs to be done, she said, is talking to everyone individually to identify their specific needs.

Sugimura said the council provided millions of dollars to the nonprofit organization Lahaina Community Land Trust to buy land from homeowners in financial difficulties to keep it in the hands of the community, and also put leftover money into the Affordable Housing Fund to be used for housing in Lahaina.

Davis said Lahaina Strong and many community members oppose the continued use of injection wells — used by the county to discharge wastewater underground into porous formations. She asked how they would prioritize ending Maui’s reliance on injection wells.

Sugimura said the council added millions of dollars to the budget to move from injection wells to R1 water — the highest grade of recycled wastewater — to be used for irrigation and other commercial purposes, therefore saving potable water.

Cruz said the council should raise taxes on hotels to make them pay for a safe way to discharge water. She’s also in support of R1 water to free up potable water for residents.

Campaign Spending Commission data showed Sugimura received 89 donations totaling $59,350, most of it from the construction industry.

Cruz had a single donor, Sulara James, who contributed $1,000.

Kahului District: Kama Vs. Kamekona

Kama didn’t attend the forum. Her challenger, retired 22-year Navy veteran Kamekona, said the 2021 Maui Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan addresses the county’s housing deficiency. Her main goal, she said, is to ensure the plan is implemented.

Kamekona is in favor of converting short-term rentals into long-term housing. Tourists belong in hotel zones, not in residential neighborhoods, she said. She criticized Maui’s policy that does not limit water usage for hotels. “We need to implement a restriction,” she said.

Rent stabilization has been a hot issue over the last month. Kamekona said she would support a rental stabilization or cap.

Kama, as the chair of the council’s Housing and Land Use Committee, recently shelved a push for the council to stabilize rentals, saying she had been contacted by members of the development industry and even the consideration of the topic has had a “chilling effect” on developers of affordable housing.

But ongoing radio advertising ­— paid for by the carpenters union — states Kama advocated for “controlling rent increases.”

In her response to the Civil Beat Q&A, Kama said the county will need to subsidize housing costs to provide attainable housing. Regarding phasing out STRs on the Minatoya list, she said she would work to see the county regulate them in a manner that maximizes housing for locals and does not destroy that portion of Maui’s tourism-based economy.

Kama was heavily supported by builders’ unions, collecting 44 donations totaling $41,715, according to the commission.

Kamekona had 13 donations totaling $8,730. Most were from community members.

South Maui District: Cook Vs. King

King and Cook both criticized the Minatoya list that identifies about 7,000 short-term units that could potentially be converted to long-term housing.

King wants a study to see which ones would be feasible for families to live in, and then have the county work with FEMA to purchase them as affordable housing.

Cook wants to do away with the Minatoya list altogether and rezone the short-term rentals appropriately with the “stroke of a pen.”

Both said they mostly support underground utilities. But Cook was opposed to them in places like Lahaina due to potential cultural sensitivity, and because it could slow down the town’s reconstruction.

King said crews are already digging to rebuild roads in Lahaina, and “somehow it’s OK to dig to put injection wells and have them bubble up under our ocean.”

Cook received 147 donations totaling $132,114, according to the commission. A large chunk of this money came from the construction industry, and some from real estate and hospitality industries, and private individuals.

King had 42 donations totaling $22,584. Most of this money came from community members.

West Maui District: Paltin Vs. Acquintas

Paltin, who represents Lahaina, faced questions alone because her challenger, Acquintas, didn’t attend the forum.

Paltin said an intact parking structure in Lahaina could be leased by the county and offered as a venue to local businesses. Responding to theft concerns in the burn zone, she suggested college students could build sheds to secure equipment, which was done in Oregon following a disaster.

There is also a potential plan to install motion-sensor lights, she said.

Acquintas recently answered a Civil Beat Q&A in which he said the county needs to expedite building permits islandwide, not just in Lahaina. Residents are frustrated with the length of the permitting process, and it’s causing families to move off island, he said.

Acquintas received 17 donations totaling $9,780, according to the commission. Most of his contributions were from community members.

Paltin had 11 donations totaling $7,370. Two of them were individual donations, six were from the Maui Pono Network, two were from unions, and the last was from a farm.  

Makawao-Haiku-Paia District: U‘u-Hodgins Vs. Boone

The communities of Makawao and Paia are similar to Lahaina pre-fire: charming old buildings, tight streets and aging energy infrastructure surrounded by agricultural lands affected by drought, Davis said.

She asked U‘u-Hodgins and her challenger, Nara Boone, about their plans to safeguard the communities in those towns.

U‘u-Hodgins said she discussed the issue in the council and held meetings with the community, fire officials and large landowners to figure out how to prevent another tragedy like in Lahaina.

Boone, co-founder of the Maui Housing Hui, said the main thing she would do is make sure the owners of surrounding lands keep their properties fire-resistant.  

Audience member Katie Austin asked how they would create safe spaces for local families who cannot keep up with the high cost of living and have nowhere to go.

U‘u-Hodgins said the council can help create affordable housing, affordable rentals and safe spaces, despite its traditional roles being limited to policing and financing.

Boone said the county isn’t doing enough. She said when King was a council member, she had introduced a safe-space idea, but that hasn’t come to fruition.

“I’m a housing advocate. I know what it’s like to be days away from not having a place to live. I do not want that for anyone else,” Boone said.

She said she was upset a rental stabilization proposal legislation wasn’t brought forward, despite not necessarily agreeing with a rental freeze on a market already so expensive.

U‘u-Hodgins said she is open to figuring out how the council could make legislation on rent stabilization work.

U‘u-Hodgins had 63 donations totaling $53,974, largely from the construction industry, with some from real estate and hospitality industries, and private individuals, according to the commission.

Boone received 14 donations from the Maui Pono Network and community members, totaling $6,683.

Molokai District: Rawlins-Fernandez Vs. Pele

Rawlins-Fernandez was another candidate who faced questions alone; challenger John Pele didn’t attend. She said it would be foolish to back off from phasing out short-term rentals over the fear of lawsuits.

“I support the mayor’s bill to phase out STRs, and I stood proudly with him and Lahaina Strong at the press conference announcing the legislation. It’s not something new; we’ve talked about it for years,” she said.

Pele recently answered a Civil Beat Q&A in which he said he would support the legislation if it provides housing for residents. But he said phasing out those STRs could mean a loss of $30 million to $50 million in property tax revenue, plus economic losses to businesses serving those units.

“We need to strategize how to incentivize owners to embrace converting to long-term rentals. They must agree,” Pele said.

Pele received 58 separate donations, mostly from the construction industry, totaling $45,185, according to the commission.

Rawlins-Fernandez had 12 donations, mostly from community members, totaling $14,955.

Unopposed: Sinenci And Johnson

Sinenci said large plantations “ran amok” with water usage in the past, but the state Constitutional Convention of 1978 successfully pushed to allow the government to consider water as a public trust and protect it for public use.

Regarding housing issues, Sinenci said the county and state are putting more money toward infrastructure, and he is looking forward to upcoming budget sessions when the council can appropriate more affordable housing funds for West Maui.

Johnson said he used to live in low-income housing on Lanai before running for office. “I know the struggle, and it’s real,” he said.

A said lot of the legislation he pushed as chair of the Affordable Housing Committee when he got into office in 2020 was based on the Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan mentioned by Kamekona.

He criticized the prices for so-called affordable housing, saying it’s “insane” that an $800,000 home is considered affordable. The county needs to subsidize infrastructure to make it cheaper for affordable housing developers to build, he said.

Johnson is in favor of the county purchasing private water systems to put “money where its mouth is when it comes to public trust doctrine.” He mentioned his home island of Lanai, where water may be a public trust, but is delivered through a private system.

Sinenci had eight donations totaling $2,122. Three were self-donations, three from the Maui Pono Network and two from community members, according to the commission.

Johnson had three donations totaling $1,205. One was from a family member, another was from an individual on the mainland, and the last was from the Maui Pono Network.

A Civil Beat pop-up forum will be held Wednesday in Wailuku at the J. Walter Cameron Center, 95 Malahani St., at 6 p.m.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.