Governor Injects $2.2 Million Into Revival Of Ჹɲʻ Fire Marshal’s Office
“This is workable but it’s only the beginning,” one advocate said as the Legislature prepares to consider the details.
The resurrection of a Ჹɲʻ fire prevention agency appears to be on course after Gov. Josh Green announced a plan to inject $2.2 million into the effort.
The money in Green’s proposed biennium budget would get the Office of the State Fire Marshal up and running after it was brought back to life less than six months ago as part of with a $172,000 appropriation.
The initial funding was not nearly enough to fund the state fire marshal’s job, officials say, let alone set up an entire agency with a long list of responsibilities including addressing Ჹɲʻ’s growing wildfire problem.
With the additional $2.2 million — if the Legislature keeps it in the budget — fire officials are cautiously optimistic the state can attract a qualified candidate for the role and have enough money to create an office befitting its mandate.
Other issues have yet to be resolved, such as where the marshal’s office should land in the state government organization chart.
“This is workable, but it’s only the beginning,” co-director Elizabeth Pickett said. “But it’s not just about the money, it’s about defining and addressing what Ჹɲʻ needs across the whole system.”
The money would bring the marshal’s funding in line made by , which is made up of state and county fire chiefs. The council was formed in 1979 after the Legislature disbanded the state fire marshal’s office, citing an overlap in responsibilities with county fire departments.
Ჹɲʻ has long been the only state in the country without a state fire marshal, a role that is seen as crucial for ensuring fire codes compliance, investigating fires and educating the public and firefighters, among other responsibilities. The Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires highlighted the marshal’s absence, prompting lawmakers to introduce several bills.
But Act 209, signed in July, allocated $120,000 for the state fire marshal’s salary and $40,000 for an administrative assistant, which advocates quickly identified as too little. The remaining funds were for office supplies and rent.
“We have to have a good salary for a fire marshal and we also have to get them a full department help them get going,” Green said at a press conference last week.
Green’s proposal is “a great start” for the office and should then be reassessed in the next five to 10 years, Ჹɲʻ County Fire Department Chief Kazuo Todd said.
The State Fire Council, chaired by Todd, is responsible for hiring a new state fire marshal but has struggled to find candidates because of what members blamed on the mismatch in salary and responsibilities under Act 209.
“In hindsight there should have been more conversation about the expectations and responsibilities,” Todd said.
There is not yet a definitive plan for how the marshal’s office will function, although there has been a lot of discussion about how to rebuild the office.
The executive branch previously suggested temporarily giving the marshal’s responsibilities to the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife – which has the state’s only specialized wildland firefighters – and the nonprofit Ჹɲʻ Wildfire Management Organization as a stopgap measure to take immediate fire mitigation actions while the state figures out how to design the office and hire a fire marshal.
The Department of the Attorney General, which continues to investigate the Lahaina fire, is drafting legislation that will “expand the role of the State Fire Marshal and relocate the State Fire Council and the Office of the State Fire Marshal to another department,” AG spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said.
What that expansion looks like remains unknown but will be revealed by the Jan. 23 final bill introduction deadline for the 2025 legislative session.
Placing the marshal’s office within the state Department of Defense was a possibility Green mentioned earlier this month. The department is also home to the Ჹɲʻ Emergency Management Agency and National Guard.
Lawmakers will also consider other fire-related proposals in the governor’s budget, including $15 million for the Department of Transportation to manage fire-prone vegetation and close to $1.5 million to continue funding 22 wildfire- and disaster-related positions under the state forestry division that were paid for by the state’s major disaster fund.
Among proposals Green left out of his budget were funding for emergency radio transmission upgrades and $7.5 million for the state forestry division’s fire readiness, response and post-fire restoration and rehabilitation.
