BEST COUNTY OFFICIAL
Elle Cochran
Apparently, more than just MauiTime readers agree that Elle Cochran–who’s been in government a scant two years now–is the best public servant. After just one term of office as a member of the Maui County Council (representing West Maui), Cochran is running unopposed for reelection. She’s the chairperson of the council’s Infrastructure Management Committee and Vice Chair of the Economic Development, Agriculture and Recreation Committee. She was the lone vote against reopening Hamakuapoko Wells, and recently voted against adding nearly 400 acres of potential development near the Makena Golf Course to the county’s future growth boundaries. She’s also endorsed by the Sierra Club, which makes sense given that Cochran helped found the Save Honolua Coalition. (AP)
BEST TOWN TO LIVE IN
Kihei
This is a tough one. Kihei isn’t exactly a walkable town–sidewalks are rare and portions of South Kihei Road more closely resemble a street racing course than a local thoroughfare–and it’s pretty much the best definition of “urban sprawl” I’ve yet found in Hawaii. Indeed, much of the South Maui coast is hidden from view behind rows of Kihei condominiums. And yet, so many people are moving to Kihei that land developers are preparing to put up thousands of new homes and some of the largest outlet malls in the state. The reasons, as far as I can tell, are simple: the sun shines pretty much year round in Kihei, the water (at least in the south portion of the town) is clear and clean and the place is home to many of the island’s best bars and nightclubs. Kihei, for all of its problems, is actually a fun place to live. (AP)
BEST SCARY PUBLIC OFFICIAL
Linda Lingle
Technically Lingle hasn’t been a public official since she left the Hawaii governor’s office in 2010, but her campaign to replace retiring U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (D, Hawaii) is close enough for me. Our readers think she’s scary, but there’s a very real chance the state’s voters (who twice elected her governor) will send the Republican who tried to Hawaii Superferry sail past our state’s environmental laws while killing same-sex marriages to Washington, DC to represent us in the United States Senate. She has long called herself a moderate, but the nearly $30,000 she’s already taken from Goldman Sachs and the $95,000 she’s accepted from Big Oil (according to the Center for Responsive Politics) say otherwise. (AP)
BEST COMMUNITY NON-PROFIT
Maui Food Bank
Their mission is simple–“[H]elp the hungry in Maui County by collecting and distributing food through community partnerships”–but executing it is anything but. Food, especially on an island out in the middle of the Pacific, is expensive, and Maui Food Bank relies on donations from regular type people. And they need a lot of donations, since they figure they serve about 10,000 people every month–this year, that should total about 1.5 million pounds of food they’ll hand out to poor people across Maui. No one else on the island is doing anything like that volume, and it’s heartening to see that our readers recognize and applaud it. 760 Kolu St., Wailuku; 808-243-9500; mauifoodbank.org (AP)
BEST POLITICAL ACTIVIST
Irene Bowie
It’s always nice to see our readers acknowledge the hard work and dedication of an activist not often seen in the spotlight. Irene Bowie is definitely that person. Since 2007, Bowie has been the president (and the lone full-time employee) of the non-profit slow-growth group Maui Tomorrow. A resident of Maui since 1978, Bowie helped found the Pacific Whale Foundation and has long been one of the leaders in the fights against the island’s dependency on oil, the use of injection wells and, in her greatest work to date, the Hawaii Superferry, which had sought (with then-Governor Linda Lingle’s blessing and assistance) to operate outside of the state’s environmental laws. The work Bowie does requires long, tedious hours analyzing extremely technical planning and environmental impact reports. Few on Maui are better at it than Bowie. 55 N. Church St., Ste. A5, Wailuku; 808-244-7570; Maui-tomorrow.org (AP)
BEST ENVIRONMENTAL NON-PROFIT
Pacific Whale Foundation
For most people, Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) is probably just a kickass whale watch service (they did also win BEST ACTIVITY, after all) but this non-profit organization also does what it can to help the endangered sea giants. Founded in 1980, PWF carries out research, but does its best work educating the public about the threats facing whales and the critical need to keep the whales from going extinct, which remains a real danger. “Pacific Whale Foundation’s vision is to be the people’s environmental organization for research, advocacy, and protection of the world’s whales, dolphins and their ocean habitat,” states the PWF website. Works for us. 300 Ma‘alaea Rd.; 800-942-5311; pacificwhale.org; @pacificwhale (AP)
BEST TOWN TO VISIT
Paia
Ahh, this little North Shore town seems forever to be the place to visit, at least where MauiTime readers are concerned. Living there, with its few, tiny homes seems like a dream, but it’s no big deal to drop by the town and see the locals, hippies, Euros and surfers who do spend their days there. Paia also offers plenty of quaint boutiques, cool cafes, some of the whitest white sand beaches on the island and a laid-back vibe that just can’t be found anywhere else. (AP)
BEST ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
Sugar Cane Burning
Are there other environmental issues these days? Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar (HC&S), which operates the last mill on Maui, grows sugar on 37,000 acres. For much of the year, company workers burn the fields when the cane has grown about two years. This burning releases a great deal of smoke and ash which contain particulates that can exacerbate respiratory disease, especially in children and the elderly. HC&S–a wholly owned subsidiary of the very powerful Alexander & Baldwin Co.–does this because they’ve done it for more than a century, and no one on the island is yet powerful enough to make them stop. If everyone on the island rose up and demanded that they stop, then that might do it, but we’re a long way from that. (AP)
BEST STATE BLUNDER
Superferry
Wow, our readers really hold grudges. The Superferry has been dead in the water for a few years now (the U.S. Navy recently bought and renamed the two ferries) but our readers sure don’t forget the lawsuits, service halts, Kauai surfer protests and sanctimonious assurances from Governor Linda Lingle that all was well, even as court after court ruled that the state needed to conduct a proper environmental review. In fact, the sting of the old superferry still hurts so bad that readers let it trump more contemporary troubles as Governor Neil Abercrombie’s refusal to make public the names of his judicial nominees (something even Lingle used to do) and the nearly endless war between the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the state. (AP)
BEST COUNTY BLUNDER
Wailuku Main Street Association
Talk about a no-brainer. Wailuku Main Street Association (WMSA) has been taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the County of Maui for years ($2.2 million since 2002, according to The Maui News). And if you’d like to know what the non-profit organization has been doing with that money, get in line behind the County of Maui Planning Department and the state Attorney General’s office. Both have spent the better part of this year asking questions of the association and its mercurial executive director Jocelyn Perreira exactly that, without much luck. Now Perreira and WMSA chairman Tom Cannon have long said that everything they do is above board, but when you add up all the former WMSA board members who have been complaining publicly that Perreira refused to give them various financial records that should have been theirs for the asking, the whole thing really starts to smell. (AP)
BEST POLITICAL SCANDAL
County of Maui Department of Liquor Control
Commonly called by their initials, the LC enjoys a great deal of power and authority over the county’s service industry. No one sells booze without the LC’s say-so, and that doesn’t come easy. And not just booze, either: LC inspectors also regulate the noise that emanates from a licensee, the use of obscenities during live entertainment and whether any patrons are dancing outside of specially marked dancing zones. I could get specific and talk about the LC’s attempt a few months ago to cut off all live entertainment in the popular Kihei Kalama Village (the “Barmuda Triangle”) after 10pm, but our readers were clear: the LC itself is a political scandal, and it’s tough to disagree. (AP)
[PHOTO: Sean M. Hower]
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