New/old Maui County Council Chair Mike White has scheduled a fascinating public hearing for Monday, Jan. 16. Because Councilmembers Elle Cochran, Kelly King, Alika Atay and Don Guzman pushed back so hard on White during the Jan. 2 meeting in which he once again won the Council Chair job, White relented on one of his more hardline proposals–paving the way for this hearing.
Originally, White bucked past precedent by not only naming all the County Council committee chairs, but the committee memberships, too. To no one’s surprise, he arranged the memberships so the councilmembers who were backed by the anti-GMO, slow-growth SAFE Action Fund (that would be Cochran, King, Atay and Guzman) were in the minority in every single committee. Making matters even less democratic, he also unilaterally decided that some committees would have just five members.
But at the Jan. 2 Organizational Meeting, White relented on all that (click here for our story on that meeting). In fact, he retreated so far that he called for a public hearing to decide on the makeup and membership of the various council committees (of course, Councilmember Riki Hokama has put forward a resolution pretty much mirroring White’s original plans, so White might just get everything he wanted after all).
That hearing will take place at 1:30pm on Monday, Jan. 16. The meeting will take place in the Council Chamber on the 8th Floor of the Kalana O Maui Building (200 S. High St., Wailuku). And yes, the public will get a chance to offer testimony.
Photo of Kalana O Maui building: Wikimedia Commons
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