And then there were four.
Today’s Maui News reports that just four individuals want to be the next Maui County Liquor Control Director. Not that the Liquor Commission’s special director selection committee has narrowed the list of applicants to four–they apparently received just four applications to be the head of the county department that oversees all liquor regulations, and they’re apparently forwarding all the names to the Liquor Commission itself for a final decision.
“I was surprised that we didn’t have more candidates,” The Maui News quotes selection committee chairperson Willie Kennison as saying in its Feb. 11 story. “I would think that it’s a good paying job and serves the community, so it would seem like there would be more so I don’t know why. But the requirements are very stringent because it is a very important position.”
Given the intense media scrutiny over the department lately–especially in terms of the ham-fisted way the Liquor Commission tried to make one of its own (Dana “Son of former LC Director Joe” Souza) the director last year–this is hardly surprising. What also isn’t surprising is all four applicants are either current or former LC officials.
Here they are, according to The Maui News story:
• Current LC Deputy Director Traci Fujita-Villarosa
• Former LC Deputy Director Glenn Mukai
• Current LC Officer Layne Silva
• Current LC Officer Karilee Yoshizawa
Given the way former LC Director Frank Silva ran the department largely as an extension of his own family, it’s hardly surprising to see his son Layne in the list of applicants. Nor is it surprising to see applicant Glenn Mukai’s own daughter–Karilee Yoshizawa–also competing for the job.
In terms of straight experience, Yoshizawa is possibly the boldest of the candidates, given that she was just a rookie LC Officer a decade ago. Also, Fujita-Villarosa–though an experienced attorney formerly with the county’s Corporation Counsel’s office who spent years advising the Liquor Commission on legal matters and has been Silva’s deputy for the last five years–only exceeded the job’s five-year law enforcement experience requirement last month.
Well, we won’t have long to find out who gets Frank Silva’s old job–the Liquor Commission expects to make a decision in early March.
Click here for Mauitime‘s recent coverage on the tortured process to find a new LC Director.
Photo: Sergeant Ian Forsyth RLC/Wikimedia Commons
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