It’s been a helluva year, and that’s not a good thing. For the United States, the watchwords for 2017 have been violence and hatred–against women, African-Americans, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and basically everyone who isn’t a straight white male. You don’t have to be a master at reading the room to know that greed and ignorance […]
Lance Taguchi
Maui County Auditor releases hot new report on Maui Fire Premium Pay and Overtime
Auditor reports are usually dry documents, filled with math and line graphs and numbers that require thinking. They’re not usually fun or packed with sarcastic vitriol. Maui County Auditor Lance Taguchi’s latest report, “Audit of Premium/Overtime Pay of the Department of Fire and Public Safety” is a notable exception. “‘How much is a life worth?’” […]
Auditor scrutinizes Maui County procurement cards
On June 14, the Maui County Auditor released a new report on the county’s use of procurement cards (so-called pCards)–a credit card that county officials can use to buy goods and services. The Auditor decided to take a look at Maui pCard use after a plethora of news reports made clear that former Hawaii Island […]
Maui County Auditor drops scathing report on 2013 Old Wailuku Post Office demolition
You don’t have to get very far into the Maui County Auditor’s new report on the Old Wailuku Post Office (OWPO) demolition expenditures before you get to the some old fashioned truth about how local government works around here. “The County’s pattern of actions is unfortunate because the public is left under-informed and in the dark,” states […]
Auditor Lance Taguchi says County of Maui missed out on $21 million
It’s not often you see the results of an audit splashed on the front page of The Maui News, but that’s exactly what happened on Friday, Apr. 3. “County audit: $21 million lost,” read the sensation headline. The words imply drastic negligence, perhaps even a crime. Too bad the report’s actual finding was far less […]
Talking Story With New County Auditor Lance Taguchi About His Plans, Resources and Why It’s Taking So Long For Him To Get Started
One of the little observed results of the 2012 election on Maui was the decisive approval of a Charter Commission proposal calling for a County Auditor. While not the sexiest job around, a decisive majority of voters (54 percent to 29 percent) voted to bring Maui County into the 20th century and hire an independent […]
Maui Business Workshops Now Videoconferenced For Molokai
We know, we know–stories this glamorous and exciting usually come from the pages of Esquire and Rolling Stone. Ooh! People on Molokai and Maui can watch each others small business workshops on television! Except, even in this seeming banal story, which comes to us courtesy of an Oct. 2 press release from the County of […]