The Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, previously led by Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, is now being headed by Yuki Lei Sugimura. The Affordable Housing Committee, now the Housing and Land Use Committee, was run by Gabe Johnson last term and is now being led by Tasha Kama, who chaired the committee in the 2018-2020 term.

“This is standard practice,” Council Chairwoman Alice Lee said Tuesday afternoon of the new committee heads. “When I first was elected (back on the council) four years ago, we didn’t have a discussion on who will have which committee. I asked for the budget committee, I was given water.”

Lee had served as budget committee chairwoman in previous terms but did not get the job as she was in the minority.

“So this is no different,” she said.

Chairpersons of eight council committees were chosen in the late hours of in an all-day council meeting that began Friday and went into the early morning hours on Saturday.

When asked why the council did not just put the experienced members back on the committees they led last term, Lee said, “that’s a good point.”

“However, sometimes you want to give new people a chance,” she added, saying this is a way for council members to learn different things.

The other elected chairpersons and their committees are:

• Tom Cook, Water and Infrastructure Committee.

• Johnson, Agriculture, Diversification, Environment and Public Transportation Committee.

• Tamara Paltin, Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs and Planning Committee.

• Rawlins-Fernandez, Efficiency Solutions and Circular Systems Committee.

• Shane Sinenci, Water Authority, Social Services and Parks Committee.

• Nohelani U’u-Hodgins, Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee.

In a text message Tuesday afternoon, Rawlins-Fernandez said: “I feel that in order to best serve our residents and our county, our council should have worked together to select the most qualified and experienced chair for each committee, anything contrary to that would be putting politics ahead of the community’s interest.”

Johnson said via text message Tuesday afternoon that he is “up for anything that can make my community better.”

“I worked extremely hard during my time as the affordable housing chair. I plan to do the same with the newly formed ADEPT committee,” he said.

His plans include tackling food sovereignty and environmental issues. Johnson, who holds the Lanai residency seat, also wants to see a transportation system that reflects a county with multiple islands under its jurisdiction.

Paltin said that she actually put together the new committee she heads after she learned early on that the “good ones” were taken.

Her new committee also reflects her interests and her experience as a county ocean safety officer. The committee will oversee the police, fire and Maui Emergency Management Agency. Paltin said they can look at how the county currently responds and will respond to a disaster in the future.

She will also continue to work on issues such as community plans and illegal short-term rentals enforcement, and

she wants to learn more about Hawaii’s legal status under international law.

Asked if the council should have looked to experience in choosing committee chairmanships, Paltin said: “Why not?”

“Because it’s not about us and the power trips, it’s about the people that elected us into office and doing them a good service,” Paltin said Tuesday morning.

It’s not the first time the council has seen a shift in power with experienced members losing committee assignments after they fell into the minority. After the 2018 election, longtime council budget chairman Riki Hokama was removed from his post and replaced with Rawlins-Fernandez.

When asked about how the changes this time differ from the last shift in power, Paltin said that Hokama may not have been “that good” as chairperson.

She recognized that Rawlins-Fernandez was “not tested” in that position when she was first selected, but she has a legal background, which showed she had the capacity for the job as a new budget committee chairperson.

Paltin said this was about giving a new member a chance.

She compared this to her support of new Council Member U’u-Hodgins, who will lead the Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee, which also handles legal matters.

The 5-4 split is not only playing out in committee leadership decisions but also in policy, as the same five members of Lee, Kama, Sugimura, Cook and U’u-Hodgins blocked efforts to override former Mayor Michael Victorino’s vetoes last week, though only time will tell how often the 5-4 voting lines will factor in this term.

“My goal is to encourage and bring about more collaboration on every subject,” Lee said. “My top goal is see this council be exceptional when it comes to problem solving, bar none.”

“We will be the best in the state when it comes to problem solving,” she said.

She added that “I hope it will not become a habit” with votes ending up in a 5-4 split on major issues.

Lee, who fielded criticism at Friday’s meeting over public testimony rules, said that in the future she will allow for public testimony at the beginning of the meetings and also allow for testimony prior to items being take up by the council, with the latter mandated by the state.

Lee said she had already initiated this practice last year.

Members of the public had gotten upset over not being able to testify at the beginning of the meeting but rather only prior to their subject coming up, though Lee said she was not part of putting together that agenda, contrary to what some of the public has said. She pointed out that she had not yet been seated on the council as she was awaiting the Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision on a lawsuit challenging the results of her election.

The court on Jan. 20 ruled that Lee received the majority of the votes cast in the general election and that the county could certify the election. After taking office, Lee was elected chairperson during Friday’s meeting.

The council has still not selected a vice chairperson or a presiding officer pro tempore, which is anticipated to happen at the Feb. 17 meeting, said David Raatz, deputy director of the Office of Council Services.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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