County attorneys help kill investigation of Planning Director McLean’s wrongful permitting of Brown

ACTION ALERT from the Napili Bay Community Association:
Our County Council’s unanimous vote to launch the first-of-its-kind Official Investigation into Planning and Public Work’s wrongful permitting of Brown’s Development is being terminated thru conflicted advice from the Office of Council Services (OCS) lead attorney David Raatz.   

Rather than conduct the investigation with urgency through the Council’s Planning Committee to meet the Dec 31st deadline, OCS attorney Raatz ran out the clock by putting the investigation out for bid to private firms with a request for proposals that got no responses.

When the NBCA supported placing the investigation under the authority of Planning Committee Chair Tamara Paltin and Vice Chair Kelly King as an alternative to filing costly lawsuits, spending County funds to farm out the investigation was not part of the discussion.

For her part, Vice-Chair King testified that past County Employees have entrusted her with relevant documentation on Director Mclean’s questionable conduct that can only be submitted under the protection of a subpoena order.

Despite having knowledge of this evidence, OCS attorney Raatz never established a subpoena process to secure that documentation. 

For our part, the Napili Bay Community Association honored our agreement to provide the investigation with a comprehensive list of relevant clarifications of the Maui County Code and Charter. Vice-Chair King submitted those questions to OCS attorneys to conclude whether or not Director Mclean acted outside of her authority, which could shut down Brown’s development.  

On Nov 23rd Vice-Chair King was told to expect these conclusions of law “the next day”. More than two weeks later, the conclusions have not been sent and no one is willing to comment on why or who is obstructing their release.


As construction nears completion on the offensive hotel structure, OCS attorney Raatz has informed residents that the investigation could simply die when the current Council’s current term ends on Jan 3rd.

After months of silence, Tamara Paltin’s PSLU committee is holding an update hearing on the investigation this Thursday, December 15, @ 9:00 am. 

It’s the only item on the agenda, so log in early to testify and demand answers on how this process went so wrong. 

Online via BlueJeans: https://bluejeans.com/149341846

More info: www.Napili.org

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