Just one example: Former Corp Counsel Moana Lutey (now County Clerk, thanks to Alice Lee) lied about conducting her own internal investigation and influenced the shutdown of a forensic investigation that the Council approved 9-to-0 to find out who helped Greg Brown violate dozens of ordinances to build his monster hotel in Napili.
Obviously, Yuki doesn’t want to be reminded that it’s this Council’s fault that experienced professionals don’t want to work for Maui County, and she, very wrongfully, interrupted my testimony, only to minutes later offer me the opportunity to continue, with zero apologies for her attempt to censor legitimate testimony, just because she doesn’t want to hear the truth.
What kind of Mayor do you think Yuki will make when rather than work towards true accountability, Yuki approved a million dollars (surely to triple over time) to crush the life out of Chris Salem, whom Mayor Mike Victorino hired to fix all this, but was later fired for trying to do his job, because fixing the problems exposes past corrupt acts by Corp Counsel and other select staff?
With decades of filth allowed to fester in Maui County’s government, what professional would ever want to work here?
And they can’t just blame low pay rates. Another reason no qualified professionals want to work for the county is that, for example, Public Works director Jordan Molina, though he earned an Environmental Engineering degree from OSU, has absolutely zero real-world infrastructure experience. As far as I can tell, his only professional experience before working for the County was as an expediter at Gomes Trucking Company.
Council Member Tom Cook showed his own ignorance by giving thanks that, in Molina, we have a Public Works director with boots-on-the-ground experience. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If the Council wants to fill the 700 vacant County jobs that are wasting millions of our tax dollars, they have to stop approving completely unqualified political appointees as department directors, like Jordan Molina and, before him, 2nd-grade school teacher Rowena Dagdag Andaya. Nice people, I’m sure, but completely unqualified for the job.