COMMITTEE DECISION ON New candidate for Prosecutor

UPDATE 3/15/19 Unanimous approval for confirmation today  and onto full Council possibly next Friday.  But that still leaves the DPW and Housing waiting for the mayor’s offering who is next.

UPDATE  3/12/19.  While many expected a decision by the Council’s GET Committee this morning on nominee Don Guzman, because the item was set last on the agenda, and the committee spent the morning in executive session to NOT decide on two litigation matters, the matter was delayed until Friday (3/15) at 9 AM.

UPDATE 3/1/19  Word out this morning that three term Councilmember Don Guzman is to be the Mayor’s nominee for Prosecuting Attorney. Stay Tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE  2/22/19 #kihei  The outstanding decisions made this morning by the Council were the two changes from the prior vote by the same elected members when they sat in the GET committee. David Goode was rejected by a 6-3 vote, while Pat Wong was approved 5-4.

So the Mayor will have to present three new nominees to that GET Committee for those who were not approved, Housing, Public Works and Prosecuting Attorney

UPDATE  2/15/19 After another very long meeting dominated by testimony today, no Council vote until next Friday, 9:00 AM

UPDATE 2/5/19. So part one of two to finally conclude this initial action by this GET committee commenced just after 9:00 AM in the same manner as Tegarden introduced Michel McLean for planning, and West Maui’s Tamara Paltin kicked it off. After all nine asked questions, they moved into executive session which led right into the lunch break sometime after noon. Observers could immediately discern another long session, as if would be around 2:00 PM, supposedly the start of the second meeting, and they had not evened fished with first candidate.

So when Molina reconvened at about 2:10 and McLean still had no vote it was time for hard adjustments.. You can’t start part 2 (Spence and Goode) when you have not even finished part 1 of McLean and Wong.

The decision was to continue part 1 with decision on McLean. At about 3:10 the committee voted to approve her by 5-4 vote. So after total of over six hours, the first of the four was decided.

Then just before 7:00 PM, Wong was rejected by a similar count.

Council Committee’s next decisions of department directors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/30/19 #kihei

The Governance, Ethics, and Transparency (GET) committee reconvened at 3:00 pm today. The GET approved two and denied one of the selected appointments for major country departments by Mayor Mike Victorino. The denial may have been due to some unstated controversy, which was never explored during the open meeting process.

First, Sandy Baz for the County Managing Director was presented to the board by Mayor Victorino. Baz opened with a short statement, before answering a series of questions from the council. Upon conclusion of the queries, which took nearly two hours, committee chair Mike Molina recommended approval and asked for such a motion, which was offered and seconded and approved unanimously 9-0. The committee took a nearly forty-minute break

Second, at about 5:50 PM, was Mike Miyamoto for the Director of Environmental Management, introduced by Deidre Tegarden. He also made a short opening statement before a series of council questions. Due to possibly fatigue, lessening concern for this position than the former or something else, this interview segment was shorter and ended at 7:00. Molina again recommended approval. Sugimura made the motion, Kama seconded, and the committee approved Miyamoto unanimously, 9-0. Again the committee took a recess, though a shorter one, of just 10 minutes

Third, and finally, J.D. Kim for Prosecuting Attorney was called and introduced by Tegarden. He offered his statement, preceding the questioning process. The pattern and tenor during the questioning certainly took a negative turn. Several council members indicated concerns, but these concerns apparently could not be addressed in the open session. The council chose not to go into executive session and close this process to the public. Thus, a cloud began to darken, hinting that this may be the first rejected nominee. Was he hiding behind legal actions or were there true challenges?

At 8:40 PM Molina again called for support, at which again Sugimura motioned and Lee seconded. However, by a 5-4 vote, this process had the first rejection. Following procedure Molina then asked for disapproval, and that passed 5-4. By a 5-4 vote, J.D. Kim was rejected for the position of Prosecuting Attorney.

At 8:55 Molina called another recess, and upon return after 9 PM, after a procedural discussion, he announced the final recess for the day at 9:55 PM. The next meeting will be on February 5 at 9:00 AM, as there are still two hot nominations remaining.