ALLIANCE MEETING LOOKS AT COUNTY ADMINISTRATION PROCESS AND PARKS DEPT

3/26/19 #kihei

Last evening, several representatives from the community associations of Maalaea, Kula, Wailuku, Waihe’e, Makawao, Pukalani, and Ha’iku joined with  FIVE (count ’em) Directors from the Kihei Community Association to meet with the two new County Administration Directors, Managing Director Sandy Baz and Parks Director Karla Peters.

The first quarter of the two-hour meeting, which commenced as usual at 6:00 PM, was devoted to the association representatives opining on some of their specific community challenges. These representatives discussed what was lacking for their needs in order to educate Sandy Baz. He responded saying he has lived in almost all of these communities at various times, so could readily identify with the challenges that were listed.

As Baz has served in various managerial positions in the previous administrations for the past eight years, we hope for improved results with this new administration.

About the halfway through the mark, the program was turned over to Peters, who offered a list of “fun facts” to the group, as she explained the department’s five divisions. 

The facts were a statistical breakdown which went from the number of campsites (3) to the number of acres of developed parkland(2,547). She answered numerous questions and listened to suggestions and concerns from the various representatives regarding community parks.

One of the many concerns discussed was security. This has been a decades-long concern, especially at Kalama Park in Kihei.

Peters advised that the County Parks Department has ten positions for security personnel. When she became the director, only three had been filled. There was a hiring push and now they have all ten filled. 

While this is excellent progress, we are advocating for security cameras for South Maui. These cameras will be a small fraction of the expense for more full-time security staff and the cameras will cover a wide area. 

The security cameras will be among our budget “asks” at the budget committee meeting on April 9 at 6: 00 PM, which is set for the Kihei Community Center.

The next Alliance meeting is set for April 29, 2019.