Up Close on Maui 2008 with Jason Schwartz and County Councilwoman GLADYS BAISA; former MEO chief for decades
Summary & Transcript
The video features an in-depth interview with Gladys Baisa, a sitting Maui County Council member representing the Upcountry seat. Hosted by Jason Schwartz, the conversation explores her journey from nonprofit leadership to local government, the challenges she faces as a politician, and the critical issues impacting Maui County. Gladys candidly discusses the complexities of governing, particularly with controversial topics such as vacation rentals, water resource management, affordable housing, and economic diversification. She emphasizes the importance of public input, transparency, and community involvement in the political process. The interview also touches on the county’s struggle with budget constraints, permitting delays, and infrastructure needs, especially in the context of evolving tourism dynamics and environmental sustainability. Gladys shares her grassroots experience with entrepreneurial programs aimed at supporting home-based businesses and microenterprises, highlighting how these efforts can empower local residents. Throughout, she advocates for pragmatic solutions, including legislation reform, stronger water conservation efforts, streamlined permitting, and promoting renewable energy initiatives. The discussion concludes with a call to action for the public to engage actively with council members, participate in democracy beyond voting, and contribute ideas to shape Maui’s future.
Highlights
- [04:00] Gladys’s transition from nonprofit executive to council member was challenging, especially handling public criticism as a politician.
- [09:40] Vacation rentals are a major contentious issue; separating bed and breakfast permits (owner-occupied) from transient vacation rentals is a key legislative strategy.
- [23:20] Water resource management is critical, with ongoing struggles over Upcountry meter lists and source development under county jurisdiction.
- [31:00] Budget constraints demand tough decisions; prioritizing essential public safety and social services over “nice to have” programs is necessary.
- [34:30] Renewable energy and streamlining permitting processes are urgent priorities to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and accelerate green projects.
- [43:00] Affordable housing remains a huge challenge; current workforce housing policies need improvement and incentives to attract developers.
- [51:00] Public participation is vital—Gladys encourages residents to actively engage in council meetings, provide testimony, and communicate ideas to shape policy.
Key Insights
- [04:41] Nonprofit to Politics: Emotional Shift and Public Scrutiny
Gladys Baisa’s experience illustrates the stark contrast between nonprofit work, where appreciation is direct and frequent, versus politics, where decisions invite criticism and disapproval. This transition highlights the emotional toll and resilience required in public office, especially when balancing competing community interests. It underscores the need for politicians to develop a thick skin while maintaining openness and accessibility. - [09:40] ️ Vacation Rentals: A Complex, Divisive Issue Needing Nuanced Legislation
The vacation rental debate reflects broader tensions between economic benefits and community impacts. By splitting legislation into bed and breakfast operations (owner-occupied) and non-owner transient rentals, the council aims to balance local acceptance with economic necessity. This approach acknowledges that community trust hinges on effective oversight and perceived accountability, which owner presence fosters. - [23:20] Water Management: Jurisdictional Confusion and Infrastructure Challenges
The transfer of water management to county control has not resolved source development delays due to incomplete rule adoption and ongoing planning processes. The persistent Upcountry meter list backlog illustrates infrastructure deficits and regulatory bottlenecks. Gladys’s emphasis on proactive county-led source development stresses the importance of local government accountability rather than over-reliance on developers, signaling a shift toward sustainable, community-driven water solutions. - [31:00] Fiscal Realities: Prioritizing Core Services Amid Budget Reductions
With shrinking revenues partly due to tourism downturns and real estate value declines, the council faces difficult trade-offs. Gladys advocates for protecting essential services like public safety, food banks, senior support, and healthcare access while trimming discretionary programs. This insight highlights the balancing act between maintaining community welfare and coping with limited resources, a universal challenge for local governments. - [34:38] Renewable Energy and Permitting Reform: Keys to Future Resilience
The interview reveals frustration with Maui’s slow permitting system, exacerbated by litigation risks and bureaucratic complexity. Gladys calls for expedited approval processes and legislative flexibility to promote renewable energy projects critical to reducing fossil fuel dependence. This reflects a broader need for regulatory modernization to foster innovation and climate resilience, a priority for island communities vulnerable to environmental shifts. - [43:00] Affordable Housing: Policy Ineffectiveness and Need for Incentives
Current workforce housing ordinances have yielded minimal results, with developers dissatisfied and few affordable units produced. Gladys emphasizes revisiting and improving policies with better incentives and administrative rules to stimulate development. This insight reveals the multifaceted challenges of affordable housing, including regulatory barriers, market dynamics, and the necessity of political will to enact impactful reforms. - [51:00] Public Engagement: Essential for Effective Governance
Gladys stresses that citizen involvement beyond voting—through attending meetings, submitting testimony, and direct communication—is critical for informed decision-making. She values respectful dialogue and considers testimony as information sharing rather than debate. This underscores the democratic principle that government responsiveness improves with active, informed community participation, which can preempt conflicts and shape better policies.
Conclusion
The interview with Gladys Baisa offers a comprehensive look at the complexities of local governance in Maui County, reflecting the real-world tensions and challenges faced by council members. From managing controversial legislation on vacation rentals to addressing fundamental issues like water supply, housing affordability, and budget constraints, Gladys presents a grounded, pragmatic perspective rooted in community engagement and transparency. Her insights into the bureaucratic hurdles slowing progress and her advocacy for entrepreneurial and renewable energy initiatives suggest pathways for sustainable development. The conversation ultimately serves as a reminder of the importance of active public involvement in shaping policies that affect daily life and the future of Maui’s residents.
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this year with the Maui County Council candidates and I’m sure that many of you already know our sitting council person in the UpCountry seat is that what we call it up country that’s what it is up country seat Gladys Baisa thank you for coming and joining us here oh thank you for coming I am especially happy to have a sitting council person who’s been in the thick of it who comes on the show you know sometimes it’s happened in the past where people that get into office and
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suddenly uh they don’t want to be talking and as open as they were before they got there but your openness is much appreciated thank you very much that’s never been a problem with me in fact it’s probably what I’m I’m best known for open mouth insert foot no no foot feet sometimes too yes um I think it might be helpful if we can to quickly review your background before councel to get your experience and then come through the council period to where we now and uh I think most important is are
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you enjoying what you’re doing loving it loving it loving it but that you want to be a council person then that was not the first reaction yeah for the first few months I wanted to go home oh why is that well it was a big change for me you know for folks who know me they know that I spent many many years at MEO and the last 20 some out of them as the executive director I used to be the fiscal director before I became the executive director and so I spent these wonderful years doing nonprofit work where
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everything you did was appreciated and people loved you and you made them happy and they said thank you and thank you for helping my mother and all of a sudden I became one of those very dreaded people called a politician oh it was a rude awakening for me the first time I picked up the paper and read a letter that was not very complimentary I was brokenhearted I understand and I said you know I don’t know if this was a smart thing to do and as the months went by I finally came to realize that that’s the life of
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the PO politician and no matter what you do you never make everybody happy well I was going to say you can’t please everybody you have to obviously evaluate and make your own decision you know well you know for me like I said that was a real big change because you know the nonprofit world is very different but your experience has given you obviously um uh the the experience to evaluate I mean it’s that but your role mostly was before how many years were you in 37 years how could you only be 39
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now now I don’t get that oh God we’re going to have to really take care of you far from 37 dear oh well you’ve been there that many years that’s right I started in 1969 and left in 2005 wow and just historically before you an Meo was a guy we all see around for a lot of years none other than the famous Jo suuki and I am so proud of him he was a wonderful Mentor for me well I tell you sitting Ono one with Joe Suki you realize he’s more than just another pretty face he has a lot of knowled a
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lot of knowledge and experience and uh again he’s he’s another example you can’t please everyone but I know that he uh he drinks it all in and then makes a decision same with you I’m sure that you’ve had interesting time there where you have to evaluate issues that are are um sensitive let’s say it’s always difficult because on every issue that is important there’s two sides to it and your office is bombarded with information and with people and you know everybody’s lobing for their position
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everybody brings an expert and for every expert that says it’s like this there’s another one who says it’s like that yeah and so you spend an awful lot of time just learning and sifting and trying to make the best decision it’s not easy I think that’s something that people do not realize and I try to be open I try to meet with people on both sides of every issue and really listen with my ears and my heart to what they’re trying to tell me and then I mull it over and mull it over and then I say okay this is
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what I’ve got to do and I know I may lose some friends over it but such is life is is it mostly because of their personal financial interests I always wonder well I think it’s not just Financial but I think some of it impacts people personally and uh you know they don’t particularly like that and so you’ve just got to deal with it and hope that they’ll get over it or they’ll understand any issues that are uh important that you want to discuss we’re going to talk about stuff but I figure I
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should start by letting you lead the charge here cuz you are in the thick of it all any issues that are important that you’d like to share with the viewers well as you probably know I wound up as chair of the planning committee and that’s always a very Risky Business many planning committee chairs never are reelected but I promised Ricky when I became a council member that I would serve wherever he needed me because his chair he was trying to put people where they all wanted to go and we all wanted
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the same things and so I said look put me where you need me I’ll try my best and of course this was a new Endeavor for me and Fools Rush In Where Angels F To Tread so I asked the staff of the planning committee what is the most difficult issue we have on our agenda and without any hesitation they said vacation rentals yeah and I said well let’s take that up first because if we get rid of the hardest thing the rest should be easy well the rest is history I started that about a little more than
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a year and a half ago and still struggling to get new legislation out of the planning committee but we’re making progress well vacation rentals I guess is I mean I don’t want to get into too much in detail here but there are two kinds there’s the kind where someone is is renting and they live on the property as well and there’s some where they don’t live on the property right and so are you dealing with them separately is that the kind of stuff you’re doing in the planning committee well once I
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became more familiar with the uh nuances of this bill and it’s a very complicated situation it took me a while to learn as much as I know now I decided that it was probably best that we separate the legislation for bed and breakfast off which is what you mentioned about having an owner on the premises yeah or a tempor a vacation mental which does not have an owner on the premises people seem to be much more comfortable with the idea of Permitting bed and breakfast because they feel there’s somebody there
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to watch over what’s happening and you know that’s accepted all over the world I’m not telling you anything you probably don’t know but everywhere in the world particularly in Europe these are very common and people love to stay in that kind of accommodation so I’m trying very hard first to get a bed and breakfast bill passed which will allow people to have people in their homes we’re setting caps on how many we’re trying to come up with a much better permitting process the one
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we have now has kept people in the planning department waiting for 10 years 12 years and even longer and it cost them a fortune to get through it all and so we’re trying to come up with something that is more user friendly and so that folks can get on with it the other part that spurred me to move on this is The Economic Consequences of closing this industry down yeah you know we have heard that conservatively we’re losing $318 million a year in revenues and and to me that’s no small thing particularly
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when the wolfes at the door yeah particularly when uh we don’t have any other major industry here tourism is still it no matter how much we’ve wanted to diversify we still have so much work to do to bring non-tourism industry here how’s that going any any encouraging things in that area that you’re aware of you mean alternative you know when we try to diversify our economy I mean I often hear about agriculture as one you know that’s a an easy one to think of but other uh things
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they’ve been trying to attract Hightech I know uh we as neighbor Island have a very I don’t know what the word not really a funny role a challenging role cuz we have less population I know how juki likes to you know say he’s been bringing money here to try to continue to build on uh what Maui needs what do you you see anything that’s helping us diversify because now with all that’s going on in the world I mean I hear cries out on the street how many places are closing well let me tell you what
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else I’m very interested in and that is another bill that is sitting in my committee and I’m most an anxious to get it finished we started it it went to the Planning Commission and it has returned and it’s just waiting so that we can find time to deal with it and that is a bill about home occupations ah and see I’m a big supporter of entrepreneurial Endeavors and I started a business I mean a program at Meo called Meo Business Development it started very modestly we used to call it
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emo microenterprise right and what that was modeled after was a program in Bangladesh where they would loan Indian women like 30 rupees and they would bake bread sell it come back pay the 30 and then borrow again and maybe do 40 or 50 and they grew all these homegrown businesses and so that was the idea when we started mu microenterprise with really tiny loans they could be anywhere from $100 up to about at that time3 or $5,000 of course this took off with the help of the county who funded it and then
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various Banks and other funding sources that have come around to give us loan funds at Meo into teaching classes to people that are interested in doing something entrepreneurial and then making loans to them so you know these are folks who couldn’t get a bank loan uh they would go into a bank and a bank would say oh my God no your credit’s really bad or you have no history or or whatever so Meo did that and it’s been very successful and I’d like to see people be able to do that in their homes
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without worrying about being in violation of law right I that’s an area I’m also very sensitive to about uh homebased business and entrepreneurial Enterprise and education I think uh entrepreneurial and financial literacy are absolutely a big thing they go hand in hand well you know when you look at most ma major Mega businesses something like Avon Amway those things all started in the home probably in a garage or a kitchen and most of the people that are working in those are all still in their
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home in their kitchen that’s right you know we all laugh cuz I I don’t remember someone told me that before the second world war most people were self-employed and many others were homebased business but then once War happened and all the men were leaving overseas they had to find a way to attract people in and so that’s when the large corporations and large benefit packages and all pull people to work for to work for the man to work for the big company and uh we really are now finding there’s a
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major major desire to get into entrepreneurial things so well I think there’s many things driving it Jason one of course is the cost of commuting oh yeah secondly child care and elder care you know if you have a baby and you get to stay home and do whatever it is you’re doing and take care of a young one also you might be taking care of an aging parent yeah sandwi generation the kids and the parents so you know to me this is an idea that it’s time has come and we’ve got to move the bill and get
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it done so that folks will be comfortable doing that can you sneak it in somehow you’re going to sneak it in you know I’m trying to find room to sneak in so many things that need to be done but I am determined to finish the BMB Bill and then get to the tvrs we’ve got to do it and what’s really gumming me up is not only uh the time that it’s taking to do it because there’s so much discussion and so many uh pros and cons involved in it and we’re trying to craft a bill that’s going to work not a
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disaster I am also facing a timeline in working on the general plan oh and you know they have completed the countywide policy plan and it is now in my committee waiting for us to get going on it and because things are tired you know I just no enough time it’s sitting there like an 800 PB gorilla waiting and saying come on let’s go so I’m trying to wrap up B&B so I can at least begin on the countywi policy plan and as soon as we get through with that then the Maui Island plan will be right behind it so
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we got major work to do and then you get to the homebased business I’m sneaking in maybe in between because these plans are going to take much time oh I know and uh I know how much work it how many been a few years that the 25 people are working on the general plan they’re in their almost fourth year wow that’s a commitment too in fact on September 30th they’re coming to the planning committee to request an extension of time to complete the plan because they’re behind but I think it’s
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important that we let them finish this uh gpack or general plan advisory committee that’s composed of 25 people I’m so impressed with them they have been working like oh you cannot believe the time the hours the energy that have gone into reviewing plans making recommendations sitting in Endless meetings I’ve tried to attend as many as I could because I wanted to know and have the background if it comes to my planning committee and I say if because you know that means I’ll have to be back
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and I’ll have to be head of planning and if I’m not someone else will be and if I’m a member of the Comm I want to understand the job how the plan got to what they’ be giving us so that I’m more prepared to address it I actually know that I’m not sure how many but at least one person that I’ve talked to that’s uh hopefully on route to council has been part of that General plan committee what a great experience I mean like you say it’s time consuming and there’s only so
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many hours in a day that’s an issue how do you do it I mean do you have lots of assistance there that that sort of give you uh the juice of something try to digest it and then bring it to you because I can’t imagine how to be prepared enough to deal with all the things you have to deal with when sitting in that seat Well you know when I first became a council member there was this idea that people told me that it was a part-time job of course I kind of knew that was not true because I had
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worked very closely with Council for many years in getting money for Meo and I kind of knew that these folks work really really hard and long hours yeah and so when I got in the middle of it I realized immediately that this is much more than a full-time job actually you’re on almost all the time it doesn’t matter whether you’re at Pukalani super red or Mory harrus picking up a loaf of bread somebody will want to talk to you or if you’re at a family luau or wherever you you are people will say oh
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hi I’m so glad to see you can I ask you about this or that right I know that uh everyone bothers you but let me I know yeah it happens here you know how many people come up to me and want to do television shows oh yeah a lot of them yeah so so it’s good it’s good that people are interested absolutely and and it’s good they also know you’re very open and available which is another important thing well let me tell you I CL carry my Blackberry with me all the time make a little note about
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what I need to follow up on and I will tell you this we do we do we check it out I have a wonderful staff uh because of budget I’m allowed to I can only afford two folks and uh they man the office and I’m usually with them there almost every day it doesn’t matter about weeks off weeks off or weeks on for me when I have an opportunity to meet with the public and sit there and you know talk about stuff I try to attend as many Community meetings as I can because that’s how I pick up the pulse of the community
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rather than just reading about it and every day you have to prepare for the next meeting that’s coming up so you’re always researching always trying to find out making phone calls talking to different people because you need to have the balanced perspective and so there’s a lot of groundwork that’s done before you you actually sit down in Council and you know address an issue and I really appreciate people who send me testimony who call who meet with me and I’m better prepared M and it’s
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important so uh what other issues do you want to talk about I mean I I could pick them right out of the air but I figure you’ve been busy and active any others that you’d like to be able to talk about well of course there’s the issue of water which is King in this area you know it’s the issue of country right and it’s been a very difficult issue I sit on the Water Resources committee which member Anderson chairs and I’m disappointed that it’s just a five member committee I think it’s such an
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important committee that it probably would be better to have a nine member committee but you know we do with five and that means that we need at least three of us to be there to have a quarum and we need three of us to vote to pass any kind of measure out of committee so um there’s not a whole lot of slack I mean we need to be there when there’s a meeting and uh of course I’m very much aware of the community’s concerns about the UpCountry meter list which is a nightmare that has existed now for many
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many many years years and you know up country people are getting real Restless they want their meters and all of the solutions that people have tried which is like digging the poala well and now digging the PE Holo well uh we all know that those have not worked in terms of providing answers to how do we deal with that up country meter list and for me what I would like to see the water department do is focus on Source development you know we’ve been kind of sitting back waiting for other people to
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do it and my take on it is that should be complimentary rather than how we go about developing Source the county needs to do it and if a developer wants to do some and we get a bit of his water that’s good but that shouldn’t be how we develop our water we need to take responsibility we should be dig into the wealth but then wasn’t it just a couple of years ago I don’t know the number of years where there was a a vote to have water suddenly under jurisdiction of the county yes which passed right that’s
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correct so why aren’t they developing sources well let me tell you it’s not as simple as it appears and this has been a great learning experience for me we are still waiting when that transfer was made back to to be under the mayor and under the county jurisdiction we are still waiting for the water rules to be adopted they have not been they’re still sitting in the water committee so there’s confusion as to what are the rules and we’re told by our chair that the existing rules are still
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in effect until we adopt new rules but I think that’s led to a lot of confusion a lot of discussion about what what is the rule or who’s in charge we’re also waiting for a water use and development plan and I don’t know if you’re aware that’s been going on now for quite a while there are task forces up country and task forces in Central Maui and they’re supposed to be producing a water use and development plan I’ve participated attended many of those meetings and I’m hoping that very soon
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early next year we’ll have the results of that to tell us what are the priorities what are we going to do how are we going to do it and what kind of water sources are we going to develop because Meanwhile we’re just kind of operating ad hoc yeah it’s a big challenge it’s a big challenge but meanwhile I am very um interested in conservation you know if we could just get some real serious conservation going we’d find some Source without digging well and how that’ll work is we have to use
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the water we have it’s dripping away through pipes that leak tripping away from from reservoirs that leak running down the road into the ocean because we’re not catching it we’re letting R1 water that could be used wasted and put into injection Wells why don’t we have incentives like tax incentives for catchment and things like that though well my understanding is that we’ve got a very strange rule that I think needs to be changed and that is that if you have catchment you can’t have a
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meter and that doesn’t make any sense that doesn’t make any sense at all and the other thing that I’m seriously working on and I managed to get a resolution passed in last year’s legislature with the help of Representative yamashi asking the Department of Health to allow us to use gray water because you know to me it’s kind of silly you know wash water out of your washing machine is going into the sewer creating more R1 water and being wasted and you know I come from up country for many
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many years this was never put into a sewer system it was put into the banana patch or into the yard or into the tea leaves or whatever you needed to grow I see it’s really funny cuz I thought that was already happening for years it’s not been it’s not a those are just pilot projects or something it’s not a allowed and so what I’ve been able to do is to bring it to the attention I am waiting in the next few months we’ve been promised by Department of Health they will give us guidelines that can be
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incorporated into our County rules and then we can begin to do it I see good so you know there’s water that’s just being wasted yeah and we have to stop that and you guys also we got to what’s the old aggression put bricks in the toil it watch don’t let the water run I mean people are not careful you know and I’m as guilty as the next one all of us we could do better let’s just pledge that at least well you know if you were B born and raised up country like I was you grow up knowing about this you don’t
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waste water my mother used to actually rationing Us in the bathtub we get a kettle of hot water and it was mixed with warm uh with cold water and we had to take a bath with that and when it was over then it was put in buckets and taking out to the yard during droughts and so I’ve grown up very much aware of water conservation and you know we could build better we could put in all lowlow toilets we could do so much more like showerheads that you know spread water all over and not just waste we just
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waste it the American way I think well isn’t that true of everything yeah my mom brought me up she says waste not want not she used to tell me everything you waste you’re going to want and who that Ben Franklin huh she was we always credit Ben Franklin for everything well what you need is a Portuguese mother uhoh yeah they were not into wasting reuse redo throw in the soup yeah throw it in the soup you know people always ask me what’s your recipe for Portuguese soup said whatever you have in the fridge is
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the recipe stump could be chicken could be sausage could be beef could be pork could be whatever you have and whatever veggies you’ve got I think we’re going to have that as one of your campaign promises we’re going to have the glattus Bice of cooking hour have you on on aaku I learn how to make Portuguese soup well you know recently I did do that with r some bro and we had a wonderful time but you know all of the issues that we’re looking at and you know as I look at this frightening time of budget cuts
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everybody’s talking about well what are we going to cut I would much rather we focused on you know if you’ve got a pie and you cut that pie smaller and smaller and smaller all you got is crumbs what we really need to figure out is how do we get a bigger pie uhhuh and we haven’t done a good job at that you know we have to find new sources of revenue we we also have to cut out all the things that are wasteful and right now I’m working on U you know responses for the Mai news that are asking about what are you going to
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look at in the 2010 budget to make things work and I think we’re going to have to get real serious about what can we do without and what is it that we need to have and make those tough choices tough choices is really the words cuz there’s nothing you really want to cut but you know like you said this there definitely fat I think many of us see that stuff how do you make those choices those are hard choices well you know to me you look at needs what is it that we must have in this community in order to live we know that
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safety Public Safety we cannot scrimp on that we’ve got to have policemen we’ got to have firen we know we’ve got to take care of like a food bank we can’t get along without a food bank a lot of people are hungry you know we’ve got to take care of like seniors or disabled people that have services in their homes like H delivered meals or transportation to the doctor or to necessary Services you don’t cut those things but then you look at the nice to have oh you know they
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enhance our quality of life and if you’ve got to give it up then that’s what you give up and you fund the things that you got to have and that’s hard to do because we’ve been so lucky and for so many years we’ve been able to have it all but I think that’s coming to an end let’s bring I don’t know if this is the right subject but is that because the decline of real estate values is bringing less cash FH in is that what’s doing it what do you think well you know
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look at what’s going on right now the visitor industry of course we know is in disarray oh yeah and some of it is nobody’s fault you know none of us plan for Aloha Airlines to go defunct none of us knew that energy prices would get to where they were I I think as recent as a year ago we were saying oh my God oil will get to $100 a barrel well you know it went to $150 a barrel and uh none of us could have seen that but what we could have seen was our dependence on it right and we’ve been sitting around
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talking about well we’re going to do this Alternative Energy program and we’re going to do that renewable energy program but we’ve kind of just talked about it and I think we’re going to have to get on it I’m so glad to hear you talk about that you know it only makes me remember when I was running cuz it wasn’t fashionable to talk about that stuff isn’t that you know I mean now they’re they’re doing it and talking about it but I remember when I was considered radical because I’m bringing
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up things that now are you know on everyone’s lips so uh it’s too bad we can’t all look into the future and get those things here before it becomes crisis point I hope able to make some moves in that area I we I don’t think we have a choice we’ve got to come up with programs speedily permit them which is another big issue yeah we get caught up in permits that last for years and years and years and I don’t know why we cannot facilitate moving things that we need to do what why does it get so slow what
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have you found well I heard somebody say the other day that they had to get 25 permits to do some kind of project what 25 permits and I’ve heard it can get worse it can be 50 we’ve created this huge huge monster and it doesn’t help things get done we’ve got to say hey renewable energy is a big deal Let’s help this get through the process and let’s let’s make it happen and if we have to adjust it we adjust it but it seems that we’re so careful and you know I think a lot of
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that Jason is tied up in litigation and you know how litigious we become we Sue everybody over everything yeah and so you keep trying to prevent that so you have another permit and another study and another permit and another study and nothing gets done why don’t we Outlaw litigation well let’s hope let’s hope we don’t have any attorneys listening well that’s right but you know they do keep us out of trouble and God knows when you are in trouble you need one now but you know that that’s that’s true though it’s
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like everybody sues everybody on everything and to protect yourself against future litigation you keep adding permits and you have to go through this door and then that door and then this door not to mention all the money spent on studies well I don’t I don’t know what to say about that I remember I gu I I think we all can remember they were talking about how the reef in West Maui was dying uhhuh and we were saying well it was from the nitrogen in the soil in the runoff but no they didn’t want to
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believe that so they spent $200,000 to come up with that answer again yet again and I looked in a department of energy the United States Department of energy book and on page three of a 100 page study it specifically mentioned the nitrogen runoff it’s like why don’t we learn from the resources around us instead of having to spend and more for studies and maybe in this computer age if everything can be somehow entered where we can cross reference maybe we can cut down on stuff like that and the permit people
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there surely is enough data to make this process simpler you it’s ridiculous I hear it every day I hear it from developers I hear it from business people I hear it from own homeowners just trying to get a permit to build a home and I was talking with a fellow the other day he says you know we have our water meter we own our land I am a contractor I can help my son build this house that we want to build and we have been waiting 8 months meanwhile the cost of materials get higher oh yeah and you
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know carrying costs are monsters also you know yeah well you know it gets down to this thing of make a decision you know when I meet with people and they’re telling me about how difficult it’s been for them and I they’re so worried about how Council will act on something I’ve asked them many times straight out you realize that if you come to council you run the risk of being told no and they say yes we understand we would rather have a straight out no than wait and wait and wait because the
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meter’s running yeah you know they borrowed money they’re investing in in a project and they don’t know can we go ahead or can’t we go ahead and so the costs are mounting for them and they may never get a return on that investment if things go bad so they want to know yes or no so you know I’m from yes or no let’s move this ahead I’m of you yeah I seems like we’ve solved all the problems here today how come we can’t is it cuz there’re nine people maybe we should
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start a dictatorship that would work well they say you know the best form of government is a benevolent dictator right but well it’s really a funny animal the system is a little bit unwieldy and I know it’s like for example each of the council people this is one of my I usually mention it on every show good so we’ll do it on this show each of the council people has a residency seat but each of the council people are elected and represent all the people of Maui County all is so if you
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see GL bis and you say gosh I want to be able to talk to her I wish she was my representative she is your representative AB abolutely you have nine Representatives you know that’s a big misconception big out in the community I have people tell me all the time GE I wish you were my representative because I know you represent a country and they don’t realize that we represent the entire County that is one of the biggest I wonder how many things that you’d hear you know we all say probably there are
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answers to most everything we have to face in the fabric of our community Abol but people don’t approached the council people because they fig oh I’m I don’t really have an easy time talking to that guy and whoever it is South Maui or whatever there’s all kinds of Personality things you have nine representative so if you have ideas please come out and talk to the council person of your choice cuz we really can’t exist think of how much easier your job would be on Council if the public would come out
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more and come to before there’s a hearing somewhere where they come personal and share that’s what the open door policy really is all about I hope that all of you know these elections are benchmarked in time meaning people that are out and and helpful and active in in all that go on you don’t have to just express your opinion every two years by how you vote you can come out and be part of a process to make this a better place all the time even on off years well let me tell you for those who may want sometime
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to contact me I am very available I’m in my office and if I’m not my staff is there and they will always relay a message to me I will call you back I try to return every single phone call I also have a website it’s glattus b.com and you can go there and send us a message that way if you’d like you can send email to our County addresses that’s glad. bisa Maui county. us or you can call us and or you can catch me in the grocery store I really don’t mind unless she has no you know it’s part of what what
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we do and I really enjoy all of my meetings with folks regardless of whether they’re for against angry or not you know my job is to listen and to try to help let’s I mean I can just go all over the landscape with with things affordable house issue Transportation issue uh what other issues I mean like I say as a sitting council person I almost hoping you will pick up the ball and bring up subjects that you think are significant that you’ve heard are important to people well as you know
43:14
there’s much going on and of course affordable housing continues to be a huge Challenge and I get complaints every day about you all talk about it but where are the homes and one of the issues that uh we’re dealing with is the fact that we created a residential Workforce housing policy which not too many seem to be happy with the developers are not happy with it and the results haven’t been all that great in fact the one affordable housing uh subdivision that’s been built on that uh
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affordable housing ordinance uh has resulted in two families getting an affordable house H and one of the problems is it’s not quite finished we’re waiting for administrative rules and we’re also waiting for um incentives for developers which were to be part of the bill and so it’s time to look at it I understand it’s just about that one year where we said we’d relook at it again so I know we’re going to be working on it but we need to tweak it we need to improve it as it is it’s not okay it needs fixing
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oh that’s clear there what about changes in the I want to say building rules to allow different kinds of housing so the prices can come down I mean I in different countries where we see in tropical climates they have different kinds of housing we surely want it to be safe but maybe it doesn’t have to maybe it doesn’t have to be quite as as whatever it is isn’t that why we have all these I guess I you know back to the permits thing again it’s just overwhelming the kind of things that
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Hoops we have to pass affordable means we have to simplify somehow don’t we absolutely you know our requirements are pretty stringent and I’m told by the folks who do that kind of stuff that well it’s necessary cuz we have to have you know things that are safe and that are hurricane proof and all these requirements that we have to have and then I have the other folks who come and say well what about approving bamboo we have people coming in that want to do Ys and people that want to import um
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construction that you know houses that are already preconstructed or prefab or I can’t remember the name of what it is but you know stuff that you can just bring in and set down real quickly but there’s always concern about safety and liability and I think that’s the issue well we’re going to have to come up with as a society some safe things that are less expensive absolutely because a lot of people would like to live in a different style that’s less formal yes in community kind of housing situ all
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kinds of things I would hope that we might be a doorway toward uh being example of that here well you know that might take some demonstration type projects where we can build a few and see how they do I hope some of you out there will try to come forward on these issues because I know I surely would like to see it I’ve been here since 1988 which to some of you isn’t quite that long but to me it’s pretty long and uh I have met so many people that off the grid and not officially have done
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some amazing alternative housing things I’m sure they’re out there I’m sure they’re out there it’s just that we have to be a little bit more creative and you know the times we’re in might just take us there yeah who can afford a very expensive home anymore I know it’s getting to be you know the uh Maui prices it’s good that real estate prices over time go up you know that has value in our world but uh the prices are outpacing the in comes and um that is probably the
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biggest and loudest cry I hear people that can’t afford housing well I don’t see this getting any better real soon you know I’ve been watching the national scene and I live in fear of what to expect next every day you open the paper or you watch TV and it gets scarier and scarier we have to stop watching that’s it you don’t pay attention to go away well you know that’s the ostrich approach doesn’t work I know I know doesn’t work actually what you’re doing is sitting there with your head and your
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in the sand and your parts exposed mhm uhoh big Target you know well but maybe that’s another reason as things are happening the way they we are that they are that we all will learn to help each other I hope that that’s a Direction as a society and of people that we learn to reach out on help you know a lot of the nonprofits here that do so much help are now struggling to be able to get the revenue because they also trying to figure out where to get the money I hope those of you that have and have extra
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can learn to give and try to uh I don’t know be more more fair once you earn and you have how much is enough you know when is enough enough I’m happy to say I’m involved with some people on the mainland that share very much a paid forward concept and I hope that we all can be doing that the county give away a lot I mean the county seems to be involved it’s a strong core that has to be very supportive and help so many people you were talking about the food bank are there any kind of things that
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are going on to be able to help them the shelves are empty and bare and well let me tell you something very coincidental as part of the B&B legislation that we’re looking at right now one of the things or one of the ideas that was suggested was if you want to do a B&B on egland which my committee is recommending be allowed one of the requirements would be that you have to prove that you have earned at least $2,500 a year in income on that egland now the industry has suggested what about an
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equivalent uh proof that you have donated $2,500 worth of products agricultural products to the food bank I kind of think that’s a really great idea I like that in fact how about 5,000 how about two for one on the giveaway let’s at least enjoy the value of wholesale right there you go I mean that would be interesting that’s a good way to do it cuz there is uh no question might be really a very big encouragement for people absolutely you know because for one thing the food bank and you know
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I’ve worked in the poverty area for many many many years and I know how hard it is for people with limited income to be able to afford fresh fruits and vegetables Y and what happens normally is they buy carbohydrates they buy canned foods and they as a result their nutrition suffers and then their Health suffers and then you got increased medical costs so it might be a very viable alternative what do you think out there huh make your voices known please do I would love to hear from the public what
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their reaction is you know one of the things that’s very disconcerting to me as a council member is a lot of times people do not tell us what they want do not respond don’t tell us don’t send us an Emil email or a letter or make a phone call and say you know I hear you guys are working on this this is my opinion and then we really don’t have that input and then when we do it all of a sudden there’s a lot of input yeah that’s the thing about you can’t please everyone that’s about come on forward
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and express yourself very important these guys don’t bite there a couple that bite but uh there’s enough of them that are open and available no I don’t bite I actually I really appreciate people who come and testify regardless of what they say or whatever it’s nice to know that people are paying attention I’ve actually had people say to me gladus bis is so courteous to everyone when they come you’re actually known to be very receptive to people that are coming to testify so thank you you know
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I feel the testimony is just that you come and you share your man and and it’s not for me to argue with you and debate the issue with you right but to accept your your thoughts and your feelings and consider it for that you know you’ve you’ve had the courage it takes courage to come to council and to say and so we should just receive that and consider it while we’re making our decision rather than trying to debate it with you uh when people come and talk before Council um can they also submit things I guess
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they can submit things before they come so that everyone already has knowledge of what they’re going to testify about actually that’s a preferred method oh if you would send an email or send a written testimony you can email it you can fax it you can drop it off but I will say this and this is my personal Prejudice I really like having people come in person okay it’s very powerful you know if you send a letter or an email we look at it and then we put it down but when you’re there in person
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you’re actually in our face as a personal meeting or in front of the whole Council in front of well both both you know I really enjoy meeting with people in my office and having the discussion on the floor it’s more formal and you’re restricted to that three minute thing yeah also we ask you questions but you’re not allowed to ask us questions which is a reason to go to the office huh yeah so it’s kind of oneway communication whereas in the office we go back and forth and you ask
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me a question I answer you ask me a question I answer and we have a better discussion yeah I’m not really crazy about you know the whole testimony thing and how it operates people come they speak at the beginning of the meeting then we go into deliberations and we’re deliberating and asking questions among ourselves and maybe the person with the real answer is sitting in the gallery but is not participating anymore or cannot participate anymore right so um I understand and I understand why we have
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the process we do but it’s really not the best place to give information you guys hearing that I hope um we are I know we’re running we still have a little more time but we’re running close well give it a moment and think of what things you surely want to tell to our audience of viewers but we also call you voters I hope that you’ve all registered to vote and I hope you’ll all come out and remember once again you’ve elect all nine Council seats remember I think if there’s anything I’d
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like to tell the voters and the folks that watch this program is you know you can play an important role in how laws are made in Maui County because we work for you it’s not about me and what I think it’s about what you you want and what you think and then we try to make it work for you so you need to be actively involved you need to register you need to vote you need to attend Community meetings you need to go read the paper watch akaku and all these programs that have news and information
55:51
get educated so that you can help us we’re not Geniuses we don’t have the answers you do but if you tell us maybe you can help us make better decisions and you need to let us know if we’re going off in the wrong direction and we haven’t thought of something let us know and maybe we can correct it before it’s too late you know once the law is passed it’s much more difficult to change it than it is to intervene before that law is passed so I really encourage people to let us know what you think it makes a
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big difference it’s uh really a pleasure to talk to you very open and available which is really nice um I hope that um when you are you ready to write your Memoirs you write Memoirs of all all the good stories of all the things that been happening you know I’ve been thinking about doing that for years and I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it but I always say when I write my book well maybe we should I was going to say maybe we should all send in $5 each and we’ll put a fun together for you to
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write remember supy sales years ago no supy sales was a guy on TV in New York he was a comedian and he had he told all those kids to go into Mom and Dad’s purse and take those little bills and send them to supi I’m only bring it up I’m just fooling but I would really like to to see you know people like yourself who have had so many years of experience and so many stories the history of Maui County and all it’s been going on and uh there’s so many stories maybe some you always you wait until they pass away
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before you can tell the stories well I’ve heard stories I don’t know why I’m sort of a magnet people tell me stories but um I know you have a lot of history in there and a lot to share I hope that find you’ll find ways to be able to share well you know I go way back to Plantation days yeah and I was here before there were hotels and not very many tourists so I’ve been here a while well thank you for joining me here and thank you for all that you do serving on Council my pleasure I hope
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that the people of Maui County will remember Gladis bisa how can you forget Gladys Baisa and remember that um it’s really important all of us to be participatory in our democracy yes that the more we all participate the more we’re going to find solutions that will meet everyone’s needs or surely find the ones that will meet most people’s needs by getting together and not expecting them to make decisions that we like without input from us cuz there are so many answers like you say that are
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sitting in the gall and is sitting out there with you guys yep share that information with us you’ll help us serve you better thank you very very much for joining us I really appreciate having you here my pleasure my it was a real wonderful hour it just flew by thank you it flew by and when you see those forums with three minute answers realize there’s a lot more that’s behind that you’ll have to come and meet the these guys they’re definitely approachable I find that frustrating there’s always
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much more to say and they kind of cut you off but that’s okay it’s the system well we’re going to cut you off now but we hope you’ll come back and join us and we hope also glattus if you ever want to be sharing anything you’ll come to me I’m happy to do a show anytime wonderful I look forward to it thank you for offering to do this with me I really appreciated thank you all for joining us and we’ll see you again aloha aloha
