Should Maui phase out about half of its short-term rentals? It's a debate that has sparked strong feelings on both sides over the past year.
“We are dealing with proposed legislation in this meeting that has prompted very emotional responses on both sides of this issue,” said Maui County Councilmember Tasha Kama. “My office has received reports of threatening language on social media, and the committee as a whole has witnessed in public testimony the vulgarity and aggression that I speak of.”
She spoke during a Housing and Land Use Committee hearing last week, as she tried to mitigate the hate. But that just sparked a controversy of its own.
“I will not tolerate the dissension on this issue to be expressed in language that violates the council's standard of decorum,” she said. “And some examples of that language that was used are occupiers, illegal invaders, transplants, extractors, colonists, settlers, terrorists, foreigners and a whole host of others.”
It struck a chord with Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, as tensions rose. Rawlins-Fernandez asked Kama if she would be enforcing her request.
Kama said she wasn't enforcing anything and would “ask them to kindly not use those words.”
Rawlins-Fernandez called for legal consult.
“It feels like censorship and a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech,” she said.
After a hearing recess, Deputy Corporation Counsel Nahulu Nunokawa gave his opinion. He advised committee chair Kama to address testimony on a case-by-case basis.
“Chair may limit testimony in order to keep decorum,” he said. “I would not advise list of words.”
Members of the public, like Maui's Noelani Ahia, also pushed back during their testimony.
“Language like colonizer, foreigner, settlers are not violent words. It's language that is used to describe the violence that Kanaka Maoli have been resisting and surviving for 130 years,” she said. We can't adequately describe the situation in the conditions we're in, without language.”
The hearing on the proposed phase-out of short-term rentals in apartment-zoned districts continues in the County Council chambers today.
