Gov. Josh Green has opted not to institute a ban on short-term vacation rentals on Maui. He said 60% of the people in hotels have been connected with longer-term rentals.
The governor had warned he would institute a moratorium if not enough landlords converted their short-term rental units to long-term to help the families displaced by the wildfires. Green said Wednesday such a moratorium won't be necessary.
He said the state has contracts for 1,300 units and that the number of households in hotels has dropped to under 1,300. One issue now, Green said, is that many available rentals are not in West Maui, and some Lahaina residents have refused them because they want to stay near their jobs and their children's schools.
Speaking to The Conversation, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen shared his reaction to Green's decision and reflected on his State of the County address on March 15, in which he outlined a path forward for a "heartbroken" community.
MAUI COUNTY MAYOR RICHARD BISSEN: I understood why he didn't impose the moratorium. It wasn't something of whether would I do it or would I would not have done it. I never sought that as an alternative for us. Instead, we used the incentive of getting property tax breaks for people who participated and converted from short-term to long-term. I think the big issue is none of us anticipated that people who were already renting to long-term renters would evict them in order to qualify for more monthly rent from FEMA. And that's been really the story of all of this is it's one thing to convert from short-term to long-term, but it was not, you know, nobody saw it coming that someone already in a long-term rental market would change out their tenants and find somebody who would pay them more.
CATHERINE CRUZ, HOST: Yeah, unintended consequences.
BISSEN: Yeah. Unintended.
CRUZ: Well, and I'm not sure what success the AG has had, you know, with some of the complaints that have come in there. But the governor also said he is directing the Attorney General's Office to crack down on the illegal short-term rentals.
BISSEN: Yeah, I think that's important too, for, you know, supporting counties who are trying to. We're also wanting to crack down more and accepting even anonymous complaints about short-term rentals. Now, the thing is, you can't really prosecute a case on an anonymous tip. But the anonymous tip can direct you in a location that you can decide or determine, you know, through questions, through talking to witnesses, whether or not you can bring a case against someone. So whether it's an anonymous tip or a named source, you still gotta build the case for the landowner to determine if they're violating the law. So that's something we're taking a more aggressive approach on. And again, illegal short-term rentals don't benefit anyone. They don't benefit the neighborhood, they don't benefit the economy because they don't pay any taxes. And really, what they do is they take away from that neighborhood's ability to enjoy their surroundings.
CRUZ: The governor also talked about backing off of trailer parks. The governor said that in the jurisdictions, you know, the city officials or state officials that he talked to, that they had misgivings about allowing those to be set up.
BISSEN: We don't have a culture or a society of trailer park homes. I mean, that's just not part of our community throughout Hawaiʻi. And so that was something that people were cautious about having done. Now, there are modular homes and other types of homes that people have started to come around to accepting. But I really think it's the quality, the size of these dwellings, the material that they're made out of, the workmanship. But I think if, you know, there are lots of people that have come to Maui to show their different, what they can offer, their different products. But I think ultimately, it's whatever the homeowner can afford to buy, that they think fits them. So even options, I think, are important.
CRUZ: The governor said he was impressed with the cleanup and the recovery progress to date. And then he was hopeful that people would get their permits, you know, if the infrastructure would allow them to hurry up and start rebuilding their homes on their land. What are your thoughts about where we're at with that?
BISSEN: The Army Corps, they've cleared 409 properties, as of our phone call, and about 70,000 tons of material. So they're working at a good pace seven days a week. They've been pulling long days. And that's quite a bit of material and property. So that's encouraging. As far as permitting, we're standing up the expedited permitting office as part of the Office of Recovery. And, you know, we expect obviously by mid-April, we should be able to accommodate. We have already cleared the 26 properties in Kula ahead of schedule, and we're already starting to review those permits that have come in for some of those properties, where people are ready to rebuild. So different between Kula and Lahaina. As you mentioned, Lahaina is going to require the infrastructure be tested and either restored, repaired, replaced. And that's gonna be decisions that we'll have to make, but I think it won't necessarily be whether there's an office of expedited permit review that will dictate people being able to rebuild in Lahaina. It will be more: is there infrastructure? Is there water? Is there electricity? And are the roads clear? And are people able to go back into their homes in areas safely? So there are a few things we have to consider before allowing people back.
CRUZ: In your budget proposal, you did talk about a lot of the infrastructure that needs to be dealt with, not just on Maui, but the other islands as well.
BISSEN: Infrastructure is very critical — doing the analysis, trying to figure out how badly damaged it was, if it was damaged at all. Are they the main lines? Are they the lateral lines that run from the main lines to people's property? Those are really important issues for us to solve. And that's what we spend just about every day is, Committee on Infrastructure is looking at all of this, whether it's our wastewater, whether it's our water, whether it's getting energy and power to places, those are constantly being evaluated. That's going to dictate in large part where and when we can rebuild.
CRUZ: When we talked to Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth, you know, we asked him what his priority was over at the Legislature, given that obviously the number one thing is Maui's recovery. And he said he needs to address the wastewater system because he can't keep kicking this can down the road. And I know that you have put in some requests to deal with making sure we're more resilient when it comes to fighting fires. And I understand that there was some proposal about using wastewater to help with firefighting there on Maui. I mean, is that something that you're looking at as you try and rebuild those areas?
BISSEN: Absolutely, we're looking at every possibility in terms of building our resilience, mitigating risk, increasing our preparation. So that's something that we're working on. Yeah, infrastructure is a very broad term, but in particular, getting water pressure to our fire hydrants and/or standpipes that however it is, wherever the location is in the neighborhoods, it was important that we keep them not only filled with water but pressurized, so they can respond to that. And that's all part of the plan with the water department, the fire department, etc., to make sure we can address the volume that's needed. Now, we've also increased tanker trucks, where we can bring the water to the fire, especially if it's more remote areas that are not in close proximity to fire hydrants. So I mean, we're looking at everything, but keeping the pressure and, of course R-1 water or recycled water can be used, and it would be a great use to have it as keeping the pressure in the water lines for uses of the fire hydrants.
CRUZ: You have asked in your budget for, you know, additional staffing, particularly in the areas of our first responders, right, our fire, public safety, that kind of thing and everything else you need to stand up for this recovery effort.
BISSEN: So the 29 positions is what the chief and his deputy chief, you know, approached me with saying what each position was to be — including increasing on Molokaʻi, so not all focused on just Lahaina or just Maui even. So that's a big part of it. Maui Emergency Management Agency, they asked for six new positions which I've approved, and that includes having MEMA personnel on all three — Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Hāna — three rural areas. So that's going to increase our ability to respond quickly and get information to those communities. We also got a new public information officer, an accounts clerk, very necessary positions — the Corporation Counsel really has taken on a huge volume of responding to UIPA requests, also preparing for lawsuits. And so there was some need for that, the caseload has increased tremendously. So we've tried to be very mindful of which departments we've increased. But our average, all the departments, except for those ones that have fire-related recovery, you know, increases, the rest went up about 1.2%. So a couple of them went down, some stayed flat, but our budget overall reflects about a 1.2% increase.
CRUZ: And something that just came on our radar recently is the situation about air travel to Lānaʻi. Mokulele has asked the federal government to try and subsidize service there. And I guess that has opened up interest by other airlines. I don't know, any thoughts on that?
BISSEN: Competition can be good. It can make everybody be more diligent and vigilant in how they provide service to the public. So, I'm not familiar with the specifics. I know on Lānaʻi that Pālama Lānaʻi was starting or had gotten permission to be in the passenger service. So I think that's good to have options, even if it's two options. But I think it's healthy. And with this potential merger between Alaska and Hawaiian airlines, who knows if they could also assist in adding some fleet, some capacity. Waiting to see if anybody's causing any competition, and therefore services to get approved over on Molokaʻi.
CRUZ: Anything else that you want to underscore just as you sort through this next phase?
BISSEN: I think this has been a significant wake-up call to all of our communities throughout our state, and on everyone's mind is resilience. Of course, how can we avoid a catastrophe or a disaster? How can we prepare for it? How can we manage through it and respond to it, and then how can we be resilient to it? And so I think that's a conversation we're all having throughout the state. And we've paid special attention to that, you know, on Maui, and then again, trying to do whatever we can to promote housing and mental health. Wellness I think is very, very important and critical. So those are some of the big topics that we are focusing on right now.
Read the full State of County address here.
This story aired on The Conversation on March 28, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
