After a series of tense and emotional debates, the Maui County Council is steering millions of dollars in public funding toward a pair of affordable housing projects in Central Maui.
Selection of the projects, called Hale Pilina and Aikanaha, raised the ire of at least two council members because of their locations in Kahului and Wailuku rather than West Maui where thousands of fire survivors remain in hotel rooms seven months after the Aug. 8 fire that killed at least 101 people.
Council members Tamara Paltin and Keani Rawlins-Fernandez ultimately voted yes on the two housing bills that passed unanimously Friday, but not before criticizing how the county evaluated and scored applications for using its Affordable Housing Fund. They also wanted to know why a housing project in Kaanapali called Pulelehua wasn’t recommended.
Hale Pilina is a 178-unit affordable housing project by Catholic Charities Housing Development Corp., located on nearly 5 acres at 150 S. Puunene Ave. in Kahului. With the passage of Bill 34, a grant of up to $10 million will be made available to Catholic Charities toward the project’s development.
Aikanaha consists of 212 units on 5 acres in Waikapu Country Town in Wailuku. Under Bill 35, the project developer, Pacific Development Group, will receive up to $14 million in loans for phase one and two of construction.
Public money for both projects would come from Maui County’s Affordable Housing Fund, which had an estimated balance of $24 million as of June 30. The fund was projected to grow by $43 million in fiscal year 2024 for a total amount of $67 million, according to county budget documents.
Heated Debates Over Committee Work
During a Feb. 16 council meeting, Paltin raised questions about the three-member committee of private citizens that the Housing and Human Concerns Department formed to review affordable housing projects and make recommendations to the administration.
Paltin accused Housing and Human Concerns Director Lori Tsuhako of hiding the selection committee members’ identity from the council, an assertion the housing director denied.
Later in the meeting, Tsuhako appeared by video and identified the three volunteer evaluators as attorney Jason Economou, affordable housing consultant Robyne Nishida Nakao and mortgage loan officer Carolann Guy.
Paltin also wanted to know if the three volunteers were required to submit financial disclosure statements to the Board of Ethics. Tsuhako said they were not.
Financial disclosures are very important, Paltin said, noting how members of the council and county boards and commissions all fill them out.
Rawlins-Fernandez asked if any special consideration was given to funding a project in West Maui given the pressing need for housing in that part of the island post-fire.
Tsuhako said the evaluators considered it but the scoring criteria for project applications doesn’t include geographic location. What’s considered are factors like project readiness, community need, and ability to leverage outside financing.
The topic arose again during a Feb. 26 meeting of the council’s Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee. During the public testimony portion, Economou appeared by video to defend himself and the process.
“I’m happy that the council and the people of Maui are finally asking questions about how affordable housing fund dollars are spent and attributed. But to pretend that this was a secret, some guarded secret, is completely wrong,” Economou said.
Selection Committee Relied On County Scoring Rubric
The county asked the group to perform a civic service which involved many hours of unpaid work and combing through thousands of pages of nine applications.
“It was voluminous,” Guy said in an interview with Civil Beat.
They received the applications on Jan. 3 and needed to have them evaluated and scored by Jan. 8, Guy said.
The three-member panel did their work based on a scoring rubric given to them by the county.
“We were asked to put aside our personal feelings and follow a rubric that the county has used for years,” Economou said.
Paltin asked Economou during the Feb. 26 meeting when was the last time he visited Pulelehua and whether he was aware that “dirt is being moved every day on the site.”
Economou couldn’t recall the last time he toured Pulelehua but noted that he wasn’t asked to do so and said there’s a lot that goes into housing development.
“I wasn’t asked to grade based on the movement of dirt. I was asked to grade based on the application submitted by the developer,” he said.
Pulelehua’s application didn’t score high because of the applicant’s finances and because a portion of the subsidized infrastructure would have benefitted market-rate homes in the West Maui project, not solely affordable housing units. Pulelehua has already received $18 million in county funds and had requested an additional $50 million.
After the “movement of dirt” discussion, things turned personal.
Rawlins-Fernandez asked Economou about the length of his residency on Maui, saying it was her understanding that he only moved to the island five years ago.
Seven years ago, said Economou, a former Peace Corps volunteer who chairs the Maui Food Bank board and serves as a director for the Maui Family YMCA.
He’s also a former government affairs director for the Realtors Association of Maui.
“So you were given the opportunity to be on this committee and asked to score these housing projects after only a few years of living here like you’re an expert while you were the government affairs director of the Realtors Association of Maui?” Rawlins-Fernandez asked.
A self-employed attorney, Economou said the county sought him out to volunteer for the job, a service he has offered several times in the past.
Rawlins-Fernandez said he has a conflict of interest because of his previous employment with the Realtors Association and that he should have declined an appointment to the affordable housing review committee.
Economou disagreed and a shouting match ensued.
Committee Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura cut Economou’s mic and slammed her gavel, abruptly ending the discussion.
Tsuhako said in an interview it’s not fair to impugn someone’s integrity who is volunteering their time for the county. She also disputed claims that she purposely made the selection process opaque.
“I challenge the characterization of the process as being secretive,” Tsuhako said. “We’ve done it the same way for years and no one has raised those issues before.”
Economou said in an interview that he’s unlikely to volunteer again next year on the selection committee given what he considered inappropriate treatment by the council members.
“I have little patience for being attacked,” he said.
This was Guy’s first time serving on the panel. Guy said everyone on the committee had Maui’s best interest in mind and were straight shooters. The projects were scored based on merit, not politics.
“We’re not running to get reelected or anything,” Guy said.
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
