* EDITOR'S NOTE: The Maui News continues its series of stories featuring candidates in contested primary races for county and state offices. Candidates who automatically advance to the Nov. 2 general election will be featured in the days leading up to that contest. The primary election is Saturday.
WAILUKU - Four candidates - each offering a distinct point of view - will give voters a clear choice in the race for the Maui County Council's Makawao-Haiku-Paia residency district.
Vying to fill the open seat are current Board of Education member Mary Ribucan Cochran, environmentalist and soccer mom Kai Nishiki, Kuau Mart owner Leona Bak Nomura and Ka'anapali Beach Hotel General Manager Mike White.
Incumbent Mike Molina, who is vacating the seat he has held for 10 years due to term limits, said he won't make an endorsement in the race.
"They each have something unique to offer the community," he said. "I'll be watching this race closely."
White, who served in the state House of Representatives in the 1990s, said he was inspired to run for the council seat after testifying this year in opposition to higher property tax rates for hotels. He said he became concerned that the county government had continued to grow during a period when private businesses were forced to lay off employees.
"Everyone agrees the county needs to run more like a business," he said. "I'm one of the few people in the business community willing to step up to the plate - I wish more people would."
Nishiki, daughter of longtime County Council Member Wayne Nishiki, is the youngest candidate. After mounting an unsuccessful challenge to Molina two years ago, she said she was ready to run again.
"I feel I have the longest experience at the Maui County Council," she said. "I grew up at the council. (As an adult) I've spent a lot of time there advocating for our community."
Nomura said she learns about county issues and community concerns from her customers at Kuau Mart. She said she was concerned to see the community overrun by wealthy newcomers, and by the dominance of the visitor industry in the island's economy.
"We've become servants," she said. "We put everything into the visitor industry. Why?"
Cochran said she decided to run for the council after watching hours of council hearings on Akaku: Maui Community Television while recovering from colon cancer in 2008.
Known for her sometimes brash demeanor and shoot-from-the-hip personality, Cochran called herself a collaborator but also said she wouldn't be afraid to stand her ground on the council.
"I gotta tell it like it is," she said.
With the county looking ahead to several more years of declining revenues, Cochran said one area where the council should look to reduce spending is on the grants it gives each year to nonprofit agencies. The county gave around $33 million to nonprofits this year, she noted, calling the amount, "a heck of a lot."
"We're the only county in Hawaii that's really, really playing Santa Claus," she said.
But some of the candidates disagreed.
White said the nonprofits provide essential public services at less than what it would cost the county to take over the responsibility.
Nishiki agreed.
"I think the nonprofit community provides a lot of services that our community has grown to depend on," she said.
Cochran, White and Nishiki agreed that the county should provide more monitoring and oversight of grants to ensure the money is being used effectively.
Looking at other ways to cut costs, White said he wouldn't advocate laying off county workers, but said the county should shrink its work force by combining jobs and eliminating vacancies when employees retire.
"Government has responsibilities they can't step back from," he said. "But in my experience, there's no question - the county could do more with less."
He also said public employee unions should be willing to make concessions to help reduce the cost of labor while the county struggles with slumping revenues - as workers did at his and other hotels when tourism declined.
Cochran said she was concerned that the size of the mayor's staff had grown over the years. While the council doesn't have the authority to set the number of employees in the mayor's office, it can control the mayor's total budget, she said.
"The administration can come and propose, and the council will dispose," she said. "In other words, we're just gonna cut your budget by this amount, and however you want to do it, you do it."
On the revenue side of things, the candidates had differing perspectives on raising property taxes.
"I think nothing can be left off the table," Nishiki said. "Raising taxes or raising fees, I think, has to be a last priority after we've looked at everything else."
Nomura said she supported raising property taxes.
"I don't think we pay our fair share," she said.
In particular, she said taxes should be raised for vacation rental operators.
"They are making money on their homes," she said.
But hotel property taxes should not increase because they are supplying jobs, she said, and commercial properties for stores and small businesses should have their taxes lowered.
"How can they afford to do business?" she asked.
Cochran said that if the county were forced to raise taxes, she would not support any increases for homeowners because they don't make money off their homes. Instead, she said she would look at hotel properties.
"I'm not going to make Mike White happy, but I'm telling you the income-producing properties are going to pay the tab," she said.
Among other issues raised by the candidates, Cochran said water was among her top concerns because it was essential for both the agriculture and development industries to thrive and create jobs.
Cochran said the county should first look at putting into use existing infrastructure. She said the county should pump water from two old wells near the Old Maui High School campus, and start using a pipeline that was built to supply water from the Hamakuapoko wells to Paia.
While studies have found pesticide contamination in both sources - and the Maui County Council previously passed legislation banning the use of the Hamakuapoko wells for human consumption, even with treatment that could remove all contamination from the water - Cochran said that shouldn't prevent their use.
"It's very suspect as to whether they're really polluted," she said. "There's differing opinions."
The county also should develop more infrastructure to use reclaimed water for agricultural use and irrigation, she said.
Ultimately, Cochran said the county's long-term solution should be to sink wells in East Maui as the major new water source for the island, a project she said should be paid for with federal money.
Nomura disagreed.
"I don't believe in digging more wells," she said. "The whole ecosystem will disappear."
Instead, she said the county should increase water rates and use the increased revenue to pay for a new reservoir Upcountry.
Nishiki said she would like to see the county developing new alternative energy sources - both as a potential new industry for the island and to help cut costs.
"Our county should be looking at energy production in relation to our water and wastewater treatment facilities," she said. "Those are some of the most energy-hungry facilities the county has, and we could be in a public-private partnership to try to bring those costs down."
She said the economy was her top concern, and that the county should create special "improvement districts" with incentives to attract and support small businesses. She also said she would work for laws that supported small businesses, including allowing home-based businesses as long as they were not intrusive in neighborhoods.
Nomura also said she would support small businesses. She said the county should reduce burdensome regulations and relax permit requirements that make it hard for small businesses to operate.
White acknowledged he may be perceived as a "hotel guy" but said he's as concerned about the natural environment as he is about the business climate. In particular he said it's important to preserve a large amount of open space and is disappointed that the county allowed the construction of so many "big box" stores so close to the airport.
White noted that he plans to continue his position at Ka'anapali Beach Hotel if elected, but said he'd be "fully committed" to serving on the council.
"There's a lot of people on this island who have two jobs," he said. "To say you can't do two jobs is not respecting that a lot of people already are."
* Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.
* Makawao-Haiku-Paia council race. Maui County Council candidate Mary Ribucan Cochran said new water sources should be paid for with a combination of federal, state, county and private funds. An article published on Page A1 and continued on Page A4 Tuesday incorrectly stated she believed the projects should be paid for with federal funds.
The Maui News apologizes for the errors.
