WAILUKU - A decision to bypass a Cultural Resources Commission review of planned Halloween festivities in Lahaina is drawing fire from the leader of a Native Hawaiian group that led opposition to the "Mardi Gras of the Pacific," which until 2007 drew thousands of revelers to Front Street, some scantily clad.
"It's very upsetting to us," said Ke'eaumoku Kapu, cultural consultant to Kuleana Ku'ikahi, who was at a conference in Alaska when county officials announced that a portion of Front Street would be closed for festivities Oct. 31.
Back on Maui on Tuesday, Kapu said he was having his attorney, Richard McCarty, investigate whether the county violated its own rules in granting permits for the event. He said he served on the Cultural Resources Commission for five years and believed it was "cut and dried" that the panel would have a say in any event in the Lahaina Historic District.
"All the rules of the Cultural Resources Commission have been overridden," he said.
But two high-ranking county officials denied that Tuesday in responding to Kapu's complaint.
Department of Planning Deputy Director Michele Chouteau McLean and Economic Development Coordinator Teena Rasmussen said the county, an applicant along with the LahainaTown Action Committee for permits, had resubmitted an application that removed planned activities that had been in an earlier request that did trigger a review by the commission.
Brianne Savage, a sports and entertainment specialist with the county's Office of Economic Development, said two earlier planned activities would have required a review - building a large stage that would have required a building permit and allowing commercial activity on county-owned property at Banyan Tree Park.
Both of those activities were changed in the revised permit, Savage said. Plans were scaled back for a smaller stage that would not need a building permit, she said, and vendors will not do business in Banyan Tree Park; they will instead set up their booths at Campbell Park, on land owned privately by Waiola Church across from Pioneer Inn and between the Wharf Cinema Center and Baldwin House.
Closing Front Street does not require a Cultural Resources Commission review, she said.
Kapu said he believes that what happened left the commission without authority in the historic district and, even "more troubling," he maintained, "there is no process for community input."
"Where are we to go to address these kinds of issues?" he asked. "To us, it isn't a small issue."
Other Native Hawaiian groups are upset as well, he said, naming Ka Halawai o Honokohau, Hui Pono ike Kanawai Na'aikane o Maui, Na Makua o Maui and Na Kupuna o Maui.
Contacted via cellphone while she was attending an economic development conference in Charlotte, N.C., Rasmussen said there had been an opportunity for public comment on the county's plans to bring Halloween festivities back to Front Street during a July 7 meeting. (The county's plans were revised after the meeting.)
Although the commission could not vote on the matter because there was a problem with public notice for the meeting, "they allowed everybody to talk, pretty much as long as they wanted to talk," she said, for two to two and a half hours.
And, before that meeting, Mayor Alan Arakawa met with the Kupuna Council for more than two hours, Rasmussen said. "They got to say anything," she said. "The mayor was very open with them."
She said administration officials pledged not to bill the event as the "Mardi Gras of the Pacific" and to promote it as a "fun, family-friendly, safe event."
Lewd costumes are being discouraged, although Maui police, who will be handling security at the event, have made it clear they are not going to be the "costume police," she said.
"Overwhelmingly, (the consensus) was bring Halloween back, but let's do it in a respectful manner," Rasmussen said.
Input on the matter was sought from other community leaders, as well, she said.
"We have been extremely collaborative in the process of redesigning Halloween," Rasmussen said. "We feel that we have a scenario that is going to make a great Halloween event."
Kapu said Native Hawaiians took extreme offense in 2004 to a banner promoting Halloween in Lahaina that portrayed a headless Hawaiian holding a pineapple, attempting to depict a Hawaii version of the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The banner was widely displayed outside Front Street businesses, he said. Some took it down when Hawaiians protested, while others didn't.
But it wasn't only the banner that put Hawaiians up in arms, he said. There was an escalation in tasteless costumes, like a 9-foot-tall dildo that paraded up and down Front Street in 2007.
"Throughout the years, there's been very intrusive things in this event," he said. "You get nudity. You get alcohol in the streets. You get drugs."
Former Mayor Charmaine Tavares tried to get parties together to work out their differences and come up with a compromise, but that effort did not result in any resolutions, he said.
During this year's meeting with Arakawa, Kapu said he came away from the meeting believing the mayor was prepared to do whatever was necessary to see Halloween festivities resume on Front Street.
He said he remained unconvinced that the event, "which has nothing to do with our Native Hawaiian culture," would promote family values.
"The mayor has swept all our issues and concerns under the rug," Kapu said.
Rasmussen said the mayor was open to hearing a wide range of viewpoints, but he did maintain that there should be a venue for "our young people to let their hair out and have fun."
Kapu said his group is looking for all the permits allowing Halloween festivities on Front Street to make sure the rules have been properly followed. His group may consider trying to intervene in the closure of the street for Halloween, he said.
For pedestrian safety, Front Street will be closed on Halloween from Baker to Prison streets from 3:30 p.m. to midnight.
Scheduled events will include a keiki parade, keiki ghost stories, face painting, costume contests and live music.
The Soroptimists International West Maui will be the sponsor of the Lahaina Keiki Halloween Parade.
The last time Front Street was closed for Halloween was in 2007. In 2008, the commission rejected a permit for the festivities after there were complaints about risque costumes and offensive behavior.
* Brian Perry can be reached at citydesk@mauinews.com.
