Dave Ballaine introduced our speaker, Mayor Alan Arakawa.

Mayor Arakawa began by referencing the fact that the County is working on 100 projects at any given time and that he would be focusing on renewable energy and the means to become self-sufficient in his remarks.

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Maui County is very active in renewable energy research because, as we all know, we pay extremely high rates for gas and energy, electricity costing about 3 times as much as on the mainland. There's no doubt we can produce a large amount of renewable energy here, but the challenge is developing the technology to be able to use it. We work with Hitachi and Ito, which has invested $30 million in electric vehicle and smart grid research on Maui.  The main obstacle over the years has been MECO, a sanctioned monopoly, that benefits from keeping control of energy production. MECO used to be the only game in town, but, as the phone company has broken up into many choices of companies, services, and content. Because the electricity business offers new opportunities for profit, there is now more competition. Many county facilities have photo-voltaic cells and efforts are being made to expand their use. The county pays the companies that build and install their photovoltaic cells instead of paying MECO. The County is exploring public/private partnerships which would finance upgrades without raising taxes. The County wastewater facility, as well as the airport, are also looking at ways to utilize resources now and in the future. To do this, the previous monopoly rules must be changed and recently the PUC made a rule allowing community-based power alternative energy systems, where homeowners can share their energy production. We're also trying to get state legislation to allow for the transmission of community-based power to other areas, promoting competition among the producers and choices for consumers.

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He emphasized the need for the County to be resilient in the event of an emergency. To that end, there most water pumping systems on Maui are underground so that, in the event of a tsunami, they would be dried out and started again in a day or so, unlike the recent history in Texas and Puerto Rico. The county also has plans for situating emergency personnel in every count department for resilience and return to normalcy in the event of an unstoppable disaster.

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Emphasizing the need for long-term planning the Mayor described efforts to restrict building on our coastlines which are subject to erosion. About 80% of both North and South shores are now "no-build".  This protects homeowners, the tourist and local businesses and our quality of life. His administration has also worked on upgrading roads - not just filling potholes, but doing long-term planning critical for both our quality of life and budget management.

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The Mayor also responded to questions on subjects including the North-South Connector Road, which will require two bridges and resolving issues with structures built on the pathway before it can be completed. Addressing the issue of whether tourism has hit its saturation point, the Mayor pointed out that our population has doubled every 20 years and he doesn't expect that to change. Tourism will grow too and since our beaches have a set carrying capacity, the tourist industry will need to develop new ways to manage the increased activity. When asked about the problem of the increased number of drownings, he said that during his term the County Safety Network has had major improvements in coordination, technology and equipment with the Police, Fire Department, and other emergency groups. Although all ocean issues up the vegetation line were responsibilities of the State, there are no State lifeguards and now the responsibility for all beaches, and even for DL&R forest areas, has come to the County. With books like Maui Revealed, more people who are unprepared will be going to more dangerous places. To deal with this, we're hoping for things like moving a lifeguard station in the Black Rock  Area, but we can't prevent irresponsible people from going where they don't belong. About emergency preparedness for an actual nuclear attack, he said that the military is in control of defense, but that response at the county level includes the alarm sirens for the 10 to 20-minute advance warning and helping survivors beyond the 4 to 6-mile strike zone of an explosion. Our Civil Defense is as good as any community and includes notification and preparations for hospitals, police and fire departments to react to any kind of situation. We do not have bomb shelters with food supplies, which 30 years ago, nationwide, proved way too costly to maintain, especially in light of the very low probability of being needed. Asked about whether creating a county energy co-op utility is feasible for Maui County, he said the community costs would be excruciating, so we're trying to set up distributed power production and transmission.

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Thank you Mayor Arakawa