fight to hold our top officials accountable. I also promised to uphold and protect Maui’s Countywide Policy Plan, our individual community plans and our precious environment, again never anticipating that we needed so much protection from our own county administration.

Mayor Alan Arakawa’s rant (“Our County,” Feb. 17) against myself and Council Member Elle Cochran for voting against his request for additional emergency funding already spent on the Wailuku River cleanup failed to recognize his lack of information provided to the council’s Budget Committee. Upon questioning, there was very sketchy knowledge of Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement laws, no list of paid vendors or details of activity provided for the $5 million spent last year, and a lack of clarity of how decisions had been made.

The biggest question perhaps is the reason for the massive hauling and crushing of — yes, sacred — pohaku and whether or not those dollars will qualify as emergency activity reimbursable by FEMA. If not, someone other than our taxpayers needs to be accountable for that expenditure.

The mayor’s recent remarks in a “Hawaii News Now” interview were his most blatant act of disrespect of Mauians to date. Denying Hawaii’s host culture its historical traditions and declaring Christianity to be the law of the land was not only a violation of the spirit of separation of church and state, it was also a violation of Maui’s Countywide Policy Plan.

Adopted by Ordinance 3732 in 2010, the plan lists countywide goals and objectives under Section A, with the second bullet point specifying “Preserve Local Cultures and Traditions.”

Even if our mayor refuses to acknowledge the cultural importance of the pohaku in the Wailuku River, the area is in fact identified as state-owned Conservation District land. In 2008, three men were fined over $3,000 each by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for allegedly taking 934 river rocks from Maui in the area known as “River Mouth” (Honolulu Star Bulletin, July 12, 2008), where the Wailuku River merges with the Paukukalo shoreline. The original complaint was filed by the Maui Sierra Club and alleged violation of Hawaii Administrative Rules, Section 13-5-2(2), which prohibits the “grading, removing, harvesting, dredging, mining or extraction of any material or natural resource from the land.” Should we not be holding our county administration to the same standards as others in our state?

The council’s Planning Committee is currently revising a proposal to mandate the inclusion of a Native Hawaiian cultural expert on every planning commission as well as the Hana Advisory Committee. While every commission member is already required to take a Native Hawaiian Law Training Course given by the Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian law (provided funding for the training is available), the mayor’s tirade against the Hawaiian culture makes clear the need for a voting position on these commissions that specifically represents the local culture and traditions. This item is tentatively scheduled for the council’s March 9 Planning Committee meeting.

Mayor Arakawa, now in his third term, has become someone unrecognizable to many of us who used to believe he truly cared about our county’s welfare. It is sad to see his constant use of free media space in The Maui News, on radio and even on television to demean and disparage his constituents, other elected officials and our own county laws and ordinances that preserve our freedom and support our community values. Instead of constantly lashing out at his critics, the energy and time could be much better spent preparing reports and information that have been requested repeatedly by council members.

I join other Mauians who are calling on our mayor to honor our Countywide Policy Plan and respect our community’s cultures and citizens. There are less than two years left for Mr. Arakawa to act with civility and reason, and much more can be gained by communicating and understanding than by throwing darts. I hope a civil dialogue can begin soon.

KELLY KING

* Kelly King holds the County Council’s South Maui residency seat and is chairwoman of the council’s Planning Committee.