Council to start picking Kawano successor Monday

Tavares wants new leadership election

The Maui News
Wednesday, June 26, 2002

By VALERIE MONSON
Staff Writer

WAILUKU — Maui County Council members will begin deliberating on the process to fill the vacancy of the late Chairman Pat Kawano during a special meeting at 9 a.m. Monday in Council Chambers of Kalana O Maui.

In addition, Council Member Charmaine Tavares has submitted resolutions calling for new elections for the council chair, vice chair and presiding officer pro tempore.

Kawano, who held the Molokai seat, died Saturday after a lengthy illness. He was first elected to the council in 1986 and had served as chairman since 1996. Council Member Dain Kane was Kawano’s vice chairman and has been serving as acting chairman in Kawano’s absence.

Tavares is presiding officer pro tempore.

Kane noted that, according to the County Charter, the council has 30 days to appoint a successor to serve out Kawano’s term that runs through the end of the year or else the choice will be given to Mayor James “Kimo” Apana. The successor must be a Molokai resident who is a qualified voter.

The last time council members faced a similar situation was in 1996 when Council Member Tom Morrow was among five Maui residents killed when their small plane crashed while they were returning from a political rally on Molokai just days before the election. Morrow, who held the East Maui seat, was elected posthumously.

When council members acted to fill the empty seat, four East Maui residents threw their hats into the ring and were interviewed by council members during a public meeting. But the eight remaining lawmakers deadlocked between Robert Carroll and J. Kalani English, allowing then-Mayor Linda Lingle to appoint Carroll to serve the last month of Morrow’s 1995-96 term.

When the newly elected council assembled in early January, Carroll and English were joined by two other East Maui residents in seeking Morrow’s position. All four were required to obtain 15 signatures of other voters and submit financial disclosure forms as candidates must do in filing for office before they were questioned by council members during a public meeting.

English was then selected by the council to serve Morrow’s two-year term. Later, Carroll was appointed to the Maui Planning Commission. English was elected to the state Senate in 2000 while Carroll ran for and was elected to the East Maui council seat

The County Charter was revised in 1998 to require a special election to fill a vacancy on the council if there are more than 15 months remaining in a two-year term. Kawano’s term would expire on Jan. 2 next year.

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