On April 15, 2026, the Budget, Finance, Economic Development Committee held a public hearing at the Kihei Community Center in South Maui to receive testimony on the Fiscal Year 2027 County of Maui budget. The meeting began at 6:00 PM and was chaired by Councilmember Lee, with all council members present. The only agenda item was BFED-1, the FY27 budget. The committee heard from 27 testifiers representing community organizations, nonprofits, and residents, who shared their priorities, requested funding, and raised concerns about infrastructure, social services, environmental protection, and government transparency.
Welcome everybody to our budget finance economic development committee. We're so happy to be here here in Kihay in South Maui. And just want you to know that this meet meeting is being conducted in accordance with the sunshine law, and it is now six o'clock, starting right on time. I'd like to ask Councilmember Tom Cook to introduce himself and the rest of the council members. Thank you, Chair. Can everybody hear us in the back? The acoustics okay. Yeah. And this it's never great here, but main thing you can hear and let us know. So welcome everybody. Um really happy to be in South Maui with the council for our district budget hearing. Looking forward to hearing your folks put uh your opinions and wants and needs, hopefully some compliments and cheers along with everything else. And I have here on my left member Sensei from HANA, Chair Lee from Wailuku. Vice Chair Sugi Mora from upcountry, Member Batangan from Kahloui. Member Rollins Fernandez from Molucay. Member Paul Pin from West Maui. And Member Johnson from the island of Lenoy. Thank you, everybody. I would like to also thank our staff who are um creating this event as we go along. So thank you very much for Ellen, Jen, and Lee, there's Stacey there. Thank you very much. Um also want to thank Akaku. Vinny, thank you. Thank you. And this meeting is being conducted live, so there's somebody at Akaku office who's also helping us. So whoever that is, thank you, everybody. Um this meeting is created so that we can listen to you, and we wanted to come to you and hear what you think of if are is important in your communities or in general. You can talk about anything in our budget. We have one agenda item today, which is agenda uh BFED one, which is the fiscal year 27 budget for the county of Maui. And um, as you know, we're going through the process of reviewing it in detail by talking to departments. We've gone through many communities like tonight um and have a couple more to go. And um, but what you say is very important so we understand if what is in the budget is relevant to what you think is important. You will have three minutes to testify. When you come up, please also give your name, what organization you're from, and if you are in the existing budget, we are probably gonna ask you the question, so be prepared. How much are you in the budget for? Or if you are not in the budget, what are you asking for and why? Um, and if you could provide us that information. We also like to receive copies of written testimony which will verify what you did speak on. And if you don't have it ready tonight, if you could send it to us so that we can have copies of it, it's very important. So at this time, I'd like to take the first testifier, please. Chair, the first testifier is Linda Papolo to be followed by Starlin Worthington. I got it. I got it, shorties. Um Aloha. I love you guys. You are the best counsel uh that we can imagine. Uh I've got to say that thank you first. The additional funding you gave us last year has oh, by the way, I'm Linda Popolo and I'm with the Maui AIDS Foundation. Um the money that you gave us last year to enhance our budget was critical to operations. It allowed us to travel to Molokai.