Reelect vice chair to county council

I write in support of reelecting Keani Rawlins-Fernandez to the Maui County Council.

It’s quite impressive that she was elected as council vice-chair in her first term. More impressive is that she was chosen to be chair of the Economic Development and Budget Committee, perhaps the most important of all council committees.

As chair of the EDB Committee, she led our county council during a pandemic through the most difficult process of determining our county’s budget, and thus our priorities, for the next fiscal year.

Our $822.6 million budget was unanimously approved by all nine council members, quite an accomplishment. And remarkably, Keani and her staff led the way in enabling our council to have council meetings and public testimony online.

Thanks to their efforts, our council never skipped a beat during this difficult time.

Keani has been a leader in our council’s efforts to grapple with the very difficult issue of over-tourism. She has been working with community leaders to create a tourism management organization that will seek common sense solutions.

It’s clear that continued unabated growth of this industry on Maui is not in our best longterm interest. What is in our best long-term interest is to become more self-reliant in feeding ourselves with healthy, environmentally sustainable food.

Again, Keani has been a leader in supporting measures to support our local farmers and to create a framework for expanding our ability to feed ourselves locally.

I proudly support Keani Rawlins-Fernandez.

George Burnette

Wailuku

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