Mayor offers Kalana Pakui Building to council
Proposal comes after veto of Mahalani Street ‘bargaining clause’
The Kalana Pakui Building was offered as an olive branch to the Maui County Council on Friday in a monthslong negotiation between the council and the administration over expansion of office space.
In light of the new offer, the council on Friday decided against overriding Mayor Michael Victorino’s veto of a condition in a recently approved, $9.8 million Mahalani Street purchase that requires the council receive 9,000 square feet in office space and 30 parking stalls at the county’s Kalana O Maui Building in Wailuku.
Instead, the administration offered up the first floor of the Kalana Pakui Building, which neighbors the Kalana O Maui Building. The legislative branch would have control over the 7,500-square-foot space in Kalana Pakui, along with existing control over the seventh and eighth floors of Kalana O Maui.
While it is short of the 9,000 square feet requested, the space would allow the Office of Council Services and the council to fully occupy the seventh floor of Kalana O Maui if the Clerk’s Office can move into the first floor of Kalana Pakui, county Managing Director Sandy Baz said during the Friday meeting.
Currently, the county’s Development Services Administration occupies the first floor of Kalana Pakui; they will be moving into the county’s new Kahului Service Center in June, he added.
With the administration’s latest proposal, the council voted 7-1 (Council Member Mike Molina dissented and Council Member Tasha
Kama was excused) against overriding the veto Friday that would have put in limbo the acquisition of the 6.3-acre parcel Wailuku parcel that was intended to give the county more office space while saving on rent.
The council had passed three bills on March 19 that allowed the administration to move forward with the acquisition of the property at 100 Mahalani Street, which includes The Maui News offices.
A portion of the legislation held a “bargaining clause” to specify that with the purchase, “Maui County Council must be granted an additional floor in the Kalana O Maui Building of at least 9,000 square feet and at least 30 parking spaces within two years or when the renovations of the property are complete.”
Council members agreed Friday that Chairwoman Alice Lee and Vice-Chairwoman Keani RawlinsFernandez will work with the administration on a memorandum of understanding to put the Kalana Pakui Building proposal in writing.