Maui mayoral hopefuls spar over affordable housing
WAILUKU » Affordable housing may become a hot issue in the Maui mayoral race.
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa said one of the major differences between his challenger, Charmaine Tavares, and him is how to provide more housing.
Arakawa said he believes in letting the private sector build houses and that his administration has been moving projects forward, including 3,000 affordable housing units already approved for development.
But Tavares said although the mayor says the projects are in the pipeline, "they're not there yet."
"The main difference is he thinks there's enough on the line to meet the housing needs, and I don't agree," she said.
She said the county needs to work with the private sector to get projects started quickly, especially when hundreds of people are waiting in lines to apply for an affordable housing project.
Both Tavares and Arakawa are Republicans who draw from a pool of Democratic and independent voters for their support in the nonpartisan mayoral race.
Their strength was demonstrated Saturday when both defeated leading Democratic challengers in the primary election, including former Mayor James "Kimo" Apana and Councilman Dain Kane.
Tavares received 8,701 votes, or 30.6 percent, compared to Arakawa's 7,689, or 27 percent, followed by Apana with 6,366, or 22.4 percent, and Kane with 3,506, or 12.3 percent.
Apana yesterday said he has not decided whether to endorse a mayoral candidate in the general election.
Tavares, 62, the Maui County Council's planning chairwoman, said she was surprised she led in the voting in the primary ahead of Arakawa.
But she said like her late father Mayor Hannibal Tavares, she draws her support from independent voters.
"I think there are a lot of independents out there. ... People look more at the person than anything else," she said.
Tavares said she thinks she will bring to the Mayor's Office the ability to be inclusive, "listen to all points of view in an open way," and rally them around a "common thread."
Both Tavares and Arakawa said they are looking forward to publicly debating each other on issues.
Arakawa, a former councilman and farmer, said people need to look at their experience and his four years of being on the job as mayor.
He said his administration has a number of projects that are in the process of being completed, including the expansion of a public bus system, developing a ferry system between Maalaea and Lahaina, and resurfacing cane haul roads as an alternative route between Lahaina and Olowalu.
He said once people see the projects being developed by his administration, they will want to see him complete them and will vote for him.
Arakawa said he and Tavares have known each other for a long time and he regards her as a friend and expects a clean campaign about issues.
"I believe it will be much more directed toward issues and how we're going to deal with them," he said.