Today marks Council election deadline

Today is the deadline to submit nominations to fill the vacancy on the City Council to represent District 4.

The vacancy was created by the election of Charles Djou to Congress. The term expires at the end of the year.

Council Chairman Todd Apo has asked that names be submitted to his office by the end of today. A special Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee meeting has been scheduled for Thursday to vet the candidates.

Apo said he hopes to have a single candidate selected from that meeting to bring to the full Council for approval at its next meeting, June 9. The successor would then be able to vote on the matters of the day, including the city's $1.8 billion operating budget.

Apo has declined to say how many candidates have submitted their names for consideration, but said last week the number is in the double digits.

Galera, Mew named top principals

Darrel Galera of Moanalua High School and Justin S.N. Mew of Niu Valley Middle School were named Hawaii's outstanding principals of 2010 by MetLife and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

As finalists for the National High School Principal of the Year and Middle School Principal of the Year, they will be interviewed in Washington, D.C., in August, then join other winners at the Principal's Institute and Awards Banquet there in October, a release said.

Galera has led Moanalua High since 2000. Prior to that he served as deputy superintendent for the Leeward Oahu District for a year. In 2004 Galera was named Central Oahu District Principal of the Year.

Mew has headed Niu Valley Middle since 2006. He was previously the principal of Aina Haina Elementary School for three years. Under his leadership, Niu Valley became the first middle school in Hawaii to be authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, an accelerated curriculum for students.

Maui mayor mulls options for budget

WAILUKU » Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares says the County Council has no idea how its budget will affect the community.

Tavares commented last week after the Council passed a $524 million budget that would cut spending by 7 percent.

Tavares says she is considering her four options. She can sign the budget, veto it, approve it with a line-item veto or let it become law without her signature.

With a number of austerity measures already lined up, the mayor says she is trying to learn from her departments how they will absorb additional cuts to their operating budgets and personnel.

The budget calls for furloughing county workers one day per month and cutting 108 jobs from the county's payroll.