Committee presses administration for details on resiliency hubs, land management plan and a $113,000 West Maui Hospital grant request

Council members queried the mayor's office about multiple related items: funding for resiliency hubs, a proposed $200,000 appropriation for a land management plan, the status of FY25 resiliency projects (including modular hub spending), and a $113,000 request related to West Maui Hospital development support.

On resiliency hubs, the administration said much of FY25 was spent on community engagement; a January 2025 Climate Ready Maui Nui action plan exists and the administration described FY26 funding proposals to move from planning to implementation. The committee asked for a line-item accounting of how prior allocations (including about $692,000 referenced for modular resiliency hubs in FY25) were actually spent; the administration said it would provide written breakdowns and noted that a significant portion of this year's funds were allocated to community meetings, with larger construction/implementation funding requested for FY26.

The mayor's office included a $200,000 appropriation proposed for a land management plan intended to address hazard mitigation, encampments, liability and other county land-management needs; councilmembers asked whether that work should fall to the Department of Finance's land management division. The administration said the mayor's office often incubates initiatives and then transitions them to departments for long-term management; the administration said some land-management funding and positions also appear in other departmental budgets and that the council would receive a breakdown of transfers and positions.

On the West Maui Hospital request, the administration said the $113,000 is intended as a grant to support the hospital group's development work — legal expenses, liability insurance, accounting, marketing and a philanthropic coordinator to begin fundraising — and is not the county building a hospital. The mayor's office said the grant was proposed to help the group start a capital campaign and that further state-level support was not mentioned in the materials it received; the administration said it would follow up in writing and provide additional details on state engagement if available.

Councilmembers also raised concerns about the county's unmanaged lands, past executive orders, and potential liabilities related to wildland fire and encampments; members urged better inventory and a coordinated land-management approach. The administration said there is land-management funding in multiple departments this year and that the Department of Finance and Corporation Counsel have added personnel related to land management.