Unfair Maui Rules May End Scuba Instruction! We Need Your Help

[Shaka Doug]

Here is a message I received for former Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa about this:

Alan Arakawa

June 12 at 1:34am

Doug, It seems to me that the Tavares admin. is very anti-business, they have attacked vacation rentals, home occupation businesses, the construction industry, and have been also creating rules to make it more and more difficult for ocean activities to survive. About 8 years ago+or minus, we did a series of evaluations on the carrying capacities of our parks, Tamara seems to have forgotten that we set the standards after lengthy discussions and many meetings. They seem to be hell bent on creating rules that will squeeze all ocean activities to bankrupcy. I wish that I could figure out what their motives are, but for the life of me I cann't. If your group tries to apply logic you'll probably fail,after all that was what the vacation rental group did. I am planning to run for the mayors office again to try to reinstate some semblance of common sense back to our local govt. give me a call 281-0314 (cel) or my home 871-4301 and we can talk a bit.

Would anyone like to encourage Mr. Arakawa to attend the public hearing? I asked him and he said "maybe". He's one of my facebook friends now by the way! Maybe you should make him yours! He was a pretty good mayor as I recall.

 

[Shaka Doug]

I think we should show up at the meeting with some of these:

"The upside-down flag of Hawaii, which was the flag of the Kingdom as well as the State, symbolizes a "nation in distress" and is a common sight in the islands today..."

Sadly, our island and my industry is in distress these days and I feel it appropriate to display the flag in this manner out of respect for the people who are connected with and have to endure this situation. It is meant to help us become unified to once again be strong and viable as a community. The way I see it, we need to let people know there's a problem due to some reasons that could easily be corrected and relieved. This could help unify us and respectfully bring attention to the situation and hopefully lead us to a solution. (Upside down dive flag might not have as much impact...what do you think?) Any other ideas?

 

[KrisB]

In an effort to further keep the Tavares' administration's motives under the table, Horcajo has replied to the earlier article, taking offense to how it had attacked her personally:
VIEWPOINT: No debate ? Input requested at hearing on use of county parks - Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor's Information - The Maui News

IMO, she deserved the attack -- rules handed down from other administrations have been far less drastic, and far less anti-business than hers. These are from her department, perhaps driven by the mayor's office... but from her people nonetheless.

It seems as if Tavares is trying to turn Maui into her own personal version of Niihau -- driving out big boxes, claiming they harm "mom & pop shops"... then also doing their best to drive out small business. Soon enough, I suspect she'll require an EIS for something at the airport that will effectively remove commercial air traffic to this island.

Surely a recall petition can be started to get her out of office before her term is up in Jan/11. Imagine how much harm she'll be able to complete in the next 18 months!!

 

[Shaka Doug]

I read Ms. Horcajos response. We need people to attend this hearing. Tell your friends and family to show up. Let's show some unity!!

She says:

It is our belief that the CORA operators are partners with our department in providing a safe venue for our families and visitors who enter Maui waters. We hope that these rules will help us to identify the companies that are willing to provide quality recreation opportunities for us all. These rules are an attempt to find a balance for our environment between commercial and recreational use of our limited public beach parks.
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Let's show her who we are and what we do and why they need to give us the freedom to operate without time limits, specific location requirements and parking restraints.

Hearing is at 9:00 am Friday, June 26 at the Planning Department Conference Room in Wailuku. Bring a lunch and some water. It could last all day.

 

[adjuster-jd]

Good luck on Friday folks. Wish I could be there with you to lend some support. I'm afraid my one week every-other year timeshare ownership doesnt get me voting rights there...

 

[Shaka Doug]

Good luck on Friday folks. Wish I could be there with you to lend some support. I'm afraid my one week every-other year timeshare ownership doesnt get me voting rights there...

I beg to differ JD. If you want to help you can submit written testimony before the hearing (Friday 9:00 am Maui time) if you can't be here in person. The email addresses are in an earlier thread. You want to contact our Mayor Charmaine Tavares (she is Daughter of former Maui mayor Hannibal Tavares. Also she was the former Parks & Recreation Dept. Director and was a former County Council member).
Tamara Horcajo (present Parks & Rec Dept. Director (see her viewpoint in todays Maui news, Kris B posted the link a couple posts ago). Also send to our council member JoAnne Johnson and the others listed earlier.

You could call these people too.

Put it this way. Any independent dive instructor who comes to Maui (or is on Maui) in the future who intends to conduct or complete a scuba class for someone and expects to be paid anything will be violating the law if they are in a county park without a permit, especially after specified hours. Is that fair? How many shops in the mainland run trips all over the world to complete classes? Forget about coming here unless you plan on being on the DL (down low) or under the radar. Whatever you do, forget about trying to do it "LEGIT". How many small time Dive Instructor guys/gals would like to gain experience and certifiy some friends or friends of friends?? Unless you do it for FREE that will be considered illegal and punishable by law and there is no chance in hell you will ever get a permit making you legit. You can be sure, if some of the other CORA people get put out of business because of this (they have told me that) no one will be doing it on the DL because they will be spotted and turned in to the rangers so fast their heads will spin. (Simply stated, our industry is really getting annoyed with this as it happens every year for the past 4 years now!) This applies to any Kayaking, Surfing, SCUBA Diving, Snorkeling, KiteBoarding or Windsurfing lessons.

Let's not let them get away with this! Thank you, I'm gonna get me some juice now.

 

[adjuster-jd]

Doug,
Point taken. I sent an email to Mayor Tavares. Forwarded a copy to the email address which is linked on your web site.
Good luck tomorrow.

 

[KrisB]

And a commercial operator responds in the Maui News:
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/520271.html

 

[KrisB]

......

 

[adjuster-jd]

Well, that person sure isnt tourist friendly. Hey, it's us tourists that support the commercial dive ops and he wants to limit tourist parking? Yeah, Ok, that might work if I was riding Doug's shakabus, but otherwise, how would we tourists get to the beach to support the local dive ops?