Mike Victorino and Corporation Counsel Moana Lutey say State environmental laws prevent the Mayor from instructing Planning Director McLean to enforce Greg Brown’s SMA permit violations.
But Director McLean acknowledged under oath in recent court testimony that she issues fines and penalties whenever Mayor Victorino simply tells her to.
So who's really in charge? The Mayor is, of course, it's just more convenient in this case for him to pretend he's impotent and put the blame on McLean.
Victorino and Lutey had plenty of vigor when they refused to honor the Council's vote to settle the Injection Well case (eventually losing in the Supreme Court), and Mike just boldly vetoed the Council's vote to limit overbuilding hotels.
So Victorino and Lutey both have a consistent history of wasting our tax dollars to betray the public and our environment in service to wealthy private interests. That’s Victorino’s version of “Local Values”.
Chris Salem, who blew the whistle on Greg Brown, was forced to sue Mike Victorino personally for breaching a settlement agreement they both signed that traded Salem’s release of the County from a previous lawsuit in return for the Mayor specifically instructing his Planning Department to call another Napili developer back to Hui Rd E to install environmental protections that they illegally skipped - many years after the fact, just like the missing infrastructure at Olowalu.
Victorino later reneged on his promise with the ridiculous claim that the Mayor somehow lacks the authority to instruct his Planning Department to do their job.
And now Josh Downer, a Napili resident and lawyer, is preparing to sue Mayor Victorino for his refusal to use the authority our Charter bestows and mandates he uses to instruct Director McLean to invalidate the SMA permit exemption Brown acquired through fraud and perhaps payoffs.
The Courts have already ruled that the Mayor is the responsible party. Corporation Counsel and Alan Arakawa wasted at least $25 million of our tax dollars settling at Palama Drive after Mayor Arakawa willfully and arrogantly chose not to stop the developer from building outrageously high retaining walls that he knew were in violation of County codes. Corporation Counsel vigorously defended Arakawa and, as they often do, lost.
How many millions are Mike Victorino, Moana Lutey, Planning Director McLean, and Public Works Director Dagdag-Andaya now putting at risk as they overstep their authority in their desperate attempt to ignore or overrule the professional determinations of Supervising Inspector Derek Hyland to instead manufacture a path for Greg Brown to continue building his massive Napili “Hotel” which everybody now knows is clearly and irrevocably in violation of multiple County codes?
It’s worth mentioning that all these developments; Greg Brown’s, Olowalu, Hui Rd E, and more, all with obvious violations that somehow didn’t get enforced until public outcry forced the issue, are all represented by the same law firm, Mancini, Welch, and Geiger, which routinely hires attorneys who previously worked for Maui’s Corporation Counsel.