Environmentalist tests Maui rep on water issue
Six-term state Rep. Kyle T. Yamashita is facing a challenge in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary from a former businesswoman who has criticized his legislativesupport of Alexander and Baldwin Inc.’s stream diversions in East Maui.
Six-term state Rep. Kyle T. Yamashita is facing a challenge in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary from a former businesswoman who has criticized his legislative support of Alexander and Baldwin Inc.’s stream diversions in East Maui.
Tiare Lawrence said she decided to run against Yamashita partly because of his vote during this year’s legislative session in favor of a bill extending A&B’s control over the stream water. Lawrence said the bill provided special benefits to A&B despite a state court ruling invalidating the company’s water diversion permits.
A&B announced its closure of its sugar plantation on Maui this year, raising hopes among some taro farmers that streams feeding their paddies in East Maui would receive more water.
But state lawmakers including Yamashita have supported continuing the diversions as A&B awaits its application for long-term water permits from the state.
Yamashita, 56, represents District 12 (Spreckelsville-Upcountry Maui), an area extending from the ocean to the mountain slopes along Mount Haleakala with a diverse community that includes ranches, truck farms and residential subdivisions.
Yamashita said he voted for legislation allowing the diversion of water, for now, because it’s tied to jobs and some vital community services.
“If water rights were to be terminated abruptly, that would have a critical impact on Maui’s farmers and the reliability of water for schools and hospitals,” said Yamashita, who is the father of two children.
Yamashita, 56, has received the endorsement of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the labor union whose workers will be facing layoffs as a result of the closure of A&B’s Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. plantation.
Also, Yamashita, a senior member of the House Finance Committee, said he was instrumental in securing financing for an auditorium at King Kekaulike High School.
The lawmaker also serves as vice chairman of the Public Safety Committee and as a member of the Labor & Public Employment and Transportation committees.
In light of A&B’s sugar plantation shutdown as well as the closure of Makena Beach and Golf Course this year, Yamashita said, the state and county needs to focus on developing Maui County’s most promising industries, including tourism and diversified farming.
“Future directions may lie in diversified agriculture, high technology, sports tourism and film and television production,” he said. “For the short term, we need to implement rapid retraining for employees to find jobs in other fields.”
Lawrence, 34, a mother of two children, is active in environmental groups including Aloha ‘Aina Project and Malama Olowalu.
In tandem with environmental groups, she helped to organize opposition to the Olowalu Town Development, expressing concerns about the urban development plan’s potential impact on coral reefs.
In that case, Lawrence said she was pleased that the state Land Use Commission decided the developer’s environmental impact statement was inadequate. “That would have had a devastating impact on the environment and cultural resources,” she said.
Among other matters, Lawrence said, she worries about whether children growing up on Maui will be able to afford to live on the Valley Isle as adults. “I’m a mom, and I want my children to enjoy the Maui that I grew up to love,” she said.
Lawrence, who has received the endorsement of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said she closed her boutique shop Otaheite in Wailea several months ago to run for the seat.
Lawrence criticized Yamashita for failing to participate in political forums and debate with her.
“He had three opportunities to show up,” she said. “I believe Upcountry Maui should have a representative that’s community-engaged and people-driven.”
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser offered him the opportunity to respond to Lawrence’s criticism, but he did not respond.
14 responses to “Environmentalist tests Maui rep on water issue”
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That evil looking fella is a rep from Oahu and is not rep Yamashita.
That e v i l looking fella is not rep Yamashita, that is Rep. Oshiro. Did the SA really just run a pic of one rep from Oahu in talking about a rep from Maui? I mean I know we don’t expect hard hitting investigative journalism anymore from for profit newspapers but at least use Google people.
That mean looking fella is not rep Yamashita, that is the rep from Oahu who seems to have lost his mind ever since marriage equality took place. Did the SA really just run a pic of one rep from Oahu in talking about a rep from Maui? I mean I know we don’t expect hard hitting investigative journalism anymore from for profit newspapers but at least use Google people.
Not his picture!
Yes, the pic is Marcus Oshiro, not Yamashita.
sharp eyes.
Are Marcus Oshiro and Kyle Yamashita identical twins??
Uhm, that is Marcus Oshiro.
Marcus is better looking than Kyle. Maybe that’s why they printed the wrong picture. nobody pays attention anyways.
That’s Marcus Oshiro’s picture. He fell from grace a few years ago and now is a nobody. The glaring looks didn’t get him anywhere.
Keith Kaneshiro glares like that, too. Bet you he’s doing that to the Federal prosecutors who are calling him in for questioning too many times. Very irritating I’m sure. Now his strategy is to drop the case because they were no keeping info confidential. Eh bray! You going down like a burning Kamikaze airplane. You waste way too much time on silly gambling machines even after a judge dropped the charges. Egomaniac. Peter Carlisle must be laughing at you.
That water has been going to East Maui and Upcountry residents as well as Central Maui residents, businesses, and farms for close to a century while the handful of “taro farmers” already have more water that they can possibly use except to sell it, and I’m pretty sure that they are trying to do exactly that.
Yamashita is just going along with party policy. Everyone knows A&B bought out the Dems to write special interest legislation on their behalf. Hawaii has the best lawmakers money can buy.
As a Maui resident, one of the key battles that i see in this race (and in other races in our county) is the conflict between extreme environmental and cultural protectionism vs practical economic realism. On the one hand we have Tiare Lawrence a passionate cultural and environmental preservationist. On the other side we have Kyle Yamashita a pragmatic, practical career politician. Yamashita works within the system to bring home the $$ to the projects in his district and for Maui. He will go along/get along without flash or fanfare to keep the economy rolling and his voters happy. On the other hand, Ms Lawrence accuses the politicians and corporations, without distinction, of being corrupted by money. She is anti A & B, anti Monsanto, anti telescope, and anti development, (Some of Maui’s main economic engines.) She would replace those economic engines with fields of industrial hemp, small business and small farms, (but does not really have the details on how to do it). She recently quit her business/day job, is out there waving to the early morning commuters, but reports to have two young children to care for. Got to admire her passion, but I am having serious doubts about her practicality.