Tamara Paltin

Tamara Paltin holds the council seat for the West Maui residency area. She is the Chair of Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee

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Council Member Paltin’s Committee Membership Requests

In response to County Communication 19-8, establishing the membership of the standing committees of the Council, I would like to serve as your Committee Chair of the Council’s Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee (“PSLUC”).

My goals and vision relative to overseeing the PSLUC include emphasizing smart growth principles into the Committee’s decision-making; working together with the administration to streamline county permitting procedures; including mitigating measures to climate change, sea-level rise and resiliency through-out the policy-making process; and fairly facilitating committee meetings to ensure that all sides are heard, while working towards win-win solutions for our communities.

It was through the General Plan process back in 2007 that I first started to participate in county government as a citizen (as it related to Honolua) and over the years my participation has grown to include many other issues.

West Maui is currently on deck in the community plan advisory process and I have been heavily involved within my community in that regard. When organizing my office, I consciously built capacity in the area of Planning, hiring staff with Planning background and expertise.

Having worked on the front lines of our shorelines for many years, I know better than most how very real climate change is and how fast it is occurring. This is something that must be considered in all committees and all decision-making, but especially in land use and planning. I believe the Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee can play a pivotal role in mitigating climate change, including sea level rise, while implementing resiliency measures to ensure our communities remain sustainable.

This past year, I had a front row seat to the natural disasters in my district and feel those experiences will influence my decision-making to benefit all of our residents. These experiences also provided the opportunity to work closely with first-responder departments and personnel such as the Maui Emergency Management Agency’s Administrator Herman Andaya and the Department of Environmental Management’s Deputy Director Mike Miyamoto to help homeowners rebuild faster.

I know that there are many issues concerning our outdated zoning, but there has been significant progress made as well with the digital MAPPs process and I hope to be able to work collaboratively with the administration on moving forward with streamlining the county permitting processes.

Concerning land use issues, I’m confident that I would be a good chair.
Although many controversial land use issues arise, I am equipped to facilitate objective meetings where every participant can safely share their opinions. In this way we can work toward win-win solutions.
With my civil service experience along with my environmental and community advocacy background, I believe I will authentically connect and communicate with all people and serve the Council in this capacity well.

In addition to chairing the PSLUC. I would also like to request voting membership on the following committees:

Economic Development & Budget Committee
Governance, Ethics, & Transparency Committee
Water & Infrastructure Committee (Vice-Chair)
Healthy Families & Communities Committee
Environmental, Agricultural, & Cultural Preservation Committee
Affordable Housing

Thank you for your support and consideration of my requests.

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