We are all relieved that the midterms are over.

It’s been a brutal year, with our tweeter-in-chief setting the tone all year long, every day, 24/7, like a chorus of 1,000 off-key coqui.

Against all odds, the election results were mostly heartening. It seems a semblance of sanity has been restored, with new inroads plowed both nationally and locally.

Good news on the home front (pun intended). Greed has been put at bay, with the County Charter amended, effective Jan. 2, 2019, to increase the penalty for the operation of a transient accommodation without a permit from the current amount of $1,000 to a civil fine of up to $20,000, plus $10,000 per day for each day the unlawful operation persists.

The charter amendment passed by a majority – 51.6 percent voted yes and 37.8 percent voted no.

Hit ’em in the pocketbook.

Perhaps this will open up housing for people who actually live here or who have been forced to move away.

What a concept!

Additionally, in our small part of the planet, a more balanced new order has been established.

It seems like forever; and, metaphorically speaking, it was, that the “good old boys” ruled on Maui.

First, six women were elected to the nine-member legislative order, including Keani Rawlings-Fernandez, Yuki Lei Kashiwa Sugimura, Kelly Takaya King, Natalie (Tasha) Kama, Alice Lee and Tamara Akiko Maile Paltin.

Not all of them are on the same side, but

There were also five Ohana candidates that won their bid to sit on the Maui County Council, including Rawlings-Fernandez, King, Kama, Paltin and Shane Sinenci.

The remaining four are oft called the “good old boys,” and they’re now in the minority: Alice Lee, Yuki Sugimura, Riki Hokama and Mike Molina.

The system on Maui was duly “huli’ed,” and I am grateful to the #hulidasystem movement and all the candidates for their superhero political efforts.

Not everybody could win. Those who lost hopefully we will see again, because there were some good faces on the ballot.

I, for one, am pleased with the new order on Maui.

It was about time; it’s like a breath of fresh air. (By Louise Rockett)