Help fund litigation to enforce county laws

Planning Director Michelle McLean has admitted that our community correctly exposed Greg Brown’s original plan applications for violating multiple SMA laws and zoning regulations.

The Napili community was denied our rights under the law for public hearings on Greg Brown’s proposed development before permits were issued. The NBCA agreed to hold off on legal action when the County Council unanimously voted to investigate how Planning and Public Works handled this project. To facilitate the investigation, the NBCA provided council staff attorneys with specific findings of departmental decisions made outside the law.

True to form, county attorneys continue to defend the departments’ faulty decisions and are obstructing the council’s investigation. Caught in the crossfire as the development nears completion, once again, we citizens must suffer the burden of enforcing county laws.

We ask for your help with a financial contribution, as the Napili Bay Community Association is now forced to seek intervention from the courts. Go to www.Napili.org and click CONTRIBUTE, or mail a check to Napili Bay Community Association, 5315 Lower Honoapiilani Road, #I276, Lahaina, HI 96761.

It’s not too late. With your support, we can still stop this abuse in our community.

NAPILI BAY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Remembering Jimmy Vliet

This year marks the passing of some friends from our Lahaina homeless community. Here is a “Celebration of Life” to honor Jimmy.

James Lincoln Vliet, named after Jesus’ disciple and an American president, was born on the island of Molokai on Aug. 23, 1965. Fifty-seven years later, on his birthday, he passed away in the night sleeping by the Pioneer Mill Smokestack.

Known to many as “Molokai Jimmy” or “Spider,” he got his nicknames from whence he came. His brother explained that at birth, Jimmy was skinny with long flailing limbs, which is why his family nicknamed him “Spider.” As he came of age, some referred to him as “Spider-man.”

Though Hawaiian, the Vliet name is from his Dutch heritage. We enjoyed learning things we had in common, like I am of Dutch ancestry, and we share the same name. Pulling out his wallet, he excitedly showed me the “Lincoln” name on his identification.

Meeting him years ago, Jimmy said he lived “in the bushes.” Walking my dogs in the Kahoma Stream area, we would see each other sometimes and had fun visiting while the sun set over the ocean.

Growing up on a farm, he still enjoyed growing vegetables and making his special hot-sauce recipe. Excited at his expertise and love of farming, my thought was to have him be responsible for the farming portion of a homeless encampment and work onsite.

Passionate about advocating for the homeless community and agriculture, combining the two seemed ideal. Jimmy was skeptical at first. After several discussions on safety and how to secure personal items, he really liked the idea.

There are hundreds of acres of uncultivated state agriculture land nearby. It is sad something like this never came to fruition when Jimmy was alive.

Helping him get 20-year-old medical records from when he was incarcerated in Oklahoma, I learned he had excruciating pain from a “massive disc herniation” and suffered with a “seizure disorder.” Unsure of the actual cause of death, it may have been one of his seizures. Often, he would lose his prescription medicine, have his stuff stolen or forget to get timely refills for his seizure medication.

When I stopped walking my dogs along Kahoma, I was delighted to reconnect with Jimmy regularly at the Maui Rescue Mission outreach. The comfort I find in his death is knowing he had a relationship with the Lord. His salvation is secure, and we will get to spend eternity together.

When I connected with Jimmy’s brother and shared this, he told me a comical story. Attending Kamehameha Schools, and subsequently getting expelled for behavior, an uncle on Oahu had opportunities to mentor Jimmy when he was younger. This uncle had given him a wallet-sized card with salvation scriptures on it. Sometime later, when Jimmy was arrested at Waikiki for being drunk and disorderly, he accidentally pulled out this card instead of his identification.

After hearing the story, I asked Jimmy’s brother to let the uncle know that his efforts were worth it. The Proverb proved true: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Jimmy had faith and pulled the “Jesus’ card” when it mattered most. Though homeless here, Jimmy is now in his forever home making his hot-sauce, enjoying listening to music and doing the things he loves to do, all for the glory of God!

MICHELE LINCOLN, Lahaina

Carbon Cashback — Good for all of us

The 2023 Hawaii State Legislature will have a golden opportunity to help reduce carbon in the atmosphere while offering Hawaii’s families actual money for participating in a new program. The “Carbon Cashback” bill would provide a carbon rebate, or cash back, to all residents. Most importantly, the bill would help transition Hawaii’s economy toward a 100 percent clean, renewable energy future.

Funding for the carbon rebates would be generated by a carbon tax on companies that import fossil fuels to Hawaii. The higher prices resulting from the tax would have the economic effect of reducing fossil fuel consumption, and would therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging companies to invest in renewable alternatives. The State of Hawaii would collect the tax from the oil companies and put it in a fund, and beginning in 2026, would provide a carbon rebate of $360 to all residents, regardless of income.

Adults would be entitled to a full share, and dependent children would be entitled to half a share. The rebate would increase annually, until it would be $480 in 2036, which is when the proposed program would end. Carbon Cashback would increase the purchasing power of Hawaii’s lowest income families by $900 each year, the annual net gain would be about $500 for middle income families, and Hawaii’s wealthiest households would break even.

Oil and other fuel companies would probably raise their prices to pay the tax, but most families would enjoy a net financial gain because their carbon rebate would more than offset higher prices resulting from the carbon tax. In other words, this bill would help low- and middle-income families deal with higher prices caused by inflation.

What’s important to understand is that lower income households spend less than higher income households on energy-intensive goods and services, so they would contribute less to carbon tax revenues, but they would share equally in the carbon rebate. Carbon Cashback is “progressive”.

Visitors would contribute to carbon tax revenues because of the goods and services they purchase while in Hawaii. Those tax revenues would be directly transferred to Hawaii’s households as part of the climate rebate.

This decade is critical. We must make the drastic changes needed to avoid a global climate catastrophe. Hawaii has been a leader in green energy goals.

If we get Carbon Cashback passed, we will be a shining example to the rest of the states, encouraging them to pass similar legislation. It would be a giant step forward in climate control. Encourage your state representative or senator to vote for Carbon Cashback.

STEPHEN SLATER, Kihei