Coconut WirelessBaggage Fee Revolts and Charter ChangesMaui Time Weekly Coconut Wireless by Jacob Shafer Charter Group: Abolish LC Board This week, the West Maui Charter Working Group—a collection of residents "from diverse professional, political and social backgrounds"—released a set of recommendations for amending the County Charter. Among them: do away with the Department of Liquor Control's Adjudication Board. The Adjudication Board, as anyone who follows our LC Watch column knows, considers the cases of bars and restaurants brought up on rules violations (over-serving, serving to a minor) and doles out punishment, while the Liquor Commission deals with rule-making and licensing matters. "Currently the Liquor Adjudication Board and Liquor Control Commission are primarily composed of members who were previously members of the other board, some alternating in this fashion several times," wrote the West Maui group (this "revolving door" phenomenon is something we've also noted in the past). "This eliminates the primary purpose of separating these functions [and] produces redundancy and inefficiency." Some of the group's other recommendations include: doing away with countywide voting for the County Council and creating nine single-member districts (an idea that was brought forward by Councilmember Jo Anne Johnson earlier this year before being quashed in committee); handing administrative duties for the county over to a County Manager and making the Mayor the "ceremonial, non-voting" chair of the Council; and creating a new office, separate from Corporation Counsel, to offer legal advice to the Council and various boards and commissions. For more information on the West Maui Charter Working Group and its proposals, visit westmauicharter.org. |