Re: Maui Democrat mayor faces calls to resign as questions about county's wildfire response grow

[byte detective]

On 06 Jun 2023, Gerald <now...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:u5oi6c$smnq$5...@dont-email.me:

> Democrats are incompetent and totally useless during times of crisis.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - More than three weeks after a raging inferno
gutted historic Lahaina town, leaving at least 115 people dead, not one
state or county leader has taken responsibility for the failures that
led to the deaths of what’s likely hundreds of people.

Public outcry hit a new high after a news conference Tuesday, when top
officials fumbled through a series of questions about communication
breakdowns that happened as flames razing Lahaina.

When asked who was calling the shots that day at the Emergency
Operations Center, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said, “I’m not sure who was
in charge.”

Special Section: Maui Wildfires Disaster
At another point during the news conference a reporter questioned the
director of the state’s emergency management agency saying, “We don’t
know how many people maybe died waiting for a response. You don’t think
there was anything your agency could have done?”

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara responded, “Personally I don’t think so.”

The continued lack of accountability has prompted many to sound off on
social media, saying things like, “Really. This is what you say when so
many lives have been lost” and “It was their job to be on high alert.”
The response has also been called “unprofessional.”

Particularly baffling to some: Why the mayor wouldn’t say where he was
during the disaster.

Political analyst Colin Moore said Bissen, in particular, must increase
his “level of transparency” about his administration’s wildfire response
if he wants to remain on the job. “If it looks like public officials are
trying to hide something, all that does is add fuel to the fire,” he
said.

Moore said over the past three weeks there’s been too much
finger-pointing between state and county leaders. “In a catastrophe of
this magnitude, that’s not satisfying,” Moore said. “There were failures
and those should be acknowledged. For people at the very top, this is
their responsibility.”

Moore says the time to accept responsibility and move on is quickly
running out.

“I would like to see more apologies made. At the end of the day, the
purpose of government is to protect people. Government didn’t protect
people on that day. And so it was a failure,” he said.

“That failure needs to be acknowledged.”

HNN asked Bissen about calls for him to resign. He responded that Maui
is experiencing extraordinary grief, anxiety and strain” in the wake of
the wildfires and that his administration has “been involved since Day
One” to meet people’s needs.

“While the past 23 days have been difficult, it is also unprecedented,”
he said. “I will continue to bring forward state and federal resources,
work with our affected communities and leverage all we can to help our
recovery efforts and our island’s future.”

Hara, meanwhile, said he understands community frustration but has no
plans to resign.”

“I believe that a lot of the anger is the result of misinformation,
disinformation and malinformation,” he said, in an emailed statement to
Hawaii News Now. “I stand by my colleagues and my own experience,
education, and actions during this unprecedented disaster.

Gov. Josh Green also issued a statement about leadership concerns,
saying this is a time “for us to come together as an ohana and heal. I
won’t judge anyone. This is not the time for that.”

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/08/31/mauis-mayor-faces-calls-resign-q
uestions-about-countys-wildfire-response-grow/