Best County Blunder
Maui County Department of Liquor Control
Even before former Liquor Control Investigator Justin Dobbs filed his lawsuit against the County of Maui in October 2012, alleging all manner of bad deeds going down at the LC (which is still pending), most people who’d spent more than a day on Maui knew that something just wasn’t right with the county agency that enforces liquor laws. Put simply, the same agency that issues liquor licenses and collects fees for that service also fines license-holders for transgressions–all the revenue of which is kept separate from the county’s general fund. And now that Maui County Councilmember Mike White has proposed a first-ever county prohibition against nepotism, you can expect further shocks at the LC, which for many years has been run as a kind of Silva Family operation, with Father Frank at the helm and Sons Gene and Layne doing admin and investigative work. @apignataro
Runner-up: Proposed Kihei mega malls
