Four candidates — each with vast community experience — are vying for the East Maui council seat, one of only two council races in contention for the Sept. 23 nonpartisan primary election.

The seat will become vacant at the end of the current two-year term with the retirement of Bill Carroll of Hana. The candidates are Lucienne de Naie, who heads the state chapter of the Sierra Club; Sam Kalalau, a county highways supervisor and organic farmer; Bill Medeiros, a county public works manager; and Nick Nikhilananda, a longtime Hawai'i Green Party activist and host of a live call-in show on Maui's public access TV station.

De Naie, 58, who has lived in Huelo for 21 years, wants voters to know she is not a one-issue candidate. She touts her background in small business and involvement in an array of community activities and said that if it weren't for encouragement from supporters outside the environmental movement, she wouldn't be running.

"I'm one of these people who probably has something in common with everybody," de Naie said. "I'm good at getting along with all kinds of people and bringing them together to actually make something happen."

De Naie, who makes a living as a researcher and writer, said too much of Maui's limited water resources are being used for irrigation and other uses that would be better supplied by nonpotable sources, such as reclaimed wastewater. She also would push for wiser land-use planning and maintenance of parks, open spaces and cultural sites that she says have been neglected despite their importance to the visitor industry. De Naie is a founder of the nonprofit Maui Coastal Land Trust and Maui Cultural Lands Inc.

"We talk about diversifying our economy but most of our decisions do not take us in that direction at all," she said.

De Naie said the county needs to devise new formulas for calculating developer impact fees. "Development needs to pay for itself and benefit local residents," she said. "We keep pretending there are no impacts."

Kalalau, 54, is chairman of county Cultural Resources Commission and a former member of the Maui Planning Commission who has been active on other county panels and in youth sports and Native Hawaiian organizations. A Vietnam veteran, he grows organic vegetables and Hawaiian medicinal plants in addition to working for the county.

The Hana-born Kalalau said he's running because "I don't see anybody who's representing the east side."

He said he regularly drives between Hana and Central Maui and Lahaina, spending as much as $30 a day on gas. The island needs more transportation options, Kalalau said, such as a light-rail system or a ferry between Ma'alaea Harbor and Lahaina. He said tourists arriving at Kahului Airport could be shuttled to the harbor and taken to the west side, where they could pick up their rental cars, easing the flow on two-lane Honoapi'ilani Highway.

The council candidate also wants to offer property tax breaks to first-time homebuyers and work cooperatively with private developers to build more affordable housing. He said he supports "balanced development strategies that create jobs and strengthen the economy."

COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE

Medeiros, 59, who will retire from the county public works department at the end of the year, said he has deep knowledge of the rural East Maui community and its large Native Hawaiian population. He said voters in his district "are quiet in making their needs known."

"To get a sense of the community and the pulse of East Maui, it really helps to be brought up here. You just know what the people are like and their traditions and practices," he said.

The Air Force veteran said he wants to advocate for the elderly and for more sports and recreational venues. To ease the housing crunch and traffic woes, Medeiros thinks the council should pressure resort developers to include worker housing within their projects. "If we can house people close to where they work, they would be off the road," he said.

On the subject of development, in general, Medeiros said he "would review every project for its merits or demerits and whether it benefits the majority of the community and provides affordable housing, parks, infrastructure and schools. To say, 'I'm going to reject everything and I'm not going to approve anything' is irresponsible."

Nikhilananda, 55, said that over the course of his political activities with the Green Party and as a repeat political candidate, he has called for better beach access, curbside recycling, stream restoration, public transportation and property tax reform. "The things I've been talking about for 15 or 20 years, now everyone talks about them," he said.

He said his platform addresses "quality of life" issues such as affordable housing, traffic and other issues "that have turned Maui from a rural, agriculture-based community into a resort destination for the rich and famous."

Like the other candidates, Nikhilananda said he is not necessarily opposed to development. "I'm for sustainable long-term growth because we need to grow; however, what we've been doing is getting in bed with large developers who have been given a free ride to use Maui as a personal playtoy to make money."

Nikhilananda said he would seek legal action to dismantle restricted access to exclusive gated communities and push for legislation to ban new developments of that type.

A 600-acre, mixed-use project in Hali'imaile planned by A&B and Maui Land & Pineapple Co. is an example of the kind of desirable development the county should be encouraging, Nikhilananda said. "And those are two of the developers I normally talk against," he said.

A SECOND COUNCIL RACE

The other council race involved in the primary election is the Wailuku seat now held by Dain Kane, who is challenging incumbent Alan Arakawa in the mayoral campaign.

Candidate Mike Victorino, 52, of Wailuku Heights, is chairman of the county Board of Water Supply, a former Board of Education member, and perhaps best known as director of the Maui County Fair Association and for his involvement in youth soccer and baseball.

Victorino, an insurance and financial adviser and resort security officer, sees an urgent need for housing in the $200,000 to $275,000 price range. This can be accomplished by bringing government, private and nonprofit interests together, he said. "We have to focus on working people and making sure they're taken care of, and all of the rest of it will come," he said. "The million-dollar homes will come no matter what, but if we focus on the working people and housing for rent and purchase, then we will continue to have Maui be the Maui that we love and care about."

As an immediate solution to traffic on Honoapi'ilani Highway, Victorino said the county and state should acquire an old cane-haul road for an alternate route to Lahaina and consider implementing contraflow lanes. "We should use it for car pooling, buses and trucks to get them off the main road and reduce that traffic," he said.

First-time candidate Rogelio "Rudy" Cabebe Sr., 62, of Wailuku, owns a T-shirt screening business and is an avid golfer and guitarist who is involved in Little League. He said he was inspired to run for office after watching his kids and their families struggle in Maui's exorbitant housing market. "They're having a hard time, and they're just renting," Cabebe said.

He also wants to push for revitalization of Wailuku town, where his family operated a general store for many years. The island's commercial core has shifted to Kahului, and Cabebe said that recent efforts to revive business activity in the county seat haven't worked. He envisions creating a lively "Chinatown atmosphere" with a pedestrian mall.

MORE FACE-OFFS

Waikapu resident Blitz Harry, 61, a certified special education teacher, said he is running to fulfill a promise made to his dying mother to continue a family tradition of public service that includes officeholders on the Big Island. "The way I grew up, you were expected to do certain things," he said.

Harry's adult son and daughter and their families live with the candidate. "As much money as they make, they can't get a place of their own," he said. The county should work with developers to provide more affordable housing, especially at the lower end of the price scale, Harry said, and encourage development of neighborhood town-center projects "so people don't have to travel 10 to 15 miles to get groceries and school supplies."

Although council candidates must run from a residency district, they are elected in a countywide vote. The top two vote-getters in each race will advance to the Nov. 7 general election.

Riki Hokama of Lana'i, Danny Mateo of Moloka'i and Michelle Anderson of South Maui are unopposed. In the general election, West Maui Councilwoman Jo Anne Johnson will face Deidre Rockett; Councilman Joe Pontanilla has a challenger for his Kahului seat in attorney Lance Collins; and for the Upcountry seat, retired Maui Economic Opportunity Inc. leader Gladys Baisa is up against county planner Paul Fasi, son of former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi.

Upcountry Councilwoman Charmaine Tavares is ineligible to seek re-election due to term limits and is running in the mayoral contest.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.