Short takes, outtakes, our takes and other stuff you should know about public information, government accountability and ethical leadership in Hawaii. Disaster prevention: Maui County still hasn’t released the long-awaited federal investigative report on the cause and origin of the deadly Aug. 8 Lahaina fire.
Why? It needs “additional formatting,” the county said last week. We’re sure you’re wondering, as we are, just what the heck that means. Margins added? Double spaced instead of single? You’re probably thinking, as The Sunshine Blog is, that this is really just good old-fashioned stalling.
Could it, The Blog wonders, have anything to do with a rumored about-to-break multibillion-dollar settlement in the zillion lawsuits against Maui County, Hawaiian Electric Co. and a bunch of other defendants? Hmmmm ..
. Civil Beat reported on June 28 that federal officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had finished up work on the report that is supposed to finally reveal the cause and origin of the worst wildfire in America in more than a century. ATF investigators were on Maui in June to deliver the agency’s findings and answer any questions county officials might have.
But, as ATF spokesman Jason Chudy helpfully told Civil Beat reporter Stewart Yerton at the time, it was up to Maui County to release the federal report. When that happened, Chudy assured Yerton, ATF would post the full report on its own website. Maui County fire officials told Yerton at t.
