AKAKU PROGRAM, Winner
Channel 53 Council Hearings
Address: 333 N. Dairy Rd., Kahului, HI 96732
Phone: 871-5554
Website: www.akaku.org
When you hear “entertainment,” it’s possible an hours-long discussion of local government isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind. But if you’ve ever caught a Maui County Council meeting—either in person or on Akaku Channel 53—you know they’re more entertaining than they have any right to be. It starts with our decidedly colorful council, populated with opinionated, outsized and contrasting personalities. You can question their loyalties—and, in some cases, competence—but there isn’t one member you can classify as boring. And we haven’t even mentioned the diverse and sundry testifiers—earnest, intelligent, indignant, belligerent—who take the lectern for a few minutes of on-the-record glory (best is when a particularly animated individual is asked to stay for follow-up questioning). Whether you’re a hard-core public-affairs junkie or just looking for an amusing way to kill a little time, this is, if not riveting, at least better than a lot of the other crap that’s on.