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Maui County
SPECIAL BONUS LC WATCH: 'Find Another Island'
The LC smashes an attempt to liberalize the county's dancing rules
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April 12, 2007
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." These are the words Dante
inscribed over the gates of Hell in his Divine Comedy, but they might
as well appear at the door into the Maui County Liquor Commission's
hearing room. In my decade covering local government in Hawai`i and
California, I have never seen an appointed body act so arrogantly and
show such utter contempt towards citizens who dared take time off from
work to speak at a public hearing as the Liquor Commission did during
its Apr. 11 meeting.
At issue was a petition containing 84 signatures submitted by a group
calling itself Maui Dance Advocates. The petition asked the commission
to change its rules governing dancing, which currently prohibit all
dancing in an establishment except on specially designated dance
floors. Specifically, the group wanted an actual definition of dancing
placed in the rules—there is not one there now, despite the rules which
govern where "dancing" can take place—and an allowance for "moderate"
upper-body movement anywhere in an establishment.
Ten members of the public showed up at the hearing, which is about 10
more than usually appear. Of them, four signed up to speak during the
public testimony portion of the hearing.
Steve La Fleur, who identified himself as a professional dancer and
wore a black t-shirt saying "Back the Booty"—the meaning of which was
undoubtedly lost on the commissioners, whose average age has got to be
55—said he found it "offensive" that numerous establishments had told
him to stop dancing when he was just moving his upper body to the
music.
When La Fleur's three minutes were up, Commissioner Blackie Gadarian
told him he didn't believe him, questioned his motives and ultimately
said, "If you feel you're being persecuted, find another island."
Commissioner Ron McOmber also jumped into the act, badgering La Fleur
in an attempt to get him to name the establishments that had allegedly
told him to stop dancing. "We'd like to talk to them," McOmber told La
Fleur, who ultimately said he couldn't remember their names.
Jonathan Starr—himself a member of the Maui Planning Commission—later
stood and gave his own personal opinion that he didn't think regulating
dancing "should be the business of this body." The commissioners were
silent on that, but when Starr added that in his view prohibiting
dancing was a constitutional issue—freedom of expression, anyone?—the
commissioners seemed both clueless and outraged.
"Explain that to me," McOmber demanded, to which Starr responded that
he didn't feel it appropriate to make it easy for someone to sue the
County of Maui.
Commissioner Todd Lawson, who rarely speaks at hearings, was the only
member of the panel to show even the slightest sympathy towards the
dance advocates. Pointing out that his fellow commissioners weren't
even familiar with the law they were refusing to change, he said it
might be a good idea to hold a public hearing on the notion of putting
an actual, legal definition of dancing into the rules.
His idea died in a miserable silence.
After the members of the public had spoken, McOmber pointed out that
the testimony the commission heard "has all been one-sided," as though
that were the fault of Maui Dance Advocates. (He and his fellow
commissioners seemed to ignore Department of Liquor Control Director
Franklyn Silva's admission that Maui Dance Advocates had "followed the
rules" in submitting a rule-change petition.)
In fact, McOmber complained so loudly about who had spoken that Penny
Kikuchi—general manager and limited partner of Moose McGillycuddy's in
Kihei—agreed to speak on the issue. The commissioners then grilled her
on whether she'd ever invoked the name of the Liquor Commission when
telling customers to stop dancing (she admitted she had). This went on
for a few minutes before Gadarian tired of it and sneered, "Can we get
a motion or something?"
Commissioner Curt Morimoto was only too happy to do that. Questioning
the legitimacy of the petition by pointing out that it carried 84
signatures but just four people signed up to speak at the hearing—he
refused to allow Maui Dance Advocates to defend itself—Morimoto said he
saw no problem with the rule as it stood, which was on the books for
"safety" reasons. Then he made a motion to reject the petition and end
the matter entirely.
The commissioners approved it without any opposition. MTW
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