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February 12, 2009 | 05:33 PM
Mayor Tavares delivered her State of the County address yesterday to mostly glowing praise from the county council. Quoted in The Maui News, Councilmember Jo Anne Johnson called it "an excellent speech" that "gave us a definitive sense of where we are and where we need to be going." Huh. Not sure we read the same speech, Jo Anne, because the one I saw was heavy on sizzle and extremely light on steak. Tavares dedicated the bulk of her remarks to looking back, touting what she claimed were her administration's many accomplishments. (One of my favorite parts was when she gave a shout out to our old pals in the Department of Liquor Control for doing "an outstanding job in enforcing laws and working to reduce underage drinking." So I guess count her in as a big fan of the minor decoy program.)
The portion of the speech dedicated to the future was slim and contained basically zero concrete details. We got lots of soaring platitudes and even a Tibetan proverb, but not much in the way of tangible ideas or policy statements. Oh, and then there was this: "Although our economy continues to be strong, we can expect a slower growth in the visitor industry." First, you'd think if you were trying to make the bold claim that Maui's cripplingly tourist-dependent economy is "strong" you wouldn't immediately follow that statement up with the contradictory reality that visitor numbers are bad and getting worse. Also, doesn't "a slower growth" kind of sound like there's a tumor in the middle of the visitor industry? OK, maybe that's just me.
Fans of hollow rhetoric and self praise can read the entire speech at www.mauicounty.gov
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