Source: Maui Time, Maui News, Best of Maui, Maui Activities

Maui%20County
The Maui 10
Who’s the county’s most powerful player?

by By Anthony Pignataro

June 08, 2006

RANK     PREVIOUS     COMPANY



    1                 1               Monsanto Hawai’i



    2                 2              Alexander & Baldwin



    3                 3              Maui Electric Co.



    4                 5              Tesoro Hawai’i



    5                 4              Maui Land & Pineapple Co.



    6                 8              Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation



    7                 7              Hawaiian Telcom



    8                 9              Wailuku Water Co.



    9                 6              Dowling Co.



    10              10              Makena Resort



Recent bad news has dropped Maui Land and Hawaiian Telcom a notch each. On the former, The Maui News has been kicking the ass of the proposed Hawai’i Superferry—partially funded by MLP—by running a series of stories on how the boats will squeeze poor Young Brother Shipping and bring chaos to the Kahului Harbor. And Carlyle Group’s Hawaiian Telcom just posted a first quarter loss of $38.6 million, compared to just a $15.7 million loss last year. But such drops are nothing compared to Dowling Co. plummeting three slots on news that some University of Hawaii regents are questioning the ethics of a deal between the school and Dowling’s subsidiary Kulamalu Science for some new astronomy projects. Dowling, who is a UH regent, apparently got a thumbs-up from the state Ethics Commission, but that didn’t stop his fellow regents from asking for other developers to start bidding on the project. MTW