Pignataro Article "Best County Blunder"
August 03, 2012 | 11:16 AM

Best Bone-headed Non-Journalism Award

Drumroll please… and the Best Boneheaded Non-Journalism Award 2012 goes to… Anthony Pignataro… for his totally inaccurate portrayal of the Wailuku Main Street Association (WMSA) in the July 19 Maui Times. Instead of “doing his homework” as a journalist to investigate the actual facts, the writer bases his story on similarly erroneous and misleading Maui News articles we have already responded to with the facts at www.mauitowns.org.

He is not disputing these facts, but rather repeats the allegations of a few disgruntled former Board members, who missed most of the meetings and refused to attend Program Orientation (to learn about the specialized 26-year old, national and local award winning grassroots program they were involved with).

Sometimes volunteer non-profit board members can be troublesome when they are on the Board for there own self-serving agenda rather than to further the mission of the organization. Our mission is “Economic revitalization, with the context of historic and cultural preservation.”, something very important to keeping Maui unique.

The writer insinuates that WMSA has used an unsubstantiated sensational amount of County money for nothing, and the whole thing smells. What smells is Pignataro’s lack of professionalism, journalistic integrity, and the poor editorial oversight that allowed this false reporting to occur. He doesn’t bother to mention that WMSA is audited annually by an independent Certified Public Accountant, a process which essentially verifies to the penny, that WMSA has received and used it’s funding appropriately to carry out it’s mission and contractual obligations. Instead, the reporter has fabricated his “facts” from rumors and innuendo without ever once contacting us about this concern. Our work (for services rendered and completed projects for ten-plus towns) has been approved and signed-off by Maui County for the last twenty six years.

The article alludes to a disingenuous statement by Planning Director Spence quoted in the Maui News that he didn’t know what WMSA does, when in fact, WMSA assisted Spence when he was a consultant supporting the expansion of our local Hanzawa Store. We backed him up, now, he forgets what we do. Everyone Pignataro sights as a reference can be easily shown to have an obvious conflict of interest, including a desire to please the Planning Department. Their mission was not the WMSA Board’s mission. They were out-voted, then acted contrary to decisions of the Board. This is all in our minutes and easy to verify. The investigative reporter could have learned a little about what WMSA does by reading Maui County Council Resolution 06-53, which congratulates WMSA on 20 years of community service and lists some of our noteworthy achievements.

What the writer may or may not realize is that he is aiding in a concerted effort by Spence’s department to control the revelation, documentation, and consideration of local concerns related to the soon-to-be-finished Maui Island and General Plan(s). WMSA has long been an advocate for local concerns and protecting the authentic character of our small towns. Other community groups have also felt this effort to control. Ask around.

The article abuses our Executive Director (ED), who at no time denied any Board member anything but rather referred their request to the appropriate Board officer to ensure a proper procedure and process. The ED does the Board’s bidding. Over the years, she has received numerous excellent evaluations, Board votes of confidence for her professionalism, and numerous letters of appreciation from community members (see attached unanimous Board Resolution and Settlement from our 15-member Board). The article also trashes me, as WMSA Chair. In my own defense I would humbly offer that I have freely given almost 30 years of volunteer service and have always worked toward the group mission. As a keiki o ka ‘aina Maui I have limited my volunteering to non-profits that work to keep Maui Maui, and where my training might do the most good.

Most recently, I Chaired the Maui General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) with 25-members, from all parts of Maui, all walks of local life, that was tasked with providing a grassroots version of the General and Maui Island Plan. The ordinance that created GPAC said there were to be 3 versions sent on to the Council for review: GPAC’s, the Planning Commission’s, and the Planning Department’s version, however, the Planning Department sent on only their version without noting many hard-won hard-deliberated GPAC concerns, approved recommendations that were removed and otherwise minimized, including the imperative need to set aside modern non-automobile transit corridors for fuel-efficient trains between our distant communities while we can negotiate and pay not urban land acquisition costs. If we are not planning for the local community’s benefit, who are we planning for?

WMSA has been instrumental in keeping Maui’s small town’s real and respectful of the history of each, and in this way has supported Maui’s visitor industry by protecting the authentic unique qualities visitors come here to see and experience. If these real qualities are lost, the visitor might as well go to Disneyland, it’s closer, or Fiji, for the real thing. From prior writing, on other subjects, it would seem this reporter might support this goal..., but this is not the case, and therefore the Best Boneheaded Non-Journalism Award 2012 goes to… Anthony Pignataro… for his totally inaccurate portrayal of the Wailuku Main Street Association (WMSA) in the July 19 Maui Times. May the truth set us free from those who would control Maui’s future and lessen the voice of longtime residents. Visit www.mauitowns.org.


T. Cannon
Haiku