Maui voters on Nov. 5 will decide whether to amend the county charter to extend the time citizens can serve on boards and commissions.

Currently, citizens who want to keep serving beyond five years generally must take two years off before applying to be reappointed to the same panel.

The charter amendment would change that so board and commission members could serve two consecutive terms or 10 years, whichever is greater.

The Maui County Council passed a resolution in June putting the charter amendment before voters.

It can be tough to find and retain enough willing volunteers who are qualified to fill those seats. That leads not only to quorum issues but “prevents those communities from meaningful participation and representation in local government,” according to a Maui County Council committee report.

Some panels require dedicated seats for residents from less populated areas of Maui County, like Hana, Molokai and Lanai.

The proposed amendment, one of three before voters, is to reduce chronically high vacancy rates on some boards that struggle at times to have enough members present to take official action.

Maui County has 37 boards and commission that require citizen participation. Some of the boards make influential decisions over matters like housing, public safety, government ethics, planning and tax disputes.

There is currently a 17% vacancy rate on the panels, according to the Office of Council Services. Forty-five of 268 seats are open, council services attorney David Raatz said in an email.

Views are mixed on whether extending term limits will lead to better government, and whether it will incentivize or discourage citizens from volunteering. And 10-year terms could also make it hard to get rid of people who are not very effective, have spotty attendance or otherwise become dead wood.

“I think this locks people in,” said Dick Mayer, a retired University of Hawaii Maui College economics professor and longtime political observer.

Mayer also thinks the charter amendment is premature because the voter-created Independent Nomination Board only started meeting in March. The nine-member board is supposed to recruit candidates for boards and commissions who are qualified and willing to serve.

Mike Williams served on the Cost of Government Commission for a little over three years. The Upcountry attorney and president of Maui Tomorrow Foundation‘s board of directors took over after someone on the commission needed to step down before their term expired.

“I frankly think the commission could have benefitted if I could have stayed on for another term,” Williams said.

In his view, it takes awhile to build expertise on issues and understand the powers of the commission, knowledge not easily gained in months or even years.

Williams thinks the charter amendment would go a long ways toward improving that.

People are not locked in to serving two consecutive terms, GREAT Committee Chair Noelani U’u-Hodgins noted. They can always step down. The charter amendment just gives the county more flexibility to keep people onboard if they want, she said.

“I’m OK with it passing and if people want to serve for 10 years on a single board or commission, then bless them,” U’u-Hodgins said. “That’s a lot of time and a lot of years to be volunteering. But overall, I just hope we can entice people to volunteer.”

University of Hawaii Manoa political science professor Colin Moore considers the amendment a “common sense proposal” that strikes the right balance.

“You don’t want to create a situation where you have someone sitting on a panel for decades and as a result end up having tremendous … influence in a structure that’s supposed to accommodate and really allow citizens to have a voice,” Moore said. “But at the same time you want to benefit from people’s experience.”

If Maui voters pass the amendment, the structure of county boards and commissions would mirror that of the state’s boards and commissions that for the most part allow consecutive, two-year terms, according to Moore.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.