The County Council is looking for ways to up the budget, which is limited by the cost of the fire recovery.

The developer of the 89-unit project is the first to obtain building permits in the burn zone. Now the county and state are being asked to pick up the cost of what insurance didn’t cover.

The matter stems from a dispute between Mayor Richard Bissen and the County Council over his nominations to the volunteer boards.

Komar Maui Properties says it will give the county enough land to handle all 400,000 cubic yards of fire ash and debris, but the county said it needs it all.

The voter-created department officially launched in mid-2022 to increase food production across the county.

The council scrutinized requests to hire consultants and to improve the county’s communication with the public.

The county needs to ensure it is spending its own money wisely while asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in outside funding to rebuild Lahaina.

The county manager said the “visioning process” for the new department was put on hold when response and recovery efforts for the Aug. 8 fires took priority.

Representatives from fire organizations statewide are at a conference this week in Reno about minimizing and managing wildfire threats.

The $429 million increase over last year’s budget primarily comes from outside grants related to the fire recovery and higher property taxes.