The Maui County Fire and Public Safety Commission is the civilian body charged with oversight of the fire department. Its members are appointed to advise, to ask questions, and to carry what they learn to the Mayor and the County Council. What that commission is told shapes what it believes, and what it believes shapes the decisions that follow. On the question of firefighter pay, the record shows the commission was told one thing and the county's own documents show another.

This is not a matter of interpretation. Both accounts appear in official public records: the commission's own meeting minutes, the county's adopted budget, a binding arbitration award, and a compensation study the county paid for. Read side by side, they do not agree.

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What the Commission Was Told

At the commission's January 15, 2026 meeting, a commissioner asked the Fire Chief a direct question: how does Maui firefighter pay stand, countywide and nationwide? The answer, as recorded in the minutes, was reassuring.

Fire Chief, to the Commission · January 15, 2026

Asked how Maui firefighter salaries "stand in Hawaii" and "nationwide," the Chief answered that "there's a lot of factors and both sides of the table argue different things, but overall, we're fairly good to great. We're definitely not the highest." He noted a study had just found Hawaii the most expensive place to live, then characterized cost of living as "the argument that the union uses," and closed: "But fairly well overall."

Maui County Fire & Public Safety Commission, meeting minutes, January 15, 2026

Two things stand out. First, the department's own leadership told the oversight commission that firefighters do "fairly good to great" on pay. Second, the cost of living was raised and then set aside as a union talking point, rather than treated as a fact the commission should weigh.

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What the Record Showed

Four months later, at the commission's May 21, 2026 meeting, a Maui firefighter testified during the public comment period and put a different set of numbers on the record.

Union Testimony, to the Commission · May 21, 2026

The testifier, a Maui Division representative, said he supported the 75th-percentile raises the commission was seeking for the chiefs, then added: "from the union's perspective... currently the Maui Fire Department is at the 50th percentile in terms of pay, too. And if you add the COLA adjustments, we're actually under the 40th percentile." He noted the same compensation study the commission was citing "quotes on closing the gap for cost of living for these positions," and concluded that "the actual fire department labor side is falling behind."

Maui County Fire & Public Safety Commission, meeting minutes, May 21, 2026

That testimony did not rest on the union's word alone. By the time it was given, the firefighters' contract had already been decided, and the number was a matter of public record.

"Fairly well"
how the Fire Chief characterized
firefighter pay to the commission
(January 15, 2026)
<40th
percentile MFD firefighter pay ranks
nationally after cost of living, per
union testimony (May 21, 2026)
~11.5%
the firefighters' four-year raise,
about half what police received
over the same period

The firefighter arbitration award, dated March 30, 2026 and approved by the County Council as Resolution No. 26-74, granted across-the-board raises of 3%, 3%, 2.5%, and 2.5% over four years, with no step advancement for any of them. Compounded, that is roughly 11.5%. Over the same four-year period, Hawaii police officers were awarded 5% every year with step advancement intact, roughly 21.6%. (The full comparison is laid out in Hawaii's Two-Tier Public Safety System.)

The department's own leadership described the firefighter outcome plainly at the April 16, 2026 commission meeting: the Chief reported that the arbitrator's decision "was lower than most of the contracts that have been negotiated and arbitrated this year," and acknowledged "some angst and some desire to try to improve that." That is the same pay the commission had been told, three months earlier, was "fairly well overall."

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The Comparison the Commission Did Make

The contrast is sharper because of what the same commission was doing for management pay in the very same weeks. In a May 8, 2026 letter to the county Salary Commission, the Fire and Public Safety Commission urged that the Fire Chief and Deputy Fire Chief be paid at the 75th percentile of comparable jurisdictions, citing a professional compensation study, a 23.3% cost-of-living adjustment, Maui's housing costs, and "post-wildfire recovery responsibilities."

The Same Cost-of-Living Argument, Applied to Management

The compensation study the commission relied on was scoped, in its own words, to the county's "Directors and Deputy Directors." It told the Salary Commission to weigh "the cost of living in Maui County" and "the aftermath of the tragic fires" when choosing a pay percentile, and noted the cost of living is "1.3 times higher than the U.S. average." That is the cost-of-living argument the Fire Chief had waved off as "the argument that the union uses" when it was raised for firefighters. (See the full breakdown of that study.)

The county acted on that logic for management. The Fire Chief's salary was raised to roughly $239,000, an increase of about 30%, and the county's adopted budget carries a specific line item for it: "Council transferred increases for Fire Chief and Deputy Fire Chief... per Salary Commission." The firefighters' line in that same budget received step and correction adjustments only.

When the firefighter's testimony ended on May 21, one commissioner responded that he did not "see the relevance between the firefighter's negotiation and our request to the Salary Commission," and observed that "Maui being one of the better counties, we can afford to pay our chiefs better than Kauai." The exchange is in the minutes.

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Why This Matters

Civilian oversight only works when the people doing the overseeing have accurate information. A commission that is told firefighter pay is "fairly well overall" has little reason to press the issue, advocate for change, or carry a concern up to the Mayor and Council. A commission that knows the same workforce ranks below the 40th percentile nationally after cost of living, received a raise its own Chief called "lower than most" contracts, and works in the same economy where management pay was lifted toward the 75th percentile, has every reason to ask harder questions.

Both versions are now permanently on the record. The county said one. The county's own documents say the other. They cannot both be right.

Plain English

In January, Maui's Fire Chief told the commission that oversees the fire department that firefighters do "fairly good to great" on pay and called cost of living a union talking point. By May, the record showed firefighters had been awarded a raise about half the size of the police raise, with no step increases for four years, leaving them below the 40th percentile nationally once cost of living is counted. In those same weeks, the county raised the Fire Chief's own pay about 30% and pushed for management to be paid at the 75th percentile, citing the exact cost-of-living and wildfire arguments it had set aside for firefighters. All of it is in the county's own minutes, budget, arbitration award, and compensation study.

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Sources & References