Maui County’s job description for the new head of its Emergency Management Agency is recycled from 13 years ago, and salary data shows the next administrator may end up being the lowest-paid out of all such agency directors in the state.

The county has narrowed down the list of applicants to a short list of five, and an appointment to the role could come as soon as next week, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said Wednesday at a community town hall meeting.

Former MEMA administrator Herman Andaya’s job performance and qualifications came under intense scrutiny after the Aug. 8 wildfires killed at least 100 people and destroyed much of Lahaina. He resigned shortly after telling reporters at an Aug. 16 press conference that he didn’t regret his decision not to sound civil defense sirens in Lahaina to warn people to evacuate.

But as questions remain about how MEMA responded to the disaster, the county has not updated its listed expectations for the lead role.

Tasks and duties in the current job listing are identical to a 2010 posting. The responsibilities include planning and executing the county’s emergency operations plan, monitoring for potential disasters and acting as the disaster response coordinator in the emergency operations center.

An emergency management role requires tremendous flexibility and current knowledge, according to DeeDee Bennett Gayle, an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security at the State University of New York at Albany.

“If you stick directly to the words that are on a paper that you’ve created however many years ago, you’re going to fail,” Bennett Gayle said. “You’re not actually looking at what’s happening around you, and being flexible and improvising as things come.”

“If it’s just a political appointee, without an appreciation for, or expertise in the duties and principles of emergency management, historically that doesn’t tend to work out very well during a large-scale incident,” she added.

The MEMA position requires at least a bachelor’s degree in emergency management or a related field, and five years of work experience in emergency management, disaster planning or public safety services management. Field research and surveys show that relevant emergency management experience leads to better results when compared to other professional backgrounds, Bennett Gayle said.

Completion of state and federal disaster preparedness coursework — likely including training in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Incident Management System, a standardized emergency response framework — is preferred but not required. 

But much of an administrator’s work lies outside a disaster and involves mitigation, planning and communicating plans to the community, Bennett Gayle said. As a result, the ability to read the terrain and influence local and regional stakeholders to follow through on preventative measures is essential.

“Disasters start locally,” Bennett Gayle said. “Without thinking about the preparedness, you miss some of the nuances in each community. You miss being able to make the connections and understand what the needs are. And you make broad assumptions.”

A year before Andaya was hired, the Big Island’s Civil Defense Agency — that island’s equivalent department — also sought a new administrator. While that posting had similar responsibilities as the recent listing for Maui, it emphasized that a qualified candidate would need to be knowledgeable about the island’s geography, culture and multiethnic population.

Interim Leadership

After Andaya resigned in August, the vacant administrator role was filled by Darryl Oliveira, the former head of the Big Island’s Civil Defense Agency. His contract with Maui County expired Nov. 25.

Joshua Aquinde, a Hawaii Army National Guard commander, is now the interim administrator according to the county’s Facebook page.

The job description was active from Oct. 6 to Nov. 7. A selection committee of statewide emergency management directors led by Oliveira considered 16 people, Bissen said during the community meeting.

That applicant pool has since narrowed to five candidates, Bissen said.

Oliveira said at the meeting that candidates are completing “a battery of exercises and scenarios” specific to what occurs in Maui. Based on their performance and other metrics, he and the committee will make a recommendation to the mayor for who to hire.

“Stability comes with someone stepping in and being here longterm, and working with all of you,” he said.

However, the identities of the candidates and what criteria and assessments are being considered remain unknown. The county and Oliveira did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The job listing included a monthly pay range of $7,682 to $10,955 — approximately $92,184 to $131,460 a year. 

According to Civil Beat’s public employee salary database, the starting range is the third-highest when compared with 2024 salary data of all emergency management directors in the state. But the new upper salary range places last, with Kauai next at $167,304.

State-level emergency management directors make $72,520 on average annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local government employees in that position average $82,050.

Andaya’s 2020 salary range overlapped with the new posting’s range, but both that range and his 2022 scale are unclear, as salary data previously provided by Maui County appeared inaccurate.

In response to a request for clarification and a copy of a 2017 job description that led to Andaya’s hiring, the county said they would need to be obtained through a UIPA request to the Department of Personnel Services.