WAILUKU, Maui — Maui County paid more than $2.3 million to rent office space this year, a 75 percent increase over 2006, when the county started taking over leases in One Main Plaza after turning down an offer to buy the building for $10 million, The Maui News reported.

Today, One Main makes up almost half the county's lease costs, or around $1.1 million. The county rents almost 28,100 square feet of office space in the building to serve seven departments. Mayor Charmaine Tavares said a consultant is completing a study of the county's space needs and is expected to issue a report with recommendations by August. She called the amount the county spends on rent "obscene."

"When you look at over $2.2 million a year and nothing to show for it, wouldn't it be better to pay that $2.2 million for debt service and get a building?" she asked.

The county's spending on rent this year is up 19 percent from $1.8 million in 2007, and up 75 percent from $1.2 million in 2006.

In addition to One Main Plaza, the county pays $185,844 to rent space for four departments in Wailuku's David Trask Building, and $881,181 on various other office leases. Land leases, including parking lots and the Maui Police Department radio repeater station, cost $60,000.

The Department of Housing and Human Concerns had the highest rent costs for the year, spending $501,070; followed by the Finance Department, $480,676; and the Department of Environmental Management, $345,872.

The lease costs include both rent and common-area maintenance fees.

Tavares said the county office space study would look at several options, including renovating and expanding the Kalana O Maui building, developing a new office building on the county's Kaohu Street parking lot, or construction at the Wailuku municipal parking lot.

Tavares also said she wanted to expand and upgrade "satellite" offices throughout the county, allowing residents to access county services in their own communities. She noted she has requested $69,000 in her fiscal year 2009 budget proposal for expanding and relocating the Lahaina satellite office of the Division of Motor Vehicles and Licensing.

As a County Council member, Tavares supported acquiring One Main Plaza when former Mayor Alan Arakawa proposed the $10 million purchase in 2005.

But she was on the losing end of a vote by other council members led by then-Budget Committee Chairman Dain Kane, who argued that the building had potential structural problems, and noted that the deal did not include the land the building was standing on, which would continue to be leased from a private owner. Kane called for the county to build its own office space.

Owner A&B Properties sold the building for an undisclosed price to a Mainland buyer in 2006.

Kane did not respond to a request for comment.

Realtor Tracy Stice, who testified in favor of the county's buying One Main Plaza three years ago, said it "bothers" him to see how much the county is spending on rent now.

"Maybe we would have saved $1 million a year just by buying One Main Plaza," he said.

He called the decision not to buy a "political ploy" by council members opposing then-Mayor Arakawa.

"It just breaks my heart," he said. "In the end run, the losers are the taxpayers."

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