Two dozen certified candidates have applied for the newly created Nanakuli-Ma'ili Neighborhood Board No. 36 — including some who were formerly members of Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board No. 24 and opposed the formation of the new board.

A special election will be held at three locations March 14 and 15 to decide the nine members who will represent the new Nanakuli-Ma'ili board when it holds its first official meeting April 1.

The Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board, Honolulu's second oldest, had represented the entire Wai'anae Coast for more than three decades. That 15-member board was formally split on Jan. 28 after residents from Nanakuli and Ma'ili, saying they were not being adequately represented, successfully petitioned the Neighborhood Commission to create a separate board.

Some area residents said the breakup would cause a rift in the community. Others, particularly in Nanakuli, hailed it as a better way of serving the entire Wai'anae Coast.

Former longtime Wai'anae Coast board member Cynthia Rezentes, who lives in Ma'ili and criticized the split, is now running for the new board.

"You have to make the best of it," Rezentes, a former Wai'anae Coast board chairwoman, said yesterday. "Because if you're going to represent the people, you're going to do it in the best fashion you can. And, if this is the only alternative, you're still going to do that work."

But candidate Patty Teruya of Nanakuli, who was the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board chairwoman at the time of the split, disagreed.

"I am glad," Teruya said. "I look upon this as a way to strengthen the coast. Because to me, we all won. I don't see it as a separation.

"We may disagree on things, but at the end of the night, we all live in the same community."

Bryan Mick, who handles community relations and elections for the Neighborhood Commission, said the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board has more than a quorum with its seven remaining members and an eighth selected at its last board meeting. That board is required to have nine members under the Neighborhood Board Plan.

"So they still have one more slot to fill," said Mick, who added the board would have at least 60 days to choose its final member. "And, of course, they can petition the commission if they want to add more seats."

Until a permanent chair is selected, Mick said Vice Chairman Albert Silva would serve as acting chair of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.