Hawaii’s governor commands one of the most powerful political positions in the country.

Gov. Josh Green, for instance, is one of only five governors who appoint the state’s attorney general. Others are elected or nominated by a political body.

Josh Green also picks his state Cabinet, a selection in other states done by election. And perhaps most importantly, Green is in charge of the state budget. Others can propose, complain or buck about who gets the millions in the state treasury, but eventually it is the governor in his state Capitol fifth-floor office saying yes or no.

Now Green is faced with a problem that no governmental structure, no political muscle nor clout can solve.

It is up to Green to say first “when” and then “how much” of the fire-ravaged town of Lahaina will reopen and then to guide the process of building a new town. Old Lahaina lives in memories and ashes. The town that was home to more than 10,000 is gone. New Front Street will never have the warm patina of the ramshackle shops.

More importantly, the lives that stopped on Aug. 8 are only part of the sad memories. One person missing from a family tears a hole in the entire group.

Today the debate is on how to use a plastic-like spray substance to put on the burned town to keep down the toxic residue. Green, however, will need more than spray to carry out the new construction project.

Part of the debate is when to start rebuilding. Architects, planners, engineers and developers will all be in the middle of a dash to rebuild. Preservationists, cultural advisors also have a part.

For Green, the biggest mistake would be forgetting just the folks. Green should think of ways to show that he is listening and hearing what Maui is saying.

In 1802 Kamehameha had stationed his war canoes at Lahaina and it gradually became the capitol of Hawaii’s kings. Commerce flourished, and first the whalers and then the missionaries and plantations came.

Lahaina was a touchstone of Hawaii, and now Maui is missing that jewel.

Perhaps Green and others in Hawaii’s government could move the discussion away from when tourism is going to come back to Lahaina, to let’s gently guide what happens.

Maui is the crossroads, Lahaina is the emotional center of Maui; it is going to grow again.

So for Gov. Green, it is time to use as much of his political capital and gubernatorial clout as needed to start pushing the new Lahaina to organically grow.

As the Associated Press said in a report last week, Green worries that a lack of tourism would make it harder for the state to rebuild a burned elementary school or provide residents with health-care coverage.

Perhaps it is more, not less, government that is needed for Lahaina: making Lahaina the capital of Hawaii for six months might be what is needed to focus and bear down on the rebirth of Lahaina.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.