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HUSTACE: Mr. Kauka,just a point of order here. Just looking over the agenda. It was
<br /> noted on here approval of minutes from our previous meeting. Though I don't seem to
<br /> have—are those in our file folder?
<br /> KAUKA: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. No, there's no approval of minutes on this agenda.
<br /> From the meetings we've had recently and the sessions, the Commission has forty days to
<br /> post the minutes and prepare them, so they have not yet been completed, a draft, to offer
<br /> the Commission so we hope to have that at the next session.
<br /> HUSTACE: Okay, thank you for the clarification. I saw that on one of the agendas here
<br /> but not the other one, so I appreciate that. Apologies. Alright, back to new business here,
<br /> for Communication 16 from Commissioner Lui, outreach to Native Hawaiian population
<br /> during redistricting process. Ms. Lui, did you want to start us off here in the discussion?
<br /> LUL Yes. I just wanted to say that this is a community of interest of probably extreme
<br /> importance, particularly at this time in our Island's history. There's just been a lot of
<br /> motion as we all know, on the part of people from that community feeling that they often
<br /> are marginalized and left out of more mainstream processes. So, I thought it would be
<br /> very important for us to do particular outreach. I know that there are public meetings
<br /> scheduled and that's all fine but, I think that there should be a special effort made to
<br /> reach the Native Hawaiian population. That doesn't have to be a formal process. It could
<br /> be, I guess I just wanted to hear what other Commissioners thought in terms of whether
<br /> they agree with this, or whether there are things they can think of that they might be able
<br /> to do in their own districts.
<br /> HUSTACE: Thank you, Commissioner Lui. Commissioner Bath?
<br /> BATH: Yeah so, I think this is an issue, for me, it's been an issue in all of the community
<br /> service that I've done that's dealt with soliciting input from the general public. And
<br /> everybody, even if they're of an ethnicity that is one on the Island, everyone deserves to
<br /> be heard and to be given an opportunity to be heard. What I've done is, I've outreached
<br /> to my friends, my associates that are Native Hawaiian, part Hawaiian, and posed the
<br /> question to them. So, how come there's not a whole lot of input? Some of it is cultural.
<br /> My experience has been, if you ask, you'll receive. However, how do we outreach? It's
<br /> not practicable. It's not reasonable to go door knocking. The energy and the time is really
<br /> hard. I see it as a similar issue of how do we outreach to people without internet capacity?
<br /> At my place, we have a lousy signal and so, I find out about stuff after the fact sometime,
<br /> but the effort has been made. I've come to the conclusion, based on my own personal
<br /> experience, that it's our responsibility to stay informed. Just like if you go to court for a
<br /> traffic violation, and you say, "I didn't know". You're still held accountable. So, the
<br /> people I'm associated with in the Native Hawaiian community, are great people that are
<br /> just like any other population on the Island. Articulate, some are uneducated, it's just like
<br /> the rest of the population. And so, I hope that they will be proactive in speaking to us.
<br /> I'm asking them publicly now to please come out and testify. I'm actually begging them
<br /> to do this because I cannot, in District 5, with the energy that I have during a pandemic,
<br /> go out and seek them out. These are my friends, this is my community, I've interacted
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