2021-10-14 Redistricting Commission minutes (5th Session)

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KAUKA: Mr. Vice Chair, this is Dennis. There is a member of the public who testified, Mr. Jacob Aki, that's requesting to make a brief statement if you're willing to accept that? HUSTACE: Absolutely. Mr. Aki,please join us. AKL Aloha, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me? HUSTACE: Yes. Thank you for joining us. AKL Thank you to the Commissioners for that discussion. I just wanted to share that Common Cause does, they do a community outreach session to various Native Hawaiian groups. But Common Cause is also willing to help this Commission do some of that outreach. We can do another outreach to the Native Hawaiian community. And if you do have folks on your Island that you think would be great for this conversation, you can send their names to me, and Common Cause would be willing to do another presentation. We can also help the Commission with community outreach. We've done a number of overview sessions to talk about this process. So, any help that Common Cause can be, please do let us know. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Aki. Commissioners, any further thoughts on what Mr. Aki presented or questions for Mr. Aki? Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: I'm very happy you spoke up, Mr. Aki. That's an excellent suggestion. We can accomplish what Commissioner Lui wants to do and still maintain our allegiance to the entire community as a whole. So, for us, to provide you with information that you would then disseminate out to your particular population interests, I think is an excellent suggestion. Thank you for that. AKL Thank you. And yeah, some of the organizations that we did reach out to, we did an earlier session for the Native Hawaiian community back in August. We had about thirty people come on from organizations such as Kamehameha Schools, OHA, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, but we are willing to do another community session for the Native Hawaiian community. But to also address concerns about the overall need for the public to be engaged on this process. This is something that Common Cause is very passionate for. So, we would also be willing to help this Commission do a general process overview for your folks' districts. So, we could do one for Hawaii Island or we could do one for Kona and one for Hilo side. But whatever help we can be,please let me know. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Aki. Commissioners, any other questions for Mr. Aki? Or anything about this item here under new business? (No response.) Is there any action that Commissioners would like to take regarding this issue here, in item number 1 under new business? (No response.) I'll leave that question out there for you a moment here. And I just want to add in that, you know as Commissioners, we've all sworn in, selected, 15