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

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HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. I understand you there. I was just curious about when you made those adjustments. Like just thinking about how you did your adjustments. How you made up that loss for other districts? That's all. BATH: Could you say that again? I'm not— HUSTACE: otHUSTACE: Yeah, no problem. Sorry about that. I was just curious because this was an item and you wanted to talk about Kalapana, I was just curious because District 4 would gain so many more, how you made up for that adjustment. That's all. So, I was just curious about that, and I appreciate your input. BATH: Yeah, thank you. As I said before, I saw the obvious problem with it. I made the adjustment. I took the areas, the populations, I put them into District 4. You know, you draw the little rectangle, and you click it. So now they are in District 4. So, that adjustment was made, and it was good in my opinion, and it was necessary. I then looked at District 4 and the numbers, which were right in front of me, and they had kind of skyrocketed. I saw the adjustments and in the interest of time, I won't let you know who I put where, what I put, but I will tell you that on one of my processes, Hawaiian Paradise Park was no longer in Puna. And that's huge. That is huge. That was one of the viable solutions. And Ka`u had expanded up the mountain. The adjustments were so radical, that I was having a hard time with it and then I've reflected on the forty years that I've lived in Puna, and the intensity of the process that I was going through currently was as intense as the transformation of the place that I grew up in part of my life. And so, forty years ago, there was one traffic light from Hilo to Puna. Now, it's multiple and there's a lot of traffic. I don't want to take time to get into this, but things have changed. Things have changed. And there's so many infrastructure problems that are happening. What we're doing now is we're redrawing lines so that people on our Island can have fair representation so that the level of service can be balanced on our Island. And it is way off balanced in my district, and in District 4. And so, I wanted to make that statement because that's what we're doing and it's going to be uncomfortable for people. And Boiling Pots might have to be in Hamakua, you know, that's just the way it is. And the public can have an opportunity to come and tell us what they want, and if they don't, we're going to have to make some difficult, emotional decisions. People are going to be emotionally impacted by this and culturally impacted by this. What are we supposed to do? The world is changing. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. Any other discussion on item number 2? (No response.) Okay, hearing none. I'd like to close this discussion and call for a short recess. Five minute recess. Thank you. (Five-minute recess.) HUSTACE: Okay, we'll call us back from recess. I'd like to move on to number 3 under new business. Mr. Kauka, if you could read this into the record, please. 27