Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-10-14 Redistricting Commission minutes (5th Session) 2021 HAWAII COUNTY REDISTRICTING COMMISSION 5'h Session Thursday, October 14, 2021 County Council Chambers 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720 ATTENDANCE: Present: Mr. `Rina Akamu, Commissioner(via Zoom) Ms. Stephanie Bath, Commissioner Mr. James Hustace, Vice Chairperson Mr. Bronsten-Glenn Kossow, Chairperson Mr. Stephen Lopez, Commissioner Mr. Meizhu Lui, Commissioner Ms. Jennifer Yadao, Commissioner Mr. Dwayne Yoshina, Commissioner Also Present: Diana Mellon-Lacey, Deputy Corporation Counsel Pat Nakamoto, Elections Program Administrator Cori Saiki, Elections Program Specialist I Dennis Kauka Jr., Legislative Specialist/ Secretary CALL TO ORDER: HUSTACE: Aloha and welcome to the 5' Session of the County of Hawaii Redistricting Commission. Today is Thursday, October 14'', 2021. My name is James Hustace, and I am the Vice Chairperson. Our Chair has advised that he will either be joining us a little later today or unable to attend so I'll be chairing for our meeting today. Just a brief COVID announcement for our viewers and the Commissioners. Because of the Coronavirus COVID-19 emergency and State and Federal guidance on large meetings or gatherings and pursuant to the Mayor's proclamations regarding COVID-19, the Redistricting Commission meetings are currently not open to the public to attend in person until further notice. Members of the public may view or provide oral testimony via the Zoom platform by requesting for this information as noticed on our posted agendas. Thank you for your understanding. I will now call this meeting to order. The time is 9:33 in the morning. ROLL CALL HUSTACE: Commissioners, when called upon please indicate that you are present and whether you are in Hilo, Kona, or participating by remote virtually. Mr. Kauka? KAUKA: Commissioner Lui, "Present in Hilo," Commissioner Yoshina, "Present in Hilo," Commissioner Yadao, "Present in Hilo," Commissioner Bath, (No response), Commissioner Akamu, "Present via Zoom," Commissioner Lopez, "Present, Kona", Commissioner Hustace, "Present in Kona", Chair Kossow, (No response). Vice Chair, you currently have six members present. I'm sorry, I'll just make a note. Ms. Bath has actually just entered the Chamber and joined us, so we have seven members present. HUSTACE: Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Kauka. We do have quorum for today. And as a reminder, during this meeting we are working with Commissioners in multiple locations. The audio of the meeting is being recorded so as much as possible, let's try to avoid any overtalk as that becomes difficult to later dictate the minutes for our meetings. Please keep your microphones on mute unless you are speaking. And we ask that for members of the public who are tuned in as well. Commissioners in either Chambers, your microphone can be activated by pressing the button at the base. I won't be able to recognize you if the audio is not coming through so be sure to check that it's on before you start speaking. As I am presiding here in the Kona Chambers, and Commissioners here with me, please turn your light on or get my attention to be recognized. And for those in Hilo, or those who are remote,please indicate that you wish to speak by mentioning your name and then I will recognize you and I'll do my best to navigate through our conversations. After I recognize you, if you request to speak, please state your name for our dictation purposes and then proceed with your inquiry. If you don't state your name, we may have to interrupt you to clarify who is speaking for the recording of the minutes. Thank you all. 2 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS HUSTACE: And for our testifiers, looking at our agenda today. We will grant you time here, either at the beginning if you do not wish to stay with us for the duration of today's meeting. I will also allow you an opportunity to speak after the Commissioners on posted agenda items if you so wish. If you are speaking as a testifier on multiple items,please indicate which item you are speaking to. We will kindly ask you to wait to be unmuted and then we will call upon you. If there are issues when you are called, after trying some time, we may have to move on while staff tries to work with you offline. And then we will revisit with you. As providing testimony, you will have three minutes on each of the items posted. When there are thirty seconds remaining in your allotted time, we will indicate this to you and ask you to summarize. And before you speak, please state your name for the record and item that you are testifying on. Mr. Kauka, do we have any testifiers this morning? KAUKA: Mr. Vice Chair, we currently have two testifiers who have registered, and both have indicated they'd like to testify at this time. First is Mr. Jacob Aki from Common Cause Hawaii. Mr. Aki, you may begin. JACOB AKI AKL Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the Commission. My name is Jacob Aki on behalf of Common Cause. Common Cause is a non-partisan, non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of democracy and ensuring a fair and transparent reapportionment and redistricting process. Common Cause offers a sincere gratitude to this Commission for it's attempt to work to count incarcerated peoples according to their home addresses as of April 1, 2020 for the purposes of drawing the Council district lines. We ask that the Commission consider including this issue in your final report with a prompt for the County Council to affect the Charter amendment ensuring the fair and equitable count of incarcerated persons at their home address in future rounds of the Hawaii County redistricting process. Common Cause also wants to be sure that any proposed maps considered by the Commission will not dilute the voting strength of the Native Hawaiian people. To this end, attached in our testimony, please find a map showing the distribution of Native Hawaiian population on Hawaii Island based on the American Community Survey, or also known as ACS. Unfortunately, the U.S. census does not desegregate the data to that level so we are forced to use ACS as our primary resource. But we want to also thank each and every one of you for the work that you folks are doing. And I am available for comments if there are any questions. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Aki. Fellow Commissioners, do you have any questions for Mr. Aki at this time? (No response.) Hearing none. Thank you, Mr. Aki. We appreciate you joining us this morning. Mahalo. AKL Thank you, Vice Chair. 3 HUSTACE: Mr. Kauka, I'll pass it back to you. KAUKA: Mr. Vice Chair, our next testifier is Ms. Brenda Ford. Ms. Ford, thank you. You may unmute and begin. BRENDA FORD FORD: Thank you. I have submitted this testimony at last meeting and this meeting. I'm only going to read portions of A through H. The rest of it is a very explicit explanation of how I designed the different Council Districts and why. My total deviation is about 3.5. And in all cases, I followed the Hawaii County Code, Chapter 36, and the Hawaii County Charter Section 3-17. Currently, the Commission does not know if the non- resident military personnel and their dependents, non-resident students, and foreign nationals are included in the population numbers or in what districts these people reside. I must assume that these were extracted as they were in the last Redistricting, however that needs to be verified. Additionally, the prisoner population is a mess and it's unknown if this is going to be rectified or even if the State Reapportionment Commission is going to be willing to rectify it. There are trails and roads that cannot be seen without enlarging the ESRI maps out as maximum type enlargement. I have kept the census blocks in the districts where roads and or trails are located. Sometimes the travel will start someplace very far away, and you have to follow that trail all the way to its termination and that's why the districts inside the interior of the island look the way they are. This is especially true in District 2. I have not considered any incumbent Council Member where they live or whether or not they are an incumbent. And that is per HCC Chapter 36-4, 6, and 7. And the County Charter 3-17(f)(1). I've kept communities of interested together as practicable per the County Code 36-4 number 8. I have kept the Council Districts as compact as possible per Chapter 36-4(9). And while some districts have expanded in geographic size, it was due to trying to keep parks, roads, and trails together for the purpose of equalizing residents. Many of the census blocks on the interior of the island have no residents so I relied on roads and trails for my decision per Chapter 36-4(11). I believe that it's important for this Commission to identify every census block that needs to be split. Coastlines, large populations, census blocks encircled by other census blocks, etc. And make a list of those right now because once you submit your final plan, your job is done. And I don't believe that I could be wrong,but I suspect that previous Commissions have not submitted anything to the Federal Census Bureau Board. Do the work on splitting or correcting the census blocks before you submit your final plan. If there's any questions about my map, I'll be glad to answer any questions about it. It's Brenda Ford 20 is the map number. And I believe there's somebody that had a question about Kalapana and good luck with getting that into District 4 unless you want to split Hawaiian Paradise Park, which I think there would be quite an uprising. There's about 14,000 people in that Subdivision. So, thank you for your term of service and if you have any questions, give me a contact. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Ford for your testimony. Fellow Commissioners, any questions for Ms. Ford at this time? (Pause.) Commissioner Lui, was that you? 4 LUL Yes. I just wanted to thank Ms. Ford for submitting the map. It was very helpful just in kind of providing a model of what we are supposed to be doing here, so I really appreciated it, Ms. Ford. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Ford? FORD: Thank you. One thing I neglected to say is the Highways Act of 1892 declared that all the ancient Hawaiian trails, roads, and things like that, are considered public highways which is the reason I kept trails in the same district where they originated as well as terminated. District 2 is the biggest problem out there. You'd have to enlarge the map in order to see the trails. Thank you though for letting me speak. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Ford. Commissioners, any other input or questions? BATH: Yes, Stephanie. HUSTACE: Ms. Bath. BATH: Brenda, I have a question. FORD: Certainly. Go ahead. BATH: So, what I understood you just said is you kept trails all in one district to keep continuity of the trail, the whole trail, and they are considered highways in the State, correct? FORD: Yes. BATH: So my question would be, how are you dealing with something like Highway 11 that starts in Hilo and transverses through a number of districts? If you're using that as the model. FORD: Highway 11, as we all know, circles the Island. It's the belt highway. There was no way to keep it in one district, we all know that. It crosses every single district except—no, every single district. There's no way to change that. If it was an ancient Hawaiian trail, it's now a public highway as well as being an ancient Hawaiian trail. The trails I'm talking about, most of them are on the interior of the Island. And if you go into District 2 and just keep enlarging it, you'll see those trails appear. I tried to honor the Hawaiians and the Highways Act of 1892. BATH: Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Ford. Thank you, Commissioner Bath. Any other questions from our Commissioners today? (No response.) Okay. Thank you, Ms. Ford for your 5 testimony this morning. We appreciate your diligence with this and supporting us. Okay at this point, Mr. Kauka, we have no other testifiers this morning. Is that correct? KAUKA: That's correct, Mr. Vice Chair. APPROVAL OF MINUTES None. COMMUNICATIONS HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. At this point, we will move onto Communications. And Mr. Kauka, would you like to read these into the record, or shall I move through them on the docket here? KAUKA: Whatever you prefer. I'm happy to read them in. Communication 15 and 15.1 HUSTACE: Okay, the first record here is Communication 15. This is from Ms. Sumera- Lee: submitting resignation from District 3 seat which is a portion of South Hilo,portion of Kea`au of the Redistricting Commission. And attached to this is Communication 15.1 from the Chair and myself as Vice Chair to Mayor Roth requesting that Commission District 3 vacancy be filled. At this point, I will welcome any comments or discussion about the matter here for Communication 15. YOSHINA: Chair Hustace, Dwayne Yoshina. HUSTACE: Yes, Commissioner Yoshina,please. YOSHINA: I just want to know if there are any legal consequences to this seat being unfilled. Either right now or for the duration. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Yoshina. We can have Corporation Counsel answer that question. At this point, we will continue forward with our eight filled seats. When it comes to any sort of voting issues, we might have some of an issue if there is ever some sort of a tie. But could we have Corporation Counsel answer Mr. Yoshina's question if possible? MELLON-LACEY: Good morning. This is Diana Mellon-Lacey, Deputy Corporation Counsel. Can everyone hear me okay? HUSTACE: Yes. Good morning, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. Thank you for joining us. MELLON-LACEY: As I'm sure the group is aware, there are many Commissions and Boards that require representation from each Council District. But there's also the rules 6 and procedures that as long as we are working with a quorum on any decisions made, though it's regrettable to have any vacancies for an effort of this kind, we will be working within the parameters of our rules and usual and customary practice in the County. So, I don't foresee that there are any problems proceeding however, I am hoping that an effort is made quickly to try and get a representative from District 3 to replace our vacancy. YOSHINA: Thank you very much. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. Commissioners, as you review those Communications, the first one, Communication 15 is the letter directly from Ms. Sumera- Lee and then the second one, as I mentioned, 15.1 is directed towards Mayor Roth in an effort to fill that seat. And we did express some sense of urgency to fill this seat as well. We're hoping to have all of the nine districts represented of course. You all know that the timeline is tight here, so just trying to do our best to make sure that this is filled and that the effort is gone into finding and filling that seat at a reasonable pace. Any other questions or comments about Communication 15 and 15.1? (No response.) I'll give you a moment if you need to look over it too. (Pause.) Any questions that come to mind or issues with this Communication? (No response.) Okay, hearing none. I welcome a motion to close the discussion for this Communication and file this Communication. YOSHINA: So moved. Yoshina, District 2. LOPEZ: Second. Lopez, District 8. HUSTACE: Thank you for that motion. Motion from Mr. Yoshina that closes discussion. Second from Mr. Lopez. Any further discussion on the motion? (No response.) Hearing none. I'll make it easy here. If there are any votes in the negative,please make yourself known. (No response.) Hearing no nays, motion carries, unanimous. Mr. Yoshina moved to file Communication 15 and 15.1. Seconded by Mr. Lopez. The motion to file Communication 15 and 15.1 was carried by the following vote: Ayes: Commissioners Akamu, Bath, Lopez, Lui, Yadao, Yoshina, and Vice Chair Hustace. Noes: None. Absent: Chair Kossow. Communication 17 HUSTACE: Okay, moving on to Communication 17. This is from the Elections Program Administrator, Ms. Nakamoto: for review on information requested regarding the 7 processing of counting inmates. First if Ms. Nakamoto would like to share any other information about this, I welcome her to the floor. Commissioners, if you have any questions for Ms. Nakamoto, or regarding this issue, please make yourself known. Ms. Nakamoto, did you want to add anything to this Communication here first? NAKAMOTO: No. The Communication speaks for itself. If any of the Commissioners have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them as best I can. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Nakamoto. I see a hand from Mr. Lopez. LOPEZ: Yes, thank you. My takeaway from this whole conversation and testimony is that even though it may be a mess, it is what it is. As Ms. Nakamoto pointed out in her testimony, is that my correct assessment? That it is what it is. It's a mess maybe but there's nothing we can do to fix it. It's as reported in the census. Is that correct? NAKAMOTO: Yes, as reported. When you say it's a mess, it is what it is. LOPEZ: Exactly. I'm just citing testimony that was presented. NAKAMOTO: Yeah, well that's one person's view. LOPEZ: Okay. NAKAMOTO: The counts were taken at what they call, the group quarters, the GQ. And the count is associated with the address of that group quarter site. LOPEZ: Okay, thank you. NAKAMOTO: I think that was the concern, yeah,was what address the individuals that were incarcerated, what address they were using. So clearly, it is defined there that it would be associated with the GQ site. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Thank you, Ms. Nakamoto. Any other questions from the Commissioners about this? Any other thoughts? LUL Yes, Vice Chair Hustace. HUSTACE: Commissioner Lui. LUL Do we have the breakdown of numbers of incarcerated people in the different sites as of that date? NAKAMOTO: As of that date, the only information that was provided, was that there were 514 individuals counted in correctional facilities for adults in Hawaii County. But no breakdown per site, no. 8 LUL I guess I feel like this is a big issue for just in terms of fairness. As we have stated before,just in the history of the United States, districts often like to have prisons there because they get more votes, more people in their districts, but often they can't even vote. So I don't know if I should move or something,just that we write some kind of letter asking that this not happen next time around, since we can't do anything about it this time. That people be counted that way. I don't know if that can be done at the State level or whether it's a federal issue or what. Do you have any sense about that? NAKAMOTO: I'm going to ask Deputy Corporation Counsel Mellon-Lacey to come up and maybe address that question. LUL This has been going on since the Three-Fifths Rule for slavery. NAKAMOTO: Commissioner Lui, my understanding is that there are states, and I'm sorry I can get this Communication and provide it for the Commission, but there are states that have adopted this provision and Hawaii is not one of those states. So therefore, I think that at the State level, if the census data were adjusted, and contrary to Ms. Ford's statement, I recall when we had the initial training, I believe that Mr. Jones indicated that to the extent that it was possible, they had disaggregated the student and the military, non-resident population from the data that we're using. So presumably, something similar could be done at the State level if that decision were made. I believe that Ms. Ford was suggesting that this Commission look at making a recommendation on the order of what you are proposing. LUL Thank you. So, Vice Chair Hustace, could I make a motion that we draft such a letter recommending that the State revise its rules in terms of the counting of incarcerated people? HUSTACE: I'm going to have to defer to Mr. Kauka and Corporation Counsel. And if we can throw that on the agenda right now. LUL Okay. HUSTACE: It is not an agendized item so I would assume that we need to add it to the agenda as an item of new business at a future meeting. MELLON-LACEY: Sorry, Mr. Vice Chair. Yes, that's correct. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. So yes, Commissioner Lui, we will need to request that if you'd be so inclined, to request this through the Chair and myself, and through Mr. Kauka to get this on our next agenda. Would that be possible, Commissioner Lui? LUL Yes. 9 HUSTACE: Thank you. I appreciate your help with that. So Commissioner Lui will be addressing the Chair and myself to agendize the opportunity for this Commission to speak more broadly and set a recommendation that the State and authorities consider these changes going forward. That's my understanding. LUL Correct. HUSTACE: Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioners, any other questions about Communication 17 here regarding counting of inmates and that processing of information? (No response.) Okay. YOSHINA: Chair Hustace? HUSTACE: Yes, Commissioner Yoshina? YOSHINA: I'd like to move to accept the Communication into record. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Yoshina. Do I have a second? LOPEZ: Lopez, second. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Motion from Mr. Yoshina to close this Communication and file. Second from Mr. Lopez. Any discussion about the motion? (No response.) Hearing none. Those opposed,please make yourself known. (No response.) Motion carries, unanimous. Thank you. Mr. Yoshina moved to file Communication 17. Seconded by Mr. Lopez. The motion to file Communication 17 was carried by the following vote: Ayes: Commissioners Akamu, Bath, Lopez, Lui, Yadao, Yoshina, and Vice Chair Hustace. Noes: None. Absent: Chair Kossow. Communication 18 HUSTACE: Our next Communication, Communication 18. Communication from Deputy Corporation Counsel Ms. Mellon-Lacey: advising the Commission of their authority and parameters to adjust census data in redistricting map considerations. Commissioners, do you have any questions or inquiries about Communication 18? (No response.) So, I'll 10 read it here for the record if that's okay with everyone. So, this is a Communication from Ms. Mellon-Lacey: At this time, Vice Chair Hustace read Communication 18 from Diana M. Mellon-Lacey, Deputy Corporation Counsel re: Adjustment of Census Data HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey for this testimony and this Communication. Commissioners, any questions about this? (No response.) Okay. I think I put you all to sleep. Sorry about that. I welcome a motion to close this Communication and file. LOPEZ: Lopez, so moved. BATH: Bath, second. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Second from Ms. Bath. Any discussion on the motion? (No response.) Hearing none. Call for a vote on this. Those opposed, please make yourself known. (No response.) Hearing none. Motion carries, unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. Mr. Lopez moved to file Communication 18. Seconded by Ms. Bath. The motion to file Communication 18 was carried by the following vote: Ayes: Commissioners Akamu, Bath, Lopez, Lui, Yadao, Yoshina, and Vice Chair Hustace. Noes: None. Absent: Chair Kossow. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. NEW BUSINESS HUSTACE: Okay. Moving to new business. I'd like to welcome Mr. Kauka to read these through to the record and for the Commissioners. KAUKA: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. New business item: 1. Communication 16 —From Commissioner Lui, outreach to Native Hawaiian population during redistricting process. 11 HUSTACE: Mr. Kauka,just a point of order here. Just looking over the agenda. It was noted on here approval of minutes from our previous meeting. Though I don't seem to have—are those in our file folder? KAUKA: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. No, there's no approval of minutes on this agenda. From the meetings we've had recently and the sessions, the Commission has forty days to post the minutes and prepare them, so they have not yet been completed, a draft, to offer the Commission so we hope to have that at the next session. HUSTACE: Okay, thank you for the clarification. I saw that on one of the agendas here but not the other one, so I appreciate that. Apologies. Alright, back to new business here, for Communication 16 from Commissioner Lui, outreach to Native Hawaiian population during redistricting process. Ms. Lui, did you want to start us off here in the discussion? LUL Yes. I just wanted to say that this is a community of interest of probably extreme importance, particularly at this time in our Island's history. There's just been a lot of motion as we all know, on the part of people from that community feeling that they often are marginalized and left out of more mainstream processes. So, I thought it would be very important for us to do particular outreach. I know that there are public meetings scheduled and that's all fine but, I think that there should be a special effort made to reach the Native Hawaiian population. That doesn't have to be a formal process. It could be, I guess I just wanted to hear what other Commissioners thought in terms of whether they agree with this, or whether there are things they can think of that they might be able to do in their own districts. HUSTACE: Thank you, Commissioner Lui. Commissioner Bath? BATH: Yeah so, I think this is an issue, for me, it's been an issue in all of the community service that I've done that's dealt with soliciting input from the general public. And everybody, even if they're of an ethnicity that is one on the Island, everyone deserves to be heard and to be given an opportunity to be heard. What I've done is, I've outreached to my friends, my associates that are Native Hawaiian, part Hawaiian, and posed the question to them. So, how come there's not a whole lot of input? Some of it is cultural. My experience has been, if you ask, you'll receive. However, how do we outreach? It's not practicable. It's not reasonable to go door knocking. The energy and the time is really hard. I see it as a similar issue of how do we outreach to people without internet capacity? At my place, we have a lousy signal and so, I find out about stuff after the fact sometime, but the effort has been made. I've come to the conclusion, based on my own personal experience, that it's our responsibility to stay informed. Just like if you go to court for a traffic violation, and you say, "I didn't know". You're still held accountable. So, the people I'm associated with in the Native Hawaiian community, are great people that are just like any other population on the Island. Articulate, some are uneducated, it's just like the rest of the population. And so, I hope that they will be proactive in speaking to us. I'm asking them publicly now to please come out and testify. I'm actually begging them to do this because I cannot, in District 5, with the energy that I have during a pandemic, go out and seek them out. These are my friends, this is my community, I've interacted 12 with them and just like any other community, there are people that will disengage, don't want to give energy, or have their lives busy. The fact that they are Native Hawaiian does not exclude them from the responsibility, if they want to be heard, to be heard. I hope that doesn't offend anybody. I'm done. BATH: Thank you, Commissioner Bath. Any other input from the Commissioners on this topic? Considering communicating with our Native Hawaiian population, connecting with them, any form of outreach. (Pause.) LUL Vice Chair Hustace? HUSTACE: Yes, Commissioner Lui. LUL As we know, there are many processes that have taken place on this Island. Obviously, we know the most recent ones, where people do feel that after things are already done, their voices have not been heard. There particular interests have not been met. I don't feel like it is like any other population. I just don't want us to be in the position where once the new maps are drawn, there are people from that community in particular who say, "We didn't know enough and our voices are not well represented in this map," and it will be too late for anything to happen. I will take personal responsibility for some outreach, not so much to individuals, but there are organizations that I think that we should contact. And James, I believe perhaps you and I, in our Districts, there is a large population, there are a lot of Hawaiian Homelands, and also Hilo looks like. Obviously, it's a major place where people live and unfortunately we don't have a District Commissioner there right now so I'm not quite sure what to do about that. But anyway, that was my motivation for putting this on the agenda. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Lui. Commissioner Lopez, did you have something to say? LOPEZ: Yes. Certainly, every ethnic or cultural population could voice the same concern. So are we potentially opening a Pandora's box? Then we have voices from the Hispanic community, we have voices from the Japanese community, the Chinese community. Where do we, as public servants, address people as a whole and not as these unique groups where everybody has the same responsibility to be involved? So that a Person A has the same opportunity to understand what's happening through whatever means they have available, as opposed to Citizen B who chooses to, or not, get involved given the same opportunities or knowledge. I don't disagree with the precept; I'm just concerned about singling out a particular group of people to provide additional aid. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Ms. Bath, did you have any further comments? BATH: Well yeah, I stand on what I said, however I what others put out and I have the same concern. If we were to do something, maybe we can send something out to Alu Like or something. It'd get put in their hands. But again, are we going to send one to the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce? How are we going to deal with the large 13 Micronesian population? Do they even have an organization? So yeah, I stand with my original thoughts. There are options if we want to go that route but I hear what the last Commissioner said. I'm done. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. Any input from fellow Commissioners? (No response.) I'll just point out that we'll also be discussing in new business, opportunities for social media outreach as well. So that could be an avenue and we'll discuss that further in the agenda here. Any other thoughts from the Commissioners on this item? Ms. Lui, did you want to add anything else to your item here under new business? LUL No but I just do want to point out that it isn't a population like any other, like the Chinese population or whatever. These are the original peoples that were, that a wrong was done to and their voices are particularly important, I think. As I said, at this time, there is some conflict between Native Hawaiians and rest of us, and anything that we can do to mitigate those types of feelings I think would be great. That's all. BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: I agree that there was injustice done. I've actually spoken to my friends and my associates that are Hawaiian, and have said, "What are your feelings as a Hawaiian?". I've done the outreach. I did that during the Community Development Plan. And what I got was they don't have an issue with it and that there are a few people that do, that are vocal. That number is growing. However, I did outreach to the Native Hawaiian people of that genetic pool more than a few times. And that's what I got from the Native Hawaiian community when I did the outreach. So, I'm not sureI don't know how to deal with this issue. You know, it's very sensitive. LUL Well just one last comment, which is that we know that the Native Hawaiian population are at the bottom of the economic ladder when it comes to housing, employment, incarceration, there numbers are terrible. Which says to me that it would be great if they had better representation. These are not about the Hawaiian Homelands or people in those communities. They're the people that are in the community at large. So, I just have that concern but, if people feel that it is too much or unfair to single out that population, of course, then we will just each do our own outreach as we see fit. HUSTACE: Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes, this is a highly volatile discussion. I want to be clear in my earlier comment, that I do not at all disagree with Ms. Lui and her intention. My only concern is that for whatever reasons that it could be construed as highly discriminatory to other groups. So, we do it for one, we do it for all. That's really the decision and I'd rather we do it for all. Treat everybody equally. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Any further questions, input from the Commission? 14 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 chosen by our community members to really sit in this seat. And I encourage you, what's being proposed here too, but also encourage you to connect and communicate with your neighbors and friends and your community members throughout whatever means or in your wheelhouse to share about the redistricting effort. That's in a general sense, right? In a very general sense speaking about this and I know a number of you have been out there in the community already doing that. I keep encouraging you to do so. Regarding Mr. Aki's proposal, is there action or motion that the Commission would like to take on addressing any of this issue here? LUL Vice Chair, I don't think there's any motion that's needed but, Mr. Aki, I will get in touch with you as well. AKI: Sounds good. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Aki. Thank you, Commissioner Lui. BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: Mr. Aki, I have some names that I'll be submitting to you as well of Native Hawaiians that might, may be interested or need resources. AKL Thank you. I will put my email address in the chat. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Aki. I just want to make sure we're going down the right path here. That we're above board and we're able to do this. Individually reach out to Mr. Aki and Common Cause to share this information. Ms. Mellon-Lacey, is this an appropriate matter? MELLON-LACEY: The Commissioners certainly have the ability to outreach and work with resources in their districts or Island wide to promote knowledge about this process and encourage input. So as long as it's limited to that, I don't see a problem. If I'm understanding correctly, the purpose is to outreach and make individual people, specific populations, what have you, aware of this process and encourage them to participate by attending community meetings, by providing input to the Commission, by expressing their opinions about what they would like to see come out of this process, and all of that is very appropriate and within the scope of Commissioners duties. So, I agree with Ms. Lui, I don't think we need a specific agenda item for it if we're advocating some special position or something, but that's not what I'm hearing so I want to make sure I understand what is being proposed. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. I just wanted to be clear there on the privy and the responsibility for each of the Commissioners, and capabilities that each can do on their own, at their own authority to do so. And not that it needs an action from the entire board to pursue this agenda basically. 16 MELLON-LACEY: Yes, I would agree with that. The Commissioners are appointed to represent their constituents. And in so far as they need to reach out for assistance from others to better reach their constituents, I don't see a problem with it. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. So, on that fact, I would encourage Commissioners to do that due diligence and reach out to community members to engage them in whatever capacity you have, in the time that we have as well. But I really appreciate the support from groups like Common Cause, and Mr. Aki and the crew there for encouraging us to do so and being an opportunity for us to connect and communicate further. BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: My main concern, what I was reflecting on, if this was something I felt comfortable with doing was, first and foremost checking with the individuals before I start giving out their names to people and making sure it's okay with them first. And then following through, if it was okay with the Commission. But that was the only concern I really had. HUSTACE: Absolutely. Thank you, Ms. Bath. Yes, you just don't want to disseminate peoples information but make sure that they are willing to support you in your efforts to reach a larger population and connect in a greater capacity. So, thank you, Ms. Bath. Any other thoughts on item business I here? (No response.) Okay, seeing none. I'd like to move on to number 2 under new business. Mr. Kauka, if you could read this for the record, please? KAUKA: Thank you. New business item: 2. Discussion on placing Kalapana and areas of Lower Puna into Council District 4. Requested by Commissioner Bath. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Ms. Bath, I'll pass it right to you if you would like to start us off on this discussion. BATH: So, we've all been getting our feet wet in trying to figure out the software, and how to use it, and the first thing that I did was I looked at Puna. What really struck out to me, which I never really realized until now, was that on the map, Kalapana and lower Puna is part of my District, District 5. And I always thought that they were District 4 because that population of people polarize towards lower Puna in order to go from home to anywhere, they need to go through District 4, unless they take Chain of Craters Road. During the two eruption events that I was active with, I was down there a lot and I got more of a feel. And so when I saw this section of lower Puna that was in the upper Puna, the District 5 area, it was like, was this a mistake? So, I have been working. That's one of 17 my primary first things, is to move that, those censuses blocks and there are two or three little ones, that you have to zoom into to actually see, into District 4. Which brings the numbers of District 4, up even more. And so there would need to be some juggling. However, I really felt that that was one thing that had to be tended to. Today, having been given insights by Ms. Ford about the trails and zooming in, and cultural sensitivities, I've got to zoom out further and see what trails there are. Because from Wao Kele o Puna, north of Wao Kele o Puna, is where I was putting the line. And I know that there are hunting trails, other trails, and there might be older Hawaiian trails. However, there's that big crack that separates the two districts. And so, when I was thinking about that before we heard from Ms. Ford today, I thought I didn't know how they would transverse that. So, I wanted to bring that up for discussion. The goal is to take that piece and move it into District 4 and then make the adjustments necessary in District 4 to continue to bring the numbers down. Considering what I've learned today that you might have already known. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. I have a couple of questions to start off here if you don't mind, about your effort here. When you were making some adjustments on your map, on your side, and adding Kalapana to District 4, did you also take in the whole forest reserve, the Puna Forest Reserve too? BATH: The Wao Kele o Puna? HUSTACE: Yes. BATH: I was playing with that`cause some of that we had had testimony about keeping the Park all together. And so, I was playing with giving some of that to District 6, but that didn't really affect the numbers, so I put that on hold `cause I wanted to focus on the numbers first. The other thing was, I mean in other districts like Hamakua and other districts, I was saying that when I was playing with it,just the geography element of it, that some districts were being given a lot of open space and areas that already had open space. And so I was trying to consider the balance in that as well. But the main thing, I was starting out with the numbers and the actual community in the common sense element of it. We're dealing with people here. Not just numbers for voting. Did that answer your question? HUSTACE: I actually have a bunch of questions for you, if you don't mind. The next question is, when you're kind of looking at the forest reserve there, there were a couple of census blocks within the forest reserve, right? BATH: I think there were three. HUSTACE: The one that just popped up into my head, it was the Kaimu-Makena Homestead Road. There's one census block that just sits there in the middle of it. And so, if you take the whole forest reserve and you put it in one district, or the other, you have one census block that it basically has to go wherever the forest reserve goes. But, the other ones that kind of eek into the forest reserve there, I guess you could say off of the 18 western side of the Kalapana Road, would you put them with the forest reserve as well? Or do they stay with the mauka portions? BATH: I tried to bring my map up so that I could have it in front of me for this discussion. I'm still having an issue with it. It's not here. If you can give me a minute, I can bring it up and see. I think you mentioned one little piece, if when you clicked on Wao Kele o Puna, that it went with that area. Is that correct? HUSTACE: No. Well, it's a separate—so the Wao Kele o Puna Forest Reserve is an entire monstrous census block, in my mind. I just want to state for the record that I've come across too many census blocks that are way too big and have way too many problems that I've documented on my own. But this is an issue where if you have a census block that has census blocks within it, that should not be allowable. Like there should have been a break in the census line, in my own personal. I know it's a forest reserve, I know there's specifics about it, but there are other locations that we could probably talk about today. So, I was just curious. You have this floating census block off of Kaimu-Makena Homestead Road that has 24 residents. You have a pocket subdivision off of, the street is One `Ele Road and Upper Puna Road. So, there's this pocket subdivision that juts out of the western portion of the Kalapana Road. Do those individuals feel that they should be associated with Kalapana and the more mauka portion? Or should they be, I'm just putting these questions out there, right? And then that's one question. The other question is, if you add that mauka portion of Kalapana along Kapoho Road there, then that's twelve-hundred individuals. The census block group that is associated with the Wao Kele o Puna Forest Reserve, is another thirteen- hundred individuals. So, I'm just curious about your process. About if you add so many of those individuals to Council 4, what did you take away from Council 4 to adjust? BATH: Thank you. That's a great question. That's one of the reasons why I'm bringing this up for discussion frankly. I want to apologize. I was multi-tasking. I was listening to you. I was trying to bring up my map because although I know the area, and I knocked on doors in the area with Civil Defense during the events, I didn't have keep names of streets or subdivisions in my mind. So, I'm sorry that I can't help you on that. If you just give me a minute, I'm trying to HUSTACE: Yeah. Take your time please. BATH: You know what, I yield to District 4 for this `cause it's her District that she's representing so she might know more than I do on that. No? HUSTACE: I'll welcome any Commissioner as to if you have any thoughts on this. About making this adjustment to Council 4 and 5 and that boundary down to Kalapana, and the Wao Kele o Puna Forest there. Any thoughts or troubles that the Commissioners have had with this process of making those adjustments? KAUKA: Mr. Vice Chair, this is Dennis in Hilo. I'm sorry to, but just to briefly interrupt, he is visible there, but I should note for the record that Chair Kossow has joined us. So 19 you now have seven members in attendance. Mr., Kossow joined for the record at 10:23 a.m. You may, of course, continue to chair the remainder of the meeting though. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. That would make eight of us here, correct? KAUKA: I'm sorry. Thank you for correcting that. Yes, eight members in attendance. HUSTACE: Wonderful. Well, thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Kauka, and welcome, Chair. Thanks for joining us. We'll continue this conversation, and Mr. Kossow, you can jump in if you'd like to at any point if you have any thoughts on this. We'd welcome your thoughts too. Really this is a discussion about those two census block groups and the dividing line of Pahoa Kalapana Road. Those mauka portions right along the ocean there. Any thoughts on any sort of process that the Commissioners took on this? Or if any made any changes and were able to adjust accordingly? YOSHINA: Mr. Chair, this is Dwayne. HUSTACE: Mr. Yoshina. YOSHINA: Yeah. My opinion is that, that's why the Commissioners are here, right? I mean, if you want to move it, you move it and you should have justification for that move. And then, if the numbers work out, they work out. I'm not sure I understand why the question is asked. I have to leave it to the Commissioner who is doing it, to just do it. And justify it later. I hate to say it this way, but it seems to be a non-issue from my point of view. Because if you think it should be that way, then you should do it. And then if there are questions later, we can defend that later. So, you know. BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: So, one of the reasons that I put it as an agenda item was because for transparency, sunshine. Because I actually want to have a dialogue with other Commissioners, specifically Commissioner from District 4, because it is her District, to see what she's thinking. If we're all doing our own thing, I hear what you're saying, I absolutely hear what you're saying. My concern is we're on a time crunch here and if each of us come up with our own little ideas and things without having a dialogue, then we're going to have to go through that dialogue in the I Ph hour and we are not going to get the work done. We're not going to reach our deadline. And so, I think that it's healthy, and it's appropriate, and that's why we're here. To have this dialogue specific to this area. But this is not specific to this area. I've across this in other areas as well. But this is the big one, so I would really like to hear, get input. And I hear what you're saying Commissioner Yoshina. I hear ya. It's like what are we going to do with it when we get to the I Ph hour? Are we going to be grappling with all of our personal submissions? 20 YOSHINA: So, thank you. HUSTACE: Ms. Lui. LUL Yeah, I guess I just have a question about process. Like how are we going to resolve all these things? It shouldn't be sort of one-by-one. I appreciate what you did because you had a big question. For example, I looked at Chair Kossow's submission. And it puts part of Hilo, the part that's the Boiling Pots to the right of Waianuenue into District 1, but that's clearly, people would identify more with Hilo. So, yeah, I need more people in my District, but I don't want to take people who would have their interest more represented by an urban area, as opposed to the more agricultural area which represents Hamakua. Anyway, I'm just asking like, what is the process for us to go through these maps and figure out why people are putting different census blocks where they're putting them, and whether we agree and how to make it all come out with the right numbers. I would love to expand into more agricultural areas, but there aren't any. So, I'm feeling a little stuck and yeah,just wanted some guidance in terms of our process going forward. So, it isn't like this little chunk versus that chunk, but what's the overall process? So I see that we have dates suggested, but I don't know what's supposed to happen on those dates. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Lui. Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes, thank you. I'm going to say that I don't have any depth of knowledge of what Ms. Bath is referring to, other than to look at the map. And I can see the forest reserve but when you start talking about lower Puna and the fissure and so and so forth, I'm over in District 8 and I don't know the geography. I don't know the neighborhoods, and that's true of every other District apart from my own. So, I was really, my approach, was to take the census blocks and go to the target of distribution to where I didn't violate the percentage deviation. And then I was hoping, really hoping, that in these public hearings, that the people would come out and express their interest and concern. I mean, they don't have to look at a map, they just have to come and say, this is the neighborhood I live in, we associate with this or that, and please take that kind of thing into consideration. Or maybe some inequities they may have felt in the last census redistricting rather. So, I'm at a strong disadvantage in discussing the kinds of questions this particular subject brought up. Call it my ignorance, call it whatever you like, but there's no way I can comment. My understanding was that we, as Commissioners, would work on trying to balance the census blocks, trying to balance the population, so we can't be accused of gerrymandering, or providing interest to any particular incumbent or candidate. And that's what I did,just strictly on population. Looking for the public to come and tell me in these public hearings, how I might need to adjust those things. So, this discussion of roads and trading census blocks with another district, well I don't think that's in order anyway, but again, I can't comment on any of this discussion. Thank you. 21 HUSTACE: Commissioner, Lui? LUL I just wondered if we might hear from Pat Nakamoto to let us know king of how this was done last time because I'm still quite confused as to how we're supposed to get to the place where we need to go. `Cause I agree with you, Commissioner Lopez, I don't know your District for example so I can't comment on whatever you propose. So, I think there is going to have to be some horse-trading. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Nakamoto. NAKAMOTO: Hi. Pat Nakamoto, Elections Program Administrator. Okay, bear with me, this was ten years ago, and my recollection is probably very, very fuzzy. What I recall and taking into the consideration, the timeframe we're working in is an entirely different timeframe than what we worked in in the past. I recall going to public hearings because at that time there were alternate plans submitted and they were available. I remember and we weren't we used the ESRI software, but everything wasn't done virtually. We weren't under this COVID condition that we are now. I recall taking plans out to these public hearings and people who attended the public hearings could view these plans. Then it got down to where, the Commissioners narrowed down the plans. They looked at all the different plans and they said, okay no we're not going to use these plans. And they narrowed it down to a couple of plans, maybe two or three, that they could work with, and they could adjust the lines. And then after that they had, I think it was after the two meetings in Hilo and Kona, they narrowed it down further to one plan that they did some tweaks on and they did it in a public setting, as I recall. They did the tweaks, they put in their comments and worked on the plan until they were satisfied with it and that was the plan that was submitted. So, that's sort of how I recall the process taking place. LUL Well, given that the deadline was today, right, for the public to submit plans. Is that correct? NAKAMOTO: Yes, today was the deadline for the alternate plan. LUL So, there's only one, Brenda Ford's. NAKAMOTO: No, there's two. LUL Two, one other one. So, we don't have,perhaps, as many different plans to look at as the last Commission. Is that—do you think that's true? NAKAMOTO: Yes, I think that's true. LUL So, we got those two. And then we've got ones that we're all working on, but I know I feel very flexible. It's not like I'm ready to submit a plan. I think I accidentally hit 22 the wrong button so it's in there, but it's not correct at all. So, maybe we need a slightly different process here? I'm thinking that because—maybe we should on our different meetings, kind of look at the boundaries between the different districts because what happens in one is going to affect another. Like if you take Kalapana, that might mean that she's going to have to give up some other part of District 4. So, maybe if we kind of take a District at a time and tinker with those boundaries so that we can get the input of the neighboring districts, I think that I know that would help me. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Lui. So, I'll jump to Mr. Lopez first. LOPEZ: I think we have a process. It was explained to us in the very beginning, and I think Ms. Ford actually demonstrated how it's supposed to work. You work on a plan, yeah if you want to listen to other inputs to what you consider, that's perfectly legitimate within your own space. This is what I think we should do, and this is my rationale why I chose. You have to defend your plan and she did that very well. So, I think that's the process and for us to try to do it by teaming up with another neighborhood district is just to me, too foreign of a concept within the confines of trying to come up with an independent plan that's justifiable. You submit it, and then it goes through the vetting process against other plans. First thing, I think the process has been defined. It was explained that way early on, to me as I heard it, and then demonstrated with Ms. Ford's submittal. Thank you. LUL So, I don't disagree with you, Commissioner Lopez, but given our truncated timeframe, are you suggesting that we each submit a plan? And then we're still going to have to work with people across districts, which is why we're all together, to figure out whether those changed census blocks work for the other district. LOPEZ: Well, I can't suggest that each of us submit a plan. That's an independent choice to make. I know that in expressing the due diligence of my appointment to this Commission, I dove in being trained on the product. I dove into meeting the first level of criteria and I have that plan. I have not submitted it because I wanted to hear some more public testimony in a public hearing about some things I may not have considered. And so, as the process moves forward, that's where I'm going. Now I agree with you, we're in an extremely protracted period of time so it's incumbent on us to be that much more knowledgeable up to this point with the tools we have available so that we can ask the questions or can hear testimony and then apply that to our own map. So, whether you want to submit a plan or not as all of you individually, that's up to you. I intend to. Thank you. LUL I just wondered if Chair Kossow, or Vice Chair Hustace, could provide a little leadership here. What are you thinking about our next steps? 23 HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Lui. So, I first have a question for Ms. Nakamoto. I submitted a number of maps. I know I was tinkering with them up until yesterday, so I submitted them yesterday. What is the turnaround for Mr. Jones to put those in the shared file? NAKAMOTO: He does it daily so if you submitted it, I don't know what time you submitted it yesterday, but whenever a plan gets submitted, we're notified that a plan was submitted, and I didn't get a notification. HUSTACE: Okay, yeah, I did submit. I actually submitted nine maps, so I apologize to the Commissioners. I took it upon myself to, like a lot of you, to look at the different districts, to adjust the numbers, to reach the deviation levels that we need to reach. While also considering my own person knowledge of the district that I live in, the surrounding districts, and also attending community meetings over time and hearing from you and the things that you have said at our past meetings. So, I did create maps of my own. Some of them are very different from each other. Some are very similar and just take little changes here and there. I know we're deviating from this new business discussion but, it really is this. It's moving things around between different current districts, right? And that incremental approach to some degree, whereas there's more of a drastic approach to others. Which could receive more uproar from community members but my, and Chair Kossow, if you'd like to chime in here too, I can't see you on the screen on this end in Kona but, I'll just kind of piece together my some of my thoughts here on us going forward. We have a different timeline and a different total agenda that we have for the next couple months here. We really only have a couple months. And I viewed the public hearings, like for example we had one on Monday, and unfortunately, we did not have anyone attend, right? Those of you that were able to attend realized that and recognized that right away. That we did not have anyone from the public join us. Now this may have been different from the past because while there may have been a deadline previously to that, those public hearings, there was a map that would have been presented at those public hearings. So, given the timeline we're in, I viewed currently, our timeline and these public hearings as an opportunity to hear from the public about where they felt, they feel what district they live, that they should be in, that what other aspects could be incorporated in a district, those sort of things. So, I was just really looking at that as like an overview of how our neighbors, and friends, and community members, would incorporate or foresee their districts. That's what they kind of thoughts that they could provide about that. That's what my personal reaction to these public hearings would've is, since we don't really have maps to present. There are some maps that are viewable to the public and those are the ones that were provided with testimony. So, the ones that were delivered via Communication are in our Laserfiche file and the public can see those. It's not like we're presenting them right at those public hearings but, we could if we want to. And we can show the variety of maps that have come in. So, the deadline was today for the public to submit. So, now it's really on us to take what we've been given and also the thoughts that you have about maps that you've created. Submit those and we need to 24 work on those. As we go through these public hearings, we need to take into account those thoughts and make the changes accordingly. Let me look at the agenda quickly. The upcoming meetings are really just an opportunity for the public to give us some guidance. Maybe not necessarily on a map, but just some ideas about their districts. That's what I see. We're going to have to use this time to draft a map from the input we've been given and the stuff that we have. So, in a couple moments here, we'll look at some of the alternate ones and talk about those. And maybe we could act on them and use them as a template for those public hearings. That could be a possibility. Until we have a deadline coming up where we have to finalize the draft plan, basically. That's the one we would present to those large public hearings in December in Hilo and Kona. So, that's our process right now. We need to look at the maps that have been submitted, take in account the testimony input over these eight next public hearings. And then also our full meetings that we will hold and incorporate those into our draft plan that we will present. I think that's the right track. Chair Kossow, we're you able to chime in here on any thoughts? KOSSOW: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Can you hear me okay? HUSTACE: Yes, loud and clear. Thank you for joining us. KOSSOW: No, thank you and of course, thank you so much for taking the time to preside over this sitting today. Thank you for the Commissioners with regard to this discussion. I kind of wanted to go back a little bit`cause I know we're steering away from the discussion. I wanted to make a comment. I had my hand raised but it didn't go through here on the Zoom. I had a comment regarding the Kalapana forest, the Wao Kele o Puna. I did tinker around with it, Ms. Bath, and it's kind of hard to make that decision, right? On whether or not we want to continue to put that into District 5 or District 4. It makes more logical sense if it was District 4 because in regards to connectivity `cause the only road that goes down there is going through District 4. But with that, as Mr. Vice Chair has stated, there is going to be some cause of deviation from the other side. So, one of my plans which I hopefully will submit today. I'm going to have to submit today. I'm hoping to kind of address that in my third plan. I know Ms. Lui did talk about, and this is getting off a little bit about the topic, but Ms. Lui did talk about the Hilo one. And I appreciate this because District 7, and 8, and 9, might not know anything about District 2, or District 3. I did live within that area for two years when I was going to college at UH Hilo, but you have to make up with all this deviations. And so that goes into my next point here is, I think that once we get all the alternate plans in, we can really decide to vet on these plans and then come up with an idea that is beneficial for all nine, or eight members of the Commission. I think that's probablyI don't know if the other 2011 Commission has done this but, and it might be in the next Commission meeting, that we'll pull up ESRI and for one whole agenda item, we'll run through every single alternate plan and come up with our own idea. It might take a couple of sessions in order for us to finally track down on what we need to do but other than that, I yield, Mr. Vice Chair. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. It's good to see you. 25 MELLON-LACEY: Mr. Vice Chair? HUSTACE: Yes. Ms. Bath, is that you? MELLON-LACEY: No, this is Ms. Mellon-Lacey. HUSTACE: Oh! Ms. Mellon-Lacey, thank you. MELLON-LACEY: I just want to jump in here and say that we are deviating considerably from our agenda and that if a discussion of the proper way for the Commission to proceed in its business is wanted, then we need to put that onto the agenda for your next meeting. But we are kind of deviating here from what's on our agenda. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey, for correcting us there. So, we'll jump back to item 2 then. Is there any further discussion? BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Ms. Bath. BATH: What my intent wasn't was to present this as an agenda item to petrissage specifically, whether or not we were going to do this. I apologize if it was reflected on the agenda as that. What my intent was, was to open this up as a discussion, this specific issue that I came up with, to address it because I too put Boiling Pots in the Hamakua Coast when I've been playing around with it. Puna is growing. I believe we have like a third of the Island's population. We're massive and things are going to have to change. And change is not always comfortable. Lines will have to be drawn and there will need to be adjustments made and I understood that this was what our job was. And in this particular case, it stuck out to me that this is a there's so many reasons to not have this here. And so, I put it on the table, again I say for transparency. So, whoever's watching this with the public can hear us having the discussion so that I could have a public discussion with District 4 and what happened was, I'm not surprised with what happened because this situation is going to surface in every major adjustment we make. Where we're taking people from one district that might have lived in that district their whole life and they're sticking them in District 2, from Puna to District 2. You're taking a person from rural and putting them in a more urban. And so, that was my intent. The discussion really was my intent. What are we going to do? How are we as a Commission going to dialogue with one another? I can't emphasize that we have a time crunch. Now if the process is in place, great let's do it and we can have a meeting. We'll just have a day meeting and we'll just do the work. But I wanted this to be brought to the table so that some light can be shown on it. It was not to petrissage my specific district and I apologize if somehow it was agendized as that. So, I would like to withdraw any discussion specific to whether or not Kalapana is going to go from District 5 to District 4 at this time. And we can do that when we are working on it collectively now that I kind of get a feel that's what we're going to be doing. Is that correct, Mr. Chair? 26 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 KAUKA: Thank you. New business item number: 3. Review of Alternate Plans submitted. The Commission may review, discuss, and consider any alternate redistricting plans received from the public pursuant to Hawaii County Code Chapter 36, Article 5. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. We do possibly have some testimony on this as well. The reason this is under new business, and this will probably be an ongoing thing where we review alternate plans that are submitted. The deadline for the public was today. So, the plans that we receive from the public is what we've received. I do have some technical issues for Elections Office staff but otherwise I'd like to spend some time here looking at these documents. Commissioners, if you're in your application program with the redistricting effort, there is a folder that we should all have access to called Shared Plans. So, when you open a plan, you can select to share either one of your recent plans or ones that you've saved and created or Shared Plans. The question that, I think Mr. Lopez, you had a question about this? LOPEZ: Well, I have been trying to find Ms. Ford's plans for some time, and finally, asking a question today, I personally do not have that County of Hawaii tab under my Shared Plans, so I do not see any of these. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Are there any other Commissioners not seeing this folder under their Shared Plans? BATH: Bath. I'm trying to get out of a Create a Plan into where the option to be able to see all of the plans. LUL You go to File. BATH: You go to File? HUSTACE: I think regardless of if you're in a plan, I think you should be able to open a new one on top of it without—it may give you an error saying, hey do you want to save the work you've been doing? And you can cancel through that. As you probably see up on the screen there, that's being projected for us, I think Mr. Lopez is having some technical issues with the Shared Plans folder. I don't know if he is attached to that folder, if he's been included. So, I want to make sure that all of the Commissioners are a part of that. Is that a possibility? Do we know if all the Commissioners have access to this? LUL Could you say that again? Which one? HUSTACE: This is the Shared Plans. So, if you open up these are the plans that have been submitted byso, Chair Kossow submitted one, and Ms. Ford submitted three, that have been submitted to the Commission. They're sent in, Mr. Jones then shares them, puts them into this folder, and that's how we have access to them. So, I would likeI'm just checking to see if all the Commissioners have this folder. 28 LUL Yes. HUSTACE: Is it only Mr. Lopez who does not have access from my understanding then? And can I check with the Elections Office to make sure that's remedied? LOPEZ: Okay, thank you for bringing that up on my behalf. Just as a clarification though, if Ms. Ford is still online here. I'm sure she told us that only look at Plan 20. HUSTACE: That's correct, Mr. Lopez. LOPEZ: Okay, we can disregard 11, 12, so we don't spend a lot of time on that. LUL We could delete them. HUSTACE: Yes, could we open up plan number 20 from Ms. Ford and view it here in this public setting? And you were also provided the Communication. Ms. Ford did provide testimony this morning about this. You should have that document in front of you that goes through her reasoning, the districts where she drew her boundaries. Is there a particular that area that one Commissioner, or the Commission, would like to look at and ask Ms. Ford questions of or just view in general? Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes, well I can't look at this, but I'm interested in looking more at that review where the deviations are shown. If you can, bring that line up so that we can see it all, all the districts. You know what I'm talking about? That deviation review at the bottom by district where it shows the percent, the deviation of district population. If we could see, well, if I could see it all at once if you move the bar up. HUSTACE: The request is just to enlarge the bottom half of that window so we could see just a comparison of all the districts. LOPEZ: Yeah, if you just go up to that line right above pop., and you move the bar up. That way I can see all of the districts at one time. I'm just asking if I can see that since I don't have the map. (Pause) HUSTACE: Mr. Lopez's request is that we expand the bottom portion of the window so that we can see all of the deviations together. LOPEZ: So, pull that window up. HUSTACE: That's okay. So, there's an option to expand it, make it even bigger, so that we can see them all at one time. SAIKL That, I'm not sure how to do. How do I 29 LOPEZ: See where that map is. See that down arrow at the bottom of the map? Right below that there's a bar. Go down to the line. You passed it. Way too far. Go up, up, up, up. Right there. Drag that up, up. Ah, thank you. Or a little higher because I see Brenda's face there in the lower corner. Keep going. A little more. Okay, now you'll have to drag—okay, thank you. That shows me a bird's eye view of however distributions are done across the Island. LUL Is Brenda on? LOPEZ: Yes, I see her. HUSTACE: Yes, she's here. Do you have a question for Ms. Ford, Ms. Lui? LUL Yes. I'm just curious if she did the same thing that Chair Kossow did in terms of moving the boundary of District 1 to Waianuenue Ave. as opposed to the river. And I'm just wondering if you considered any other ways to expand District 1, Brenda? FORD: Thank you very much for asking. I considered many different ways but because of the deviations being so high, I had to drag it in. I've got to tell you, it killed me to have to drag part of Hilo into District 1. It really did. It killed me to put Kalapana in District 5 because we all know it should be in District 4. But if you look at the last map, they had to do exactly the same thing in Kalapana. It's a big problem and the person who said we're going to have to make some hard decisions is absolutely correct. Now, I'm not saying that my map is the perfect map because there's no such thing. However, you can look at the boundaries and see maybe can we tweak `em here or there to make it a little less onerous for people? Possibly. For the Council Districts over in 6, 7, and 8, I had to split Kealakekua. I had to split Kailua-Kona. We just have to make tough decisions and you want to make them as least horrible as you possibly can. You're just not going to get a choice. I spent, I won't even tell you the number of days, and I'm talking eight hours plus a day. Days. And I'm on Plan 20. You got my Plan 20. So, that's how much I had to work on these because I kept rejecting a bunch of plans. The two that I don't want you to look at today are 11 and 12, I think they are. I only submitted those so you could see how you could divide Puna down the highway either north, south or east, west. But it doesn't matter how you divide Puna, north, south, east, west, if you can't get the populations right. As I mentioned earlier, Hawaiian Paradise Park is like 14,000 people. You do not want to split Hawaiian Paradise Park, but you know what, it's your district and if you guys decide that we need to split Hawaiian Paradise Park, then what you need to do is agree on that and vote for it. And then you put into your final note, we divided Hawaiian Paradise Park along this line because we wanted to get Kalapana. You think it's more important to get Kalapana into District 4 and put a part of—half of Hawaiian Paradise Park up in District 3, or District 2, or wherever, you have the right to do that. You just have to be able to explain it in writing because if you wind up in court, that's going to be the things that if you don't go over ten percent, you can do what you want. But if you go over the ten percent, then you're going to be in court. So, don't look at my plan as the absolute only way to do something. Do look at all the boundaries and see is there a way that we can tweak this plan, or somebody else's plan who might have a better plan than 30 mine, how can we tweak it? I'll tell you, once you guys really get into the ESRI program and start moving these blocks, huge blocks of people around, you're going to find out really fast, it's not a fun thing to make these decisions. There are not fun decisions, and you are going to offend probably just about everybody. Because as a Kona person, I did everything to keep Kealakekua together. Couldn't do it. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Ford. FORD: Yeah, thank you. HUSTACE: If you stick with us here, we may have some other questions for you. FORD: Sure, sure. HUSTACE: Thank you. Commissioners, is there any other question about Ms. Ford's map 20 here? Now I would encourage you, please Commissioners, to read Ms. Ford's testimony and the document she provided. It's very detailed, very specific about the boundaries and everything, and reasoning why. This is what we have to obtain, and these are the reasons we need to provide, when we create our final map as a group here. Any other thoughts on Ms. Ford's proposed plan here? Commissioners? LUL Yeah, well, I guess I just don't know where to place these questions because I was going to ask about why she didn't consider something else. But I think that may be later, later down the road. HUSTACE: Ms. Lui, is it specific to Ms. Ford's plan? LUL Well, yes. But I understand her reasoning so I was just not sure whether I should ask something specific. Well, let me just say it and you can discard it if you want. I just wondered, you know there's also some new developments along the Daniel Inouye Highway, and that area is only going to expand in terms of developments. And so, I was wondering if instead of the Boiling Pots area that is so close to Hilo, whether these new subdivisions that are more outlying might be an alternative. Did you think about that at all? FORD: I did not personally know about the new developments over there, but I will tell you that, I'll use Kona as an example `cause I know Kona the best, but it applies to everybody. We've got land masses, zoning changes, developments, and they all have these five year terms that they are supposed to get something or fifty percent or something, whatever it is now, completed. And we've had them there for thirty years. So, if they are actively building, that's nice but there's nobody living there. You can't count it. LUL No, but there are people living in parts of it. I'm just saying that within the next ten years, there'll be even more. 31 FORD: I absolutely agree with you. We've got the same problem all over, North Kona especially. I'm from South Kona but North Kona especially is a big problem with that. You're just going to have to make the hard decision, where to put these. As I mentioned before, I had a very emotional problem for a couple of days over putting any part of Hilo into District 1. The deviations were massive. I think it was like, I don't know, it seemed like it was over ten or something like that. And once you move a boundary, it dominoes. It's a domino effect. And so, what you do is, you got to consider how it impacts everybody else. That's your job, to figure out how it's impacting everybody else. I'm sure nobody in Kona is going to love my plan. MELLON-LACEY: Mr. Chair? HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Ford. Ms. Bath? MELLON-LACEY: No, this is Ms. Mellon-Lacey. HUSTACE: Ms. Mellon-Lacey. MELLON-LACEY: If I may, if we could keep the questions and responses to the discussion of the plan. I'm not sure that it's at all appropriate for Ms. Ford to advise the Commission on how to do their job. So, I would like to limit that discussion, please. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. Any questions about the plan? Any technical questions? BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Ms. Bath. I apologize Commissioners, I only see one screen at a time so I can't see who has hands up or what not so, please state your name for the record so that I may call on you. Ms. Bath. BATH: Yeah, a question for Ms. Ford. Number 21, under District 5. The last sentence, she justifies that plan as this matches the 2011 Redistricting Map. And so, my question is, or my understanding is, we're not trying to cut and paste. We know what the 2011 Redistricting Map is and there some changes that we're trying to make to that. So, the fact that what you submitted matches the last map, is that something that you're trying to use as a justification for keeping it the way it is or ? FORD: No. BATH: Help me understand. FORD: No. I'm sorry, number 21 was poorly worded. The only reason I said that statement is because they had the same problem with Kalapana as you guys are having right now. And that's what they had to do. That comment is just to say they had to do it in 32 2011. So, whatever you choose to do is up to you. I'm not trying to match anybody else's map. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Ford. Did that clear up the question you had, Ms. Bath? BATH: Yes, it did. Thank you. HUSTACE: Commissioners, any other questions technically about this map here? (No response.) Okay, hearing none. I encourage you to review the documentation from Ms. Ford and take that into account as we are looking at maps here. You should also be able to see the map up on your software application. Once again, I encourage and request that Mr. Lopez has access to that folder. And if there are other Commissioners that are experiencing that problem, please make yourself known and reach out to the Elections Office so that you have access to those files. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to move on to item number 4 under new business: 4. Review of Draft Plans. The Commission may review, discuss, and consider any redistricting plans submitted by Commissioners. HUSTACE: This is an ongoing yes, Mr. Lopez, you had a question? LOPEZ: Yes. It's very clear to me that today was the day, the deadline for the public to submit plans but I did not imply from that it was, that the Commissioners could submit a plan after today. Can I get a clarification on that, please? When's the last time that the Commissioners can submit a plan? HUSTACE: Ms. Nakamoto, are you able to answer that question? MELLON-LACEY: This is Ms. Mellon-Lacey. HUSTACE: Ms. Mellon-Lacey. MELLON-LACEY: The deadline that you set for today is alternate plans from the public. The Commission isn't barred from continuing to work on plans until the deadline for you to submit your draft plan and then, even then you can still make changes. So, you can keep working. That's for the public and I think the idea behind that is so that you get that kind of input as your working on your own plans and trying to narrow down to a final plan. And even if members of the public didn't submit a plan, there's nothing to prevent them from continuing to provide public testimony throughout the process, that you can, should, must, whatever consider in getting to a final plan. So, you're good. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. LOPEZ: Thank you very much for that. That stresses the advantage of public testimony at these hearings. Thank you very much. 33 MELLON-LACEY: Welcome. HUSTACE: Commissioners, this item will remain on our agenda going forward when we review the plans that the Commissioners are submitting. Really the only one that we can present today, if I'm not mistaken, is from Chair Kossow. Chair, are you able to, are you still with us here today and do you want to speak at length about it now or ? I'll leave it up to you. KOSSOW: I think I would like to wait till everybody else submits their plans. I want to definitely talk with everybody in our next meeting as we go forward and then see how we can all work together to make the big and tough decisions. Thank you, Vice Chair. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. And just so you know, people are probably taking a little sneak peek at yours during this process. KOSSOW: Figured so. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair, for submitting yours in a timely fashion there. So, as Mr. Lopez asked, Commissioners please, if you see fit, submit some plans that you feel are comfortable and you want to bring forth in front of the Commission to talk about. I encourage you to do so. We can always make changes and edits along the way, but this item on our agenda will remain here so that we can discuss the plans that the Commissioners have proposed. Any other discussion about item number 4 under New Business? (No response.) Okay, hearing none. Thank you very much. We'll move on to Item Number 5 under New Business. Mr. Kauka, could you read this into the record, please? KAUKA: Yes, thank you. New business item number: 5. Discussion on budgetary means for advertisements and value of social media presence for Commission activities. Requested by Chairperson Kossow. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Chair Kossow, did you want to lead or start off conversation here with us about this? KOSSOW: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. So basically, I've kind of heard in the beginning of the meeting that what we have issues with is getting the word out. I did see, sort of a, as we saw in our last public meeting, with nobody to testify, I want to be able to reach out. We have to think about free ways to do so and I do believe that social media platforms are a good way to do it. So, that's the reason for this Communication. But I did see in the West Hawaii Today, and I believe I saw it in the Tribune-Herald, the meeting posting as well. But I don't know to what extent it reaches to people. So, that's the purpose of this Communication. 34 HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Commissioners, any thoughts on this topic here and outreach? This is specifically about social media and let's try to keep the social media focus here on this topic and any types of means of advertisement. Any thoughts on this? BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Ms. Bath. BATH: Social media is exclusive. It is exclusive to people that have an internet connection and accessibility to social media. And so, I think it's good, a good way to outreach to people. However, it is exclusive. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes. Another vehicle, I believe it's Channel 54, where you can post notices. If you don't have a TV of course, that's not going to help you. The other aspect is similar to what we just had with the offer of Mr. Aki. Is we have leaders of different ethnic groups, particularly throughout the various ethnic communities. So, maybe detailing who those contacts are and reaching them to go out to their membership is another way. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Chair, did you have a motion in mind? Did you want to talk further with the Commissioners about this possibility? The only question I had was our current financial status for the Commission and the cost that would incur from social media. BATH: Chair? Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: So, since the agenda item addresses solely financing for social media, then isn't it true that we can't have a discussion about other options for advertising? HUSTACE: That's correct. BATH: And so, in order to vote on whether we should allot funds to this without talking about other options that might require funding might be premature at this time. I'm just putting that out. HUSTACE: It was agendized just as social media so we would have a discussion solely on social media. Ms. Mellon-Lacey? MELLON-LACEY: Reading the agenda item it says, discussion on budgetary means for advertisements and value of social media presence for Commission activities. So that seems to allow room for discussion of advertisements as well as social media presence. 35 HUSTACE: Very well. Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. So, if we could specifically talk about advertisement, social media as an opportunity, we can have that conversation here. Ms. Bath, did you have anything else to add on that then? BATH: Yeah, that's great that we can talk about this. Some years ago, I really tuned in to something that was going on through the campaigns. I was hoping we could apply it to the Community Development Plan outreach, which didn't happen. There were radio spots where different ethnic, different languages were used to let people know that this candidate was the one to vote for. And we might consider doing radio spots where we could do it in Hawaiian. That the public hearings, and the input from the public is requested at this time and do it in all these different languages. Keep it bulleted, keep it brief, and give contacts on how they could do it. And then people that are illiterate can chime in, people that are in their cars going shopping or whatever can get the message. I really like doing the radio thing `cause even people that don't have internet can have emergency radios that they can use. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. Commissioners, any further discussion on this? (No response.) I'll repose, restate my question about our current finances for the Commission and what capability and capacity we have for advertisement. LOPEZ: Let me just add on to Ms. Bath. HUSTACE: Mr. Lopez. LOPEZ: Yes, Ms. Bath, thank you. I like the radio as a everybody, well I shouldn't say everybody because maybe not, but using the radio. And what we're doing could become under the guise of public service event. And these outlets do provide for some limited free communication of that nature. So, when we're talking about budget and we're talking about perhaps radio or even, oh I don't know, television. We don't have a local television station but for radio, let's just limit at that for a moment. And it could come under public service events, not a required budget expense. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. KOSSOW: Mr. Vice Chair. HUSTACE: Yes, Mr. Chair. KOSSOW: I like the discussion and I like the idea of doing a radio announcement. But I don't, you know one of those things is, you don't want to be stuck with just one thing. You have to be pretty diverse and the reason why I say that is,people in my age bracket, including myself, don't listen to the radio. And so, we have to get really, we have to be pretty broad when it comes to our advertisements. And yeah, I yield. 36 HUSTACE: Thank you, Chair. Ms. Nakamoto and Elections Office, would you be able to provide us or Mr. Kauka, for that matter, would you provide us our current financial status for the Commission? SAIKL Hi, this is Cori. Right now, our budget, the balance is $74,789.22. LUL That's a lot of advertising. HUSTACE: I don't see it solely for advertising but I was just trying to think of a proportion LUL I was just kidding. HUSTACE: No, I hear you. A proportion of what we could use for that and really a question for Ms. Nakamoto and Cori is, did the previous Commission do any sort of this outreach in using their budgetary finances to use paper printing and those sort of things? NAKAMOTO: Yes, I believe they did. I wanted to mention, since we're talking about advertising, because we do a lot of this during an election year. Last election we did print, we did radio, we did television. We did do social media also. And so, there's several ways that you can advertise. And you folks can decide the best means, the audience that you're trying to reach, and how you want to go about doing it. And when you do some advertising like radio, if you buy certain times because if you want to get the information out, you want to do it during what they would consider their peak time, where their best listening audience. They throw in PSAs, they give us some free time in addition to what we're purchasing. With the newspaper, with the print ads, if you go online and you read the electronic newspaper, they're—Cori can probably explain that one better. SAIKL The newspapers give you an option for either hard copy, the regular, to advertise in the newspaper, or they have combo packages where you can do both. Newspaper and the e-edition. They would give us like the top, the banner, you know, on the top. They work with you so that's what we did. We did it in both. HUSTACE: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions? Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yeah, this is a wild hare's thought, but we have those phone broadcasts through Nixle and through Civil Defense. Is there anything, any facility that may be out there for us where they could be a vehicle? Just throwing it out because I know I get those things regularly. And since I don't do social media, I listen to the radio a lot. That's my choice. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. So, the question was about kind of a text communication and mass text messaging. Ms. Lui? LUL Well, I think because as it has been noted, different people use different media to get their information that we should do any, and all, and maybe I don't know that the budget, how much it costs for the Election committee to do it in the past for other 37 elections. But what we want to advertise, I am assuming, is the two big meetings, the Hilo, the one on each side of the Island, so it would be something that would come out in the paper. Sometimes they repeat it, like West Hawaii news, they put it out several days in a row, at least in the E- one that I read. So, can I just propose that we use any and all of those means that they election—do we direct the Election committee to do those advertisements, or do we do it? What's the process? But whatever it is, we should do it. HUSTACE: So, I welcome that as motion if you'd be so inclined. LUL Sure. I'll move that we use all of those methods that the Election committee has used in the past and knows how to do. HUSTACE: And do you mind clarifying,just for record, do you mind clarifying the types of outreach and sources of media? LUL Yeah. Radio, TV, newspapers, social media. HUSTACE: Okay, so motion on the floor is to, with the help of the Elections Office, outreach the community ahead of the two December meetings, the public hearing meetings, using the sources of social media, newspaper, TV, radio spots. I think those are the four. Did you have a figure in mind, Ms. Lui? LUL No, I thought the Election committee would know what they spent in the past on these campaigns. HUSTACE: Ms. Nakamoto, would you be able to provide us, like a general range of outreach, the cost? NAKAMOTO: Off the top of our heads, we don't know but we can get that information to you. LUL So, was it around $10,000, for example? Somewhere in there or less or more? SAIKL For TV advertising, if I recall correctly,just one news channel was about between $8,000 and $10,000. LUL Oh my gosh! Scratch the TV. Scratch TV. That's too much. HUSTACE: Ms. Lui would like to withdraw TV from the motion. Chair, did you have a question? KOSSOW: Yeah, is there a possibility we can work with Na Leo too, regarding that instead? I know that Ms. Lui brought up TV but if we worked with them instead, I'm sure it'd be a little bit more cost efficient. BATH: Bath. 38 HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: I just have a general question. The local newspapers are pretty good about communicating with the public. With the public, might need to be, I like to think historically. I'm wondering if, that's their mission, right? To give news, important news that's good. So, I'm wondering if Elections can somehow get together with the paper and say, hey listen, this is what the public needs to know. It seems wrong to have to pay to get the news out to the public. And so, that's one of the things that I'd like to do. And I don't know if I can say that under the discussion of advertising. HUSTACE: So, for the motion, yes, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. MELLON-LACEY: As a point of order, we have a motion on the floor. And also, one possibility might be a not to exceed a certain amount. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Mellon-Lacey for the clarification. Right. So, I'll restate the motion. Motion was from Ms. Lui to use—and we might have to amend it because the motion was to use TV, newspaper, social media, and radio. Did you have a figure in mind, Ms. Lui, for your motion? LUL Well, we have, I can't think what else we are going to spend all this money on. So, I don't necessarily think we have to be too cheap. On the other hand, we don't want to spend money uselessly. So, I guess I would say a maximum of, I don't know, and I'm just going to ask Election if they think it's reasonable, no more than $12,000 say. Is that reasonable? SAIKL I would think what you folks needed to decide on is how often you wanted the advertisement to go out. I know you stated that it was for the two public hearings, right? And so, how far in advance did you want? That all plays in to the amount you're going to pay. HUSTACE: Commissioner Lui, any adjustments? So, the motion on the floor is for $12,000 at the moment. Is that correct, Ms. Lui? LUL Yes. HUSTACE: Do I have a second on the motion? (No response.) No second, motion dies. Any further discussion? LUL Can I remake the motion without the money? I'm not sure what the problem was but I would still like to HUSTACE: I think for clarification and just for the public's sense of what we're spending, I think we need to establish a value of not to exceed more than a certain value. 39 It just didn't have second. So, we need some activity from the Commissioners to push the motion. That's all. BATH: Bath. I second it for purpose of discussion. HUSTACE: I need a new motion. Sorry. LUL The motion is that we do a media campaign to advertise the two public meetings that will be held in December to have the public discuss the proposed maps. And that we use TV, and I agree with Bronsten's idea of Na Leo to make it a little more community- based as well. And newspaper, radio, and social media. And perhaps we can wait until next time to figure out the money. And discuss the details next time. HUSTACE: Do I have a second on the motion? YOSHINA: I second the motion. Dwayne. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Yoshina. Any discussion about the motion? Motion is to publicize, ahead of time, our two public hearings through the means of social media, newspaper, radio, and television, for the purpose of encouraging outreach and gaining attendance. Any further discussion? Mr. Lopez. LOPEZ: I don't know how you can make this motion without setting a budgetary fix for it. You don't know how much you're going to spend. What are you advertising in terms of the amount on budget? And as Cori pointed out, what is the frequency of that? It's a motion with an unending conclusion. HUSTACE: Mr. Lopez, do you have an amendment to the motion to add any financial limits to it? LOPEZ: Yes. Oh, that's good. May I propose an amendment that we set our budget at maximum of$20,000, not to exceed, and with the cooperation of Elections, that we set out a plan to decide where and how we are going to spend. We also, in the motion, I amend it further that we do not include names of outlets. I think to say that name Na Leo in our motion is too specific. We should keep it generic at TV. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Do I have a second on the amendment? To spend no more than $20,000 and to work with the Office of Elections to set up a plan and a budgetary process of spending this money efficiently and selectively for the sole purpose of the two public hearings in December. LOPEZ: And not mention any particular vendor. HUSTACE: And to do the necessary out means of shopping for the best route without yeah, selecting the names as we mention the motion. Do I have a second on this? 40 KOSSOW: Second. Bronsten. HUSTACE: Second from Mr. Kossow. Any discussion on the amendment? BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: I accept, and I like the motion but I'm not comfortable with specifically stating that the purpose of the money would be only for those two hearings. Those two public hearings. It might be appropriate to start doing outreach before that so that people can weigh in so when we have the public hearings, there's more input. So, I like the motion but I think that that's being too specific on how the $20,000 is going to be spent. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. Quick question for you, Ms. Bath. Just a question about this, what other items would you want to publicize for? BATH: I don't know if we have time and I think it would have been good if we had done a little bit of advertising on the public hearings that we're getting this initial input on was. And unfortunately, that didn't happen but it's not too late now to advertise for that because people can testify at any of the public hearings right now. Even if they are not in that district. I just don't know if we have the time to get that together `cause we're in process right now. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Bath. Chair Kossow, you had a question? KOSSOW: Yeah, I seconded it because I wanted to have a little bit more of a discussion with Mr. Lopez. Were you under the impression that it was for all of the public hearings that we have set? Or was it just for the two? LOPEZ: No. My intention was across the board. For every public meeting that we have. KOSSOW: That was my interpretation of your amendment too. LOPEZ: Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you for the clarification. So, I think that addresses Ms. Bath's question as well. If I'm not mistaken? BATH: Yes. HUSTACE: The capacity of the Commission and the events on going then. Is that what I'm hearing from the Commission? BATH: Bath. Absolutely. I didn't hear that. Thanks for the clarification. 41 HUSTACE: No problem. And thank you, Chair, and Commissioner Lopez, for clarifying that with me. So, the amendment is then to allot$20,000, to spend no more than $20,000 for the purpose of this advertisement campaign. Correct? Without the publicizing the specifics of businesses but to really work within that boundaries of$20,000. Correct, Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes, correct. Thank you very much. HUSTACE: So, the amendment was from Mr. Lopez. A second from Chair Kossow. Any further discussion on the amendment? YOSHINA: Yes. This is Dwayne. I'd like to ask a question of Corp Counsel. HUSTACE: Please. Ms. Mellon-Lacey, when you're ready, Mr. Yoshina has a question for you. MELLON-LACEY: Yes, Mr. Yoshina? YOSHINA: Okay, thanks. When I served on the Game Management Advisory Commission, we tried to establish a social media presence under a different administration. And we had some problems with that from the administration. So, do we have similar problems under this administration? Or you knowledgeable about that? MELLON-LACEY: I am aware of various Commissions wanting to establish social media accounts for their activities and there have been some issues surrounding those. I'm not understanding that that's what we're talking about here. What I'm understanding we're talking about here is advertising. YOSHINA: Okay, so you don't see any problems coming up? MELLON-LACEY: I mean what we're talking about is just getting the word out about what, when these meetings are being held, and encouraging people to attend and provide input. Which I think is different than if the Commission set up its own social media site and invited public interaction specifically on a social media site. I don't think that's what we're doing. If that's what's being contemplated, I couldn't answer whether that would be allowable or not. But I know it's run into issues. And you have to have someone to monitor it and etcetera. But I don't think that's what we're talking about. YOSHINA: Okay, thank you. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Yoshina. I think we'd be working strictly with the Elections Office to run these campaigns. That was my understanding of the initial motion. Any other discussion about the amendment? (No response.) I'd like to call this to a vote then. Any discussion? Mr. Lopez, you have a question? 42 LOPEZ: Yes. I didn't hear that as an amendment. We killed the first motion, and this was a new motion. HUSTACE: So, yours was an amendment of$20,000 to an additional motion from Ms. Lui that was re-instigated. So, this is an amendment. LOPEZ: Okay, I missed it. So, what is the amendment? HUSTACE: Your amendment, Mr. Lopez, was to spend no more than $20,000 and work with the Office of Elections to run this advertisement campaign. It's just additional information to add on an initial motion from Ms. Lui. So, I'd like to call this to a vote if there are no other discussion. Mr. Kauka, roll call vote please, on the amendment. Mr. Lopez moved to amend the advertising campaign motion. Seconded by Chair Kossow. The motion to amend the advertising campaign was carried by the following vote: Ayes: Commissioners Akamu, Bath, Lopez, Lui, Yadao, Yoshina, Vice Chair Hustace, and Chair Kossow. Noes: None. KAUKA: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. You have 8 ayes. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. The amendment carries. So, the motion on the floor here, the amended motion, is to work with the Elections Office to advertise or outreach to the community our public hearings, the eight that are left in this rendition now, this iteration, and also the two upcoming ones in December. And not to spend more than $20,000 working with the Office of Elections as a Commission to build this campaign and send this information out to the community. Any discussion on the amended motion? KOSSOW: Mr. Vice Chair. HUSTACE: Mr. Chair. KOSSOW: Just for clarification, I just want to make sure that we're doing it right before it gets entered into the record. But, it's for the entirety of our public hearings, correct? And not just the two, right? HUSTACE: That's correct. That's my understanding. All of our outreach, not just the two in December, but all of the meetings that we have ongoing that are outreach to the 43 public. Especially the public hearings, and the two larger hearings in December. Does that make sense, Mr. Chair? KOSSOW: Thank you. Yeah, that makes sense. MELLON-LACEY: Excuse me, this is Ms. Mellon-Lacey. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Mellon-Lacey. MELLON-LACEY: I believe we voted, right? So, are weI don't think there's further discussion at this point. We voted, right? HUSTACE: No. I was holding the line just to see if there's any discussion about the amended motion. MELLON-LACEY: But we voted on it. HUSTACE: On the amendment. Now we'll vote on the full motion. MELLON-LACEY: Okay, thank you. HUSTACE: Is that—alright. Any discussion on the full motion? The amended motion? (Hearing none.) Roll call vote, Mr. Kauka. NAKAMOTO: Can we ask a question? HUSTACE: I'm sorry, who's speaking? NAKAMOTO: This is Pat Nakamoto, the Elections Program Administrator. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Nakamoto. NAKAMOTO: We were wondering on the timeframe. Are we going to be working with someone from the Commission to set these ads up? And what kind of information you folks want in it and when you're looking at beginning the ads, having them run. Setting up all the criteria for doing the advertisements. HUSTACE: Thanks for the question, Ms. Nakamoto. Is there any discussion from the Commissioners or questions or response to Ms. Nakamoto's question about a timeline? Or how the Commission will interact with the Office of Elections on this campaign? Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: If what you're looking for is a volunteer, I'll volunteer to work with you on that. But my sense is that, having been through these advertising campaigns, knowing what the outlets are, that you propose a outlets cost and then we draft the message. I mean if that's 44 the kind of coordination you're looking for, I'd be happy to help you or work with you on that. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez, for stepping up to help us with that. Any other questions? BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: I think that's a great idea. I'm just wondering how much time that's going to take `cause we're in the process of doing the public hearings right now. So, if we're going to take two weeks to do it, it'll be over, or most of it really. HUSTACE: Ms. Lui. LUL I was just going to say that in terms of the public hearings, I feel like the district Commissioners from each district should help with outreach for those. I mean, mine's over so I don't have anything. But they don't have to be Island wide obviously since they're aimed at districts so those would be simpler, I would imagine. Maybe the district Commissioners could work with you on those. HUSTACE: Cori, did you have something to add into that? SAIKL Yes. I believe for next week, the two public hearings next week, I think the deadline has passed for the newspaper. Yeah, for the newspaper publications, they normally have about a week. We need to submit all of our ads a week prior so I'm pretty sure we're not going to make next week's public hearings won't be able to get published. HUSTACE: Thank you, Cori. Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes. You're speaking strictly of the printed media? Like newspaper? SAIKL The print, for sure, I'm pretty sure about that one. The TV and the radio, I'm not sure. We need to get in touch with them and then theyI know for Elections, there's a script that they need to create for radio and I'm not even sure how the TV one will work right now. LOPEZ: Okay, then we just put the best effort we can given the timeframe. And I'm willing to give you the time, what you need from my side. HUSTACE: Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Lopez. Ms. Nakamoto, you had something to add? NAKAMOTO: Yes, I wanted to add, although we're going to probably have missed maybe four or five public hearings, in the advertising, we could consider putting 45 information in there asking these districts that we have already completed the public hearings, that they could still provide their testimony at the next hearing. We could still include those districts that we've already completed the public hearings at. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Nakamoto. I hope Mr. Lopez's offer is appropriate and works for you. And as a Commission, we can work through him to connect with you and do that sort of business. NAKAMOTO: Yes, we'll be in contact with Mr. Lopez. Thank you. HUSTACE: Mahalo, Mr. Lopez. Any other discussion on the full motion? (No response.) Okay, hearing none. Mr. Kauka, roll call vote,please. And if you could read the motion. KAUKA: Thank you, Vice Chair. If I could yield to you to just kind of restate that motion again for clarity since there was a lengthy discussion. Thank you. HUSTACE: Absolutely. I'll do it to the best of my knowledge here. After this lengthy discussion, I appreciate everyone's patience on this. The full motion and amended motion is to spend no more than $20,000 to advertise our public hearings for the upcoming months. However, we are able to get in on time and just to the community. Using social media, print advertisements, the TV, and radio spots. Roll call vote, Mr. Kauka? Ms. Lui motioned to have the Commission start an advertising campaign. Seconded by Mr. Yoshina. The motion to start the advertising campaign was carried by the following vote: Ayes: Commissioners Akamu, Bath, Lopez, Lui, Yadao, Yoshina, Vice Chair Hustace, and Chair Kossow. Noes: None. KAUKA: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. You have 8 ayes. HUSTACE: Thank you, everyone. Motion carries. I'd like to move on to the last item under new business. KOSSOW: Mr. Vice Chair, I have one more thing for agenda item number 5. I just want to make sure if there was all possibility, I know that it does talk about advertisements. I know that the Mayor and the County Council has websites. Is there a possibility that we can get communications or a form of advertisement in those websites as well? I'm sorry I didn't get that as a clarification in any type of forum, but I figured it would be good to discuss something like that. And I don't know who that gets directed to. So, I yield. 46 HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question back to you. You were thinking specifically about the County of Hawai`i's website, or? (Response away from the mic) Okay. And this would be probably on the Elections Office page or something like that? KOSSOW: Correct. HUSTACE: Any other discussion about what Chair Kossow has just mentioned here? BATH: Bath. HUSTACE: Yes, Ms. Bath. BATH: That's a really great idea. What I'd encourage be done is not have the information on the Elections site because I never go to the Elections site. I couldn't even find the Elections site on the website. Is there any way that there can be like a flashing banner when people go into the, maybe not that visible, but something that people didn't have to click to see when they entered into the County website, that the information was right there without having to click to any Departments or EPIC programs, or anything like that? `Cause that's the input that I get from a lot of people. The site's hard to transverse. HUSTACE: Mr. Chair? KOSSOW: Mr. Vice Chair, thank you. I think what if we just posed that question to IT and if Elections or even if our staff would be able to provide that information for us. I know that might be a little bit longer discussion if we can have like a banner or a pop-up that goes into the system. But I don't know what the parameters are for utilizing the County sites are. So, I yield. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Nakamoto, is this a possibility to work with IT in this capacity? Well, we don't have to have really a discussion on this but, is there a possibility to do anymore on the County website to bring this to attention to the public? KAUKA: Ms. Nakamoto is making her way, or actually I can speak to this. HUSTACE: Thanks, Mr. Kauka. KAUKA: Thank you. I appreciate that question and interest of having it featured on the County website in a way that appears readily. The Office of the County Clerk definitely has its own section, of course. And we can work with our staff to feature it on that end. But to the idea of not having to click further and just have it at the main site on hawai i county.gov, we can certainly work internally with our IT Department. I'm not sure who makes those specific decisions but I'm happy to put in a request to them to see how we can feature it up front as much as possible. 47 HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Any other questions or discussion? Mr. Lopez? LOPEZ: Yes,just further volunteering. Mr. Kauka, I'd be happy to work with you in terms of getting the feedback and seeing how appropriate it would be, along with Elections. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Any other discussion? Ms. Lui? LUL Many of our County Councilors have put out information to their constituents too. As to things that are coming up, we could all contact those people. I know I contacted our North Hilo community Council, and they've advertised the public hearings. So, there are other places that where people disseminate information. Thank you, Ms. Lui. So, thank you, Mr. Kauka. First, for posing that request to IT and County Clerk's Office to see if that's a possibility and we'll connect more about that. And to Ms. Lui's point, I would encourage the Commissioners to reach out to your current Council Member and see if they could pose that question on their bulletin boards or calendars and their outreach newsletters that they might have. Thank you, Ms. Lui. Chair Kossow, any further discussion about item number 5? KOSSOW: No further discussion and thank you for everybody's comments on it. Thank you. I yield. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. KAUKA: Mr. Vice Chair, this is Dennis. HUSTACE: Yes, Mr. Kauka? KAUKA: I think this might just be an appropriate time for me to mention too, I'm not sure how known this is by the Commissioners, but the support staff does maintain a list of what we call, subscribers. These are people who, individuals in the community and the public, who have expressed interest since the Commission began. Whether they have requested agendas or phoned the Office of the Clerk to get information. And so, this list currently has about twenty-two people and information is consistently sent to them anytime we post anything new. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. That's good to know. And so, we can encourage others to reach out to the Redistricting and you. The Redistricting office through Elections to get on this email list as well. Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Alright, I'd like to move on to item number 6 on new business. Mr. Kauka, if you could read this for the record, please? KAUKA: Thank you. New business item number: 48 6. Projecting dates and times of Commission meetings for remainder of the term. Requested by Chairperson Kossow, the Commission may review, discuss, and establish consensus on proposals for scheduling regular session meetings up until dissolving. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Does everybody have that Communication in front of them? Alright. So, the proposed meeting dates are thank you, Chair Kossow, for proposing these and at least getting this conversation going so we can look ahead. This list proposes the following meeting dates: October 28h, November 12d', November 24h December 9h, and December 23rd. So, those would be dates of our full meetings. And it gives, as you see, the spacing is more of less two weeks apart. And it gives staff an opportunity to help get things on the agenda, agendize things and publish those that needs to be out with a week's notice. Any discussion? KOSSOW: Mr. Vice Chair. HUSTACE: Yes, Mr. Chair. KOSSOW: First of all, thank you for the discussion here. I know that we've had issues in the past with the scheduling and the scheduling with the State Commission. So, I just wanted to put this into our agenda as more of a discussion. And also, it's kind of hard to go off of a whim after a Commission meeting to come up with a two weeks' notice. Hence the reason why I'm not in the Chamber right now. I figured it would be best for everybody to just have like a detailed plan over the next couple of weeks. I hope this helps everybody in their future planning. I yield the floor. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any discussion on Chair Kossow and what he's presented to us? KAUKA: Mr. Vice Chair, this is Dennis. If I may also. HUSTACE: Yes, Mr. Kauka. KAUKA: Thank you. To Chairperson Kossow's request to just sort of map out the next two and a half months as much as possible, the calendar was offered as a visual and to lay out potential dates for meetings. So that we could work forward towards them and then some internal deadlines. It's in no where set in stone, but it was an effort to as much align with the draft timeline that Ms. Nakamoto presented at the onset of the Commission. I did want to make one note about a date we plotted there for November 24 as a proposed meeting. I got word overnight that the West Hawaii Civic Center Council Chamber actually would not be available on that date. So, an option would be to move that up to November 23rd instead or participants that would normally attend via in-person and the Chamber, could do so virtually, but we'd have the Hilo Chamber available. Just wanted to make that correction as well. Thank you. HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Maybe you could speak about each of these dates if there are particulars about that pop-up for individuals. Well, we can start there, on the 49 November one since Mr. Kauka brought it up. If that's okay? Any discussion about that? Would it be possible to move it to the 23rd? Mr. Lopez. LOPEZ: The proposed meetings on the cover letter says December 23rd. So, maybe that's just a slight of the hand here. Chair Kossow, can you comment on that? Oh, this is from Dennis. I'm sorry. KOSSOW: Sorry, Mr. Lopez. What was your question? LOPEZ: Well, the cover letter from you to the Chair, has December 23. And then the calendar, has it on also on the 23rd. I'm not understanding, you're seeing 24h-Where is this? HUSTACE: So, that's the November meeting. November 24h. LOPEZ: Oh, November. Thank you. I'm off track here. Thank you. HUSTACE: Chair, is there an issue if we move it to the November 23rd instead? So, both Chambers are open. KOSSOW: I have no issues, but I would like to hear from the other Commissioners. HUSTACE: Commissioners, any thoughts on that specific one? We can go through each one if we need to. But any thoughts on moving that one since there is a conflict with the space? LUL I like the 23rd better and I might say the same for December. The day before Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas Eve is a little tight. HUSTACE: Ms. Lui is proposing that Tuesday, November 23rd instead for that week of Thanksgiving. Is that okay with everyone? Any conflicts or votes in the no on that? Any negatives? We get pretty casual here, so we don't have to get too crazy, but okay. What if we propose November 23rd then, for that week instead of the 24h so we have both Chambers? Okay. And then, Ms. Lui, to your other point, would anyone else like to add on to that about that week in December? Any thoughts on that? Ms. Lui,proposed December 22nd instead. Is that correct, Ms. Lui? LUL Yes. HUSTACE: Mr. Kauka, are the Chambers available on the 22nd KAUKA: Yes, Mr. Vice Chair. I only have visual on the Hilo Chamber, and it is available on the 22nd of December. If Scott might be listening or if you have someone there in the Chamber who might be able to confirm there, or I can check backstage. 50 HUSTACE: Thank you, Mr. Kauka. Scott has mentioned that it's not available on the 22nd as the Council is using this Chamber. KAUKA: Thank you. Thank you, Scott. LUL I can do the 24th. That's okay too. I don't know of what other people think. HUSTACE: Yeah, so it looks like this Chamber is available on the 21st, or the 23rd or the 24th. Ms. Lui, did you have anything else on that? LUL No. Either one of those dates is okay with me, 21" or 23rd KOSSOW: Mr. Vice Chair. HUSTACE: Yes, Mr. Chair. KOSSOW: I'm sorry. Was Kona Chambers open you said, 21st, 23rd, and 24th? HUSTACE: That's correct. KOSSOW: We might want to just consider doing it a little bit before Christmas. I know this probably—is thisI don't have the paperwork right here in front of me, but is that the last Commission meeting that we have? HUSTACE: It could possibly be the last one. We didn't propose one after the Christmas holiday leading up to New Year's. Just looking at it, we may even have to meet then to finalize all our report. We could use that final meeting to do so. I'm just thinking ahead. The 23rd is a Thursday. That Friday is an observed holiday for the Christmas holiday. LUL Can I propose that we meet on Tuesday, the 21"? And make it an extended meeting so that if we need more time, we really can spend time. And that's part of the reason I think the 23rd would be tough. Our minds might be elsewhere. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Lui. Mr. Kauka, is the 21" available on the Hilo Chambers? KAUKA: Yes, it is. Thank you. HUSTACE: Okay. Mr. Chair, is that alright if we propose the 21" instead? KOSSOW: Yeah, I agree. Anybody else have any objections to that? HUSTACE: Any other discussion or objections or issues with the 21st? (No response.) Okay. LOPEZ: I have a question. 51 HUSTACE: Yes, Mr. Lopez. LOPEZ: That week, the 20d'to the 23rd, has a dotted line, finalize plan. We're not meeting for that period of time. HUSTACE: No. I think it's just a time and a window that we should be finalizing on our part. LOPEZ: It's just for us to focus on? HUSTACE: That's correct. LOPEZ: Alright. Thank you. LUL Bring your sleeping bag. (Laughter.) HUSTACE: Yeah. So, our proposed meetings are instead: October 28h, November 12Th November 23rd, December 9h, and December 21". Any objections or other discussion about these dates? (No response.) Okay. We will put these on the calendar then. Thank you everyone for considering these dates and making time out of your schedule for these. We know they fall during the holidays, so I appreciate the time you spend with the rest of us doing this hard work. Any other discussion about that? (No response.) Okay. Thank you everyone. That closes new business. REPORTS None. REFERRALS FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION None. ANNOUNCEMENTS HUSTACE: Do we have any announcements from the Commissioners? (No response.) I don't see any hands up. I think the only one I wanted to share with everyone, let me go back here. And this is really for the Commissioners and the public in general that are listening in on this. We do have a set of upcoming public hearings. We have one this evening, at 6 o'clock at the Honoka`a Sports Complex and Skate Park Gymnasium. This is in Honoka`a, Thursday, October 14d'. So, this evening at 6 o'clock. We hope that you can join us. Then our next meetings are also posted up in the Redistricting folder. All the rest of them have been scheduled going forward. So, please look into that folder for that information there. Any further discussion or annoucements? (No response.) 52 ADJOURNMENT LUI: Motion to adjourn. HUSTACE: Thank you, Ms. Lui. Motion from Ms. Lui. YOSHINA: Second. Dwayne. HUSTACE: Second from Mr. Yoshina. Any objections? (No response.) Hearing none. We'll close today's meeting at 12:30. Mahalo, everyone. YOSHINA: Thank you. KOSSOW: Thank you, all. Respectfully Submitted, Nicole Bello, support staff to the Commission Approved on December 9, 2021 (date) Mr. Bronsten-Glenn Kossow, Chair Hawaii County Redistricting Commission 53