2021-12-14 Redistricting Commission Public Hearing minutes (Final 1 of 2)

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up a little above Hilo and extends the district more fully into Waimea. Mahalo for all of your hard work on this. Thank you. KOSSOW: Thank you, Ms. Roby. We'll go over to Hilo. Mr. Kauka? KAUKA: Chair, our first testifier in Hilo is Amedeo Markoff. MARKOFF: Aloha, Redistricting committee, or Commission. My name is Amedeo Markoff. I testified last week; I think it was. I just wanted to thank you for what you're doing. I know it's a hard job. I think that some of the lines are problematic in regards to the line between Council 4 and 5. My position is the President of Mainstreet Association, which is like Pahoa's Chamber of Commerce. It's always been eased by the fact that we had two council members representing Pahoa town. And so, I really urge you to reconsider the way you've drawn the lines separating Council 4 and 5 and put it back to Pahoa Village Road. I understand that communities, like subdivisions, need to have continuity and be, you know, not separated. But, towns like Waimea and Hilo and Pahoa actually have a great advantage to having multiple council members. When I see the deviancy in the counts regarding a deviancy of 3.83 for Council 4 and—I just think that, you know, that's the socioeconomically most—the highest ALICE numbers and the most disadvantaged folks in that area. And by making the population great, it seems like we have less funds to go around to that population. I'm not as eloquent as some that will probably testify after me but having twelve and a half percent of the County Council vote, as opposed to twenty-five percent, is a huge difference. And having the funds be distributed based off of the population, so we're serving more people with the same amount of money, it seems like those lines should be redrawn and put back closer to the previous lines. But again, I do think that your job is incredibly hard, and I recognize that. And I thank you for your diligence, but there needs to be some changes to make this equitable for communities like Pahoa. Thank you. KOSSOW: Mahalo. Anybody else from Kona? (No response.) Okay. Let's go back to the Zoom. ARACELEY: Thank you, Chair. Kala mai. A little bit of indulgence. Is there anyone on the Zoom who is representing Kupuna Mo`opuna? If so, now is your time to present your testimony. (No response.) And if not, we will be moving on to Ms. Karen Eoff. Ms. Eoff, if you could unmute your mic, you have three minutes to provide your testimony starting now. EOFF: Okay. I think I'm unmuted. Good evening, Chair, and Commission Members. As you know, I represented District 8 on the Hawaii County Council for the previous well, eight years. And like Mr. Richards, I see a big problem with this current proposed map. I also served as staff to the previous Redistricting Commission, ten years ago. So, I completely understand the challenges that you folks have. Especially, with the census blocks and not being able to split those up in ways that would have made your job easier and the map better. So, the map is always going to have issues, but what's happened with moving District 9 all the way to Kaiminani, and scooping in so much of what is Kona, I 3