MIN RDC 2011-10-15 PH-KEAAU.tif - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you, June. Our next testifier is Zendo Kern, representing himself. ZENDO KERN (At this time Zendo Kern came forward to address members of the Commission.) MR. KERN: Aloha Commissioners, my name is Zendo Kern, I live in Hawaiian Acres; born and raised here on the Big Island and I've spent most of my life in Puna. I went to Kea` au School, Montesori School, Malamalama School and the School Of Hard Knocks. I wanted to thank you all for your commitment, this is no easy task. It's no easy task showing up at these meetings. I was at the Pahoa meeting, at 6:00 p.m. and here you are doing two meetings in one day. So, I wish you the best of luck on that. The task before you as Commissioners is paramount and will affect our districts for the next ten years, as you know. To me, the most important thing to consider is community continuity; continuity before population numbers. I know the Charter mandates a plus or minus 4.99% population for each of the nine districts; and that is a tight margin to work with, especially when community continuity is on the line. The current law and Ordinance 11 -29 is too ambitious, and I think it has the potential to hurt our communities by putting a greater value on minimum deviation than on community continuity. I see the intent of the Ordinance is for fairness to population representation; which is a good thing, just not at the cost of splitting our communities. There is a psychological issue at hand as well in making our voting districts. The person representing a part of a district should also live in that same district. To have a representative who lives outside of our district does not support a positive morale in the community and a positive attitude when it comes to voting. Puna is currently represented by three different council members and only one of which actually lives in the actual Puna district; and that is wrong. I will only be commenting on the boundaries for the Puna district, because that is where I live and last time I commented on Map 10. I liked the essence of Map 10, not where those lines are exactly drawn, but I like the essence of Map 10 and how that splits basically a Puna Mauka and a Puna Makai. Growing up here in Puna, there has always been a Puna Mauka and a Puna Makai. think Map 10 best depicts that with some work. The common sense divide of one of the largest districts in our state. For the sake of being very clear, Puna, as a whole is a community and we should have two representatives; one representing Puna Makai, and one representing Puna Mauka. I urge you, as Commissioners, to push the plus or minus 4.99 %, push it as hard as you can to keep our communities voting together which in turn will create stronger communities around our entire Hawaii island. In closing, I humbly ask that each one of you do your best to have our communities vote together and keep our communities strong. Mahalo for your time, and I wish you all the best and the clarity in your decision making process. Thank you. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you Zendo. Our next testifier is Ken McGilvray KEN McGILVRAY (At this time Ken McGilvray came forward to address members of the Commission.) 12