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believe past Waipio, up to Waimanu, or maybe the valley in Hawi, should be kept together as one voting block. Thank you very much. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you. Let's go to Kona. MR. KAHUL Madam Chair, and Commissioners, our next testifier here, and by the way we actually have two, but our next testifier is Brenda Ford. CHR. SIRACUSA: Go ahead Brenda. Good morning. (At this time Brenda Ford came forward via videoconference from Kona to address members of the Commission.) MS. FORD: Good morning. Thank your so much for allowing me to speak. I wanted to first thank the Commissioners for the hard work they are doing. It appears to me that all of the Commissioners are doing their very best to create a legal plan; and that is our absolute goal, is to have a plan that is legal, and that will stand up in court. I know that there are communities that want to be in location X with one district, rather than location Y. We all understand the reasons that people feel that they would like to stay as a voting block with their communities of preference. We all understand, as Commissioners and Council members, that it will not be possible to do that for every single community. So, I know you face a very daunting task; a lot of rocks will get thrown, and that is unfortunate, because I have to say, that this Commission, compared to the last one, is like day and night. So, I commend you for the good work that you are doing and I hope that you will continue to do the job that you were put there to do, and to make the decisions that will harm the least people, and benefit the most people. Without any plan being perfect, you are still capable of doing that. Please don't make any attempts to do anything very bizarre at the last minute. Please continue to do the good work that you have been doing. You are a reflection of each of our communities. You each represent your entire district, not just one section of your district. I know that you all understand that, and I know that you have a very tough job, and very difficult decisions to make. But, we need to make sure that the most people are benefited without subjecting anybody to being placed in a district where their vote won't count. Specifically, I would like to say that the southern end of the island is going to be having the worst time because they are so sparsely populated from including Volcano all the way through Ka`u, up to South Kona, and even the mauka areas of South Kona; they are so sparsely populated, that no one can really claim one district in those areas. I hope that everyone that is testifying will consider that those four very distinct areas are probably going to wind up in one district; and we are just going to have to deal with it. We are going to have to do the very best we can to serve those districts, but it is necessary because of the populations, to do something like that. 15