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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 6 of 45
<br />BALOG: Just a hypothetical question. There’s this thing about East vs. West so since you’re currently
<br />sitting on the chair, if you had to draw a line across this island, where’s the East and where’s the West?
<br />Because all I’ve heard about is fair representation for the people on the West side in Kona but the West
<br />don’t only mean Kailua and Keauhou, at least not in my mind. So, is there something that you and your
<br />staff, or fellow Commissioners, may know that we don’t know, where the West is and where the East is?
<br />Because you could say some of Ka’u is in the West side and the rest of Pahala, and wherever, is in the
<br />East side. So have you guys ever talked about where this line may or may not be drawn? In my mind, it
<br />always comes back to this feasibility of where would you draw a line, how are you going to separate
<br />East vs. West. When you talk about the West, if you’re specifically talking about fair representation for
<br />the people of Kona, what happens when somebody in Hamakua, which is one of the largest districts in
<br />the island, says where’s our fair representation so we need our own Commission, or the guys in Puna,
<br />say, eh, Puna is Puna and there’s Upper and Lower Puna. So have you ever thought about it or discussed
<br />it since I left there?
<br />TANAKA: No, Mr. Balog, we haven’t and one of the reasons I don’t even want to bring it up is because
<br />just the thought of having two separate Commissions, basically, will split the community, I think. If you
<br />go under that attitude, then you might as well have two County Councils. You might as well have two
<br />Police Commissions. And if you have two Planning Commissions, what happens to the Board of
<br />Appeals? Do you have two Board of Appeals or do you still have one? And then again, under the same
<br />argument, the members of the Planning Board of Appeals, are they properly represented from Hilo,
<br />Kona, so forth and so on? So I think it’s real difficult. I think that we have a hard time as it is and we are
<br />a single body here. We’re the largest island in the Hawaiian chain but City and County of Honolulu is a
<br />whole island. I hate to even think about dividing the island because I think it would be detrimental. We
<br />have a hard time, as it is, as one body, so what makes us think that if we divide it in two, it’s going to be
<br />easier to manage. But, I don’t know if you’d split it geographically or by volume of income on planning
<br />issues. I don’t know how you would do that. That’s a good question.
<br />BALOG: One of the reasons I asked you, you brought up Oahu, is Oahu has about 90% or 80% of the
<br />state’s population and they operate as one city and county. It just amazes me. That much people and they
<br />have, sometimes, greater issues than we do and they’re still one city and county, and they survive.
<br />That’s why I asked.
<br />TANAKA: And those of us who live on both sides of the island, like myself - Before my son was born, I
<br />spent just about 50% on the Kona side out of my Kona office and out of my Kona home, so what
<br />happens to people like us?
<br />RAY: Roland. No? Daryl.
<br />KUROZAWA: I just want to make a statement to go on the record. I know that one of the comments
<br />about having two Commissions - it seems like some of the push is from the West side, and being from
<br />the West side, just to let you know, I don’t think some of those people are speaking for everybody from
<br />the West side. There are some of us from Kona who feel that we have fair representation, so I just want
<br />people to know that it’s not a blanket statement from all the people from West Hawaii.
<br />TANAKA: Thank you.
<br />RAY: Any other questions for Mr. Tanaka? Sue.
<br />IRVINE: I was wondering if he was going to address the other matters that came in on the letter?
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