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minutes 12-04-99Page 6 of 39
<br />MARTIN: First of all, you’re right in saying that the Press, or media, is the one that’s slanting, or changing our decisions and
<br />discussions, and that’s something we’ve got to take out of our minds. I think, Roland, it’s a great idea. Two scenarios that I
<br />have with it, and some feedback from the populace - the four year term; they weren’t willing to accept that in any way, shape,
<br />or form, even at -large. But, again, we can work on that. It’s no big deal. I think it’s something that’s a doable situation.
<br />Your second point, in Section 3-17, Reapportionment Commission. Because of the monies that the County really doesn’t
<br />have, and we’ve heard that from the get go, with this Commission when we started mentioning a Special Election, nobody
<br />has monies. To put another Commission together, I think, would possibly kill this proposal. Now, if you want to keep them
<br />together, it’s no problem, but why can’t we just reapportion it as a Commission now, in the Charter, to say we follow the
<br />House of Representatives districting, which is six, and then the three at-large wherever they want to come from?
<br />HIGASHI: George, some thought went into that. We can follow the House district, providing we have six House districts on
<br />the Big Island; we don’t have any canoe districts if they reapportion us again.
<br />IRVINE: Yes.
<br />MARTIN: We can always put it in our Charter -
<br />HIGASHI: So that’s going to be a problem.
<br />MARTIN: I hear what you’re saying and it was brought up in that manner too.
<br />HIGASHI: So, the reapportionment thing also has in there, under (5), If the island is divided into six House districts, the
<br />Commission shall adopt those district boundaries as the boundaries within the six council districts, if it is. But remember, we
<br />had these canoe districts some time ago when they went to reapportionment.
<br />MARTIN: Yes, Kohala.
<br />HIGASHI: So, if we have six House districts, then they can easily convene and adopt those as our districts.
<br />SANTANGELO: George, for a point of information, if this is adopted, by the time it’s implemented, we’re going to have a
<br />Reapportionment Commission, right? Because aren’t we finishing up the census?
<br />HERKES: No, we’re not finishing up until 2000.
<br />HIGASHI: Based on the census.
<br />SANTANGELO: Yes, but, it seems to be, that by the time this is implemented, we would already have reapportionment
<br />going on.
<br />HERKES: No, this would be voted on in 2000? The 2002 is the next election to vote on the reapportionment, and there’d be
<br />two elections.
<br />MARTIN: So, if, in fact, what you’re saying is true, John, then no problem if we could couple this with a Commission that’s
<br />already going to be set up. What I’m afraid of is putting forth a Commission is going to cost the County more money. Some
<br />advocate of spending less is going to come up and say, hey, kill it because of that fact, and it’s a great idea on the top, and it
<br />gets killed for the bottom.
<br />HIGASHI: What we may consider is to have the language in Section 3-2, that we shall follow the six Representative districts,
<br />and when reapportionment comes, we can address that, at that time, if we change. So, I’d like to add that portion in, Mr.
<br />Chairman.
<br />SANTANGELO: This is something that we’re going to work on.
<br />HIGASHI: Well, I think we can vote on it today and fine tune it.
<br />file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 12-04-99.html7/1/2011
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