2000-01-15 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 01-15-00Page 20 of 59 HANDS RAISED: G. Martin. RAY: One. Opposed? HANDS RAISED: All other Commission members present. RAY: Okay, so we’re opposed to that and Chris will come up with some different options. SANTANGELO: Only for the time being. RAY: Yes, and we could very well go back to that. SANTANGELO: Because that’s what I would vote for. RAY: We also needed to work out, or discuss, the language in regard to the non-partisan part of the at-large seats. In other words, if non-partisan elections get voted in, how are we going to treat the non-partisan seats in terms of the specifics of how that works in the Primary vs. the General. YUEN: This would all be folded into the non-partisan question. It wouldn’t greatly complicate the whole thing. The issue is we voted on the non-partisan, and as far as the single offices like the Mayor or the district Council members, 50% plus 1 vote in the first election gets you elected outright. If nobody is elected outright, the top 2 go on and run against each other in the General. With the 3 member at-large running, I think the idea has been that you don’t have 3 at-large races, but you have a 3 candidate pool. It’s like a multi-member district. And then the decision has to be made. I’m sure, logically, that you all intend that anybody who got 50% plus 1 of the people walking in and casting a ballot for any of those 3 seats would then be elected outright. RAY: So, if you get 50% plus 1, you’re elected outright in the Primary still. HERKES: That’s Oahu, right? YUEN: That’s the way Oahu works. Well, Oahu doesn’t have any multi-member - RAY: This is bi-partisan and this is the Council at-large seats we’re talking about. HIGASHI: Yes, multiple race. HERKES: Non-partisan. YUEN: Right. Because you have multiple races. Let’s just give this out. Nobody is elected outright, so you’re going to have 3 people selected in the General. How many carry over from your pool of candidates in the Primary? You might have 15 candidates in the Primary, and logically, you could go vacant seats plus one. You could go double, and it’s up to the - again, there’s no right way, there’s no wrong way to do it. RAY: Roland. HIGASHI: Under the single member district, we have double, one member, the highest two, which is double. RAY: Top two, right, move forward. HIGASHI: So, stands to reason we could go with double. If you have three, and three don’t have 50% or more, then the top six would move up. If one has 50% or more, the next two would move up, so it would be four. Is that something that people can live with? RAY: So, does everybody understand what Roland’s saying? Whoever moves forward, you just double the numbers. SANTANGELO: In terms of the top vote getters. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 01-15-00.html7/1/2011