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minutes 03-18-00Page 23 of 27
<br />BRILLHANTE: We didn’t really have testimony. We wanted to thank you guys for your time, and we just wanted to say that
<br />at the Board of Realtors - I’m the President of the Board of Realtors - when we first went through this, we actually were in
<br />opposition to a lot of them just because of the idea of creating larger government, and after getting more information, and
<br />meeting with a couple of your members, that is changing. And we’re not in a position right now to submit -
<br />RAY: Well, give us a call because we feel like we’re going in the other direction so we want to be able to make a case for
<br />that. You know, we’re trying real hard to make government -
<br />BRILLHANTE: Well, some of them, like creating new departments and -
<br />SANTANGELO: A lot of the times it’s just taking it out of another department.
<br />RAY: I think the bottom line is if government operates as usual, it probably will create more expense, but we’re strongly
<br />encouraging a much more professional operation here, so if that were the case, I think we’d be saving.
<br />BRILLHANTE: We appreciate that and interacting with all of you, with certain members of your Commission, we are
<br />getting that idea. And so, actually, you are changing our opinions.
<br />RAY: As soon as you can give us any input and concerns for anything that’s not clear, let us know.
<br />BRILLHANTE: There is some clarification that we would like so we’ll submit you guys some questions.
<br />RAY: Okay, thanks. Thank you, Del.
<br />PRANKE: The Police Commission and the Reapportionment Commission currently have language in their rules in the
<br />Charter that say that they are appointed by County Council seat. Same thing you would have with the Water Commission, I
<br />guess, if it gets changed. Well, that would seem to collide with this number 2, where you would have this change. So, if the
<br />voters should vote this, then there would be an immediate need to change two other parts of that.
<br />RAY: What we’re, and this is not a perfect solution because if number 2 were voted in, then the nine Council districts would
<br />cease to exist, but because we do not want to change the representation, we still want it to be tied to those geographical
<br />regions, or to smaller geographical regions, our legal counsel has said that he thinks we can come up with language to
<br />address that, and whether it’s ‘appointed from districts as existed in the year 2000', or whatever, he’s indicated that we will be
<br />able to retain those geographical districts, and tie the Boards and Commissions to those, because that was a real issue that we
<br />didn’t want to dilute that area.
<br />PRANKE: Okay. Well, it was my understanding that the purpose of this was to make it easier for the Elections Division.
<br />RAY: Yes.
<br />PRANKE: One of the reasons because then they would just be going with House Districts.
<br />RAY: That was testimony offered to us by someone from the Elections Division so that’s his viewpoint and you can’t
<br />question, from a simplistic standpoint, if you just had the existing State Districts. So we’re not suggesting that we would
<br />officially maintain those Council districts if number 2 were voted in, but that we would figure out a way to tie the Boards and
<br />Commissions to those existing.
<br />IRVINE: As of the year 2000, or something.
<br />PRANKE: I understand except for this. In order to maintain the fairness of those districts, we would still have to have the
<br />Reapportionment Commission keep looking at the size of those districts. I mean the districts couldn’t stay the same as the
<br />population changes. Puna is growing faster than any other district, and I expect that Lower Puna and Upper Puna will be
<br />separated at some point, and I’m not sure how.
<br />RAY: So we need to figure that one out, look at that more.
<br />PRANKE: Yes, I would say that if the public should vote, and I got to tell you, most people are not in favor of this, that I’ve
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