2000-03-25 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 03-25-00Page 3 of 34 those Boards and Commissions, and in fact like I said, we’d like to expand it with the Water Commission. So that’s the discussion there. Just to step back a little bit, and I’m sure you can tell from the way I’m discussing this, this is very much a work in progress. We’re still in the middle of discussing how a lot of this would work. We’re very open to input, but we wanted to get something out sooner rather than later. The third item - FORD: Mr. Ray? RAY: Yes ma’am. FORD: Before you leave number 2, could you just explain how we got nine districts right now? If number two is not passed, will the nine districts remain exactly as they are today? RAY: Yes they will, and I think that was voted in in 1992. Is that right, Chris? YUEN: ‘90. RAY: 1990. It took place in 1992. It was voted in in 1990 and it started in ‘92, the nine single member districts. Yes, so that would be no change. OTTERSON: Shall we wait until you get through or just ask you right now? I mean you’re right on the subject. Of the Councilmen that are at-large, did you say the whole bunch or just two? RAY: No, what’s being proposed was you’d have six single member districts, so six people would run from single member districts just the way the nine do now. They’d would just be larger districts. In other words, in Kona, Jim Rath, the district he represents would be a Council District now, as well as a House District, and then the South Kona House District would also be a Council District, so you’d have the six districts which would be exactly the same as the State House Districts, and you’d have three Council persons running at-large. OTTERSON: Just three? RAY: Right. OTTERSON: I don’t see how you could work that really. RAY: Well, we can talk about that later. OTTERSON: Okay, thank you. RAY: Yes, it’s not only easy to work, it’s actually a more common system throughout the country; actually a mix of single member and Council Districts at-large. I don’t want to get into all that. There’s information here from the League of Women Voters in regard to that, but not to say that Hawaii County is the same, or even that similar to other jurisdictions, but just to give you some general background. Yes sir. P. MARTIN: While you’re - HERKES: Oh, microphone. You’re all going to have to talk on the microphone. RAY: Yes, the microphone is for recording your remarks, and as you notice, there are only five Commission members here so we want to make sure that we get all the input recorded. P. MARTIN: But, while you were explaining that, could you explain to us your rationale for making that change? RAY: I think if you’ll look at the information passed out from the League of Women Voters, it pretty much reflects the feeling of the Commission that you’d have more focus on the bigger picture from an island-wide perspective. As an file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 03-25-00.html7/1/2011