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<br />with a mailing, and not to -, the Commission is not pushing the set of amendments. The
<br />Commission has proposed them, but the Commission is not, you know, is not spending money to
<br />lobby the public to vote one way or another. It's just -, it's presenting a mailing that says, you
<br />know, if you vote yes on this, you're going to get a single member district. That means we're
<br />going to have nine districts that are going to be apportioned roughly, apportioned according to
<br />population of the Reapportionment Commission that sets it up. And it doesn't go on to say, well,
<br />this is going to make the County run a lot better, blah, blah, blah. This is what it is. Do you want
<br />it? And go for it. I don't think we -, you know, we didn't spend a lot of money. I think we were
<br />required -, as I recall, there was some requirement that something like that be published.
<br />BETHEA: I think there was.
<br />YUEN: There is a requirement -.
<br />BESS: It needs to be published.
<br />YUEN: That an objective summary of the proposals be published in the paper, and
<br />that's why this was prepared, and I think the Commission went the extra step of spending the
<br />money for a mailing that went out and -.
<br />On public relations, I'm not sure at an early stage what that would do, if it would -, because it's -,
<br />it'll kind of distract what the Commission is doing. And I don't know, you know, people are not
<br />stimulated -. The people are really going to be interested are the people who read the paper and
<br />are -, keep up on things anyway, and I don't know that by really trying to publicize your meetings
<br />very broadly, that you're going to get, you know, really great input.
<br />BESS: Well, one of the things that has come up is that the Commission sees that
<br />there may be a need for educating the public as to what is going here, what this Charter
<br />Commission is all about, and providing them some background early on that might assist in
<br />getting people to come out. How do you react to that? Do you -? 'to what extent did your
<br />Commission feel that it had an education function early on, say prior to hearings or during the
<br />course of hearings, for that matter?
<br />BETHEA: I don't remember. I think we were-, my impression is we were trying to
<br />gather as much information as we could from department heads, people in government, and the
<br />public, so that we could understand what might be best suited for this County. We weren't going
<br />out and just testing the wind with the public. I don't mean to say that -, I'm not implying that you
<br />don't listen to the public, but I don't think that's where the real source of information is going to
<br />come. You're going to listen -. It's really understanding how County government works, how
<br />the budget works, all of this other types of things, and then trying to figure out a methodology
<br />which best suits here. And so it's like the average person in the public, if they come up and
<br />testify, they don't really -, they haven't been exposed to, hopefully, the volume of material that
<br />you've been exposed to. It's the whole thing about representative government. You're supposed
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