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member was elected from a larger district, we didn't see them. So I just am
<br />encouraging you to please not try to stir this pot one more time. It's been stirred a lot,
<br />and I feel like it's in a good situation now, even though, clearly, there's things you can
<br />criticize about how the Council works.
<br />I don't have any other issue I want to speak strongly on. I know you all are taking up
<br />nonpartisan elections. I know that's important but I don't feel like I have any solid,
<br />important information to pass along in that respect, or any strong views of my own, so
<br />I'll leave that alone for you guys. Thank you.
<br />RAY: John, you have a comment?
<br />SANTANGELO: Well, just a small dialogue. Having been on the Council and
<br />served with John, and been a person that's always voted for single member districts,
<br />and from Ka'u, I kind of understand that. Of course, Ka'u's district, or at least the Sixth
<br />District, is a hundred miles long. But this is what I experienced. And in a single
<br />member district, we've had time to experiment and I think it's appropriate, and again I
<br />want to voice strong support for single member, but I think it's appropriate to re-
<br />evaluate and see if things can move forward. One of the things that the Chairman
<br />warned us about in the beginning, was perception. And if we look at this six mokus,
<br />going to six single member; they're still single member, not at -Targe, but single member,
<br />and three at -large. How does that look to the people? I just want to add a couple of
<br />things, of my experience on the Council. What I experienced, among certain Council
<br />members, was almost head hunting, or trophy hunting. That, in that district, there was
<br />a situation in a non-profit in which a large, very expensive vehicle was being lobbied
<br />for, in one particular part of the island that was totally inappropriate. It was to pick up
<br />kids from school who'd gotten sick, and get them home, that didn't have that ability to
<br />do that. You don't need a 19 or 18 passenger van. A station wagon would do. And
<br />that money was being, kind of, tried to be curried out of another district that was fairly
<br />poor. So I paid attention to some of that. As a Council member from Sixth District, I
<br />took a lot of pride in combining forces with two other Council members in one area to
<br />get a soccer field. In combining monies up in, say, Kona area, to get fax machines or
<br />copy machines, or some sorts of computer equipment to help the police track domestic
<br />violence. I went out of my way to work with other Council members, and John Ray was
<br />one of those that was very supportive and helpful in guiding me in that. I didn't find that
<br />that was the case. Okay? So I was very resistant to this proposal that really hasn't had
<br />a lot of hearing on this Board yet, and I just ask you, if you could, to look a little more
<br />into that yourself, and possibly open your mind, because your kind of input, a person
<br />that feels the way you do, and I felt that way also. If you would look in it in a closer
<br />scrutiny, possibly you could give us a little more input because it's important to take a
<br />look at things and say, okay, the single member does work well. Now we get very
<br />expensive campaigns, say in Hilo or some place where you have like a real small block
<br />of property that makes up a whole Council member, compared to a 100 mile area that I
<br />had to campaign in. On the other hand, we're looking at better government, and we
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