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HIGASHI: So, we're going to grind it till 8 o'clock, whatever? • RAY: No. Let's just go through this. I don't think it's going to take this long. You know, Roland, a lot of people haven't been at public hearings. They've missed a lot of input, so I'd like to, kind of, share that and get a sense of how people are feeling based on public input. So, let's try to go through this quickly. • The at -large seats. We've received a lot of testimony on this and so does anybody have anything? I've got a couple of comments on this. HERKES: I was surprised at the testimony against it. As you know, I voted for it and I was very much in favor of it because I want to vote for four people rather than just one, but it was so overwhelming. And I think a lot of it has to do with our elected officials using their lack of power and blaming other people, and so they blame other people so that makes it more difficult for government to function. You know how West Hawaii loves to blame East Hawaii for all their ills. And it's too bad but I'm ready to give up on it if it's going to be a deal breaker. And that's where I'm worried about it. RAY: Sue. IRVINE: I think Marni's quite perceptive. People were definitely calling it a total deal breaker. I think Bill Graham described it well as a 'bad apple'. Others were less polite about it. But Peter Martin, from Kona, did - HERKES: Threaten. IRVINE: Okay. I read his written stuff. West Hawaii voters are a minority of county voters, and are projected to remain so for the next ten years and more. He was looking at the Hawaii State Department of Business and Economic growth. By 2010, East Hawaii is projected to have a 119,000 residents, while West Hawaii will only have 86,000, not all of whom will be registered to vote in this state. So, he was, more or less, saying that West Hawaii would not be that well represented under this, and I think he has a point. RAY: George. MARTIN: In fairness, I'd like to think that what we've come up with, to this point, are valid ideas and possibly could be sent out to the public as such, but when the individuals in Kona said you take this out or we're not voting for anything you come up with. In my opinion, be a man about it. If you don't like that one issue, fine, but to categorize everything that we've done to date and say it's all bad because of this one thing, I've got a real problem with that. As far as this issue goes, whatever the body decides it wants to do with it, I go along with that. RAY: Okay. Daryl, you had a comment? 21