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Another thing that needs to be changed in this is that we need to increase the number of criteria by which we do redistricting. We only have four criteria in our Charter at this time and two and a half of those criteria were ignored by the past Charter Commission, without making any motions or rulings in public as to what the criteria would be. They had, apparently, a silent agreement on what they were going to use as criteria, and the public was never made aware of it. Although, as the Commission went forward, it became very, very obvious what their agenda was, their unstated agenda was. So, in my legislation I reviewed a lot of legislation throughout the Country and U.S. Supreme Court decisions and wrote in several more criteria by which redistricting should take place and should be considered. That will be submitted as part of my testimony to the Commission. Finally, there was never a written final report by the previous Commission explaining what they did or why. There was only the minutes of meetings and hearings, but no written documentation supporting any Commission decision that was made as a final report. Even though it went to the State Supreme Court, nothing was ever submitted to do this. So we have a lot of problems in this particular section of the Charter that I would like to see corrected. These two lawsuits cost the taxpayers, out of their own pockets, about $100,000. It was all taxpayer money trying to get the County and the County Commission to do the right thing, the honest thing, the legal thing; and both of our lawsuits failed, not for lack of trying and not for lack of presenting the facts in the case. It was a political decision as far as I'm concerned, and the split decision at the State Supreme Court really explained it. Judge Moon was in the minority and said our most basic right as Americans is the right to vote in a fair election, and the basis of fair election is redistricting. So, we need to have this section cleaned up. I hope this Commission will take this into consideration and will take a look at the legislation that I proposed. It did not pass in the Council, and some of the reasons given were the Council thought it should be in the County Code instead of the Charter. But the County Code can be changed by any particular group of Council Members. When you put it in the Charter, it's there until the people change their minds. I'm asking you to make this a Charter amendment and let the people vote on whether they wish to have fair and reasonable redistricting. Thank you very much, and I'm available for questions if you have any. CHR. HAITSUKA: Thank you, Mrs. Ford. Any questions for Mrs. Ford from any of the Commissioners? No questions. Thank you, Mrs. Ford. Do we have any other statements from any other members of the public? APPROVAL OF MINUTES CHR. HAITSUKA: Next on our agenda is the approval of the minutes from the last Charter Commission meeting. Mr. Nahale -a moved to approve the minutes of the March 13, 2009 Hawaii County Charter Commission meeting. Seconded by Ms. Jarman. 3