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45 Aloalo'Street <br /> Hilo, Hawaii 96720 <br /> November.1-21 1989 <br /> r31 <br /> Mr. Chairman and Members of the Charter Review Commission: <br /> I am Kengo Nagasako, a resident of Hilo and a registered voter of the <br /> Second Representative District. <br /> Thank you for this opportunity to speak on one of the items on your <br /> agenda--namely, item 4, "Discussion and possible action on what <br /> variation of single-member districts to include on the voter ballot;..." <br /> The first issue I wish to discuss concerns the term of office for your <br /> proposed single-member district council members. Is there any <br /> justification for a term longer than two years? In my considered <br /> judgment, the answer is NO. <br /> We may want to remind ourselves that the members of the Board of <br /> Supervisors, the predecessor of the present County Council, served <br /> two-year terms. In fact, the Chairman of the Board and Executive <br /> Officer of the County, ran at-large island wide and served a two-year <br /> term too. <br /> It's significant to note also that only two-year terms for Council <br /> members were considered and proposed by both the First Charter <br /> Commission in 1964 and the Second Charter Commission in 1966. <br /> Under the present compromise plan for district and at-large <br /> representation on the County Council, a four-year term was proposed by <br /> the Third Charter Commission for one reason only--the requirement that <br /> all the council members run at-large island wide. <br /> The second issue concerns the number of single-member districts to be <br /> formed. May I propose to you that a seven-member County Council is <br /> more than adequate to serve as the policymaking body of the County <br /> of Hawaii. <br /> EXHIBIT A 676 <br /> (Two pages) <br />