CHC 1979-03-13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MR. MOSS:. I doubt if it would be a legal method. . I used it to try to get around the problem .of what is - theoteal population of the various districts of the County of Hawaii at the present time. If you look at the distribution of registered voters versus the officialpopulation of the county, you will find some very interesting things. That either some of the representative districh;s,' „people are very good at getting people to register or elsethe population of that districtis very much understated. `,Its seemed tome that the number of registered voters was probably 'as good an indication of what the real population of those districts was. Now, I may be wrong, but I 'm not 'sure ' that you could 'make this stand:, up in court if it were challenged but. . . . MR. ISHIDA: , I '•don ' t know, myself. I just wondered if your 'aommittee had made some 'research for deter- mination on that faceor. - MR. MOSS: If, you look at theper population figures for those you get a little bit different situation. But, again , - I estimated the population of Kona about a year and a half ago to be 18, 000 at that time. Using the increase in telephones installed , for one thing. The increase in houses ;t that were built over there. The building permits. The Chamr of Commerce has done quite a bit of work over there. I 'm not familiar with all of what they did. They've been talking a figure of 25 , 000. ?et . the official population is around 13 , 000 or 14, 000. Now, we have to wait fora couple of years until the next census comes up but in the meantime you gentlemen have to make up a charter revision. Now, I don ' t know what kind of set of :figures you want to ?.use but using the voters registra- tion seems'`to me. . .those are the people who elect the County Councilmen and if you can make reasonable numbers out of it. . . ,and I think you can out of the four districts. . .with 3 from Hilo and 2 from everywhere else. . .that isas good a number to7hang your hat on as the official population figuresare. MR. ISHIDA: Another point. On the confirmation of department heads by the council . I believe inyour recommen- dation you also indicated that you wantedtithe counii-to:ha'vethe`' power to remove the department heads.. Is tha-e your committee' s position yet? MR. MOSS: Yes , sir. We feel , again , this is a tool that the council can use in an apparent never ending battle with the Mayor. This is not just Hawaii County. Look at Honolulu County for instance., - Anywhere you go, practically, you will always find a conflict between the legislative body and the administration. It seems to just be the nature of the beast. -, MR. ISHIDA: The -only" thing that I was thinking about is that if you do . give. the council the powero, remo.val I see that maybe the department heads might find themselves in a quandary as to who their master will be. I don ' t know whether - 28 -