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the City of Hilo, actually, by itself, has about 40% of the
<br /> population of the island. About 30% of the population of the
<br /> island is in West Hawaii , 30% of the population is in East
<br /> Hawaii, but not in the City of Hilo,, but, by:v rtue of the
<br /> at-large election, in the past--and I am just talking
<br /> pragmatic history--that the at-large people basically come
<br /> from Hilo, itself. So, they automatically get their four
<br /> out of seven majority and they control the council, right
<br /> there, when in reality they only have 40% of the votes but
<br /> they have a control of the county government.
<br /> MR. SENSANO: I am just wondering whether
<br /> you are saying that to have proper representation, that it has
<br /> to be strictly district. In your way of thinking, does that
<br /> guarantee that each district will in actual working of the
<br /> council guarantee that each district will be represented
<br /> equally? What I am referring to is perhaps in the present
<br /> council, I am not talking about districts, but I am talking
<br /> about political party, we have a two party system where we
<br /> have 7 councilmen belonging to one party and 2 are of a
<br /> different party, but, yet, look at the line=up in the council.
<br /> ..........
<br /> The minority party apparently has power because the majority _
<br /> party"doesn ® t have the vice-chairmanship- of the council. I
<br /> was just wondering whether in the final analysis, the
<br /> individuals that each district will elect will determine
<br /> whether we will be represented properly or not because once
<br /> councilmen are in the council they will have to know how to
<br /> play their politics. No matter how you divide the districts
<br /> if the representativesfrom the districts do not play according
<br /> to the rules in the council , they are not going to have the
<br /> power that you expect them to have.
<br /> MR. MOSS: Well , looking at the area of West
<br /> Hawaii which, as I said, has 30% of the population,- under
<br /> the present commission proposal , that area would have one
<br /> representative, really, and he would be elected from District
<br /> #4, which consists of South Kohala, North and South Kona.
<br /> Now, Kohala,'presently has a member of the county council.
<br /> Kona presently has a member of the county council. So, you
<br /> have already eliminated one of those because you are allowing only
<br /> one for those two areas and Ka'u has a representative on the
<br /> county council. You eliminate him by District #1 which is
<br /> Puna and parts of South Hilo and they swamp any vote from Ka'u.
<br /> So, in effect, as I say, your 5 plus 2 proposal equals 1. It
<br /> gives just one representative for West Hawaii out of the five.
<br /> Whereas, today, we have three out of nine.
<br /> MR. NOTTAGE: Just a little bit more toward this
<br /> balance and equality of the vote. When the West Hawaii section
<br /> has one vote, two other sections of the island have two votes.
<br /> No matter how politically minded these individuals are, that
<br /> is still a minority, if, in fact, one section of the island
<br /> wishes to vote against them. Granted, political systems work
<br /> by the barter system. . .you give me one and I will give you
<br /> one kind of thing. . .and hopefully all of the politicians that
<br /> are in office are going to be thinking let ' s give equally to
<br /> every section. When, in fact, a person who wants to get voted
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