CHC 1979-07-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

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North Kona and South Kona would one representative for every 9,000 voters, whereas South Hilo would have one representative for every 3,800 voters. Under the West Hawaii permanent proposal where we said that we thought the only fair way of setting up the county council was 9 people directly elected from equal districts you discover that we have managed to cut the spread in the inequality of numbers down tremendously. We find that a very cursory division of the county into 9 election districts with very little splitting of precincts that you can very easily get your spread from a high of a representative for every 9,000 population in the Puna/South Hilo District to a low of 8, 150 population in a district made up of Kawaihae and North Kona. It is kind of interesting that in that particular district when you look at the voters, you will discover that instead of being low, the number of voters per representative in that particular district is 10% higher than the average should be, which says one of two things. . .either there are more voters per population in that particular area or there is a lot more population than the official figures show, which I think I mentioned before we strongly suspect. We won 't know until the 1980 census figures are available in 1981. Incidentally, this same type of direct election from equal districts could be done equally easily for seven council members rather than nine, except, it would involve more splitting of traditional districts to try to form seven districts out of the island. The other proposal that we made to you was for a four year interim period until the 9 district setup could be implemented. We proposed that we elect 9 from the four representative districts with 2 from all the districts except for 3 from District #2, which is South Hilo. Here we do find a disparity in the number of people but it is nowhere near what it was under the proposal that you have tentatively decided to put into the charter. We find that we have a high of 10,000 people per population per council member to a low of about 7, 350. So, we have reduced the spread way below 21/2 to 1. We have reduced it to about 30%. Voter-wise it comes out even better. You have a spread of 5,1,0,0 voters per member to a low of around 3,500. It is apparent from these figures that the most fair, equitable method is the direct election from equal districts which was the West Hawaii permanent proposal , with the West Hawaii ' s interim proposal much fairer than the commission's 5 plus 2 proposal. Looking at the factual analysis of the various proposals, the political consequences to West Hawaii and considering the certain divisiveness that will accompany the adoption of the commission ' s present proposal and there is already too much distrust and complaint between East and West Hawaii, we strongly request a reconsideration and the subsequent adoption of a plan fair and equitable to all sections of the island. -3-