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CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Do any of you people from <br /> the audience want to say anything to the commission, here? <br /> Would you come up to the mike? <br /> MR. KAWASAKI : My name is Masayuki Kawasaki and <br /> at the Kona hearing on May 22, I had the difficult task of <br /> cutting down a 15 minute speech that I had prepared down to <br /> 10 minutes. <br /> At the last part of my presentation, I said <br /> that the criterion of acceptability was your responsibility. <br /> I would like to expand a little bit on that criterion. <br /> Acceptability means that the plan that you choose <br /> for presentation to the people will have a good chance of being <br /> accepted because the plan stills the fears and meets the <br /> concerns and aspirations of the majority of the voters of <br /> Hawaii County. <br /> This commission is the 4th Charter Commission. <br /> The 1st Charter Commission submitted to the people a pure <br /> district proposal. I recall that the opponents of this plan <br /> gave the objections which were raised by Councilman Yamashiro <br /> and much more and also emphasized that the pure district <br /> proposal favored the control of the council by special interests. <br /> The people of the county voted against the pure district setup. <br /> The 2nd Charter Commission also failed to <br /> develop a plan acceptable to the majority of the people. <br /> However, the great effort and money spent on the 1st and 2nd <br /> Charter Commissions were not wasted for they provided factual <br /> information on the desires of the people in terms of their <br /> votes. <br /> Then came the 3rd Charter Commission. As a <br /> member of the Charter Committee of the Captain Cook Community <br /> Association, I worked closely with the Kona member of the <br /> Charter Commission, Mr. Ichiro Shikada. I found Mr. Shikada to <br /> be a profound thinker with a great sensitivity to the fears and <br /> concerns and the aspirations of the people of the various <br /> districts of the county. Mr. Shikada developed and presented <br /> to the commission a proposal which was later named The Shikada <br /> Plan. <br /> The Shikada was a masterful compromise that <br /> stilled the fears and met the concerns and aspirations of the <br /> majority of the voters of the county. <br /> One of the great documents of the world., is.'the <br /> Constitution of the United States. The members of the convention <br /> =which. developed this document are honored as the fathers of our <br /> country. The section of the .Constitution that deals with the <br /> legislature is a masterful compromise that stilled the fears <br /> and met the concerns and aspirations of the people of the <br /> original states. <br /> -18- <br />