CHC 1979-04-17 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

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CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Did you come to a concensus or conclusion as to what would be the best thought on this? MR. DAHLBERG: No, it was merely a rap session where people ask questions. Purely educational. We didn ' t come to any conclusions. That is a good thought. Possibly, the next one we hold we might come to an agreement among the members in attendance. Not that that would speak for all the people of Ka'u but certainly for those in attendance. MR. TRULSON: Mr. Dahlberg, regarding repre- sentation, have you come to a decision? MR. DAHLBERG: No, I have not. I would say that I feel some form of district representation is in order. But I have not come. . .and that is why tonight even though I am tempted to take positions on the various amendments, I don ' t think that it is fair for an elected official to take those stands until I have attended as many of the public hearings as possible. As you all know I have sat in on most of your get- togethers. Sometimes through the whole session. Sometimes a part of the session. We have heard from groups and I would like to hear from lay people such as Dale Anderson and others. You know, island wide. ATTORNEY ODA: Mr. Dahlberg, you say you favor district representation. Some form of district representation. Under the present charter, six council persons are elected for specific districts but at-large. Is that the form of district representation you are talking about? Or are you talking about the council person being elected only from let ' s say the district of Ka ' u, period? Is that what you are talking about? MR. DAHLBERG: I would consider that as one of the forms of district representation along with what you might call the pure district representation where he not only resides in his district, or she resides in the district, but he is elected only by that geographical district. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Do you favor at-large repre- sentation? MR. DAHLBERG: I am not prepared to take a stand on the type of district representation that I feel to be appropriate because I haven ' t heard enough from what I would consider the grass roots of the Big Island. I think it ' s important to bring out one point that was pointed out at our rap session last Tuesday, and that is that I somehow feel as an elected official that the people of the Big Island haven ' t made use of the compromise that was agreed upon with the ' 68 commission. That is that the council person live in the district but he wound be elected island wide. I think sometimes districts forget that you have nine council persons and that you should make use of this. That you elected Councilman Tajiri, Domingo, Sameshima, Yamashiro, Lai , etcetera, and etcetera. ; You can talk to all nine of them because you elected them. I think that this is unfortunate that this hasn ' t been used as much as it probably should be used. We are responsive to our district in that we live here and work here but that we are elected at-large causes us to keep a broad overview of the entire island and also be responsive to those other districts. - 11 -