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In the City and County of Honolulu, as I under- <br /> stand it , the council appoints a reapportionment commission and <br /> that commission has rather strong powers. They consider re- <br /> districting, they consider of course the census and when they <br /> file their reapportionment plan that has the effect of law, as <br /> I understand it. I personally, and now I 'm not speaking for the <br /> paper, I personally feel that that is not a very democratic way <br /> to do it. But some such mechanism that would allow a reappor- <br /> tionment committee to take into account the results of the census <br /> of the federal census every ten years might be an appropriate <br /> answer to this rather thorny problem. <br /> The only other issue that our paper has taken <br /> a stand on if that is the appropriate way to put it, is that we <br /> feel that a two-year term for council members would be more <br /> effective as far as keeping them in touch with the constitutents <br /> goes. <br /> I do want to stress that we are not criticizing <br /> the existing council or any past councils. We feel that the <br /> East Hawaii districts are over-represented and the West Hawaii <br /> districts are under-represented. We hope that you folks will <br /> take some steps to readjust this. That is about all I have to say. <br /> MR. OMONAKA: Mr. Nolan, with regard to your <br /> proposal , does it mean that the county council would be elected <br /> for another four-year term prior to any kind of a districting <br /> plan? Is that what you are talking about? <br /> MR. NOLAN : We would hope, the newspaper would <br /> hope that the elections in 1980 would be for a two-year term so <br /> that the results of the census in 1980 could be taken into <br /> consideration sometime towards the end of 1980 or ' 81 in order <br /> to start an election in 1982. I don ' t really know if that is <br /> practical or not. I don ' t know how soon the census results will <br /> be available. <br /> MR. OMONAKA: If you are proposing a two---year <br /> termfor council , do you have any feelings with regard to <br /> staggered terms? <br /> MR. NOLAN : No. <br /> MR. OMONAKA: They should all be up for election <br /> at the same time? <br /> MR. NOLAN: If it ' s a two-year term it would be <br /> kind of hard to stagger it. , <br /> MR. TRULSON : If you defer this until the 1980 <br /> census , which will probably be out in 1981 , and then thereafter <br /> would you continue with the two-year term? <br /> MR. NOLAN: Yes. <br /> -4- <br />