HomeMy WebLinkAboutComm. 024 - 2021-11-10 Kossow, Kauka: Summary of attendance and comments received from public hearings conducted prior to draft plan
COMMUNICATION 024
BRONSTEN-GLENN KOSSOWMEIZHU LUI
DWAYNE YOSHINA
Chairperson
LEHUANANI AH NEE
JENNIFER YADAO
JAMES HUSTACE
STEPHANIE BATH
Vice Chairperson
AINA AKAMU
STEPHEN LOPEZ
2021
REDISTRICTING COMMISSION
DATE:November 10, 2021
TO:Members of the Redistricting Commission
FROM:Bronsten Kossow, Chairperson
Dennis Kauka, Jr.,Commission staff
SUBJECT: Summary of attendance and commentsreceived from publichearingsconducted
prior to draft plan
Between October 11and November 8, pursuant to Section 3-1
Charter, theHawaii County RedistrictingCommission held one public hearing in each of the
nine council districtsprior to completing its draft of the redistrictingplan.
Based on notes from support staff, thefollowing is a summaryofcommentsreceivedfrom the
public and attendance at the hearings.
Comments, summarized:
what are the Commissioniples?
Puna needs 3 council seats
Puna is highly underserved and lacking in internet capabilities
donotcontinuetotie inSouth Kona with Kauas it is in current council districtingfor
District 6
keep communities together, try to cut along highways,and not across
keep the homesteadstogether in each of the districts
suggestiontousea fully computerized system that would do the redistricting in place of
people
HawaCounty is an Equal OpportunityProvider and Employer
nd
2021 Redistricting Commission - 2 Page 2
do more advertisements
more focus and effort should be made towards getting information out about public
hearings
the $20,000 budgeted for advertising should be completely used
request for the Commission to conduct a second round of public hearings for the entire
island
navigating the County website to get information is difficult
Additionally, four testifiers had various questions on process, points of clarifications, and
requests for information. In certain situations, commissioners and staff addressed these during
the hearing. Also, if contact information was provided on the sign-in sheet or otherwise, staff
made attempts to reach out and answer these inquiries, following the hearings. Any email
addresses obtained from those who registered or attended the hearings were added to the
Commissions subscription list for receiving email notifications.
For this summary, names of the testifiers are not included to focus on the content, but this
information is available if needed.
Video recordings for each of the nine public hearings in its entirety are also available to view on
the Commission YouTube channel.
_________________________
Attendance
Council Testifiers *Observers
District
1 2
2
3 2
4 2 1
5 5 2
6 1
7
8 1
9 2 1
Total 11 8
*observers = on Zoom or in-person; others may have viewed the YouTube livestream