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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExhibit 8EXHIBIT 8 Redistricting Commission Recommendations FROM COMMISSIONER DRU KANUHA • The Number One priority of the testifying public was to keep their communities together, and to not split them. Given the 4.99% maximum deviation passed by the Hawaii County council, this made it impossible. A more lenient 10% would have been more appropriate to keep communities of interest together. As these communities grow in the next decade, keeping communities of interest together will not be possible. • I will ditto everything commission chair Siracusa has stated on Communication 55.1 Boundry of District 7 and 6 • Census Block 150010214021012 is an elongated census block along the ocean that needs to be split up to not take up the entire shoreline of the area. • Starting at the ocean, District 7 boundary starts at Pa’aoao Bay heading east along the Hokuli’a subdivisions northern border (excluding Hokuli’a). Census Block 150010214021012(as written about earlier) made it impossible to keep Hokuli’a in District 7. If this census block was included in district 7 it would have split Kealakekua Bay state park, and this is not what members of the public or commissioners wanted to do. • The district 7 line then follows the Mamalahoa Bypass rd. south. Then the line went east, incorporating the community surrounding haleki’I street. We did not use Haleki’I st. as a southern boundary because it would have split a community surrounding this street. We followed the next census block south of this community and included it in to district 7. • The D7‐D6 line then goes north on Mamalahoa Highway. I did not want to use konawaena school road as the boundary between district 7 and 6 because it split the school in half. I wanted to keep the school whole. I took the line north towards the southern part of kainaliu and then followed an old road east. This line then followed census blocks to the summit of Mauna Loa. Boundry of District 7 and 8 • This boundary included all of the Kailua Village Business Improvement District(KVBID), except for those businesses east of Queen Ka’ahumanu Hwy. I did not want to split KVBID, neither did the testifying public. This is why it had to be in district 7. • It was crucial to put KVBID in District 7. If KVBID was in district 8 it would have split Kailua town right in half and that wasn’t an option. I did not want to split this community. • District 7 includes all of the old Kona Airport because of its proximity to the town of Kailua. By including the old kona airport, the census block boundary was made on the old mamalahoa trail, from the ocean to queen ka’ahumanu Hwy. • Boundary follows Queen ka’ahumanu hwy, headed south • Aloha Kona subdivision and the Pines subdivision could not be included in District 7 based off of the 4.99% maximum deviation. If these subdivisions were included in District 7, District 8 would have been a ‐8.35% deviation. Based off of this, we had to incorporate these subdivisions in district 8 instead of 7. D7 line excludes these subdivisions by following a census block north of the regency Hualalai Retirement Community and following Hualalai Rd to the south of these subdivisions. • D7‐D8 line then follows Hualalai Rd. East to Hienaloli Rd. where it goes north. • Line then follows Census blocks on the Waiaha Stream Boundary East to the Summit of Hualalai. • This boundary follows the Waiaha watershed boundary of kona. From the mountain to the ocean. From: jeff melrose [mailto:jeff@isleplan.com] Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 3:37 PM To: Udovic, Michael Subject: Redistricting report recommendations Mike My suggestions for the final report include: 1. Recommend to this County Council that it amend Ordinance 1129 (Bill 18) by striking Section 5 (2) which directs the Commission to adopt a public plan that has less deviation that the Commission's plan. This sends the wrong message about variances as being the most important measure and it undercuts the Commissions ability to make a sound, final decision that weighs all other factors. 2. The Commission should ask the Council to direct the County Clerk and the Office of Elections to begin in 2012 to work w/the US Census to determine the issues associated with revising census tracts to reflect existing settlement patterns. If changes are feasible, the Office of Elections should undertake a comprehensive review of census boundaries to be adopted prior to the 2020 census. 3. I imagine the software will evolve in the next 10 years but it is important to get the commission schooled in the use of the technology as soon as they come on board. We spun our wheels for several months this time, due largely to State procurement and decisions related to "residency". To the extent possible the Office of Elections and the Clerk should work w/the state earlier to get these issues resolved before the Commissioners start their work. Elections Staff need training in the software before the process starts so they can be a goto resource for the Commission and the public. If I think of something further, I'll send it on. Thanks for your help in this process. Jeff From: Joe Carvalho <kohala1@yahoo.com> To: "mudovic@co.hawaii.hi.us" <mudovic@co.hawaii.hi.us> Sent: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 7:20 PM Subject: comments Hi Mike, Just have a few comments about the 2011 redistricting commission--1. Census Blocks---some are strangely designed and too large. More thought needs to be given in shaping them, particularly at Mauna Lani-Waikoloa hotels examples are: Block 150010217041072--Takes both Mauna Lani golf course and Waikoloa hotels Block 150010217041035-Takes makai side of Puako Beach Road all along the coast 2. Training---more time can be spent on training---the maps as is were wonderful and easy to use, luckily MikeM figured out how to get the numbers in the census blocks which should have been displayed automatically from the start. Ability to split screen at least two maps---that way you can see the current and new you are working on. 3. Definitely the 4.99% either way was helpful but keeping communities of interest together is more important, so maybe going up 7-8 percent on either side would be better as long as it stays below 10%. 4. Growth--keeping it in mind is ok but more emphasis should be place on the now since so much can happen (like Puna and Kona) or not happen (Kau and Hamakua) Aloha, Joe From: Mike Middlesworth [mailto:mike@middlesworth.com] Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:07 AM To: Udovic, Michael Subject: my thoughts Mike--I know that we talked about identifying problem census blocks, but there are simply too many of them to list. The most troublesome issue in my view is that there seems to be no logic in how they are drawn. Many are not bounded by roads, streams or any recognizable boundary. The variance in size and shape is mind-boggling, and that makes the redistricting process incredibly frustrating. That said, my guess is that there is little hope of change, since many statistical comparisons are probably based on the existing blocks and bureaucrats are loathe to change their metrics. Many of my other concerns will become moot in the next decade, I'm sure, as technology changes. The software we used this time will be replaced or updated and whatever is used 10 years from now will undoubtedly be much different. Using the ESRI package made our task much easier than was the case 10 years ago, I'm sure, and clumsy as it sometimes is, having it was a great benefit. The delay in negotiating its use, however, was a major stumbling block, and whichever state agency is responsible should be encouraged to have all of the tools necessary for the process in place at the end of 2019 for the next reapportionment/redistricting process. The ordinance governing redistricting should be amended to remove the section requiring use of an alternate plan that is more conforming numerically. If it were followed, it would negate many of the other provisions that are intended to insure fairness in the process. I was particularly bothered by the rules governing our meetings. It was very frustrating to not be able to engage in discussions with people who came to testify. I understand the reasoning for the rules, but there ought to be a way for the commission to respond to testimony as it is being heard.