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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN RDC 2011-10-20 PH-KONA YANO HALL2011 HAWAII COUNTY REDISTRICTING COMMISSION DISTRICT 7 — SOUTH KONA PUBLIC HEARING Thursday, October 20, 2011, 6:00 p.m. Yano Hall 82 -6156 Mamalahoa Hwy. Captain Cook, HI 96704 CALL TO ORDER: CHR. SIRACUSA: Good evening everyone. Thank you for taking the time to attend. This is the public hearing for the Hawaii County Redistricting Commission for the 7th District, South Kona. The commission consists of nine volunteer members, one from each Council District. ATTENDANCE: Present: Mr. Joseph Carvalho, Commissioner Mr. Craig `Bo" Kahui Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Commissioner Mr. Mike Middlesworth, Commissioner Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Commissioner Ms. Ren6 Siracusa, Chair Ms. Linda Ugalde, Commissioner Absent: Mr. Patrick Kahawaiola`a, Commissioner Mr. Jeffrey Melrose, Commissioner Also Present: Kyle Chang, Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeanette Aiello, Committees Supervisor Maile David, Legislative Research Branch Karen Eoff, Secretary CHR. SIRACUSA: We have each shared our district's concerns with the other Commissioners, so that we are all on the same page. Based on that, plus your input, we will decide the geographic boundaries for each of the nine council districts based upon census data as well as the criteria found in the Hawaii County Charter and Legislation passed by the Hawaii County Council. Please note that we are only concerned here with County Council districts, and not State or Federal legislative districts. Copies of the Hawaii County Charter and the Laws relating to the Redistricting Commission are available for your review at the sign in table. Also on the table are the close -up insets so that you can see the actual boundary lines. The commission is first and foremost governed by the principal of one person one vote. We are required by law to adopt boundaries which make each of the districts approximately similar in resident population. Both case law and the laws applicable to the Redistricting Commission allow for a deviation of a maximum of 4.99% above or below the ideal resident population of 20,462 residents per council district. This is after extraction of non - resident military, dependants, and students. Therefore the maximum number of residents in any district can be no more than 21,483 and the minimum number of residents is no less than 19,441. The Commission has reviewed approximately 40 suggested maps showing various configurations of the district boundaries. We have received and reviewed maps submitted by members of the public, staff at the elections office, and those produced at Commission meetings. The maps that remain suggest possible district configurations. Some of the maps contain deviations in resident population which are not acceptable because they are either slightly too high or too low, but the Commission decided to keep these maps for review because it appears that it will not be difficult to remedy the population imbalances. The Commission rejected many maps due to major population imbalances but did keep others which addressed many of the issues required to be considered by the law, such as road connectivity and communities of interest. Some of these maps are more `friendly' to certain districts than to others. None of them are cast in stone. We may very well end up creating hybrids, combining the best of several. We welcome your comments about the redistricting process and your suggestions about the adoption of district boundaries. We have 6 maps showing possible configurations. You are free to comment on any or all of these maps or make any other comments you wish relative to redistricting. If you wish to see boundary details not shown in these maps, they are on the table. You will be asked to keep your comments to no more than 5 minutes. The commissioners may or may not have questions to clarify your testimony at this public hearing, but please do not expect us to answer your questions or engage in dialogue, as our job today is strictly to listen to your mana`o. If you have not done so and wish to offer testimony to the Commission please fill out one of the sheets at the sign in table. Mahalo for coming out to learn about this process and to share your thoughts. I will now call the hearing to order, and call the first testifier. 4 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC CHR. SIRACUSA: Our first testifier is Stathie Prattas. STATHIE PRATTAS (At this time Stathie Prattas came forward to address members of the Commission.) MR. PRATTAS: I'm Stathie Prattas from District 6 area, Middle Ke`e area. I want to commend you guys for taking on this difficult task; I know the pay is lousy, but thank you very much for that. As I was saying, I favor Plan _23 at this point, because I think it represents a fair split up of West Hawaii. I like that it's not as obtrusive as the other plans into carving out natural areas of West Hawaii. Thank you. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you. Our next testifier is Charles Flaherty. CHARLES FLAHERTY (At this time Charles Flaherty came forward to address members of the Commission.) MR. FLAHERTY: Aloha. My name is Charles Flaherty and again thank you so much for your volunteer effort; it's very much appreciated. I also want to thank very much your professionalism, and you're following the new law that we have in place. I also wanted to thank Brenda Ford for having really advocated for those changes to make it really a much better process and make it much more simple for the commissioners as well as for the public to understand. I quite frankly don't have a favorite map at this particular point and time. I do want to acknowledge Margaret Wille's efforts; I know that she's been talking with people in all of the communities around the island. My initial thoughts had I drawn a map were to be just sort of start from the National Park and work from there; the Volcanoes National Park, knowing that it occupies most of district 6 at this particular point and time. At this time the line for District 6 and 7 is just sort of south of Choice Mart, so this entire mauka commercial area is in District 7. However, it looks like I'm not sure if the numbers are going to make it possible in any way that any map that's drawn, if Puna's to get two representatives, which I think they do deserve. I think the question becomes where you're going to put the extra people from Puna? Are you going to put them in District 6 or are you going to put them with Hilo? And the lines sort of go from there. But at the same time, like I said, I know Margaret's worked with different community groups especially in Puna, and in her area as well, but I would just note on this map that she just handed out; if something along the lines of this map were to be done, I would include this conservation district area in district 6 because - -- CHR. SIRACUSA: Would you verbalize that so when we go back and look at the testimony we would know what you're talking about. MR. FLAHERTY: Oh I'm sorry, it shows Kealakekua Bay okay, and this is the Kealakekua Bay State Park and this portion right here is also part of the Park. CHR. SIRACUSA: The little part that sticks out there? M MR. FLAHERTY: Yes. This is Ka`awaloa Point and this is the ahupua`a of Ka`awaloa. This conservation area is, already at Hokulia is a shoreline park, so this area I would imagine if and when it is developed will follow the same sort of of pattern of having especially given this huge number of cultural resources that are in this area, was very, very, very, heavily populated area. The Alaloa Trail (the King's Trail), runs through here, the old Cart Road runs through here, the Old Government Road runs through here, and this particular area there is a conservation easement that has been placed on this particular, I think it's like 230 acres from the former Keopuka Lands Project; it was sort of a sister project to Hokulia. There's already in this area to the South between Kealakekua Bay and Honaunau Bay is designated as open currently on the plan and that is something that Kamehameha Schools has agreed to because again there is a huge number of cultural resources contained within that area. On the next page you will see Mamalahoa Highway and you can see the school because this is the track oval. Currently I'm not sure how the census blocks run in this particular area but Konawaena School Road actually runs through the school, so that you've got some of the school facilities on one side in one district and some of the school facilities and classrooms and what not on the other, so if possible I would adjust this map more to include so that the school complex won't be in two different districts at least. Obviously splitting this upper mauka commercial area is problematic, but at the same time I realized that just the way numbers run that it may not be possible to avoid that. But I guess my concern is the dilution of this sort of central economic area that is very critical to the Kona Coffee industry and lobby which of course seems like it's always defending itself against like Safeway, and what not. So anyway, those are my comments. Thank you. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you very much. Our next testifier is Wallace Nakamoto from Captain Cook. WALLACE NAKAMOTO (At this time Wallace Nakamoto came forward to address members of the Commission.) MR. NAKAMOTO: Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for your hard work in this redistricting matters. I live in District 7 and I've been to the last redistricting meeting where we have today status quo. Among the testimonies though, when it came down to reality the districts was split especially District 7 on the Southern end which excluded parts of Honaunau, Ho'okena, Kealia, and maybe down to Miloli'i. It doesn't make sense, because they don't have the same issues as the people in Puna, they're more in common with the Kona area; and so for me, I think logic would be a big part of making the district lines as far as what really makes sense, what community's have in common and I think that should be a big part of drawing the district lines. And that's all I have. Thank you. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you very much. And it is one of the main things that we have to consider, what communities have in common. Our next testifier is Margaret Wille MARGARET WILLE (At this time Margaret Wille came forward to address members of the Commission.) MRS. WILLE: Good evening commissioners, Margaret Wille. I'm from Waimea, I'm not from this area. When I first reviewed all the maps I felt that they were generally very good for one area and terrible for some other areas. So I've tried to work with different communities around the island, and sort of get their input and with great difficulty work to combine those. My map started out, well 38, 39, 40 so it's now going through different adjustments, and there's a copy of it over there. I've sent this out to various people around and gotten their comments and made changes and I'm just going to make a few comments to some of the testimony tonight and why it's how it is or what I thought about those ideas. To start with, that tail conservation area that Chuck Flaherty talked about where it's sort of a long strip up right along the ocean, and so it either needs to go into one, it's going to stick out one direction or the other, you can't go right down a line. I understand what he is saying and I think that it makes sense to move it to 6, and then if someone from Hokulia is looking, well why didn't you keep us right up to the shore, but now, from his testimony you can understand why that would be. The map for this area as it's adjusted now, there are a lot of similarities to plan 23 but I'm just going to explain why the major difference between this plan and 23, and why I think this is a little bit better. I have the map right now but if you look at it you're going to see that the line between 7 and 6 runs right down the highway, Route 11, so that the mauka section of Kealakekua is in one district, and so the Courthouse is on one side, and then McDonald's would be in a different district. I really tried to draw lines where they cut across the highway so that's if you look at this you're going to see how; here's Hokulia, and you've got the line going right there so that at least you would have the urban center of Kealakekua all in one district, and that the line would be in the most rural line between Kealakekua and Captain Cook. If you try to incorporate both of those communities, you sort of knock everything up and start cutting right through the middle of communities so I erred on the side of keeping communities together, and not necessarily keeping all communities that have been together, together. Let me just say one thing about this plan is, it no longer, most of the concentration of Volcano is all on the East side, so that in my view it gives Captain Cook a really powerful voting block in 6. If you start looking at the maps, it's not like over the tail end of Volcano or something. I also wanted to bring up what Chuck said about the school. There is one census block that could be moved on that is in one of these plans. Again here the residential area of that road which is mauka I got all into one district but my understanding from talking to some Kona people, that there is people going to this school from both districts and by putting the line here it kept it so that you weren't cutting through any road neighborhood, but you sort of gave the school somewhat on both sides. I'm not saying anything here is right; I'm just trying to explain why I made those choices. I also based this on some of the testimony from the other night changed or sort of an alternative version of 7/8 line. In other words how you handle Kona. Let me just quickly say that this plan puts the entire watershed waterfront area into one district, District 7. And you can do it either way; you can do it say down Henry Street sort of a line where both districts would have a portion of the downtown, or you could do it the way I did it here for example where you're giving the entire Bay one district, which I think has advantages at least like Puak6 and Kawaihae in that area, really feel it's important to be working on reef areas and stay together so. Thank you very much. 61 CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you. Do we have any more testifiers? Does anyone out there now feel moved to say something now that they've heard what other people have to say? Anyone feel inspired? Okay does anyone who has already testified want to testify some more? Okay, I want you all to know that this is not your last opportunity to input into this process. You can send emails, if you wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden flash of inspiration, "God, I should have jumped up and said such and such!" you can. You can email Karen and she will give you before you leave, if you want, she will give you her email address and you can submit testimony that way. You can also snail mail the commission, Karen can give you that address as well. This is the last of the public hearings. We went around the island and had public hearings in each of the 9 council districts. Tomorrow we have our first meeting after that and that will be in Hilo and then we will be setting schedules for a few other meetings during which we will try to take everybody's testimony and find a win -win solution. That's going to be a biggie. Thank you for reminding me. The meeting in Hilo will be teleconferenced, so you can go to the West Hawaii Civic Center and watch that meeting in Hilo tomorrow morning, it starts at 10:00 a.m. and you can take part in it by testifying at that point in time from the West Hawaii Civic Center and also from Waimea, the Council Office in Waimea. We will continue to listen to what people have to say until we finish drawing up our final plan. At that point we are required to go out to two public hearings, one in Hilo and one in Kona and justify our decision, I guess. The dates are where all the materials are on the table, the schedule of meetings. Please don't feel like we're locking you out tonight, you know there is plenty more opportunities and we do want to hear from people, we really do. Yes, come on up here. ELIZABETH HARDY (At this time Elizabeth Hardy came forward to address members of the Commission.) MRS. HARDY: I'm Elizabeth Hardey, and my question is the next time that the public is going to be able to see what you're doing, will you have maps that aren't, you said these were not exactly the way you had decided to have them. There have been changes, and I can understand that. That looks expensive to make but the next time will you have more accurate maps as to what your thinking is? CHR. SIRACUSA: No, because the next time is tomorrow morning and we will not have an opportunity between the time we get home tonight at about 11:00 p.m. and tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. to put together any more big maps for you. MRS. HARDY: I can understand that. Okay. But down the road you will? CHR. SIRACUSA: Down the road there will be yes, we will work together on a final plan and then when we go out to public hearings, which as I said would be one in Kona and one in Hilo, then that map will be there and there will be the smaller zoomed in pages also, so that people can see details of that. MRS. HARDY: With the streets and such? 1.1 CHR. SIRACUSA: Streets and subdivision boundaries. MRS. HARDY: Churches or whatever, some marks so you can tell where they are. Thank you so much for all that you've done, and all you are continuing to do. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you and thank you all for helping us to put this together because no one knows the island street by street, block by block, we all need to pull together because we're going to have live with the results of this for ten years until the next census. So it has to be definitely a community project and thank you for taking part. MRS. WILLE: Can I make one response to her comment. Hi, you know it is very difficult dealing with these maps, but if you go to the redistricting site and register, you have to put in your name and all of that, then go over to the reapportionment site, and if you have trouble call Karen okay. If you go in there, then there's a place where you can go to like a file and go to shared maps. Go in click shared maps and it'll have everyone who is listed there maps that are available to everyone. I would love it if you went into like 40 it'll say revised 10/19/11 and look at your lines, like right around where you live and that would be great. CHR. SIRACUSA: The software does allow you to zoom really close. MRS. WILLE: And then you can modify, everyone here can take this map, and modify it. My aim was what is the least bad for everybody, but if you work on your lines, like what Chuck was saying, should we have it through the school or have the school all in one district. And that is sort of the local question. CHR. SIRACUSA: Unless someone else wants to say something I will accept a motion to adjourn the hearing. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, at 6:35 p.m., Ms. Poindexter moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Kahui and carried by the following vote: Ayes: Commissioners Carvalho, Middlesworth, Kanuha, Poindexter, Ugalde, and Chair Siracusa. Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Kahawaiola`a and Melrose. CHR. SIRACUSA: Motion carries. Thank you. rl Respectfully Submitted, Karen Eoff, Secretary Approved on November 3, 2011: Ms. Rene Siracusa, Chair Hawaii County Redistricting Commission