PRINCEVILLE — When Charter Review Commissioner James “Jimmy” Nishida Jr. called for an informal straw poll at the tail end of a public meeting to discuss County Council redistricting, he first asked how many were content with the current system.
PRINCEVILLE — When Charter Review Commissioner James “Jimmy” Nishida Jr. called for an informal straw poll at the tail end of a public meeting to discuss County Council redistricting, he first asked how many were content with the current system.
None of the nearly 30 North Shore residents who attended the recent Princeville meeting raised their hands — those who did voted silently.
When he asked how many would support changing the county’s current system in which all seven council members are elected as at-large candidates, many, but not all, hands went up.
While a call for change was clear, what differed among those who attended the meeting, the second of three hosted by a Charter Review Commission subcommittee, was how it should be done.
“Our responsibility of bringing this to you is simply to make desirable and necessary changes,” Charter Review Commissioner Charles Patrick Stack, one of three Planning Commissioners on the subcommittee, told the crowd on Monday. “Our opinions are going to differ — we may not always see one eye to another — but the kind of driving force is the question on the ballot, which will be up or down.”
The current proposal on the table, according to Charter Review Commission documents, would allow voters to decide whether the county should establish seven geographic districts and elect council members based on the district in which they both reside.
This would allow all seven districts to have a district resident on the County Council.
Lance Collins, a Maui attorney visiting from Kahului and former Maui County Council candidate, said having a district system makes it easier for non-incumbent candidates to run in smaller districts than to campaign islandwide.
Candidates running in a district system, he said, would have to spend less money because they are appealing to a smaller margin of the island’s population.
It is a concept that, Collins explained, will become even more important over time as the island’s population grows.
“I personally think, based on my experience, that the system you guys currently have is probably not working very well, and as the population gets bigger, it’s going to increasingly not work,” Collins said. “Almost anything other than what you currently have would be better.”
Nishida, however, disagreed and explained that some of the advantages incumbents have, such as name recognition, would not change with redistricting.
He also pointed out that residents have the option of picking two candidates under the current system instead of only having one top pick under some redistricting proposals.
“It kind of focuses on the incumbent anyway,” Nishida said. “I don’t think you’re going to have much improvement in that area if you go to seven districts.”
Councilman Gary Hooser’s son, Dylan Hooser, said he would support a proposal that would include a mixture of at-large and multi-member district seats to create some flexibility and offer more options to voters.
“Our population is growing and we need to represent that,” Dylan Hooser said. Kilauea resident Bert Lyon, a longtime redistricting supporter, said he supports a seven districts proposal because it would, by his estimates, dwindle the winning margins between candidates to about 500, compared about 1,000 to 2,000 under other redistricting proposals.
A seven district system, he added, would also allow residents in specific geographical areas, such as the North Shore, to vote someone into office who lives in their respective communities and understands certain dynamics that exist there.
Hanalei resident Greg Goodwin said he was battling a broken system when he ran for a county council seat at least two times in the 1980s and 1990s.
The problem, he said, is that the system is still broken.
Few council members, he claims, are keenly aware of the issues affecting people living people on the North Shore or the Westside.
“I like the four at-large and three district or even expanding the council to nine, but anything is better than the seven at-large that we have now,” Goodwin said.
County Boards and Commissions Administrator Paula Morikami said the subcommittee will submit a recommendation to the full commission on this proposal in February.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com.
