ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com BY NANCY COOK LAUER | WEST HAWAII TODAY ADVERTISING HILO — Valerie Poindexter, the District 1 representative on the county Redistricting Commission, on Wednesday pulled papers for the County Council district she helped draw. Poindexter of Laupahoehoe was one
BY NANCY COOK LAUER | WEST HAWAII TODAY
HILO — Valerie Poindexter, the District 1 representative on the county Redistricting Commission, on Wednesday pulled papers for the County Council district she helped draw.
Poindexter of Laupahoehoe was one of 10 people who pulled nomination papers for County Council seats on the first day of the nomination process. Two candidates for mayor also pulled nomination papers, according to a sign-in sheet at the county Elections Office in Hilo.
Unlike members of its state counterpart, the Reapportionment Commission, members of the county Redistricting Commission are not barred from running for election in the district they just created. The Redistricting Commission, in drawing council maps for the next decade, gave great leeway to the district representatives to draw the lines, saying they knew their communities best.
Poindexter told West Hawaii Today that she didn’t see running as a conflict, and she will let the people decide if there’s even a perception of a conflict, “because they know me.” She said she wasn’t thinking of running for the seat when she was on the commission, but her work there showed her the value of public office. Meeting other potential candidates gave her hope for a different, more positive, kind of County Council, she said.
“When I was on the commission, I never, ever thought I’d run for council,” Poindexter said. “But now I see there may be a paradigm shift here in how the County Council conducts business.”
The apparent oversight in barring redistricting commissioners from running for office bothers South Kona Councilwoman Brenda Ford, who wrote charter amendments governing the commission, and Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann, who said he’s planning to introduce a charter amendment requiring redistricting commissioners to sit out an election cycle before running for County Council. Ford said she didn’t add it to her previous charter amendments because she thought it was covered by the state law.
“There is at the very least a perception of a conflict of interest,” Ford said. “There may be an actual conflict of interest.”
Candidates have until June 5 to file with the Elections Office to be on the ballot. But because the state Reapportionment Commission has yet to produce maps that stand up in court, no filings for state House or Senate seats are being taken at this time. Federal and county offices and seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are available now, however.
The county Elections Office will be closed Friday because of employee furloughs, according to an employee in the office.
Pulling papers for mayor were Honokaa resident Anne Marsh and James L. Agee, address unknown.
Potential County Council candidates pulling papers were Eric P. D’Almeida, J. William Sanborn, Greggor Ilagan, Steven Araujo, Robert Green, Brenda Ford, Steve K. Wilhelm, Ike Payne and James Weatherford.
ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com
