Less is more, a panel tasked with redrawing County Council district maps to accommodate population changes seemed to agree Thursday after spending hours analyzing a variety of proposed maps.
“We’re making these little adjustments,” said Commissioner James Hustace. “For the comfort level of most of the public, people like incremental change. … People don’t like the drastic change.”
Still, commissioners noted, there has to be some adjustment of boundary lines to make each of the nine council districts as close to the ideal 22,232 people per district as possible.
The commission is completing a series of public hearings in each of the nine districts. While there is not yet a proposed draft map, the commission is interested in hearing from the public.
The final two preliminary public hearings are scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, at West Hawaii Civic Center and Monday, Nov. 8, at Waimea Community Center. The public can attend the meetings, subject to COVID-19 protocols. To inquire on availability or to register for access to the hearings on Zoom, contact the Commission at (808) 961-8020 or email to redistrictingcommis sion@hawaiicounty.gov .
Two more public hearings are slated for December once preliminary draft maps are drawn. One will be held in East Hawaii and one in West Hawaii.
Districts shouldn’t deviate more than 10% above or below that ideal, nor should the difference between the most populated and least populated. Currently, the difference between most and least populated stands at 19.38%.
Puna Council District 5, with 2,494 more people than ideal, and North Kona Council District 8, with 2,002 over the ideal, will likely shrink geographically.
Council District 7, with 1,814 fewer people than the ideal, and South Kona/Ka‘u Council District 6, with 1,484 fewer than ideal, will likely have to expand their boundaries.
Commissioners also take other factors into consideration, such as not splitting communities and trying to keep districts compact. That’s proving a problem for the two Puna districts, as well as Hamakua District 1 and Kohala District 9.
Waimea residents have asked for years not to be split into the two districts, but, so far, a solution has been hard to reach, without pushing the Hamakua District deeper into Hilo. Residents of Pahoa would also like to see it in one district. Likewise the massive Hawaiian Paradise Park, with more than 10,000 people, needing just a little bit more territory to almost warrant a council district all its own.
It’s not going to be easy — or even possible — for everyone to be satisfied, noted former County Councilwoman Brenda Ford, whose proposed map was the first one the commission considered.
“Nobody’s maps are going to be perfect, as we all know,” Ford said.