Reapportionment Commission meets tomorrow

Progressive Democratic Party activist Bart Dame is urging greater attention to the Reapportionment Commission.

The commission is scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 3 p.m. That meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Apportionment Advisory Council of Oahu at 1 p.m.

Bart writes:

I expect some of you have already been following the Reapportionment Commission’s activities. If so, I would love to learn from you before going into the Tuesday meeting.

They are meeting in the State Capitol, Room 329. Here’s the Agenda.

I have been advised that there is some serious struggle going on within the Commission and that this is the time for citizen activists to make observing the Commission a priority. The more public scrutiny, the less likely anyone will be able to get away with “shenanigans.”

If you want to get up to speed, here is the Reapportionment Commission’s pageawai on the Office of Elections website:

I could not find the minutes from previous meetings on their site. Perhaps this is related to their odd idea they were not subject to the Sunshine Law?

Nikki Love from Common Cause Hawaii replied that minutes of prior meetings are included in the pdf files of “meeting materials” on the Reapportionment Commission site.

Perhaps Nikki can also suggest specific background materials that would be most useful to those readers interested in learning more about the process and the politics.

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4 thoughts on “Reapportionment Commission meets tomorrow”

cwd May 23, 2011 at 7:11 am

I’ve attended all the meetings save the first one and am planning to request tomorrow afternoon during the Public Comment section on the agenda that an e-mail listserv be created from both attendees at meetings as well as from people wanting to get involved after reading/hearing about a particular issue.

I wasn’t able to find tomorrow’s Agenda directly although I got plenty of general Hawai`i reapportionment information when I Googled it yesterday.

Fortunately, I ran across the contact information through Derrick DePledge’s blog in the Star-Advertiser.

The meeting Minutes could be more accessible; however, the Commission staff has been on the job for less than a month so they have had to prioritize their List Of Things To Do.

However, I am not clear if the Minutes can be posted before they’re approved at the next meeting.

The meeting atmosphere so far is neutral to reasonably decent, but the Big Picture issues such as who should be counted when it comes to the State Senate/House races will definitely have a partisan slant.

As for the multi-member issue, I really hope that the Commission doesn’t waste its time on it.
The biggest problem with going back to the Way We Used To Do Things Around Here is that there is nothing to bar all the members representing a given district from living on the same street. Since multi-member districts will be anywhere from two to four times larger than the current ones, that could lessen representation for those who don’t live near the two to four people who represent them.

Frankly, I would prefer having smaller districts than we currently have rather than larger ones, but that would require a Constitutional Amendment which would never pass given the anti-government feelings so many people hold these days.

Most geographically large districts are in rural areas except mine which is almost ten miles from one side to the other covering about 40% of Kailua and nearly half of Kane`ohe Town.

According to some commentators, there will be a strong move to place certain areas of Windward O`ahu into the First Congressional District in order to beef up the GOP’s chances to win the seat. That probably would include Kailua and Waimanalo which would require carving out the area between the Pali Tunnel and Makapu`u and pasting it onto Hawaii Kai.

Anyhow, I support Bart’s position about taking part in the discussions. There will be plenty of opportunities for the public to weigh in.

NOTE: The Commission will go on the road with its initial draft. However, it might be worth the effort to request that the hearings be televised live and that phone calls can be accepted fromt the audience.

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Bart Dame May 23, 2011 at 9:20 am

Those who want to learn the Art & Science of Redistricting can gain a very good hands-on experience by going to:

http://www.redistrictinggame.org/

They have a very sophisticated online redistricting simulation game which will teach you a lot in a short time. I strongly recommend it.

Nikki is correct. The minutes of past meetings are hidden in the “Meeting Materials,” rather than openly listed as “Minutes,” which is the case with most commissions.

While I have long been a fan of “multi-members districts, I would hope the Commission would not take it upon themselves to institute such a change. Their current workload is complicated and contentious enough. Governor Abercrombie has proposed a constitutional amendment for ratification by voters. That approach, with the attendant legislative public hearings, is more likely to provide an occasion for public discussion of the costs and benefits of multi-member districts than meetings of the Reapportionment Commission.

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