Citizens claim 2001 county redistricting illegal; Supreme Court to examine petition
by Bobby CommandWest Hawaii Todaybcommand@westhawaiitoday.com Wednesday, April 26, 2006 8:48 AM HST
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to examine a claim by a local citizen's group that the 2001 redistricting of Hawaii County was illegal.Despite having no money or a qualified attorney to take the case for free, Citizens for Equitable and Responsible Government, led by Kona residents Brenda Ford and Chuck Flaherty, has succeeded in the first step of having the case filed and assigned a docket number.It is the first step in a petition process that must end with a "writ of certiorari" from the Supreme Court in order for the case to be debated. The court can refuse to take the case, and in fact, receives thousands of "cert petitions" each year, denying all but about one hundred.Mark Van Pernis, chairman of the commission, had no comment about the merits of the appeal, but said the Supreme Court's action is part of a procedure that does not necessarily mean the case will be head by the justices."They control their own calendar," Van Pernis said. "It's tentative and they could toss it out later."Ford, who is not an attorney, said the county has 30 days from April 19, after which the case will be scheduled for review. Deputy Corporation Counsel Patricia O'Toole said the county will respond to the case if "cert" is granted.While even Ford admits the odds are long, Ford said she was spurred on by the Hawaii Supreme Court's 3-2 vote, in which Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon was one of the dissenters."We ran out of money and no one would take the case pro bono, but we believe in the depths of our soul that we are correct about this," said Ford, who prepared all the documents accepted by the high court. "If Justice Moon (and Associate Justice Paula A. Nakayama) had not dissented, I don't think I would have gone this far."
The case centers around the organization's belief that the 2001 Redistricting Commission gerrymandered lines either to protect East Hawaii's dominance in Hawaii County politics, or to simply for the sake of convenience. Either way, Ford said the commission violated a number of legal precedents in the process.CERG said the final maps overstated the population of County Council District 2 by including nearly 900 non-residents who attended the University of Hawaii at Hilo.Ford said that made the vote of the District 2 councilman more powerful than any other district."When you force that many non-residents into District 2," said Ford, "you also force that many out, and since non-residents don't vote, there are really fewer people in the district."According to Flaherty, president of CERG, that also lessened the power of votes in the fast-growth areas of Lower Puna and North Kona, since too many residents were assigned there by the commission."As a result, the total deviation in population has grown even larger as the fast-growth areas expand in population," said Flaherty in a prepared release. "Each year, the weight of each vote has decreased relative to votes in Hilo."Ford said the commission also did not formally establish legal criteria against which to measure the legality of their plan as required by Supreme Court precedent. Ford said growth rates, socio-economic factors, the "ideal population" number of 16,423 residents in each district and compactness of the districts were ignored by the commission despite public testimony.CERG created an alternative map which they said was more fair and presented it to the commission."Given the numerous problems in Puna and West Hawaii resulting from past Hilo-dominated County Councils, Brenda Ford and I accepted the task of creating an alternative redistricting plan in 2001," said Flaherty.The CERG map, which Flaherty said gained islandwide support, gave the urban area of Kailua-Kona its own council representative. It also provided West Hawaii and Puna, the two communities suffering from growth-associated problems, with three and two council representatives, respectively.Ford, who said it took three tries and 180 pounds of paper shipped to Washington D.C. before the high court accepted her petition -- said she believes the CERG map is fair, but she said there are other fair ways to divide the population."I'm not pushing the CERG map, I'm not trying to unseat any council person and I'm not trying to overturn any legislation that has been passed," said Ford. "I'm not trying to cause havoc. I'm just trying to fix a problem."
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