Does Anyone Care? Lets hear from you.

This sounds like a pretty wild speculation, doesn't it? But let me state how it would be done, and then indicate how recent councilactions have set the wheels in motion. Finally, if I' ve not bored you tosleep or caused an (involuntary) hitting of the delete button,I'll suggest some ways that these council actions, which remove a levelplaying field from the next elections through 2008, might be mitigatedif others agree with my thesis and are willing to contact theirrepresentatives.Control of the political future of Hi. county until 2022 will rest with theMayor elected in 2008. Why? Because he will appoint both the nextCharter Commission (2009) and reapportionment commission (2011).
Charter Commission: May submit charter amendments to be voted upon in the next or in a special election- or it may submit a whole new charter. Either method might allow separate West Hi. planning, public works,parks&rec, water commissions, etc. In short, it could allow a vote on issues to give West Hawaii(and other parts of the county) a voice in running their government, staffed by officials living nearby rather than 100 miles away. If a Hilo Centric is Mayor, guess what the outcome will be of members on that commission? The next one is not chosen until 2019! Reapportionment Commission: This group redraws the lines for council districts. Think that population shifts to Puna and West Hi. will get those areas more representation?

Let me know if you do- I have a great used car... It depends on who is appointed to the commission. The last commission illegally counted military personnel (and possibly families) temporarily training outside Hilo, who were residents elsewhere (and who the courts ruled should not have been counted) as Hilo residents. Also UH-Hilo students who were residents of other counties. They then , even with these phony numbers, made the Hilo districts as small as possible in numbers to get more district from fewer bodies. They also gerrymandered to do Puna out of
a deserved second council district. Sure, courts have ruled aspects
of this redistricting illegal- but it still stands. Courts are loath to overturn legislative actions, and if they do, the actions are likely moot by the time action and appeals are completed. Now we can see that if a fair minded and honest person with the bestinterests of the entire county guiding him/her is not elected as the next Mayor, the county government can be controlled from Hilo until 2022. The Charter Commission will choose not to put reforms wanted by West Hi.on the ballot , and we have seen that a Hilo controlled council will not even put issues benefitting the entire county on the ballot. This is an imperial colonial government, and we are the outer colonies whose purpose is to provide revenue (pay tribute) to support Rome- excuse me, Hilo. WHY IS THIS NUT SUDDENLY TRYING TO MAKE THIS POINT? As in my earlier email to some of you, as I strolled thru Kuhio Plazalast Saturday, I saw around 70 feet of windows with American flags and Wiki-Wiki voter signs lining the aisle heading to Macy's. Wow did that catch my eye! Had I not been registered, and if it were Monday-Friday, I surely would have taken 3 minutes to register. And the same convenient location will be open many days before the election so that those voters who are usually too lazy to vote, will have the opportunity to do so without having planned on it before leaving home.
Quoting from the Council Resolution authorizing a one year lease (with continuation possible)
of 5,000 sq. ft. for $8594/month of our West Hi. tax dollars:
"WHEREAS ,the temporary move of the Election Office to Prince Kuhio Plaza could
increase voter registration and absentee voter turnout due to its high visibility , convenient public
location and a high volume of foot traffic:and..." These are exactly the reasons for using our tax dollars for this prime space- as a brilliantlygreat location to register new (Hilo) voters and encourage walk-in voting. I hear you! You are saying, 'but it is good to register voters and get out the vote!' And you arecorrect- but remember our original premise: a fair election requires a levelplaying field. If 'our' County Government spends 100k/annum for space in the most highlytrafficked mall in the county, plus 500k to $1,000,000/annum in salaries to staff theregistration effort, and zero for a like effort in the rest of the county- the playing field is not level.Kuhio Mall is probably visited daily by 95% Hilo residents. Let us just think about some numbers. Perhaps 5,000 people go through Kuhio Malldaily (I'll use a firmer number if someone can get one for me). What if just ONEof every HUNDRED- one percent- says, 'hey,I can just duck in here, register, and be a goodAmerican.' That works out to 50/day, over 1,000 per month, and up to 12,000 per annum if there arestill any unregistered Hilo residents out there. This is like giving the 3 Hilo districts the voting
power of 5-6 districts , a plurality.There is no similar effort elsewhere on the island- only volunteer efforts,
no funds to rent space, denied access to many high traffic venues (management policies
prohibit or inhibit citizen activities at many)- and besides, Hilo has these efforts aswell. It does not end there- this high traffic Mall is then effective in getting out the vote with thewalk-in voting program.This program does exist islandwide- but not in a way that balances theopportunities to vote. Ever wondered, as I have, why Hilo gets higher voterregistration and turnout than other parts of the county? Perhaps nirvana is near! At last, enlightenment!
Our representatives have set us up to ensure Hilo control of county government through 2022.

CAN ANYTHING BE DONE?

We can ask any of you with civil voting rights/legal expertise if there is any recourse to fair
elections enforcement. Aside from that, we can write our representatives requesting that the
county provide equal space and employee staffing in all other districts for voter registration and
walk-in voting, with a time period before the upcoming, and then the 2008 election to balance the access
and playing field. We must not accept the County 50% rabbit stew solution (i.e. A 50% rabbit
stew is made from one rabbit and one horse.) The foot traffic aggregates/ times must be comparable.
I am not too optimistic since one of 'our' representatives in West Hawaii helped expedite this
ploy, and sent me an email justifying it as giving no advantage to Hilo. I'll forward this letter to any of you
wishing to see it as fairness in viewing another side of the issue. And if any believe it, I will not try to sell
you a used car. However, I do have a bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin Co., beautiful to
see, and it generates terrific toll returns! Once more Mr. A has not only scored a 16 year coup as
a parting gift to the colonial slaves of West Hawaii, but done it with such finesse that our representatives
seem not to have noticed. I move that , by acclamation, we award him both ears and the tail, with
thanks also to our local Picador.

ANY COMMENT?

Please, if you have any questions, contrary responses, ideas as to how to deal with this- or
conclude that it is a mountain from a molehill- let me know by return email, or let everyone
know by posting a response on the bigisland coalition yahoo discussion group at:
www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/bigislandcoalition

I may be overreacting, or we may wake up and find that West Hawaii will be a colony until at least 2022.
What do you think? Does anyone care? Is the war in fact over, with a complete developer/Hilo
victory?

Regards- Marshall