The supreme court ruled last month that $100,000 military personnel and their dependents must be removed from new re-districting maps. Tonight was the final public hearing before the nine member reapportionment commission takes a final vote on the new boundaries.
Some communities are upset they are being lumped into geographical areas that they don’t share much in common with. One commissioner says public input will have a strong impact on how members vote.
"Members of the commission don’t know the whole state like the back of their hand and so local communities telling us exactly which communities go together and sometimes it’s very easy fixes to make, and we made those. So this has been a very helpful process and that’s why we decided to go out and do it again even though it wasn’t required this time around," said Dylan Nonaka, the reapportionment commissioner.
The reapportionment commission must take a final vote by next wednesday if there are any changes; if not, the final vote would be Monday. County clerks have told the commission final maps must be in place by February 29 to ensure a smooth primary election in August.
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
