City set to slice
Oahu’s political pie

9 new commissioners will
redraw the lines of the Council
districts using census figures

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

The carpenters had barely pounded their first nails into the first houses in Kapolei and Mililani Mauka the last time the city convened a reapportionment commission 10 years ago.

It will now be up to the members of the 2001 City Council Reapportionment Commission to determine how best to rearrange the island's nine Council districts because of population explosions in those neighborhoods over the last decade.

The mandate of this year's nine commission members, expected to be approved by the Council tomorrow, is to redraw the district lines for the nine-member Council using census tract data being released this year.

Census 2000 reports the island's population as 876,156. That means each Council district contains about 100,000 people, making the Council members among the most influential politicians in the state.

Rene Mansho: District 1	Steve Holmes: District 2	John Henry Felix: District 3
Duke Bainum: District 4	Andy Mirikitani: District 5	Jon Yoshimura: District 6
Romy Cachola: District 7	Gary Okino: District 8	John DeSoto: District 9
Changing districts The current boundaries of the nine City Council districts are likely to change under the reapportionment commission.

The nine members appointed by Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura, with the recommendations of colleagues, are Kerry Ahn, treasurer with the engineering and planning consultant firm Belt Collins; attorneys Kerry Komatsubara and Rai Saint Chu; Vicki Gaynor, executive with developer Haseko (Hawaii) Inc.; Central Pacific Bank Vice President Bennette Evangelista; Outrigger Hotels executive Max Sword; Vern Ta'a of the Plumbers Union Local 675; YMCA executive and Waipahu Neighborhood Board Chairwoman Annette Yamaguchi; and Ryan Yamauchi of the Board of Realtors.

The City Charter stipulates that the panel must be appointed by July 1 and deliver a completed plan to the city clerk by Jan. 2, 2002, in time to take effect in that fall's Council elections.

The only Council members who will be affected are Romy Cachola (District 7) and Gary Okino (District 8), since all seven other members have reached their consecutive term limits and are ineligible for re-election.

Yamaguchi is the only returning member from the 1990 commission. Yamaguchi said the biggest questions will be what to do with the current districts 1 and 9, now held by Rene Mansho and John DeSoto, respectively.

District 1 includes Mililani Mauka, Kunia and Waikele, while District 9 incorporates the ever-growing Kapolei, Makakilo and Ewa districts.

The exploding populations in those two now far-flung districts means they will both need to shrink while other districts, which have remained somewhat static, will need to expand their boundaries.

The charter allows the populations of the nine new districts to be only up to 5 percent more or less than the others.

"There's definitely going to be some changes, no question about it," Yamaguchi said. The most drastic changes, she said, will depend on how much of the old District 1 will go into District 2 (now occupied by Steve Holmes) and Okino's District 7. Portions of the old District 9 likely will also go into District 7. That could mean the eastern boundary of District 7 could move westward, causing a rippling effect west of all the town districts.

The exact opposite, however, may also happen if a large chunk of the northern end of District 1 is pushed into District 2, causing a counterclockwise shift of all the districts.

"You could rotate the island in any direction," Okino said.

Yamag uchi said she is hoping this year's reapportionment will result in all of Waipahu being represented by one Council member. It is currently part of districts 1, 8 and 9.

Okino said he also would like to see Waipahu grouped into one district, most likely his.

Holmes and Councilman John Henry Felix said they see some merit in placing all of Kailua in one district.