Commission adopts new Hawaii district maps despite community pushback

Final maps for legislative districts approved Friday by the Hawaii State Reapportionment Commission include keeping the current Senate district that combines portions of Hawaii Kai, Waimanalo and Kailua and reducing the number of House districts on Oahu by one as Hawaii island gained a seat.

The updated maps will be used over the next decade, redrawing districts for state lawmakers based on new U.S. census data. The commission Friday also approved new maps with no changes for Hawaii’s congressional districts.

The commission voted 8-1 to accept state legislative maps that notably increase the number of House districts on Hawaii island to eight and trim Oahu’s House districts to 34.

Of the 100 pages of testimony submitted for Friday’s meeting, nearly all opposed the legislative maps in general. More than half mentioned support for alternative maps drawn up independently by two community members that proposed keeping House districts within Senate boundaries.

The nine-member commission never allowed the community-generated maps to have an official hearing. Nonetheless, the maps proposed by Bill Hicks, chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, and resident Ralph Boyea gained traction among testifiers.

Commissioner Robin Kennedy was the only member voting against approval of the commission-drawn maps, saying she did not receive an adequate response from fellow commissioners about why the maps by Hicks and Boyea were never given formal consideration.

“I understand it was an impossible situation, but there are so many community voices not supporting (the commission-drawn maps),” Kennedy said. “I feel like the community still doesn’t have the answers that they need.”

Commission Chairman Mark Mugiishi said maps drawn by the commission’s “technical permitted interaction group” needed to be approved as soon as possible ahead of this year’s elections, when every House and Senate seat in the state Legislature will be up for grabs.

“If we’re satisfied in our own minds that the technical interaction group followed the Constitution, which I can just speak for myself and say I am satisfied that they did, then we are blocked by a timeline,” he said.

Candidates may begin officially filing for office March 1, and the state Office of Elections needs about a month to prepare after new district maps have been submitted. Hawaii’s primary election is Aug. 13, and the general election is Nov. 8.

The reapportionment process has drawn controversy since it began in April.

Throughout the process multiple neighborhood boards passed resolutions opposing various map drafts. The commission was frequently accused of not being transparent about the process, resulting in the chairman of the Oahu Advisory Committee to the commission resigning in disapproval.

Early in the process, the commission created the technical permitted interaction group comprising only four of its members: Charlotte Nekota, Dylan Nonaka, Diane Ono and Kevin Rathbun.

Permitted interaction groups are not required to have open public meetings, publish meeting notices or keep written minutes.

The reapportionment process also was delayed because the commission did not receive information until over the New Year’s holiday on the number of military members included in the census who are not permanent state residents. The commission is required to request that figure from the military and extract the number from the population data used to develop its maps.

Maps drafted prior to Dec. 31 included an extraction number of 64,415 for military nonresidents. However, 99,617 was the number the commission ended up using after Kennedy asked the military to reexamine its data.

The new number resulted in a House seat to shift from Oahu to Hawaii island.

Although many concerns from the public about where district lines were drawn were addressed throughout the process, nearly all of those who testified at Friday’s meeting were still opposed to the maps the commission ultimately decided to approve.

Of particular concern was the Senate district that combines portions of Hawaii Kai, Waimanalo and Kailua and was left unchanged despite numerous pleas from testifiers throughout the reapportionment process.

The most outstanding issue among those who testified was the constitutional mandate for reapportionment in which, “where practicable, representative districts shall be wholly included within senatorial districts.”

Hicks pointed out that only nine of Oahu’s 34 House districts were within their respective Senate districts.

Now that the commission has voted to submit the maps, the Office of Elections has 14 days to post them. After that, within 45 days, any Hawaii registered voter may challenge the new maps at the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Several testifiers Friday stated they were ready to launch challenges based on not enough House districts being drawn within Senate districts.

After the previous reapportionment process in 2011, maps were successfully challenged in court over an incorrect military extraction number.

Becky Gardner, who worked as a lawyer on the reapportionment effort in 2011, warned the commission during her public testimony about the ramifications of adopting the new maps.

“If you vote yes to the proposed maps, you’re guaranteeing a legal challenge,” she said. “It’s going to happen.”