by
Jonathan Jay on 1 January 2008
Aloha 2008! It is now a new year and elections are only 11 months away. Posted for your review and comment is the present provisional status of language and mapping for the intended Moku Districting Kaua`i County Charter Amendment to go onto the ballot this fall.
Mahalo nui loa for your interest, support, and active participation to get the County Council elections changed from the present Island-wide "at-large" elections where much of the island is unrepresented by the present council, and important issues are falling through the cracks - take your pick, there are many.
It is hoped a change to the traditional & sustainable Moku Districts with regionally specific elections, will better bring all of Kaua`i to the table to address the needs of the island. Council members living in a region, elected by residents of that region should be more intimately familiar with issues of their region, and be more accountable to their voter/neighbors.
Additionally, it is hoped that dividing the island into smaller human-scale pieces will make it easier for more citizens at the grassroots level to capably participate in electoral politics, thereby increasing the pool of talent able to serve the island.
However, a few things are needed first:
1) Your Feedback! If you have comments, questions or feedback about the present state of the proposal, please contact me: jonathan@dakauai.com
2) Feedback from Others! If you know of any grassroots organization or hui you think might be interested in participating or have some valuable insight to this effort, please send me their contact info and send them my way.
3) By the end of February, it is my hope that the details of the Moku District Charter Amendment will be finalized and a broad consensus be accepted by the community. It takes an island to change the charter!
4) Beginning in March, after finalization of ballot language, signatures will begin to be collected - roughly 2,000 are needed to qualify to be on the November ballot - not that much!
With even minimal organization, this should be pretty easy to do in short order.
Two-thousand signatures works out to about 300 for each of the seven Moku Districts. If there are 10 people working per Moku District, and everyone gets one signature per day, we will be done on a month! You can think of it as your gift to the future of Kaua`i!
Mahalo Again, Jonathan Jay
[Editor's Note: Below is a proposed ballot for an amendment to the Kauai County Charter that would introduce council seats by districting. An MS Word Compatible version is available by clicking here.]
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