Aloha Kakou,
ALERT!! At their April 7 meeting, the EXECUTIVE MATTERS AND LEGALAFFAIRS COMMITTEE of the Honolulu County Council, voted to send to thefull Council, a resolution supporting the Akaka bill. It willmost likely be placed on the agenda for the full Council’s April 21meeting, at 2 PM in the 3rd floor Council meeting room. They will hearpublic testimony at that time.
All opponents of the Akaka bill should submit written testimony, and/orphone the members of the Council, and try to attend the Council meetingto give a 3-minute oral summary of the testimony. (seeinfo below) The Honolulu County clerk who handles testimony forthe Council meetings, assures us that both written and oral testimonywill be allowed for the April 21 meeting.
Council members are woefully unaware of how dangerous this bill is. Theyhave only been listening to favorable input from OHA, CNHA, et al.Councilman Gary Okino, however, wasn’t biting and tried to table theresolution, but was voted down. Grassroot Institute was there withtheir polls (one taken a few years ago, and one by Zogby December ‘09)showing the majority of Hawaii voters oppose the Akaka bill.
As you might imagine, testimony from "Native Hawaiians" will carry moreweight politically than testimony from non-natives, so it’s importantthat the council members hear from us that native Hawaiians especially,strongly oppose the Akaka bill.
Please try to tailor your testimony more toward specific issues ofconcern to County governance (such as zoning regulation, legaljurisdiction, and tax base) rather than toward the broad issues that wedeal with at the national level. For those who can, cite evidence aboutthe relations between Indian tribes and local governments on thecontinent.
A few years ago OHA lobbied all 4 county councils and was successful ingetting resolutions of support for the Akaka bill from all of them.They are probably doing that again this year, so those on Kaua'i, Maui,and Hawaii (Island), please monitor your councils, and raise oppositionand resistance accordingly.
Since Governor Lingle and AG Mark Bennett have withdrawn the State ofHawaii’s support of the Akaka bill, getting the Counties to withdrawalso will further weaken the chances of the bill’s passage in the USSenate.
Please feel free to forward this entire e-mail, or any portions of it,to your friends and ohana.
Malama pono,
Leon Siu
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Below is information from the Council websiteregarding the Akaka bill resolution, and how to submit testimony, ande-mail addresses / phone numbers of Council members.
New Roman"">Text of CC Honolulu resolution 10-56
URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO SUPPORT THE NATIVE HAWAIIAN
GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION ACT (“THE AKAKA BILL”).
http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-97969/4xj6kp9s.pdf
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CC agendas and info
http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-99025/2010%2004-07%20EMLA%20AGENDA.htm
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The agenda for the Council meeting of Wednesday April 21 will be postedon Thursday April 15. Beginning then, testimony can be submitted bye-mail either as in-line simple text or as a pdf or wordprocessing fileattachment. Testimony submitted in that manner will be printed by theclerk and distributed to all 9 Council members at the time of themeeting on April 21. However, to ensure that Council members haveadequate time to read the testimony before the meeting, it's probablybest to submit the testimony directly to all 9 Council membersindividually by using their individual e-mail addresses (see list below,including consolidated copy/paste list for simultaneous e-mail).
Anyone wishing to testify in person on April 21 must register to testifyeither ahead of time or at the meeting, and testifiers will be placedon the agenda in the order they make their reservations. The fact thatwritten testimony has been submitted does NOT also constituteregistration for in-person oral testimony.
General info about CC public hearings is at
http://www.honolulu.gov/council/phinfo.htm
The notice of public hearing, the link for registration to be placed onthe agenda to give oral testimony, and the link for submitting writtentestimony, are all available at
http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-1290
Written testimony may be submitted by email through a webform at
http://www.honolulu.gov/council/emailph.htm
You may also submit written testimony from your own e-mail account byusing the three e-mail addresses listed in the To, CC, and BCC fields ofthe webform, or you may fax it to 768-3826. However, you are requestedto register to speak if you wish to provide oral testimony.
Oral testimony is limited to three minutes and shall be presented by theregistered speaker only. Persons wishing to speak at a public hearingare requested to register any day after the agenda is posted and notlater 2 p.m. on the day of the meeting, using the On-Line City CouncilSpeaker Registration form available at
http://www.honolulu.gov/council/attnspkph.htm
or by sending a fax indicating your desire to speak, along with yourname, address, phone number and subject matter to 768-3826.
You may also register in person before the meeting or at the meeting, orby calling 768-3811.
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http://www.honolulu.gov/Council/ccl.htm
District 1 - Todd K. Apo tapo@honolulu.gov 768-5001
District 2 - Donovan M. Dela Cruz dmdelacruz@honolulu.gov 768-5002
District 3 - Ikaika Anderson ianderson@honolulu.gov 768-5003
District 4 - Charles K. Djou cdjou@honolulu.gov 768-5004
District 5 - Ann Kobayashi akobayashi@honolulu.gov 768-5005
District 6 - Rod Tam rtam@honolulu.gov 768-5006
District 7 - Romy M. Cachola rcachola@honolulu.gov 768-5007
District 8 - Gary H. Okino gokino@honolulu.gov 768-5008
District 9 - Nestor R. Garcia ngarcia@honolulu.gov 768-5009
** Copy/paste list of e-mail addresses to send simultaneously to all 9members:
tapo@honolulu.gov, dmdelacruz@honolulu.gov, dmdelacruz@honolulu.gov, ianderson@honolulu.gov, cdjou@honolulu.gov, akobayashi@honolulu.gov, rtam@honolulu.gov, rcachola@honolulu.gov, gokino@honolulu.gov, ngarcia@honolulu.gov
Comments
"Please try to tailor your testimony more toward specific issues of
concern to County governance (such as zoning regulation, legal
jurisdiction, and tax base) rather than toward the broad issues that we
deal with at the national level. For those who can, cite evidence about
the relations between Indian tribes and local governments on the
continent. "
This is a difficult testimony to draft up because it is pertaining to City:
Zoning regulations
Legal Jurisdiction
Tax Base
and then we are to compare to the Native Americans that are on a bloodquantum/non bloodquantum or already/not be recognized by the federal governement. And, we are right back under: gambling, Oglala, and loss of Nationalism.
I'm trying to think of what to say by the criteria of what is being posted. But, I can't really construct a testimony right at this time, however, I will watch the date of April 21 or sooner to meet the deadline to testify. Love you much Kaohi