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Friday, March 18, 2011

AK Redistricting Board Finally Gets Some Info Out - But Not Easy to Use

I signed up for the Alaska Redistricting Board email alerts.  I'd suggest that anyone interested in this do the same.  I got an email  announcing the public hearings dated 5:35pm this afternoon.  At the Board meeting Wednesday they said they needed to announce hearings five days in advance.  Today is March 18 and the Anchorage hearing is only four days away.  (I just looked at the Public Meetings Act and it says "reasonable" notice and says "reasonable" could be "three months or three days."  Given this is not a regular meeting, I suspect this probably counts as close to four days and would be ok. But I wonder how many people know about these meetings - especially the Tuesday one in Anchorage.)

Oh yeah, the link to the full public hearing schedule in the middle of the email - I couldn't get it to work from the original email either.  


This email doesn't give locations.  You can get that information on their website in two places:
1.  The homepage scroll down and on the right is Upcoming Events.  Click on the location and a window pops up with more information.
2.  On the Calendar - again, click on the event and a window pops up.

 Also, I've updated my last post which listed the towns the meetings will be held and updated it with the actual buildings they will meet in.  Except Kotzebue which hadn't been determined yet.

Here's the email:
March 18, 2011
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

Anchorage, AK - On March 15, 2011, the Alaska Redistricting Board received its 2010 Census redistricting data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That data has been posted on the Board's website at http://www.akredistricting.org.

According to Article VI of the Alaska Constitution, the Board must release a proposed redistricting plan or plans within 30 days of receipt of the census data.

PUBLIC HEARINGS AND COMMENT 
To assist the Board in its work, the public is invited to submit comments on the data and proposed redistricting plans via:
Public comment and proposed plans may also be submitted in-person at hearings to be held in:
  • Anchorage (March 22, 2011)
  • Wasilla (March 23, 2011)
  • Juneau (March 25, 2011)
  • Ketchikan (March 26, 2011)
  • Fairbanks (March 28, 2011)
  • Kotzebue (March 29, 2011)
  • Bethel (March 30, 2011)
Additionally, the Board will conduct a public hearing via statewide teleconference on March 31, 2011.

UPDATE March 19:  replacing this with corrected link:
The full public hearing schedule including start times, end times and venues is available for public download at http://www.akredistricting.org/Files/Public Hearing Schedule.docx*. 

PLAN PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS

PLAN PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS
Any individual, group or organization wishing to present a proposed redistricting plan at any of these hearings is required to provide reasonable advance notice to Board staff by:
Plan proponents must also include in their notice to Board staff whether they will present paper copies or an electronic version of their plan to the Board and whether any special equipment is needed for their plan presentation. Plan proponents will be given a fixed amount of time to present their plan dependent upon the number of plans proposed at a respective hearing. 

The Board will schedule a separate portion of each public hearing to take public comments related to redistricting issues not associated with any plan presented at that hearing. These comments will be limited to 5 minutes per individual, group or organization.

Please note that the public hearing on March 31, 2011 will be the only hearing on this schedule to be conducted via teleconference. Redistricting Board members will be in attendance at the Anchorage LIO site for the March 31 hearing. Members of the public at the Anchorage LIO site on March 31 will be able to provide testimony and present plans during the teleconference.  

If you need special accommodations, please contact 907-269-7402.

The Alaska Redistricting Board is responsible for redrawing Alaska's legislative election districts every ten years after the federal Census.  For more information about the redistricting process in Alaska, please visit http://www.akredistricting.org.

###

CONTACT:
Alaska Redistricting Board
411 W. 4th Avenue, Suite 302
Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: (907) 269-7499  

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