I got to the meeting a couple minutes late. (You can dock my pay.)

[Back to running meeting notes, so recognize that this captures a lot, but not all of what was said.  You get the gist but not all the exact words.  But you can listen to audio for a lot of the meetings as you'll see below and the transcripts will eventually be posted.]

2:10pm Director Report:

• Web conferencing of Board meetings - I missed this part, but later they used GoTo Meeting so that a board member who was not in Anchorage could show his maps.
• Transcripts - staff change adds a little time to get the transcripts done. they are being done by a several different contractors.  Some we aren't sure where they are. They aren't up yet, but the audio is.
• audio for public hearings through May 5 (though some are missing)
• audio for board meetings through April 14.
• Four groups signed up to present new plans to the Board which will reflect the changes in the percentage required to meet the Voting Rights Act:  Rights, AFFR, Calista, AFFER
• Reading File Update - material added that were received since late Friday (I have pictures of the table of contents and I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to post these.)

Jim Ellis:  May 6 on getting added, close to printing and putting them together.  Most items added have been emailed to you.

Software requests - Chair asked staff to load all the private plans to computers, I assume that the rest of you want that too.  Desktop, laptop?  Other software plans, let us know end of day today, because we'll be here working tomorrow.

Torgeson:  Questions?

Discussion of final plans.  Taylor, you are ready for more, right?  Eric, you want to walk us through

Eric Sandberg:  I have almost ready.

Torgeson:  Not going off line, take a recess, but the recorder is still going on so Taylor can talk to the remote folks.
Jim, two minutes to click the button and broadcast the screen.

Holm - I'm here!!!

Eric:  Going over his new map of rural areas and going through the totals.
District 1 - Kodiak, Port Graham, and to boost Native % went up to Lower Kuskokwim
And combined with Aleutians (HD2)  33.9% Senate
3 and 4 - 3 is Bethel to Hooper Bay and Scammon Bay

Don't Panic Yet - this is just trying things out

4 - Yukon River up to Tanana River to McGrath and outskirts of Fairbanks - Salcha, Pleasant Valley, Fox...  Possible Native influence district
Combined 50+% Native Senate District
5.  East-west huge district  plus 6 North Slope

Bickford - you could add 1000 Native folks to 2 from 3 and maybe get better numbers.  [gets to 34.91]
Then you could take 1 into 4 a bit.
Eric:  4 is right at 35%, but certainly I think you could bump the pairings a bit.

Torg:  What was your other major approach?
Eric:  Tried to keep old 6 together, but it pushes up against the Coast line and gets non-contiguous Senate pairings.
Torg:  It looks like that one could use a bit more work, but it's close isn't it?
4 -2  House - effective/influence
3- 0  Senate -

Tried to bump Natives in Kodiak by going east, but doesn't work without going to SE.

A few other plans, but nothing better than this.

Torgeson:  Load up PeggyAnn's and Marie's?

PeggyAnn McConnochie - this is absolutely not ready to go.  I came in early to try once more on SE.  Try to put Skagway and Haines into District 2, doing that I leave more population in the Valley of Juneau, and at least one whole district in Juneau.  D3 only in Juneau.  Then where can I pick up White population for SE - Valley, Gustavus, then Elfin Cove and Pelican, and Tenakee Springs - but this makes it really ugly, with four crossings.
Torg:  Have we talked about that - crossing districts?
White:  No, depends on why - if to make voting rights act numbers, might be more defensible.
I think the board needs to hire some savants who can just see through all the numbers and population types and find the right patterns.

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Good news - PofWales almost in one district.  But down here, I think unacceptable, population around this Bay, and I put with Ketchikan, but they consider themselves with Craig.  Warning VAP is only 32.6%
Marie and I spent a lot of time working on Rural districts again.  We spent, what?  An hour, two?  Tanana Chiefs spoke to us all in Fairbanks.  We prioritized TC and tried to get those six different groupings and not split the groupings.
4 stayed the same - Our 39 - one TC grouping - Ft. Yukon, Venetie, Beaver, Wiseman.  This in one area undivided.  From hear all the way over to this area - at Bering Straits, Doyon, didn't want Fairbanks, took just a little because we needed to get the population up.   Didn't want to take much of Fairbanks.  Looked at 6 - another TC group that we wanted to leave whole.  Dry Creek, Tanacross, Dot Lake Village.
The video gives you a sense of what this process is like. And I think you can sense that McConnochie is really trying to do this right. It's just hard.



Other side of Fairbanks, take a look - Calista.  This is basically Calista - Eric copied us LOL - we needed to shed population out of this area.  Large population - Wade Hampton - these two areas have the rest of TC chiefs.  The groupings can be separated, but each group needs to be the same.  Next down to 37.  Deviation of 2.34%.
Take this whole thing as new 36.  Down, 15,000 (did she mean 1500) people.  Tried to keep Calista whole, tried our best.  Kwethluk, Eek, Goodnews Bay, tried to keep together.  But just way too many people.  They are now in 37.  We aren't done, not happy.  Interesting to see what Eric has done - he doesn't really know the places the way Marie does.  We're not done, by a mile.  Helpful - protecting TC areas, Calista, and
Marie Greene - 39 goes back east.
PAM (PeggyAnn McConnochie)- We don't necessarily like it going from west to east.  Trying to keep people out who don't belong - people in suburbs of Fairbanks don't belong in Native district and vice versa.
TB (Taylor Bickford)- Where did you want to go for the 15,000?  Matsu
PAM - We can't with our deviations go into 38-40.
TB - Can either go to Matsu, Denali, or Fairbanks.  One of those has to happen.
PAM - Trying our best to not add those areas.  It isolates the problem.
White:  Left over 36?  15,000 under.  Impossible to make that an effective district.
TB:  Helpful to start doing it this way - shows the tradeoffs down the road.
PAM:  Trying to go from the optimum - what everyone tells us.  I want to tell these people that we tried our best, but there are too many people in that district.  Eric went the same way we did.  It good know there is another possibility, we just need to get 36 filled out.  But can't take them from
Torg:  I'm seeing a theme - East-West - Big 37.  Bob, do you have something to present?
TB:  I think I just hand control over to you.  See what happens.
Torg:  Good experiment.

Using GoTo Meeting - Computer Conferencing Software
Brody:  SE - got D2 to   Got up to 38.9
TB:  Go back to - Arc Map 10
Brody - [We all were given a blue spread sheet of all 40 districts, I can't find the numbers he's talking about]  I took most of Marie and PeggyAnn's map - they were under in most districts.
I made D3 a little large, D4 here in the middle.  But it put 2 way under.  To get 2 up, I went around the corner and got these and tha put the Native count to 39 and the total VAP to 35.  That's pretty much all what PeggyAnn and Marie have done.
PAM - Tanana Chiefs gave us a letter with villages they want together - Looks like you split up Tok out, Dot Lake in, No matter what we draw, there will be a couple on the edges.  Able to get VAP to 35 which would make this a solid influence district.
Holm:  What kind of Sen Pairing?
Brody:  Just the four in SE.  Resigned to having to find pairings elsewhere.  I have Kodiak taking Cordova, but Tatitlik in SE.
TB - Bob, I think that's total minority VAge - I think we need just Total Native.
Total Native 39, total VAP 35.
PAM - OUt of curiousity, if you could take all the Tanana Chiefs villages out?
Brody:  I don't know.  I was trying to get close to your deviation.  It will drop the VAP.  They are smaller villages, but 80% native.  Just a question how effective we want to make the SE districts.
PAM - Also trying to keep those TC villages together there.
Torg:  Wrangell is with Ketch and Petersburg with Juneau?  Split P of Wales?
Greene:  Haines and Skagway in 2?
Brody:  Same as you guys.  That's it for me.
2:55pm
TB:  Any more presentations?  I'm going to cut them off then.

Torgeson:  Brings us to adjournment.  Meeting Monday at 10am.  We'll have to have things to use a little earlier.  When you show it on the web, you don't have to send it out?  Right.
From now on meeting at 10am.
Adjourned.  2:57