Lead On! Empowering Youth to Make Changes in their Alaksa Communities

I did a short post about the Pathways (formerly DELTA) steering committee I went to (as a member first, blogger second) in Juneau last month, but I didn't get to follow up with more detail.

One of the things most of the people there noted - most have work connected with domestic violence programs - was being surprised at how much good work is going on around the state.  We hear about the levels of domestic violence, but not about all the people quietly (outside the media's eye) working to make things better.  Events like the Respect March the other day get media coverage, but not the day-to-day work small organizations around the state do.

This is all a preface to this video made from video of the Lead On! Conference head last October.  I promise it will make you feel good. Teens excited about being empowered to make a difference.

Lead On! is a committed group of youth and adults from across Alaska that are interested in positively impacting their communities. Lead On! youth and adults work on projects in their communities to promote non-violence and equality in communities.

Three of the people in the video - Lori Greengrass, Timi Tullis, and Linda Chamberlain are on the Pathways steering committee.  And Ati Nasiah attended the meeting as well.

From the LeadOn! site, here are four of the eleven projects the participants did over the year:

Shishmaref- Youth hunting and survival skills trip

Fourteen youth participated in a three day trip to promote the subsistence lifestyle of their people and share their local traditional hunting, harvesting, and safety practices.  This trip helped encourage youth to understand and appreciate and continue the subsistence way of life that is vital to the tradition and culture of Shishmaref.

Sitka- Respect Campaign 

Fifteen students from Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka High Schools worked collaboratively to create the Sitka Youth Leadership Committee with the goal of promoting respect and building bridges amongst youth.  Students gave trainings on bullying prevention, held forums to discuss healthy relationships and created PSA’s and posters about respect.

Venetie- Traditional Dance Group

Thirty youth have come together with parents and Elder’s to bring back the traditional dances used to bring the Caribou to their people, which has been out of practice in Venetie for over 14 years.  This project helped unite the community of Venetie and the youth will perform their traditional dance at the gathering in Fort Yukon on July 18-20.

Anchorage-  Sexual Assault Awareness

.  .  .   The second project was working with Standing together Against Rape (STAR) and helping them revise their middle school sexual assault awareness presentation.  They helped create a presentation that was more youth friendly and interactive.

And an excerpt from what one participant says:

For me, LeadON! has been this incredible opportunity to actually gain the confidence I need to make positive changes. I’ve met people and made connections that have broadened my mind and pushed my life forward. I participated in workshops during the conference that were very, very far out of my comfort zone, and found myself actually enjoying being out of my “box”. I got to listen to speakers who were so powerful their messages still stick with me. I heard my peers tell stories about the rough parts of their own life, which made me brave enough to do the same.  Yes, it’s a lot for only a few days!    .  .   .

-          Meryl, Tenakee Springs

"those nights when you can't sleep,it might be because you're awake in someone else's dream film" - More Google Search Terms

It's been a while. Here are some more interesting search terms people used to get here.

samsui women - Google really screws up here.  I posted about a movie called Samsui Women - who had been brought to Singapore to do manual labor.  This searcher was in Singapore.  But Google took the searcher to a post on Ukrainian women.

"my year in germany "  -  How did this one (from Karlsruhe, Germany) get to "How To Pronounce Kalenchoe?" I checked. The comments on this post got into correct and incorrect pronunciation and grammar in general. And in my response, I wrote, "My year in Germany taught me things like why it's "I" or "me" in different cases. But years of teaching also taught me that the actual content is more important than fussing over minor typos. . ."

number of people that had a watch in 1910 - interesting question that wasn't answered here.  Searcher got to famous people born in 1910. 

how move on from ipv "intimate partner violence" and meet new guy - I hope she got some help from the post on a ipv prevention meeting.  Good luck!

how much pfd fund a month i'll get in alaska  - this came from someone in New Haven, Connecticut.  Was the person thinking the oil money dividend we all get each year was worth moving to Alaska for?  He got a page from last year at application time on the Fund . Remember, we all live in igloos, use dog sleds, it's dark all winter, and the one day of summer each year, we get devoured by giant mosquitoes.

those nights when you can't sleep,it might be bacause you're awake in someone else's dream film  -  Wow, that's an interesting thought!  Google guided this Russian image browser to this shot from a post on the movie Inception.  Which is relevant to being in other people's dreams.



how do they get the wires across mountains - This searcher got to a post entitled Man on Wire Raises Interesting Questions - about the movie on the man who walked from one of the World Trade Center towers to the other on a wire.  They got the wire across to the other building with a bow and arrow, but I don't think  they get them across mountains that way.


set up educatoin inside of ten states of south sudanese, then foreigners countries you could think off,or forget it. - A lot of Google searches sound a lot like classroom assignments. This one was a Yahoo search from Kansas City, MO and I like how he added on a bit of what he thought about this assignment.   It didn't say what page he got to here.


how to japanese gift wrap a football - There was nothing about footballs in the post on Japanese cloth gift wrapping, furoshiki.


does idaho exist - I do have a post on this and the importance of studying philosophy, but what struck me about this search is where it came from:

ISP         State of Nebraska / Office of the CIO

did sarah palin and frank prewitt ever work together?  - This got to the review on Prewitt's The Last Bridge to Nowhere.  I don't recall any stories of them working together. 



will my boyfriend in jail know i am corresponding with other inmates on corrlinks - I don't think corrlinks will tell him, but the other inmates might, especially when they want to push his buttons.  My post on email for federal prisoners didn't answer this question.

I think one could write a book of short stories just by creating a back story of google search terms.


oh my god he killed kenny g pat metheny -  I get a fair number of hits on variations of "Pat Metheny on Kenny G" but this is the most extreme to find the posts on this topic.


what famous people were born from illegal parents in american - I'm considering just what 'illegal parents' might mean. They stole the baby? They broke the mommy and daddy laws? Probably the searcher merely meant the parents were criminals. He got famous people born in 1909.

foot bones side
bones of the foot
foot bones  - Suddenly, one day (March 14) I was getting hits with these terms (about a dozen) and going to a post with an xray of my wife's heal fracture. The post has been up almost a year and only today have I noticed people getting there. I googled to see if it had just moved up on google. I went through about ten pages and then switched to google images and still nothing. Then I noticed it didn't say "google." It said "google.ie." That turns out to be google on internet explorer, but when I checked back, I was getting people from google.com as well. But I also found a post at PC world discussing a flaw in google.ie that allows 'politically motivated attacks." It wasn't clear what that meant, but I don't use ie so I'm not worried. Oh, yes, google takes them to "Life's Little Surprises." 
After more hits and more exploring, a picture of foot bones I borrowed for that post - and gave credit for - is high on the google image searches.  (The first person I noticed had clicked on a picture of  my wife's foot xray which I did take myself.)

Mental paradise -  I like those two words together.  I need to stop and think more about the concept.  The searcher found a picture of birds of paradise in the Singapore Bird Park and a page of Singapore posts.  But it must have been ok cause she spent 23 minutes here.

syllables in meandering - Never thought about it, but if you read this word, it would be logical to assume it is  "méan-der-ing" not what we actually say "me-án-der-ing."  Such a good word!  This searcher from India got to a page about Charles Dickens praising meandering at the beginning of David Copperfield. 

    if i give the fbi information does that make me guilty - Some searchers ask questions that make me wish I could call them up and talk to them.  There's obviously an interesting story here from this east coast query.  I don't think the person got the answer they were searching for in the post about the FBI 'whistle-blower' complaint.


things to hate about rafael nadal - There may be some perfectly good explanation for this search, but on the face of it, I find it troubling. Does one have to go looking for things to hate?   The search got to a story on Nadal's coach/uncle.

i know a little bit of this and that blog alaska - I love how the human mind sort of mushes things together and gets close.  If we assume that this blogger actually was trying to get here and was trying to remember the name of the blog, then she would have been conflating the title - What Do I Know? - with the tag line in the heading - this and that as things come up.  Or maybe that person was looking for something else altogether and google delivered her here.

my aunt's husband died we are estranged what to do - Oh Google, how could you do this?  This is where humans beat computer algorithms.  First, there's a talent to writing good search terms and this googler is asking a really open ended question. But evil google saw the words "estranged" and "husband" and took this person to a post entitled Woman Bites Off Estranged Husband's Penis. The aunt's husband is dead google, this isn't the answer.

Julie Kitka: "In democracies, respecting rights isn't a choice leaders make day by day, it's the reason why they govern." (Video)

Thursday afternoon, Julie Kitka, President of the Alaska Federation of Natives, testified before the Alaska Redistricting Board meeting in Anchorage.  Here's a video of her testimony.  She talked about the importance of Alaska Natives getting fair representation in the legislature. 



Sitting next to Kitka is Natalie Landreth, staff attorney Native American Rights Fund.

Afterward, there were questions. Board attorney Michael White asked her, about an issue that came up in Kotzebue:  whether each specific identity - such as Aleut, Yupik, Athabascan, etc. - needs its own separate representation or whether grouping 'Alaska Natives' would be acceptable in order to get large enough districts.


[I loaded this in YouTube because the Viddler connection kept breaking.]

April Fools: Chenault, Costello, Dick, Fairclough, Feige, Foster, Gatto, Hawker, Johansen, Johnson, Keller, Lynn, Millett, Munoz, Olson, Pruitt, Saddler, Stoltze, Thomas, Thompson, P. Wilson, T. Wilson

These are the Alaska House members who voted yesterday to give some of the largest corporations in the world about $2 billion a year in hopes the oil companies will invest more in Alaska oil production. The companies in turn had to guarantee. . .


nothing whatsover. They even said out loud they wouldn't promise anything.



As regular readers know, I rarely take a strong stand on an issue because generally I can see more than one side. Sometimes there are only two sides - the right one and the wrong one. It's hard to find any 'right' in the arguments for passage of HB 110. They are all literally incredible. Those who argue they don't want to lose their jobs or their children's future jobs (many who testified) failed to show the connection between giving these breaks to the oil companies and increased oil production in Alaska. Others worship at the Church of Capitalist Fundamentalism which preaches government is Satan and the market is the miracle cure for everything. They have forgotten (or never knew) that even gods of capitalism, like Milton Friedman, warned of capitalism's

Soon to be on endangered species list in Alaska

failures. Some have forgotten the Bill Allen story, or maybe they think that the reversal of fortune for the FBI and the Federal prosecutors means they have a free period to make deals with oil companies. This last group may be more crooks than fools. I'm sure there are other forms of delusion I'm overlooking.

I heard a rumor that an unnamed legislator slipped language into HB 110 that makes the rabbit's foot the state talisman.  Every Alaskan will be required to carry at least one at all times.

But let's also salute those who voted no (including two Republicans):

Austerman, Doogan, Edgmon, Gara, Gardner, Gruenberg, Guttenberg, Herron, Holmes, Joule, Kawasaki, Kerttula, Miller, Petersen, Seaton, Tuck.

Doing right is its own long-term reward. Thank you!

Should the Senate go along with this (reports are that they won't) the oil companies could possibly make some gesture that looks like the vote caused them to reinvest in Alaska. But they really don't have to and are arrogant enough not to. And if they do, just count the dollar benefit to Alaska against the dollars we would have given away. It won't be close. And will the yea votes and their supporters realize they were taken? Don't count on it. They'll find reasons to explain why 'conditions' changed and they weren't wrong.

Closing Few Folks Testify Before 7pm Adjournment

Bruce Schulte - District 28 (he was here last week)  The map on the wall works for me.  That's all.

Torgerson:  Thank you. 

Communities on tele
Fairbanks, Anchorage, Sitka, Haines, Cordova, Wasilla, Delta Junction, Valdez, Dillingham, Juneau,  Thank LIO offices around the state for hanging in to 7pm.  We'll recess we have 15 minutes.


6:53: Cordova Mayor

Thank you.  Jim Kallander., we want to remain in District 5 with other SE communities.  We understand that Valdez wants us to join them and we have no interest.  Don't want to be part of the pipeline communities.  We're happy where we are. 

White:  If Cordova can't be with SE, what would be your second choice?

Jim Kallander:  I'm not sure yet.  We've taken this stand.  This is my first time going through redistricting.  POlitically it seems pretty nasty to me.  People all over the state, feel like some illegitimate child being tossed around.  Give me some choices so I can talk to council and the community.  Thanks for all the work that you're doing. 

Torgerson:  We'll stand in recess.

7pm Adjourn.  Next meeting Monday at 10am - at Redistricting office.

Bill Noll and Lois Epstein Testify in Anchorage

6:01

Bill Noll, East Anchorage, Republican District chair.  Thanks.  Support of the design put together by plan presented this afternoon.  Solution for District 20 and 21 was very good.  Elegant solution, neighborhood with common background.  Further north in 19 also elegant since much of that population is military, part military, retired military.  That's all I want to testify this afternoon.  Thank you.

Lois Epstein - Thanks for opportunity.  Anchorage engineer, District 26, ten year resident.  Want to support apolitical redistricting.  Came from DC, I've been paying attention to how states have been doing redistricting.  Iowa has a complete apolitical redistricting.  Here we support trusted goernment.  This is an area where the public can be more supportive.  I live near New Sagaya downtown.  We have three districts.  That supports Democrats.  I'm a Democrat.  That's crazy that we live close together have three districts.

Break


Liz Medicine-Crow
Here to speak to you as a member of the largest racial minority in the state.  Rep of myself, my clan, my community.  Couldn't let this time go pass

David Cruz in Fairbanks -   Looking at map from Alaskans for Fair and Equitable Redistricting.   As it comes down S. Cushman, everything to the South is District 9, before it was jumbled up.  It shifts Dis 10 to the east and North Pole.  Center is Ft. Wainright, little bit of N Pole, of Fairbanks, etc.  rolls it a little east.   I think its very fair and equitable.  Affect maybe 10% of our population and makes it contiguous.   6:20pm

More Redistricting Board - Cordova, Sitka, Juneau

There are people signed up at some of the LIO sites so they are reconvening.

Cordova, Supt. of Schools.

Jim Nygaard - Supt. of Schools.  North of District 5 - Beneifts of existing district - keeping coastal communities together is good for education, airlines, freight.  Likesize coastal communities keeps our interest being heard.  If grouped with others, our interests could be lost altogether.  Cordova is tied to SE Alaska.  Please consider bringing additional communities to our district when you redraw.  Appreciate your time, thanks. 

Torgerson:  Cordova is on our list.

School Board member - Nice to keep smaller coastal community together, similar needs, economies - fisheries.  Current representation.  Nice to not be overshadowed by larger cities.

Haines back on?  He hung up.  Sorry.  That's all for this segment.  Recess.  5:06.
Juneau LIO, we have someone. 
We don't have the name, please introduce

Connie McKenzie, in Juneau.  Testify in favor of Alaskans for Equitable Redistricting.  With the change here, I like how these four drawn.  Keeps Juneau 4 pretty much intact.  A bit from District 3.  And keeps a Native influence district, small and native communities.  32.5% native rep in that district.  Also 3 and 4 splits Sitka in half. part in with 3 and part with 1 (Ketchikan).  Then Sitka would have two senators and two representatives even though split. 

Sitka:
Gerry Hope:  Pres of Sitka Chamber of Commerce.  Looking for opportunity for more detailed presentation and testimony.  No real chance to look at the options. 

Torgerson:  That's fair.  We'll post them on the web as soon as we can.  AKredistricting.org.  Anyone else?  Hearing none, we will break 5:09 and come back when there are other people. 

Anchorage Testimony Julie Kitka

[This is full of typos, but I'm going to post now and clean up later.]

President of AFN.  With her is Natalie Landreth
We are not submitting for the record a map, but addressing some principles and comments in generality.

More later

Matt Ganley - VP Land and ??? Bering Straits Native Corporation.
1991 Gov. Hickel's proposal would have seriously diluted Native ability to be represented.  That plan was defeated.  At that time I worked for Ahtna and worked on this.  We're here now to determine the best way to represent people.  I second everything Julie Kitka said.

In addition to cultural lines, also look at specific histories and how local groups look at their future.  Each group is distinct, with varying history with their neighbors and disagreements about what the future holds - resource development.

I liked all the maps presented today because without exception, they brought Shishmaref home.

Mike White;  You saw the Democratic plan - the Rights Coalition - the Chain going all the way up.

Ganley:  First time I saw it today and would have to take it back and talk to my people.  Contained in that large area are many diverse ideas of their history and futures.


Going to Juneau now:

Murray Walsh:  [teleconference] Don't represent anyone, but around SE a lot and offer my support for the, plan that keeps district 4 in Juneau and adds a portion of Sitka to district 3 and sends the rest of 3 to Ketchikan,.  Keeps smaller communities together and larger communities together.  I'm sure the Sitka people will look at with with anxiety.  Hope you'll hold a hearing in Sitka.  Protects rural community lookout.  It does that without goring too many other oxen.  Not a job for the faint of heart.

Torgerson: We have posted on our website - 33 communities we are going to visit. AKredistricting.org.  Thanks

Bradley Fletch?? Flitch?  Fluetsch-  Was my map made available?

Torgerson:  No

Bradley F.  I submitted one this morning by email.

Torgerson:  Staff said you'd asked for 30 minutes, but only after public testimony if we have down tie.  Looks like I have ten people statewide.

Bradley:  Trying to do here - Sealaska, Douglas Indian Association and ???? - goal is to empower the urban Alaskan Native who has been disenfranchised by the District 2.  I've put District 1 - Ketchikan - with the Alaska native communities  - there is more than Tlingit - there's Haida too.  And this way we emphasize the Haida for first time.

District 4 harder to draw because of how you draw district 3.  It really disenfranchised the Native population of Lemon Creek and ????  who were put with the valley.  This really emphasizes the Native needs.  Dis. 1 is 3??% Native District 3 is 28?% native.  Native influence is ore than the bodies in Juneau.  It's jobs, employment, professional associations, We've elected native people to mayor and school board and boards and commissions.  In District 3 there's Kake, Douglas Indian Association, IRA for Yakutat, and the ???? - federally organized tribal orgs located in 3.  ,,,, long list of organizations.  You have to look beyond the 35%.  Incorrect to look at Native % in isolation, but in context of whole district.  3 is unique in SE AK - pairing Kake and Angoon and downtown Juneau, compares nicely with larger native communities.  Dis. 2 Haines, Skagway, ???? - immense community similarities.  Thank Jim Baldwin of City and Borough of Juneau who gave me access to draw my map.  Encourage you to see how I've drawn district 3 in Juneau.  Thanks for your tie.

Torgerson:  Thank you for your work, Dillingham, Delta Junction,

Alice Ruby:  Mayor of Dillingham.  brief.  Interested in hearing presentations and will appreciate having time to look at them.  Int he meantime we're in 37 and F.  Those rep Bristol bay region, Aleutian Chain.   Coastal Communities and seafood processing and harvisting economy.  Makes infrastructure needs pretty similar for our communities.  Service areas for Bristol Bay ??ations.  SW Alaska Municipal Conference.  Maintained same area even though district changed.  We support adding necessary groups if needed but keep 37 and F intact.  Look forward to meeting you in Dillingham when scheduled.

Torgerson:  Still scheduling.  Will do the committee meetings between April 21 and May 5.  18, 19, 20 will be Anchorage, Fairbanks and Junea.  Hope to have stuff on our website by Monday.

Dan O'Hara:  Mayor of Bristol Bay Borough, sockeye capital of the world.  We had Carl ?? visit your meeting yesterday in Bethel.  11
1.  More tied to 37 and F than others
2.  Transportation same airlines
3.  Port in Naknek supports around here
4.  Most fish processed in Bristol Bay boundaries and Dillingham interconnected
5.  Northland barge supports BB port and borough, dutch harbor, all in 37 and F another inter-tie
6.  BB an Dillingham supported by BB health corporation and a hospital
7.  BB housing authority supports this group. 
8.  Cultural ties of region strong and should be retained in one district.  BB Assembly took action last Thursday.  Special meeting.
9.  Native Culture of Denaina Indians and Aleut and Alutiiq people are strong and tied with BB's good reason to
10.  People depend highly on subsistent lifecycle - all]\
11.  Would like meeting in King Salmon  - we have a training center there and can host a lunch and treat you really nice if you come here.

Torgerson:  King Salmon is on our list. Thank you very much for your testimony and your assembly did a good job representing you yesterday.

Delta Junction;

Mike Tvenge:  Administrator for City of Delta Junction.  Haven't made a proposa.  Saw Valdez for first time and brings us back together and DJ city council likes it.  Compact and similar communites.  Like that we are socio-economic communities and accessible by the road system  More comment in April.

Torgerson:  Will have the plans on the web when we get bak.

Ruth Abbott:  Came to Ak 1959, in DJ for 8? years.  Richardson Highway splits us now, but it should include both sides of the highway.  We are neither socially or economically connected with Chickaloon 250 miles away, but we have a lot in common with our neighbors across the highway.  More incommon with Valdez than with Matsu.  Wasn't planning on testifying.

Torgerson:  Back in Anchorage

David Case.  - Video coming

Fairbanks:

Lance Roberts - emailed picture of map I want to refer to while you look that up I'll address other poitns.  Born and raised in FBks - 1965 - redistricting in 2002 really bad and even after changed, it didn't work well.  Hope you can fix that.
Specifically:
based on AFER map:
1.  Taking out Goldstream precincts, might not have to take them all out, by what is southeast - not sure where you'll draw old 6.
2.  Main point if you have my map.  New numbers based on AFER map was 11 and 7, not 6 and 10.  All Badger Road in Distric 7.  I realize you can't keep them all together, but not 3 different districts.  We can keep it as two.
Sound stopped from audio.  Technician doesn't know either.

Just Fairbanks, we'll go to Ketchikan:
Dick Kuess?   Thanks for listening again.  Was here Sat. in Ketchikan, but today I've picked up on a couple of proposals that make sense.  Alaska for Equitable Redistricting - just not sure how they handle Sitka and the one just now from Juneau.

Torgerson:  Next to Juneau

Jaeleen Araujo - VP and gen counsel for Sealaska Corp.  and our 20k shareholders.  Considered about loss of two native incumbents one in sen one in house who would have to run against urban incumbents.  Prefer option that keeps one or both seats.  Urban v Rural native representation can be very different.

Like Bush Caucus that retained Thomas' district.  Also Alaskans for For Fair and Euqitable Redistricting proposal.    Not sure about Brad Fletch's proposal.  Protection of Natie and Rural represenation.  Protection of the four and two districts.  Thank you

Torgerson:  We have not received the Bush Caucus plan have we?
Miller:  Updated today that they have Facebook page with a lot of plans.  They aren't endorsing one particular one.

Laurie Davey in Juneau:  32, contiguous, compact, etc.  ER to Hope.  We need a compact and contiguous - West. boundary seward highway and rural areas elsewhere.  Not Juneau.

Back to Fairbanks
Lance Robertson:  Where did it drop out  Badger Road - works with map I emailed AFER map I really like the AFER map, but one consideration.  Badger road into 2 districts.  I highlighted in pink - everything south of Chena River and Slough, being in the new 6 and new 10 following the river following the slough to Plack road, but not necessary, there are a few good spots where you could draw the line where the neighborhoods connet with Plack, but not each other  A few options.
The stuff off of Persinger Drive, if all that - cloud road and keiling - were also in 6 and I wasn't sure about population, but if you could look at that with your software.
Looking to consolidate Badger into 2 district instead of 3.  Subdivision in Dis. 7 moving into Badger road.  Subdivision outside military base its own section.  Good where they draw that line.

Torgerson, thanks, appreciate, to Matsu for two, back here for one, then Haines.

Lynn Gattis - live and vote in district 14, and I've looked at mapping for Alaskans for Equitable Redistricting.  Map for new district 14, someone was truly paying attention not only to landmarks, following road, keeping that community together.  14, 15, 12 keep our community together.  No problems.  Like the AforER map.

Marvin Yoder - looking at the same maps as Lynn.  For the most very good.  I also rep city of Wasilla.  In SE corner of the map, they follow a creek and take a sliver from Goose Bay and move it into 14.  We're looking at some roads and annexed, it would make sense if some of the area south of 14 put into ?? and something else into 15.  Thank you.

Deptuy Administrator of Wasilla.

Robin Phillips - Adoption for Alaskans for Equitable Redistricting plan.  I think it meets all the criteria.  considers urban communities and I want to address smaller urban communities.  In last few processes we saw some strange districts.  Consider urban communities.  Particularly here in Anchorage - Govt. Hill.  It was split in half.  Two incumbents were thrown into one district from one party.  As a constituent and aide to one of the legislature.  Split not down for good of community or to meet specific requirements.  A4ER plan puts Govt. Hill together.  Dis. 25 long and narrow - A4ER makes the new district makes more sense.  Takes into consideration these compact urban communities.

Cordova:
Mark Lynch:  City Manager of Cordova.  Brief.  Thanks.  Satisfied with district we're in 5 and feel we have good representation.  Like it kept as much the same as possible.  Fit with the SE fishing communities.

Haines:
Robert Venables:  Thank you chair, not speaking on behalf of my employer or others, lived and worked here a long time.  Looked at many maps and understand difficulties in front of you to put five house districts into four and keep people happy.  Need to lessen impact and doesn't harm to small communities.  The map that AK for Equ Redistricting put before you.  We understand the population lost here, there will be only four house seats.  There's a wat that Dis 5 can keep its identity and soul.  All fishing and subsistence life style compared to the more urban communities. 
Both Haines and Skagway support keeping the small communities not with Juneau that has 30,000, even Sitka with 7000?  Sitka is the only community could be aligned with urban areas.  If they are split in half they could gain more representation.

Ron Yaeger: (here in Anchorage)  District 30.  Alaskans for Equitable Redistricting feels good.  I'm an engineer, and know the importance of regulations and this plan meets them.  I recommend the plan complies with the law and not the boondoggle that happened ten years ago.  My district would no longer cross Campbell Creek and my district was badly split up  Common sense says I'm closer to neighbor across the street than across the river. 

Torgerson:  That's all we have here or off-site.  Take a break when someone wants to testify.

Democrats Ready to Present

Chair Torgerson relented after Valdez and said the Democrats could present after the public testimony when there was some downtime if Jake Metcalf didn't get here on time.

They were ready at 2:30, but he wasn't here and they were ready to go to public testimony, but then he walked in.  While Torgerson was clearly not pleased, he deferred to Board Member Greene's request to let the Democrats present their "Rights Plan."

Metcalfe is now testifying.  He's going over the criteria which sound like the mandated criteria from the Fed and State.  The room is considerably emptier now than it was. 

Respected Borough and city borders.
Respected Alaska Native representation.
Two Plan alternatives doing our best effort to meet all the principles.

1.  Fair and Balanced.  Our preferred.
2.  Four - Two Plan.  Four Alaska Native majority districts, Two influential districts. 

There are a bunch of maps on poster board on easels and I'm not sure where things are going.  It's much easier to move around now because the Valdez and others folks have emptied the front rows.  But they are pointing the maps to the board and I'm behind them. 

Let me move around.  I did a lot of their tour of the plan on video.  I'll try to get some maps and the video up later.

Now they are working on the Four-Two Plan.  Metcalfe is using the 'socio-economic integration' mantra (it's one of the criteria for justifying why a district is put together as it is) a lot.  In the first plan what caught my eye was that Kenai Peninsula was altogether except for Seward.  Which turns out to be in a district that goes across Prince William Sound to Cordova.  I'll try to get a map. 

They're closing up now. It's 3:05pm.  

In questioning from Attorney White about retrogression, Metcalfe's response is that we're down one district, but these districts are going to stand for ten years.  These are honest numbers and these majorities aren't going to dissipate after a year. 
Four-Two plan you add another influence district.

Valdez at Redistricting

It seems I've lost all this.  Bill Walker is acting as the attorney for Valdez and made the presentation.  The attorney for the Redistricting Board is asking what other options - if, say, they don't include Cordova with Valdez as Valdez has proposed.

What about taking Valdez east-west instead of this more north-south district?


Their plan focused mostly on Valdez and adjacent districts that would be affected.  Here's their whole map.

Here's a map focused on the new Valdez district.

And here's their map looking at the Anchorage part.














I did get a bit of video with Valdez City Manager John Hozey before things started.