Board's Attorney Suggests 2 Year and 4 Year Pairings; All But One Truncation

The Board meeting is about to begin (10am) and you can listen in here and watch their computer screen here at GoToMeeting.

Tomorrow their proclamation is due and it's their last meeting.  I'm doing today's meeting from home since I have a zillion things to do this week.

They do have their attorney's letter posted today that identifies the Senate seats that should be truncated (all but Juneau's - old B and new P) and which should be two year and four year terms.    Below is an excerpt from the letter.

I'm not sure why it's simplest to make the one seat that was not truncated (held by a Democrat) a two year seat. They've alternated two and four year seats alphabetically.  It would seem even simpler to make the chart start with A in the two year column and B in the second year column.  Perhaps Mr. White will explain that.

I'll put this up for now so you know what's happening.  I just called in and found out they are running a bit late and that's why the online connection isn't functioning yet.

UPDATE 10:26: Still no audio.

Metes and Bounds

One more task the Alaska Redistricting Board staff has had since last Tuesday has been 'metes and bounds.'  This is a common term in surveying, but it's one I've managed to avoid until now.  Wikipedia explains it:

Metes and bounds is a system or method of describing land, real property (in contrast to personal property) or real estate. The system has been used in England for many centuries, and is still used there in the definition of general boundaries. By custom, it was applied in the original Thirteen Colonies that became the United States, and in many other land jurisdictions based on English common law.

Typically the system uses physical features of the local geography, along with directions and distances, to define and describe the boundaries of a parcel of land. The boundaries are described in a running prose style, working around the parcel in sequence, from a point of beginning, returning back to the same point. It may include references to other adjoining parcels (and their owners), and it, in turn, could also be referred to in later surveys. At the time the description is compiled, it may have been marked on the ground with permanent monuments placed where there were no suitable natural monuments.

The term "metes" refers to a boundary defined by the measurement of each straight run, specified by a distance between the terminal points, and an orientation or direction. A direction may be a simple compass bearing, or a precise orientation determined by accurate survey methods. The term "bounds" refers to a more general boundary description, such as along a certain watercourse, a stone wall, an adjoining public road way, or an existing building.

The system is often used to define larger pieces of property (e.g. farms), and political subdivisions (e.g. town boundaries) where precise definition is not required or would be far too expensive, or previously designated boundaries can be incorporated into the description.

To give you an example, I've gotten, from the Lt. Governor's website, this description of the current (until the new districts become final) Alaska House district 6, which is the largest electoral district in the United States.

House District 6 - Senate District C - Interior Villages

Download map for District 06
House District 6 is bounded by a line beginning at the intersection of the common boundary of the Bering Straits and Yukon Koyukuk Rural Education Attendance Areas (REAAs) and the Northwest Arctic Borough, north along the borough boundary to its intersection with the North Slope Borough, east along the borough boundary to its intersection with the Alaskan/Canadian border, south along the border to the City and Borough of Yakutat, west along the borough boundary to the Ahtna ANRC, west along the ANRC boundary to the Copper River, north along its western bank to Urantina River, north to its headwaters, north along a non visible line to the headwaters of Bernard Creek, north to a point east of the intersection of Bernard Creek Trail and an unnamed trail, north along the creek trail to the Richardson Highway, north to Squirrel Creek, west to Trans Alaska Pipeline (TAPs), east to its intersection with a road just south of Pippin Lake, east to Richardson Highway, north to 16APL-3 Road, west to TAPs, north to 19APL-1 Road, east to Richardson Highway, continuing east along a non visible line to the Copper River, north along its western bank to the Klutina River, east to the New Richardson Highway, north to the Old Richardson Highway, north to the southern boundary of Tazlina ANVSA, west along the ANVSA boundary to TAPs, north to the Tazlina River, east along its northern shore to a trail that connects with the intersection of Copperville Road and the Old Richardson Highway, north along the highway to the Glenn Highway, west to TAPs, north to its intersection with the Richardson High way (just west of Sourdough and Haggard Creeks), north to Paxson Lake Campground Road, east along a non visible line to TAPs, north to the Richardson Highway (just west of Fielding Lake), north to Fort Greely Military Reservation (just west of Butch Lake), north and east along the military boundary to the Richardson Highway (just north of TAPs Pump Station 9 Access Road), north along the highway to the City of Delta Junction, east and north along the city boundary to Nistler Road, east to Souhrada Road, nor th to Jack Warren Road, west to Fales Road, north to Clearwater Lake, west along the shore to an unnamed creek connecting to the Tanana River, east along its south bank to the mouth of Clearwater Creek, north across the Tanana River, continuing east along its northern bank to an intersection with the Volkmar River, north along a non visible line to Volkmar Lake, west around the lake to its northern most point, east along a non visible line to White Peak, north to the intersection of Goodpaster River and South Fork (Goodpaster River), east along the South Fork to Delta Greely REAA, north along the REAA boundary to Fairbanks North Star Borough, north, west and south around the borough to the Tanana River, west along its southern bank to the City of Nenana, south along the city boundary to FAA Way, south to a sled trail (paralleling George Parks Highway), south to Denali Borough, west and south along the borough boundary to its intersection with Matanuska-Susitna Borough, south along the borough boundary to its intersection with Kenai Peninsula Borough, east along the borough boundary to the midpoint of Cook Inlet, south along the midpoint to its intersection with House District 35, west along the district boundary to the mouth of Drift River, west along the river to Lake Clark National Park and Wilderness Area, west along the park/wilderness boundary to a point due east of Summit Lake, west to and around the lake's south shore to Tlikakila River, west to Lake and Peninsula Borough, north and west along the borough boundary to the common boundary of Calista and Bristol Bay ANRCs, west along the common boundary to its intersection with the common boundary of Lower Kuskokwim and Kuspuk REAAs, west along the common REAA boundary to the Kuskokwim River, north along its western bank to the City of Lower Kalskag, east along the city boundary to the City of Upper Kalskag, north and west around the city boundary to the Yukon Kuskokwim Portage Trail, north to its intersection with Bethel Census Area, west along the census area boundary to a point south of the headwaters of the Pitnik River, north along the river to a point just south of the Kashunuk River, north to the river, east to Driftwood Slough, east to the Yukon River, east along its southern bank to Atchuelinguk River, east along its northern bank to its headwaters, north along a non visible line to the Bering Straits ANRC, east and north to point of beginning.

The staff has had to write one of these for each of the 40 house districts.  

Truncation and Which Senators Get 2 and 4 Year Terms?

At Monday's (tomorrow's) Alaska Redistricting Board meeting, two of the unfinished, but related, jobs to do are 1)  'truncation' and 2) determining which districts will start off with two and four year terms.


Truncation
1.   Substantially changed district requires new election.  Elected officials should represent the people who elected them.  But when the districts are substantially changed by redistricting, they have new constituents who didn't vote in their new districts.  And thus this new population is represented by someone they had no say about.  So, it is believed  that a substantially changed new district should vote for its senator as soon as possible - which would be November 2012. 

So, truncation is the process of cutting short the terms of sitting Senators in those new districts that have substantially new populations so that the people can vote for the representative at the soonest possible election. [This is not an issue for House districts since they are all two year terms.]


2.  Two or Four Year Terms?  Alaska Senators serve for four years in staggered terms.   From the Alaska Constitution:

The term of representatives shall be two years, and the term of senators, four years. One-half of the senators shall be elected every two years.  [emphasis added]

Thus, in addition to truncating, the board has to make sure that half the seats are up for election every two years. So, for 2012, half the Senators would normally be up for reelection and the other half would be in "mid-term" - that is, they have two more years left in their terms and wouldn't normally be up for reelection until 2014.  Unless their districts have been substantially changed. 



Solving the Problem

1.  Truncation
You have to figure out which districts have to be truncated because they have substantially changed.  But, according to a memo from the Board's attorney, Michael White, to the Chair last March, 

"There are no statutes, regulations or case law guidance on how to ascertain the seating process.  In 2001 Redistricting process, the Board simply alternated between two and four year seats on an alphabetical basis incorporating the mid-term incumbents whose terms did not have to be truncated into the two year seats.  Thus, in 2002 there were 17 seats up for election;  7 were for two years, 10 were or [sic] four years.  Of these 17 seats, 7 senators had their terms truncated due to substantial change in their Senate seats.  This means that 7 mid-term incumbents were required to run for election despite having served only two of their four year term.  The Board's report does not indicate which of the Senate seats were truncated and whether the truncated seats were automatically provided with four year terms.  It appears that the Board simply used an alternating alphabetical basis for determining the 2/4 year terms, incorporating the non-truncated seats as two year terms.

Based on past practice, it would appear that the Board is free to use any rational, reasonably objective method for determining how to allocate two and four year terms."

At last week's meetings, Chair Torgerson said that he thought all the districts had been substantially changed, but attorney White suggested waiting until they had a report on this.  There were numbers talked about, but I'm not completely sure how much change equals substantial.  I think they talked about 10% difference.  That seems to come from the White memo:

"Where there is substantial change to the population of a district, and the previous district is mid-term in 2012, Egan appears to require the incumbent's term be truncated and that an election be held.  What constitutes a substantial change is not defined by law or court decision.  In 2000, the three districts the board found substantially similar, all had less than 10% change in population between the previous plan and the new plan. The next highest percentage of maintained population was 66.2%.  The data does not indicate whether that seat was a mid-term truncation or not. " [See the 2000 truncation plan here.]

In any case, Monday they should get a report that officially says how much change each district had in population.  Those over 10% will most likely be designated as 'substantially changed."  In their eyeballing last week, they identified Juneau as a district that might not be 10% changed.

Next they have to decide which seats get four year terms and which get two year terms.

Board member Bob Brody suggested using the initial numerical (as opposed to the required alphabetical) senate district labels to divide them by odd and even to eliminate any appearance of political bias in deciding who would get a two or four year appointment. 

But this got tabled until the report on truncation comes out.  What, Brody was asked, if you give someone a four year seat through odd and even choosing, but the seat is truncated?  That would mess up the scheme.  It's better to see who is truncated first. 

Except then you take out some of the randomness of the selections.

People thinking ahead could, of course, have arranged the lettering so that some targeted districts got into the 2 year group (say odd).  But I have no evidence to suggest that.  Are there board members who would do that?  Probably.  Are there board members who wouldn't do that?  For sure.  And I suspect the staff is trying to keep the process clean too.  But that's just a gut feeling from talking to them a lot over this process.

(Now that I've read and thought more about this, it appears these are two different things.  Someone who is mid-term, it would seem, shouldn't get a new four year district (extending his term to six years.)  But should a senator who would be up for vote in 2012 anyway be automatically a four year term?  I have to think this through more.)




In any case, those are two key left-over decisions they have to make:

1. Which districts to truncate, and
2. Which districts get two year seats and which four year.

Seattle Shots

Some pictures I took while in Seattle.

Walking up into Seattle from the underground light rail station.

How do you know your dog was stolen?  I guess if it had a collar and tags and it was spotted with someone else.  Later we saw the same dog on a Lost poster.

Lunch at KauKau's

In the bus tunnel

 

Ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle

Waterless Urinal

Graduation at UW Botanical Garden

I was reminded of the Berlin football fans as I saw all these people with green jerseys and a number with scarves.  But they hadn't had near as much beer as the Berliners and they weren't chanting for their team.  Looking now, I see it ended a 2-2 with the Vancouver Whitecaps.

FCC Report: Local News Decline, Blogs Democratize, But Don't Yet Fill Gap

An FCC Report, THE INFORMATION NEEDS OF COMMUNITIES:The changing media landscape in a broadband age, published a couple of days ago reports a serious decline in local news brought about by the changing news technology world.

Below I've excerpted some of their comments on blogging and bloggers.  I'll try to do more later.

But first, their key findings are outlined in their executive summary:


On close inspection, some aspects of the modern media landscape may seem surprising:

• An abundance o media outlets does not translate into an abundance of reporting
• In many communities, there are now more outlets, but less local accountability reporting.
• While digital technology has empowered people in many ways, the concurrent decline in local reporting has, in other cases, shifted power away from citizens to government and other powerful institutions, which can more often set the news agenda.
• Far from being nearly-extinct dinosaurs, the traditional media players—TV stations and newspapers—have emerged as the largest providers of local news online.
• The nonprofit media sector has become far more varied, and important, than ever beore.It now includes state public affairs networks, wikis, local news websites, organizations producing investigative reporting, and journalism schools as well as low-power FM stations,traditional public radio and TV, educational shows on satellite TV, and public access channels. Most of the players neither receive, nor seek, government funds.
• Rather than seeing themselves only as competitors, commercial and nonprofit media are now finding it increasingly useful to collaborate [emphasis added]

Recommendations:

• Our specific recommendations ollow six broad principles:
• Information required by FCC policy to be disclosed to the public should, over time, be made available online.
• Greater government transparency will enable both citizens and reporters to more effectively monitor powerful institutions and benefit from public services.
• Existing government advertising spending should be targeted more toward local media.;
• Nonprofit media need to develop more sustainable business models, especially through private donations.
• Universal broadband and an open Internet are essential prerequisites or ensuring that the new media landscape serves communities well.
• Policymakers should take historically underserved communities into account when crafting strategies and rules.

Now, here are some things they say in the first 127 pages about blogging and bloggers:

Journalism as volunteerism - a thousand points of news

Perhaps no area has been more dramatically transformed than “hyperlocal”—coverage on the neighborhood or block by block level. Even in the fattest-and-happiest days of traditional media, they could not regularly provide news on such a granular level. Professional media have been joined by a wide range of local blogs, email lists, web-sites and the proliferation of local groups on national websites like Facebook or Yahoo!

For the most part, hyperlocally-oriented websites and blogs do not operate as profitable businesses, but they do not need to. This is journalism as volunteerism - a thousand points of news. The number and variety of websites, s, and tweets contributing to the news and information landscape is truly stunning. Yet this abundance can obscure a parallel trend: the shortage of full-time reporting.

One study in Baltimore:  95% of stories based on reporting done by traditional media

For instance, the Pew case study of Baltimore revealed a profusion of media outlets. Between new media(blogs and websites) and traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers), researchers counted 53 different outlets—considerably more than existed 10 years ago. But when Pew’s researchers analyzed the content they were providing,particularly regarding the city budget and other public affairs issues, they discovered that 95 percent of the stories—including those in the new media—were based on reporting done by traditional media (mostly the Baltimore Sun).  And those sources were doing less than they had done in the past. Several other studies have had similar findings.

Decline in gathering news, increase in distribution

This is not a criticism of citizen media or web-based news aggregators and commentators. Even when they are working primarily with the reporting of others, they often add tremendous value--distributing the news through alternate channels or offering new interpretations of its meaning. But we are seeing a decline in the media with a particular strength—gathering the information—and seeing it replaced by a media that often exhibits a different set of strengths (for instance, distributing and interpreting it).

. . . some of the changes hitting newsrooms may have improved coverage.

On the other hand, some of the changes hitting newsrooms may have improved coverage. Although the  Washington Post  has fewer education reporters, long-time journalist Jay Matthews says that by blogging he has gottencloser to real-world classroom issues: “I think that on balance—and this is a very contrarian view—our educationcoverage is better in the new era than in the old, because we have more contact with readers. Blogs allow us to be incontact with readers—it creates a debate and a back and forth.” He mentions a local story he covered about teacherswho no longer return graded exams to students. Parents were upset because they could not help their children learnfrom their mistakes. Matthews said the blog version of his story received about 50 comments from readers all overthe country. “Clearly this is something teachers are doing everywhere,” he says.

As in other areas, the cutbacks in education reporting have spurred the establishment of a number of non-profits that hire seasoned journalists to cover stories that newspapers miss. Dale Mezzacappa reported on educationfor the
Philadelphia Inquirer for 20 years before going to work for the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, where she is a contributing editor. Launched as a quarterly in 1994 to cover “underserved” communities in Philadelphia, the
Notebook is now available on the web. It cannot begin to replace large daily newspapers, Mezzacappa says, but it canll in some of the gaps.

Alan Gottlieb, a former reporter for the Denver Post, launched Education News Colorado inJanuary 2008.

The website, financed by local foundations, started by focusing on school-related legislation in thestate capitol, “because nobody does that anymore,” Gottlieb says.

In just a few years, the cost of publishing went from being relatively expensive to almost free

Meanwhile, the advent of free, simple-to-use blogging software was making it possible for every American to be a publisher, reporter, and pundit. By May 2011, one of the most popular blogging platforms, WordPress, was hosting 20 million blogs.

Though only a few bloggers have audiences large enough to place them among the top 100 websites, their contribution to news and commentary online has been revolutionary. The“long tail” came into view: instead of information being provided primarily by a few large players, the ecosystem now could sup-port millions of smaller players each serving a small but targeted audience.

The democratization of content creation caught on quickly. Wikipedia and other “wikis” enabled readers to collaborate in the creation of content; YouTube allowed a full range of users—from creative geniuses to proud parents to freaks—to “broadcast” their own videos; and Facebook gained national dominance as an all-purpose platform for self-expression and communication. Millions of people became not only consumers of information but creators, curators, and distributors. Remarkably, WordPress, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook offered these publishing tools to users for free.  It is hard to overstate the significance of these changes.  In just a few years, the cost of publishing went from being relatively expensive to almost free—at least in terms of the publishing technology.

. . .a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.”   Hardly.

The digital world continues to change by the minute.Smartphone applications, tablet apps, e-Readers, and other new services now make it easy to access news and information on-the-go, using the Internet as a pipeline but bypassing the need for a web browser to display it. As consumers increasingly gravitate to applications and services that make use of the Internet through more closed systems, such as smartphones, some even question the viability of business plans built on the current search-based,website-centric Internet.

The crop of news and information players who gained prominence on the web 2.0 landscape—bloggers,citizen journalists, and Internet entrepreneurs—was initially mocked by traditional media leaders as being inferior, worthless, and even dangerous. Famously, Jonathan Klein, then-president of CNN, declared, “Bloggers have no checks and balances. [It’s] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.”

Hardly. It is important to appreciate the extraordinary positive effects the new media—including those contributing while in pajamas—has had, not only in the spread of freedom around the world, but specifically in the provision of news, reporting, and civically important information.

More Diversity in Commentary and Analysis
The commentary business is far more open to new players. In the past, there were a handful of well-worn paths topundit-hood, usually requiring work as a big-time newspaper reporter or a top level government ofcial. The Inter-net allows for more newcomers. Markos Moulitsas, a former army sergeant, was a web developer when he createdthe Daily Kos, which has become the leading liberal blog. Glenn Reynolds, one of the top libertarian bloggers, is ab 2010, one of the top libertarian bloggers, is a professor at University of Tennessee. Matt Drudge was a telemarketer before he created the pioneering conservative aggregation site, the Drudge Report, and Andrew Breitbart, a leading conservative media entrepreneur, got his start in the online news world while working for Drudge.

The best web analysts have used the technology to improve the quality of their offerings. Andrew Sullivan was among the first to use the interactivity of the Internet to hone his argument in public, putting out an initial view-point and then adapting it, as new ideas or information challenged him. The best bloggers write with the knowledge that shoddy reporting or thinking will be caught in a matter of minutes.Some of these commentators perform the same function as the best news magazine and newspaper reporters: connecting dots (recognizing the links between seemingly isolated events) and ending inconsistencies in publicly available information. A handful of conservative bloggers, for instance, figured out that a key document in Dan Rather’s controversial 60 Minutes report on George W. Bush’s military service must have been fake, in part by noticing that the typeface on an ostensibly 30-year-old letter was suspiciously similar to a modern Microsoft Word font.

Cognitive Surplus

Web scholar Clay Shirky estimates that the citizens of the world have one trillion hours of free time annual-ly—what he refers to as a “cognitive surplus”—that could be devoted to shared projects and problem solving.

Technology has enabled some of this time to be spent on frivolous enterprises (“lolcats,” perhaps?), but some has been applied to civically important communal digital projects, as well. Shirky cites this example: Ory Okolloh, a blogger in Kenya, was tracking violence in the aftermath of her country’s December 2007 elections when the government imposed a news blackout. She appealed to her readers for updates on what was happening in their neighborhoods butwas quickly overwhelmed by the ood of information she received. Within 72 hours, two volunteer software engineershad designed a platform called “Ushahidi” to help her sort and map the information coming in from mobile phones and the web, so readers could see where violence was occurring and where there were peace efforts. This software has since been used “in Mexico to track electoral fraud, it’s been deployed in Washington, D.C., to track snow cleanup and most famously in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake,” Shirky says.

In other words, the technological revolution has not merely provided a flood of cool new gizmos. It has also democratized access to the world’s vast storehouse of knowledge and news.

I'll try to get more done, but I've got other things to do today.  Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Vic Kohring's Attorney Defending "Barefoot Bandit"

I saw an AP story in the paper this morning on the ferry over to Seattle that John Henry Browne, Vic Kohring's slick Seattle attorney, is also Colton Harris-Moore's attorney.  Colton's the 20 year old who is alleged to have stolen cars, boats, and airplanes as he ran from the FBI for two years.  It seems they're working out a plea deal but they're hung up on the details of possible book and movie deals.

We've been busy having a good time here with both our kids, so I'm just sending that little bit.  I found a link to the whole AP story here if you want to see more.

Mt. Fairweather Serendipity

 I finally got this month's book club book yesterday at the library and was determined to read as much as I could on the plane.  So I had just taken the picture below when I got to page 38.

Lynn Schooler, Walking Home: A Traveler in the Alaskan Wilderness, a Journey into the Human Heart, page 38:

Through binoculars I could see the tops of trees rising from beyond the surf.  The scene was identical to one Captain James Cook had noted while exploring this coast 230 years earlier, on a clear, fine day in May of 1778, as HMS Resolution and its sister ship Discovery crawled north in light winds over a rolling, glassy sea.  Cook, writing in the staid clear language preferred by the British Admiralty, recorded that the snow, from the highest summits down to the sea coast, some few places excepted where we could perceive trees, as it were, rising their heads out of the sea."

It was such a fine, almost balmy day that Cook was inspired to name the towering mountain behind the next headland he came to Mount Fair Weather.  In choosing to commemorate the weather that allowd him to see the 15,000 foot peak from miles away, Cook was unknowingly acknowledging something the Tlingit Indians had known for centures:  When Na goot Ku, a friendly birdlike spirit that lives on Fearweather's summit, lifts the clouds enough for "the paddlers mountain" to be visible, the weather will be calm enough to travel at sea by dougout canoe.

Now, I'm not 100% that's Mt. Fairweather.  Perhaps I was seeing what I wanted to see - a very human way of knowing things,  and obviously the weather wasn't that fair at sealevel. But we'd already passed what I took to be Mt. Sanford, so there is a good chance. We were a little more than an hour out of Anchorage.

I think this is Mt. Sanford

A Better Map of Anchorage

As we flew out of Anchorage today to go to an important graduation in Seattle, the plane took off to the south rather than the usual northern loop. And I saw a much better view of Anchorage than what I've been seeing lately. Here's today's view.

Here's the view of Anchorage I've gotten more familiar with in the last 3 months:

Turnagain Arm was pretty spectacular.

Following the Seward Highway south.

Bird Point

Here's a link to the State's webcam shot there a little after this picture was taken.

Note:  In case it wasn't obvious, there was a bit of photoshop tampering with the top picture to merge three different pictures together and to acknowledge a bit that they were from somewhat different angles.

Powerline Pass

My daughter drove our van back up to Alaska after it enjoyed a winter further south.  So after the obligatory dinner at Thai Kitchen, she wanted to go to Powerline Pass at Glen Alps.  There was a brisk, chilly wind.

Normally I try to get a picture without the powerline, but I have a friend who is far more attuned to powerlines than to mountains, so this picture is for him.

Spring is a couple weeks behind what it is down in the city, but there were a few flowers that stand out against the brown grass.

I'm not sure what these little flowers are.  Alaskapi. . .are you there to assist?
[UPDATE June 9:  Alaskapi comes through - see her  thoughts on what these are in the comments.  Thanks!]

I think these are globe flowers, except the Audubon Guide says their range is:

British Columbia to Washington; in the Rocky Mountains south to Colorado.

 The lupine are just starting to flower.

10 = 1: Board Gives New Numbers To The New Districts

I listened to the meeting online today.  The highlights are
1.  New numbering scheme for the House and Senate Districts.
2.  Postponed a scheme for randomizing truncation (I'll do a post on that soon) until they have the report on changes in the Senate districts.  They'll meet next on Monday June 13 to do this task. 

Map with Draft Plan Numbers - Click to enlarge

The map above has the numbers they used in their draft plan.  The lists below in my meeting notes have these draft plan numbers and the newly assigned numbers.  So far, I don't think there is a new map with the new numbers. 

[Below are my running notes of the meeting. As always, be warned.  These are rough notes.  I've cleaned them up a little, but remember:  They give you the gist, but not necessarily everything and not verbatim. ]

June 7 Alaska Redistricting Board Meeting


10:05 call to order.  [Listening online.]
All members are there.  [Holm by audio, it sounds like]

Motion from yesterday that they postponed.  Taylor has a numbering system.  He wanted 1 to be, putting words inot your mouth.
Brody:  I know later the Senate seats will be letters, but for now,
Torgerson:  Look at Taylor’s map - it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.  We had one board member request to keep the rural Native districts the same - 37, 38, 40 - and the Senate numbers the same. 

[10:08  Pictures coming up on the GoToMeeting]


Taylor Bickford (Board Executive Director):  I got the shape files from Eric this morning. You have maps.  It’s also available on line.

Marie requested the rural boards stay the same for continuity.  PeggyAnn said she didn’t care about SE as long as it works for the state.

Torgerson (Board Chair):  I started with 40, 39, 38 . .  [For the most part, the ‘old’ numbers are the numbers they had on their draft plan maps.  They ARE NOT necessarily the old district numbers which, for the most part are substantially changed. These are the numbers from the new district maps they approved, so you need them if you want to see where the new districts are until they put up the final maps with the final numbers.]

I started with Fairbanks. 
So, District 10 (Fairbanks/Wainright) = the new District 1 + 11(North Pole/Eilson) = New District  2  = Senate A

Map has 'old' numbers - Click to enlarge

Holm:  1 is North Pole Eilson - you reversed them.
Taylor Bickford:  I’ll leave it
7 (Farmers Loop/Two Rivers)= D3 +  9 (City of Fairbanks) =D4= Senate B
8 (Chena Ridge) = 5  + 12 (Richardson Highway) = 6    = Senate C
Worked my way down.
 





Matsu
17 (Rural Matsu)  = new 7  paired with 14 (Palmer) = 8   =  Senate D
13 (Greater Wasilla) = new 9   16 (Big Lake)  = 10  = Senate E
15 (Chugiak) = 11  plus 19 (ER/FT Rich) = 12  = Senate F   [Connects Matsu and Anchorage]
















Anchorage
20 (Elmendorf) =13  plus  23 = 14 (College Gate) =  Senate G
26 (University) = 15 plus   27 (Spenard)=16   = Senate H
24 (Mt View) =17  plus  25 (Downtown)  18 = Senate I
28 (Turnagain)  = 19   plus   29 (Sand Lake)  = 20 = Senate J
31 (Oceanview) = 21  plus  30 (Taku Campbell)  =22  =  Senate K
For listeners, the Senate pairings were adopted yesterday, were just numbering them.
32 (Huffman) = 23     plus  22 (Abbot) = 24  = Senate L
21 (Muldoon/Basher) =25  plus 18 (Eagle River Valley) = 26  = Senate M

Click to enlarge

That completes Anchorage except South Anchorage
33 (South Anchorage to Girdwood/Portage) -27    34(North Kenai/Seward)=28   = Senate N
5 (Kenai-Soldotna) - 29  plus 6 (Homer/South Kenai) =30  = Senate O

Kenai done.  to get rural to work 36 to 40, we jumped from Kenai to SE

Southeast



Juneau so we could wrap around
4 (Mendenhall) = 31  plus
3 (downtown Juneau, Skagway/Petersburg) =32  = Senate P
1 (Ketchikan) =33 plus  2 (Sitka) =34 =   Senate Q

(See state map on top for these)
Native rural districts keep their same numbers [though some have changed significantly]:
35(Kodiak/Cordova) =35  36(Bristol Bay/Aleutians) =36  = Senate R

37(Bethel/Seldovia) =37  38(Wade Hampton/Denali) =38 = Senate S

39(Bering Straits/Interior Villages)=39  40(Arctic) =40 = Senate T

Torgerson:  Bob suggests the first pairings  We have truncation to do, but we don’t have the population numbers yet.  In my mind we’ve changed everything around quite a bit.  But I don’t know.  I think we should amend the motion to take truncation out.
Brody:  Divide the motion
Torgerson:  I’m ready to vote on truncation, but I was advised by counsel to wait for the report.  In my mind, except for Juneau . . . truncation we can do on Monday 13th.  Anything on metes and bounds issues Taylor Bickford or Eric bring up. 

PeggyAnn McConnochie:  Amend motion to deal with truncation on Monday 13.
Greene:  Don’t we have an amendment on the floor - was there a second?
Torgerson:  motion is to wait on truncation til May 13.
White:  point of order, is this motion dealing with 2 and 4 year rotation.  I don’t think you can do that because you have to fit them into their rotation.  You’re saying odd gets 2 and even gets 4 years.
You can adopt the numbers and Senate pairings, but you need the report first.  If you aren’t truncating someone, the person may fall into the wrong category.
Taylor Bickford:  If you adopt it now and a person doesn’t fall into the category, then you can . . .
Torgerson:  When can you do it? 
Taylor Bickford: Eric sent the raw data can’t do it today.
Torgerson: I think any reasonable person can look at the districts and see it.
Taylor Bickford: I could do that today.
Torgerson:  If we inadvertantly assign someone. . .we can’t give anyone a six year seat.
Taylor Bickford:  Can we adopt the numbers and the odd even numbers and then if the report requires we can amend if there are exceptions.  Once we have the data, and we say, these two people need to be truncated, except for these two people. 
Torgerson:  We could also truncate everybody.  You don’t think everything hasn’t changed substantially?
Taylor Bickford:  I don’t know.
Torgerson:  Truncation is not a legal issue, a board issue.  Really no criteria.  It’s up to us to do that. 
White:  Only standard you have is the district has substantially changed. 
Taylor Bickford: If you’re going to use the data, you can’t do that today. If you’re going to use something else, whatever that is,  . .  but data is too raw.
Brody:  Every district has changed by 5000 people.  If some districts had 3000 less, means more than 2500 people.  The top ten years ago was   and now we’re at 17,755, so at a mininum every Senate district changed by 5000 people. 
Torgerson:  I see what you’re saying.  Every district changed by more than 25%.
Last board used 90% change.  Wide gap.  Going by historical standards, then it means 10% change.
Holm:  Every house district in Fairbanks changed by 3000, Senate changed by 6000.  I can wait until Monday. 
Torgerson:  Michael’s point is well taken.  The report might affect any truncation.  But I can almost tell you which districts.  We know 40 didn’t change.  39 is substantially different.  I don’t know of any in Anchorage that didn’t change.  Ketchikan, Haines.  Only downtown Juneau, but it has Skagway and Petersburg.  I don’t think I need a change.
White:  You could preliminarily truncate and then make changes when report comes out.  You could adopt due to potential information. 
Torgerson:  What didn’t change?
Taylor Bickford:  Juneau and I think some districts in the Valley.  Juneau for sure jumps out to me. 
Torgerson:  Michael, you think we could adopt this and start over on Monday?
White:
Taylor Bickford:  Independent of truncation, we’re getting a numbering system. 
White:  We know 10 people will run in 2012.
Taylor Bickford:  You could set ten Senators for 2012 and ten for 2014. 
Greene:  Couldn’t we just wait until Monday 13th?  It would be clearer.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  I’m of the same mind.  Talk about numbering, two years and four years  . . .
Torgerson:  I apologize.  Now that Marie says this, I think it’s appropriate.  We have a motion to bring truncation until Monday.  If maker of the amendment to the amendment will withdraw your motion.
PeggyAnn McConnochie:  withdrawy
Torgerson:  Main motion 1,3, 5, = two years 2, 4, 6  be four year, we postpone that to June 13.  When numbering is done it’s a lot clearer.  Table to June 13.
5-0 yes  Five-Zero motion postponed to next meeting on June 13.
PAM: I’ll make a motion for numbering districts and A through whatever.
Torgerson: moved to adopt Taylor’s numbering system.
5-0  yes  Board has adopted the numbering.

We’ve rolled through my agenda.  Anything else?
Taylor Bickford:  No, the numbering was big, it let’s us do the maps.
White:  Board plan has been adopted and put onthe website and allowed - make sure there’s a disclaimer that the staff is cleaning it up.
Torgerson:  We’ve been putting everything on the web, so I don’t see why we should stop now. 
White:  Just some disclaimer about cleaning up and final adopted on June 14. 
Torgerson:  Discussion with legal before, I anticipate having the proclamation signed by all the members.  Last time only the chair, a board member asked that we all sign, and I think that’s a good idea.  No legal precedence that we all sign, but I think it’s appropriate.

We stand adjourned at 10:43am.