Alaska Supreme Court Says No To Redistricting Board - But Changes 36 to 22

[See Alaska Redistricting Board tab above for annotated index of all posts on the Board.]

Sorry folks, I've fallen asleep on the job.  Being out of state is taking its toll and I totally missed the Alaska Supreme Court's rejection of the Redistricting Board's petition for a rehearing.  They made two minor changes, substituting the number 22 for the original 36 in two places. 


Here's the decision (the rest of the 50 pages were the same except for these numbers):

Before:    Fabe, Chief Justice, Winfree and Stowers, Justices, and Matthews and Carpeneti, Senior Justices' [Maassen and Bolger, Justices, not participating]
On consideration of the Petition for Rehearing filed by the Alaska Redistricting Board on 1/7/13,

IT IS ORDERED:    The petitionfor rehearing is GRANTED to the following extent:
On page 12 of the Opinion, "36 unchanged house districts" is modified to read "22 unchanged house districts," and on page 13 "these 36 districts" is changed to "these 22 districts."

In all other respects, the petition for rehearing is DENIED. Entered by the direction of the court.

Supreme Court No. S-14721 Order Petition for Rehearing
Date of Order: 2/15/13

Let's look at that in context:

From the original decision:

Thus, upon remand, the Board was instructed to consider the requirements of the Alaska Constitution first when constructing districts.20    However, what the Board actually did upon remand was to create a Hickel template that maintained the boundaries of unchallenged districts from the original Proclamation Plan, resulting in 36 unchanged house districts. The Board asserts that these districts “were drawn with only the Alaska Constitution in mind” and thus they complied with the Hickel process.21

Moreover, when the Board first created these 36 districts, it did so in order to comply with the VRA; this is a clear violation of Hickel’s plain language. Although these districts went unchallenged, that does not change the fact that they were drawn with VRA considerations as the first priority. We do not know if these districts will meet the Alaska Constitution’s requirements of compactness, contiguity, and socio-economic integration, but they were not drawn with this purpose as the primary consideration.

From the Feb. 15 decision:

Thus, upon remand, the Board was instructed to consider the requirements of the Alaska Constitution first when constructing districts.20    However, what the Board actually did upon remand was to create a Hickel template that maintained the boundaries of unchallenged districts from the original Proclamation Plan, resulting in 22 unchanged house districts. The Board asserts that these districts “were drawn with only the Alaska Constitution in mind” and thus they complied with the Hickel process.21

Moreover, when the Board first created these 22 districts, it did so in order to comply with the VRA; this is a clear violation of Hickel’s plain language. Although these districts went unchallenged, that does not change the fact that they were drawn with VRA considerations as the first priority. We do not know if these districts will meet the Alaska Constitution’s requirements of compactness, contiguity, and socio-economic integration, but they were not drawn with this purpose as the primary consideration.

The rest of the 48 page written decision remained the same.  The only other difference I can see is that because of the new language explaining this modification, what was on pages 12 and 13 was bumped to pages 13 and 14.  And the new document is now 50 pages instead of 48.

And I'm not even sure the switch is correct.  In my post Fact Checking the Alaska Redistricting Board's Petition to the Alaska Supreme Court  I pointed out there was a difference between the "Hickel Template" and the "Hickel Plan" and that in the template 36 was the right number, but in the plan 22 was, but the Board switched back and forth between those terms in their argument.



My Take On What It Means

[You can see more background on all the issues including the Board's petition in a January 10, 2013 post Alaska Redistricting: 2010-2013 Overview.  This post covers some of the same ground, but focuses specifically on this decision.]

Basically, the court had told the Board that they needed to start out by making a redistricting map that is based on meeting the requirements of the Alaska Constitution - mainly that all districts be compact, contiguous, and socio-economically integrated.  These are not exactly objective standards, particularly the last one.  And in a state as big as Alaska with so much of the land sparsely populated, it is also difficult to keep the rural redistricts compact.  [There are other federal and state requirements but they aren't an issue in this.]

The Board also had to draw the map so that it would meet the requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA).  [Alaska Redistricting for the Masses Part 1 has a section explaining VRA] Because of past law suits, Alaska (along with 15 other, mostly Southern, states) must get pre-clearance from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) before its plan can become final.  To get approved, the new plan could not have fewer "Native" districts than in the previous map.  These are districts in which Alaska Natives have sufficient voting power to elect the candidate of their choice. 

The Board, as it began, decided that it should configure the Native districts first and then, they figured, everything else would be relatively easy.  There are enough people in the urban areas that they wouldn't have trouble creating viable districts there.  So that's what they did.  There was one board member Bob Brodie of Kodiak, who argued against this, saying the Board would be spending 90% of its time on 10% of the population.  But he was voted down.

Then, when they finished getting the Native districts drawn, they went on to do the rest.

Their justification for this was that without approval from the DOJ, their map wouldn't be legal.  The federal law takes precedence here over the state Constitution.  So if it's not possible to meet both the federal law and the state Constitution, then the Constitution loses.  So, therefore, they should do the Native Districts first.

Here's what they did:

Step 1:  Blank slate

Step 2:  Draw in Alaska Native districts (this map is completely fictional for demonstration only)

Step 3:  Draw the rest of the districts.

The Court wants them to do the 40 districts using the Alaska constitutional requirements first, and then adjust them to get the Native districts.

The Court's reasoning:

1.   Once you draw these (Native) districts, you've taken this geography and the population in it, out of the picture, limiting your options for the rest of the state.  Thus, these Native Districts affect how the rest are drawn and could affect whether they are constitutional or not.

2.  If you start this way, the Court says it has no way to determine if your deviations from the Alaska Constitution are the least they can be.  They argue that they need to see a constitutional map first,  and then the VRA compliant map drawn from the constitutional map.  That way they can compare the two maps to see if the deviations are the least possible.

The Court, using a 1992 Alaska Supreme Court decision, told the Board, at several points in this marathon, to follow the "Hickel Process."  That means that first they draw a map just using the Alaska Constitutional requirements.  THEN, they make adjustments to that map to meet the VRA.  In the end, the Supreme Court believes it can look at the two maps,  to determine if there was the least deviation possible.

My sense of the Redistricting Board is that they are frustrated.  They believe that they have worked hard and done their job.  They have managed to switch enough district lines to break the Bi-partisan Senate coalition and put in a Republican majority, but they believe they did that fairly.  I suspect they believe that the Supreme Court (the then Supreme Court Chief Justice appointed the only Democrat on the Board) is acting as partisan as they did (particularly the Chair and Member Holms) and they're not happy.

Why do I say this?  Well, last March when they were told to follow the Hickel plan, they sort of responded - You want a Hickel Plan?  We'll give you a Hickel Plan, and went through the motions without conviction.  They came up with four options - the one they wanted and three more that were so ridiculous there was no way they could be approved.  But even then, when they evaluated their preferred option, they explained why the oddest parts were clearly constitutional, but when they looked at the other three they focused on why they were unconstitutional.  [You can see my post on that meeting for more detail.]

And the most recent meeting showed no statesmanship toward the Court by (particularly) Mr. Torgerson and Mr. Holm.   Board chair Torgerson didn't seem to make any effort to conceal his disgust with the Court.  He said things like (these are from my rough notes of the meeting and not quite verbatim based on listening online.  I couldn't find anything up  transcripts of the meeting on the Board's website):

"History with this judge, he allows everything, truth, untruth, no one seen it, bring it on."

Instead of Separation of Powers, it was Usurpation of Powers.

"Clear as mud."

And from Board member Holm:

"I don’t understand how they can have it both ways.  You aren’t required to submit it, but you are required to have Hickel plan.  Makes no sense to me."

And they talked about appealing the decision to the US Supreme Court.  I was wondering if these guys had even read the decision.  I saw no ability on their parts to see anything but their own view of the world.  I'm not saying they need to agree with the Court on every point, but they should at least be able to understand the reasoning and recognize there's a valid difference of opinion.

They've decided to wait to hear what the US Supreme Court does in the Shelby County v.  Holder case (pdf) which is scheduled to be heard on February 27.  It's a case in which the County is suing to be released from pre-clearance by the Department of Justice based on Sec. 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

In the meantime they are meeting again to choose a new Executive Director since the original staff needed to find other jobs since last June.

Their rough schedule (see post on their Feb. 12, 2013 meeting)  has them meeting to draft a Hickel plan from April 2-5.  Given how long it took last year, this seems like a very unrealistic schedule, unless they draw their maps privately before the meetings start.


At Wickersham's Conscience the title of his post on the decision is "Alaska Supreme Court Bitch Slaps Redistricting Board."  He concludes the post:

It’s WC’s fond hope that after an adequate interval, the supreme court will step up and write a lawful redistricting plan. After all, that’s what has happened in each of the prior redistricting efforts. It’s increasingly clear that the current Board has no interest in following the law. 

I have to say, if the new plans reflect the attitude I heard at the Feb. 12 board meeting, the Court is likely to lose its patience with the Board completely.  

Chilly Hilly - Photos and Video on Hidden Cove Road

I went out for my run this morning on Hidden Cove Road hoping to catch some of the bikers in the  Chilly Hilly bike race here on Bainbridge Island.  And I wasn't disappointed.  The race began about 8am near the ferry terminal and ends at about 3pm.  Here are some images between about 10 and 11 am.

 

 

 

 

 

There's not much shoulder on the road.

Chilly Hilly Bike Race - My Trial Run Friday

I saw the name Chilly Hilly on the Bainbridge Island maps.  There were trail markers and it looked like a race.  Then I learned it was a bike race.  Then Wednesday I saw a poster on the ferry to Seattle warning that the ferries would be very crowded Sunday due to the Chilly Hilly race.

I like to run.  I like to bike.  But I'm not really into doing those things in big crowds.  But  the route passes very close to where we are staying and also close to where our daughter lives.  It said 33 miles.  Last time I biked 33 miles was on the Denali Highway - it was an unpaved road with lots of hills.  I ended up with a knee that took a couple of years to fully recover.  (I could run on it, but it hurt when I biked.)

But this was on pavement.  And I've done 14 mile roundtrip rides around Anchorage in recent years.  And this race is coming to me.  While there is a signup at the ferry terminal in Seattle, I'm already on Bainbridge Island.

So Friday I decided to try out the southern part of the route - about ten miles.  The Chilly Hilly website FAQ's mention it here:

Q: What if I can not make it the entire 33 miles?

A: At the Cider Rest Stop, mile mark 19.3, you can take a short cut back to the ferry that cuts off 10 miles (23 miles total).

I'll just try that ten miles at the end.

So I got my daughter's bike and decided to brave the rain and wind.  Ten miles.  I should be able to do that in what, an hour?  The road where I'm starting out - Wyatt - is a narrow two lane road and here it has maybe a foot or less on the bike side of the white line.  It gets wider at some points and then back to narrow.  You just have to trust that cars will give you some space as they zip by, and most do.  Somehow, despite checking the map several times, I take Blakely instead of the road out to Point White Dock.  I realize my mistake and look for a road that will take me west.  I get to Fort Ward Road hoping it will get me back to do the Point White loop.  But I've gone too far and didn't realize the road had curved and now I'm headed south instead of west.

I've already done several hills. (There's been lots of up and down, but I'm only talking about serious hills.)  One I finished walking.  But the downs are also pretty steep and the bike's brakes aren't that great.  I'm afraid to go too fast down because I won't be able to stop.  Plus the road's wet and in some places there's mud or sand.  I don't know this bike well enough to handle a skid.  And there's branches and other debris from the wind.  

I check the map and decide I can make my own loop to the south and that should make up for what I missed.  I come down Fort Ward Hill.  That's the name of the street now.  There are a lot of streets with hill in them on Bainbridge.  They aren't just cute names made up by developers - there's really a serious hill involved.  Anyway, I get to the bottom and I'm at open water.  The wind is blowing hard, the water is moving toward shore, there are big clouds, and a giant ferry - it must be the Bremerton ferry.  Even a hint of sun.  I've been out an hour. 



I'm at South Beach and the map shows I can make a loop here and get back to where I was supposed to be.                             







Now that I have my camera out, there's even a hint of sun along the beach.






Now, this NOT on the Chilly Hilly route, but this turns out to have been my favorite spot.  There's a narrow road with houses on the water side.  Then a sign that says "one lane road" and sure enough, the road gets even narrower and there's a row of maybe a dozen houses along this perfect spot on the rocky beach.




 There was a couple - red coats - walking their dog and a faint  rainbow in the distance (it comes down into the pier.)  I talked to the couple - I wanted to know if the road that goes around the end of the point would be less hilly than the one that cuts across which the map shows has a very steep hill.

Yes, the map shows the hills with blue single, double, and triple arrows.  Here are some on the loop that I missed.  The Chilly Hilly is in purple lines. 

Yes, the road along the water would be less hilly, but it's a private road.  And the road ahead - Toe Jam Hill Road - was very steep up on this end and down on the other end.  But I'd already come down Fort Ward Hill and didn't want to go back up it. 


I tried to take this picture looking back down Toe Jam Hill so that you could get a sense of how steep it was.  It's hard to capture.  Trust me, it was steep.  I didn't even try to ride up this one.

When I got down the other side, I saw why the other road was now a private road.  It went to the country club.

I got back onto the Chilly Hilly route and went around another loop which got some great views of downtown Seattle between the houses across the sound.






Eventually, I made it back to my daughter's place, happy for having gone on the ride.  I felt pretty good, my body wasn't too beat up.  I was comfortably tired, but I was rethinking the idea of joining the race on Sunday.  It had taken me two and a half hours.  When I checked my route on Running Ahead - a website where you can map out your run and get data on mileage and elevation changes - I found my route had been 13.2 miles, not ten.  And to give you a sense of the Hilly part of the race name, here is the mile by mile elevation change I had:

I thought I might do the other 23 miles Sunday and leave off the part I did.  I don't think the hills in the first 23 miles are quite as frequent.  But I think I'll just do the route when there aren't a million people here and in shorter stints where I can stop and take my time and enjoy the scenery.

The sun has been out more than usual today, but there are also a lot of clouds and it was colder than normal this morning - there was frost out on the lawn and the thermometer said 35˚ at about 8am.  

I know the bikers will enjoy themselves tomorrow and I hope to get some pictures. 

TowPLow Follow Up - DOT Replies With More Details

[There are a number of well known epistolary novels.  Well, this is an E-pistolery blog post.  I didn't intend it that way, but my correspondent said what he had to say succinctly and it doesn't make sense to rearrange his words.  And blogs have no space limitations. This way you get everything in context including the interchange between blogger and the department's public relations officer.  Including my dumb mistake which we got past with civility.] 

Overview:  
I got more details

• On the costs of the snow plows and transportation
• Why Juneau and Soldotna got the first two
• Why they came by barge instead of ferry (Jeremy mostly said Alaska Marine Highway)

Basically, tow plows are one-third the cost of a regular snow plow, but they have to be towed by a regular plow.  So if you have four lane or bigger roads, it can make sense to use them and free up a regular plow to do other roads.
 
Intro:

Before I posted up my previous post on the Alaska TowPLow experiment I sent an email reply to the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOTPF) Public Relations Officer, Jeremy Woodrow, whose contact information was on the original press release and asked a few questions about the costs and benefits of the new equipment.

I asked:

"is there any information on the costs of the TowPlow compared
 to regular equipment and analysis of whether the extra costs will be
 balanced by savings or just by faster clearing?"

Meanwhile, I saw that the ADN already had up an article that included the costs that they'd gotten from DOT and so I added that into my piece and posted.

Then I got an email back from Jeremy:

Thanks for your inquiry. The numbers you requested are as follows:
 
 New Snowplow = $260K
 New Towplow = $90K   

Monthly Operating and Replacement Costs for Snowplow = $3700 Monthly Operating and Replacement Cost for Towplow = $1100   

While the cost savings are significant with the towplow, I should point out that a towplow might not necessarily work for every snow removal situation. This is why the department is taking a slow approach with introducing the new device across the state. With that said there will also never be a situation where we can replace snowplows outright, as there are many situations where the benefits of a snowplow outweigh that of a towplow.   

Please let me know if I can be of any more help.
 

Since my initial inquiry, I'd done online research and so I had more questions:

"Jeremy, I appreciate your reply.  Since I emailed you, the ADN had the $90,000 figure and said it included "shipping and installation."  I found reports online that said North Dakota and Pennsylvania paid right around $74,000 for their tow plows.  Does installation refer to modifying the existing plows to attach the tow plows to them?  How much was installation and how much was transportation?  How did they get to Juneau and Soldotna?  Did the Juneau [tow plow] come by ferry from Bellingham? 

That would seem a good way to go since DOT also owns the ferry system and traffic in the winter should mean there was plenty of room.  At  the very least, the state ferry would get the payment."

And I got a pretty quick and long response that answers a lot of questions.

 Hi Steve,

 I read your blog post regarding the towplow. Journalists and bloggers usually identify themselves, which helps folks, such as myself, provide timely and accurate information. [This is a valid point and I shouldn't have assumed that he would know I was a blogger simply because I was on their mailing list and my email address contains the name of the blog.  There are things that good journalism training would have embedded in me.  I do introduce myself as a blogger when I talk to people and I shouldn't have made assumptions here.  I did apologize in the next email, which he graciously acknowledged.] I've worked with numerous bloggers throughout my career and appreciate the personal viewpoint that bloggers can convey where many professional journalists cannot.   

I noticed that you found some very good information online and raised some valid questions as to what DOT's must consider when purchasing a towplow. Those, among others, are all items that Alaska DOT&PF must weigh against the benefits before ultimately deciding to purchase any snow removal equipment (snowplow, towplow, grader, etc.). In your blog post, you cited PennDOT's break down of the cost for modifications from the actual cost of the towplow. In order to provide you similar numbers, I spoke with our State Equipment Fleet (SEF) manager and was able to gather the following information.
The actual cost for each towplow was $89,127, which included shipping to Seattle and installation and training by the manufacturer. The cost of the towplow has a few variables which include the ballast used on the trailer (tanks, sander, etc) and number of towplows purchased.  

Each towplow then had to be shipped to the respective destinations. The cost to ship the towplow to Soldotna was $7,170, a little less to Juneau. The department did not ship via Alaska Marine Highway because it would have actually cost much more when combining the cost of trailering the towplow from Seattle to Bellingham, modifying a truck in Washington that would be capable of trailering the towplow, and then having a truck on the receiving end be capable of trailering the towplow from Whittier to Soldotna. Logistically and fiscally this did not make sense. The best solution for safe transport of the towplow was to pay for shipping from Seattle to Soldotna/Juneau and then
arrange to modify only the truck intended to trailer the towplow at each location.

[The tow plow has to be pulled by an existing snow plow, so the snow plow has to be modified so the new tow plow can be connected to it.]

The required truck modifications came to $5,700 in Soldotna and $10,000 for Juneau.  The Juneau cost was higher because it's an older truck that required more equipment. In both locations the modification cost included a rear-facing camera on the trucks that provide the operator a more complete view of the trailer while in motion - the department viewed this as a necessary item for both the safety of the operator and other drivers.  

From my understanding the first weekend deployment for the towplow went well in Soldotna. Juneau is still waiting for snow, as it's been unusually warm and rainy the last two months. In both situations, only time will tell if the towplow is the right piece of equipment for Alaska's roads. The potential cost savings, as illustrated in my  previous email, are significant but more importantly the towplow must meet the performance standards that our Maintenance and Operations crews have set for clearing roadways in a timely, safe and professional manner.  

Lastly, Alaska DOT&PF is always actively researching new or improved methods for operations. This is in an effort to operate the department, as a whole, more efficiently. The towplow serves as an excellent example by providing an improved level of service through more efficient means.

 If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

 Best Regards,
 

I did have more questions, but first let me just point out that the company that makes these tow plows has offices in New York and Missouri.

Missouri is the headquarters for people ordering TowPlows from the Midwest and Western US.  So the cost to ship it to Seattle should be more than to North Dakota or to Pennsylvania, the two places I found significantly lower purchase costs for (@$74,000).

Also, Jeremy followed up with info on their subscription list:

Hi Steve,

 I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but apology accepted. As an FYI, your email
is on our distribution list managed through the department's GovDelivery
email service. You can manage your subscription via the following link:
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/AKDOT/subscriber/new

Regards,

 -Jeremy

When I looked there I saw different types of stories checked off and I vaguely remembered doing that.  I clearly did subscribe, but I can't remember what instigated it.  Other releases come by email too and I know I didn't ask for them.  But it's interesting to  see what I get and then see what other media do with the releases.  And sometimes I find something interesting enough to post about it.  Like this one. 


My last two questions:

Jeremy, not an issue, it was a good reminder for me.  But as I'm trying
to write this, I have a couple more questions:

1.  Why were Soldotna and Juneau picked instead of Anchorage or Matsu or
Fairbanks which have a lot more road where the tow plows could be used? 
I got a comment from a Juneau reader that they only have ten miles of
four lane road, the ADN got comments on Soldotna.

2.  I understood that the Marine Highway wouldn't have made sense for the
Soldotna tow plow, but I don't see why the Juneau one couldn't have been
shipped directly to Bellingham.  I'm assuming that they didn't come on
one truck from the manufacturer to Seattle.  Bellingham's only 90 miles
from Seattle and the added distance would probably be less if it was
going directly to Bellingham from the factory, so I can't see that that
would add that much after the a cross-country trip.  I'm sure there's a
good reason and I don't want to waste your time unnecessarily, so I'll
stop at just these two questions.

My assumption, based on what you've written so far is that there are
good, if not obvious to the outsider, reasons.  And those details will
probably reassure my readers that DOTPF was doing their job.  We all seem
to know much better than those involved when we don't have the relevant
details.

Thanks,

Steve

And a speedy response from Jeremy:

Good questions. Soldotna and Juneau were both selected because each
location was in need of an extra snowplow truck for its maintenance
fleet. Given the price of a brand new plow truck, the department did not
have the funds to purchase a truck for both locations. It would have been
one or the other. This required the department to think outside the box
and explore alternative methods for how we could achieve the same
function of two trucks with limited funds. In both cases a towplow seemed
to be an appropriate solution given that it would allow one truck to
clear the major multi-lane arterials using a conventional snowplow truck
trailering a towplow while freeing up a second truck to clear other
roads. Anchorage, Mat-Su and Fairbanks did not have an immediate need for
a new snowplow truck. If/when either of those locations expresses the
need for a new snowplow truck, then the department will evaluate whether
a towplow would be an appropriate replacement/addition. In regards to
your Juneau reader: whether there are 10 or 50 miles of four lane road,
it still requires two trucks in procession to safely and timely clear the
road.

In regards to shipping via the Alaska Marine Highway. DOT&PF often uses
AMHS to transport construction equipment, etc. when space is available
and it is usually the first option explored when transporting any item.
The shipping to Seattle was negotiated as part of the purchase price for
each towplow. I'm not sure how they were actually shipped (rail or
truck). I do know that the department explored the ferry option and, due
to logistics and the expense, it made more sense to ship via barge to
both locations.

If you would like more information, please feel free to call me and I can
explain my above answers with further detail

Thanks again for you interest,

Jeremy

And that's it.  We could drill down further - and Jeremy seemed to enjoy providing the information - but I don't think there's anything here to 'uncover.'   Instead I'd say we probably had public officials doing their jobs well. 

New Blogging Partner Needs A Lot of Attention

When you take on a new partner in any activity, there's a period when the new person is learning the ropes and you wonder if it isn't more trouble than it's worth.  And so it is with my new partner.  She sleeps a lot on the job which often means I'm typing with just one hand.  And after meals she's given to me in my new role as digestion specialist and we do a lot of moving around to get those bubbles percolating through her system.  Movement of all kinds - rocking, calisthenics, up and down, back and forth, back patting - seems to do wonders in distracting her and giving the server some time to sleep or do other things.  (One thing she can do as well as any adult - hiccup.)

But this is a long term partnership and if the blogging gets a little behind, I hope you'll understand.  And the training investment will have big long term benefits.

Seattle Chilly Rain Back - We Go To Flower Show

I remember being entranced by the giant flower shows in LA as a kid and have wanted to check out the one in Seattle for years.  So now I find myself a ferry ride away when the flower show began in downtown.

My childhood memories set me up for disappointment.  There was lots of stuff to see (and buy) and really big fancy displays.  I was a bit overwhelmed - there was too much going on.  It took a while before I even got my camera out.

I thought these narrow vases were cool. But you do need lots of flowers to put in them.

Here's another thin vase with calla lilies in it.  I got too many reflections on the glass, so I used the photshop colored pencil filter.  The lilies were under water in the vase.

 This booth had art pieces made out of dried fruit and vegetable slices.  I liked the kiwi.

 

This was the Washington Park Arboretum's display - a hobbit garden.  It won a gold medal.

 

Returning to rainy Bainbridge by ferry.

Spring Preview

It was sunny today and suddenly all the crocuses that were about to open, opened. 

Can You Teach Corporations To Care? Carol Sanford Gives My Brain A Workout - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

Carol Sanford works with corporations to help them see how their operations can be more profitable if they treat the environment and human beings (employees, clients, and suppliers) well.  I sat in on a presentation she gave at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute.  This is Part 2 of my reactions. I'm not claiming to represent what she thinks.  These are my interpretations.  You can read her book The Responsible Business or go to her website.

Carol’s focus, as I understood it, is:

1.  To transform corporations by challenging the leaders and employees to expand how they envision their personal and organizational mission to include making positive rather than negative externalities - the side effects their operation has on the environment and on the lives of all the people - from employees to customers to suppliers. 

2.  When she goes into an organization, her role is not, in her mind, as a consultant paid for a short period of time.  While she does get paid, and given her client list, I have to assume she gets paid very well,  the way she described herself and her intent makes me think the best word here is ‘adopt.’  She adopts the organization and, with the care a parent has for a wayward child, helps the adopted employees connect to their essence. 

3.  Essence.  I’m making leaps here as I take fragments of evidence from a few hours of observation, maybe 20 minutes of conversation, and blending in what's in my head, to conclusions which may be what I want them to be rather than what Carol would say.  But perhaps this will be part of a discussion Carol and I continue. 

So, essence.  She said this was the goal - to reach the essence.  I’ve talked about something that seems similar by using the term ‘authentic conversation.’  By that I mean that two people talk openly, from the heart, dropping  the protective veils that project what we think the world wants us to project rather than what we really feel.  As a professor advising graduate students, I had the luxury of asking prospective graduate students to tell me what was missing in their lives that they wanted to make such a huge time and financial commitment.  This usually led to glimpses of their essence and in return I would share as well, and we had authentic conversations.  This doesn’t mean therapy and it doesn’t mean we shared all our deepest secrets, but that we dropped a few of the canned responses and talked, human to human, heart to heart. The student stops trying to impress me by hiding fears and exaggerating abilities and I'm honest about what to expect of the program.  Authentic conversation is a very energizing experience, which is why I say it was a luxury.  Having had that regularly has made me seek it in other situations and it’s really available if one knows how to be genuine oneself.  Maybe it’s the ultimate drug that artists and musicians and theologians exalt - love.  Maybe not.

So, my understanding of what Carol does is help people find their essence.  To look past  all the facades the world seems to demand - the right clothing, the right opinions, the right facial expressions, tone of voice, words and phrases - so they can see who they really are.  And once they’ve connected to themselves, she has them engage in conversation with each other to talk about what is really important in life and how their organization is contributing to or preventing those things. 

Does it always work?  I’m sure it doesn’t.  But when it does it’s great.  Is she always right and always consistent?  That’s not a standard anyone could meet.  It’s silly to not allow people mistakes - that’s how one learns, if one pays attention. 

4.  Why corporations?  That’s where much of the power to do harm and good resides.  It’s where she believes she can get the most miles of positive impact for the fewest gallons of  effort.  Plus, not incidentally, that’s the world she was mentored into. 

Why does this matter so much to me?  I’m balancing a bunch of ideas here. 

Am I focused right?  Should I be doing more?  While I think it is important to try to make the world a better place, the Buddhist influences on me also say that instead of fixing others we should fix ourselves.  But then those who are closer to enlightenment attract adherents who learn from them.  Perhaps that is where Carol is.  Corporate leaders hear about her from their colleagues and come seeking her wisdom. 

Part of me has concluded that helping take care of myself and those nearby is the right path.  If half the people in the world did just that, most of the world's problems would go away.  Another part of me says I should do more good.  It’s a constant tension. 

How do Carol's thoughts affect what I'm working on?   The intellectual puzzles that are my life’s challenge, include the understanding of organizations and the role of people in them.  And Carol’s take on this looks a lot like mine and I’m trying to figure out how close or far apart we are and how what she knows might help me get a couple of pieces of the puzzle into place.  (Of course I know that the puzzle isn’t static and the pieces are constantly changing shape and size.)  Plus, I’m writing a paper for a May conference and these ideas impact the paper.  My sense is that this is leading to a bigger project - one already on the agenda - more than the coming paper. 

I thought there would be two posts here.  But I think this is a good pausing point, and I’ll try to do one more on the role of human beings in organizations and what I think that means for what people in organizations should know. 

Studs On Bikes

Studded bike tires, along with LED lights, have transformed winter biking in Anchorage in the last ten years.  But while we think of ourselves as state of the art in these things, I discovered this studded tire in Michael Embacher's Cyclepedia that is listed as 1966! 























UPDATE 4:25pm:  Sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't get this part up. 

Another part of winter biking is being in a community where bike trails are cleared of snow.  Some Anchorage bike trails are cleared fairly quickly by small snow plows, though there is the problem of street plows then throwing street snow back into the bike paths. 

For another view on this, here's a post from BicyleDutch  about bike trail clearing in Holland:

When I mentioned the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch had forgotten to clear one new cycle route of snow in my post two weeks ago, the city quickly responded and the route was gritted right away. For the future the route is now included in the ‘to be cleared main cycle routes’. That was possible because the ‘city’ is of course a number of people working hard. One person read my post and contacted another person who is in charge of planning the actual gritting. A few days later I was contacted, and asked if I’d like to have a look at how ’s-Hertogenbosch works to keep its city streets safe, by clearing the main routes for motorised traffic and those for cyclists of snow and ice. Well, yes of course I was interested!

 There's pictures and more of the story if you go to the site.

Carol Sanford Gives My Brain a Workout - Part 1

Carol Sanford at Bainbridge Graduate Institute

Carol Sanford doesn’t waste time.  There’s no small talk.  No pussy footing around.  She tells you what she’s thinking and she doesn’t allow you to bullshit her or yourself.  She asks a student how she felt doing a class exercise.  The student talks about the outcome, but not her feelings.  Carol looks at her and says, ok, but how did you feel?  The student pauses and tries again, without answering the question.  After a third prompt, she says something like, “uncomfortable.”  Carol says, “Good.  Nothing really changes until you’re destabilized. It’s hard to escape all the expectations society has of you.  Being uncomfortable helps you break loose so you can find your essence.”  [Since I didn’t record this, that’s a rough reenactment.]  

Language was a focus throughout the class as Carol asked people if they knew what the difference was, say, between ‘triangle’ and ‘triad.’  Or what the Latin root of education meant.  Words matter, how we use them or misuse them.  Are we saying what we mean or just using cliches to cover our lack of a real answer?  And words shape how we think.  Someone said their activity didn't work.  Carol said: Nothing ‘didn’t work.  It moved.’

Movement was a key issue.  We’re developing,  always.  We’re works in progress.  If something 'didn’t work' the way we expected, we at least know a little more than we did.  We've eliminated one option.  We've moved.

Carol’s work is to move corporations toward discovering their essences, by seducing their humans into looking deep inside of themselves to escape the traps of traditional ways of doing things.  The cliche behaviors maybe.   She’s trying to get the people to manage themselves, to find themselves and take control, be who they really are, not what the world has told them they should be.

Her critique of most management paradigms is that they treat humans as machines or lab rats.  Even when they treat them as humans, they are manipulating them, creating all sorts of external incentives.  What’s important to her is to liberate people’s internal will so that they will do things because they are the right things to do and because the people have a passion to do them. 

All of this was fascinating to me because it overlaps much of what I’ve studied and taught and ideas I’m writing up for a conference in May.  Carol's style is not at all like mine, though I can see her certainty and in-your-face delivery would appeal to corporate managers.  When someone asked about building trust before pushing people out of their comfort zones, she said bluntly:  “I don’t build trust.”  But she followed that up with, “I’m doing this with love.  I don’t work with an organizations unless I commit to them for the rest of my life.”   (She’s worked with large corporations on transformations of their thinking so they put environmental and social consequences into their business models.) 

She also reminded students that they must always test what people say with their own conscious reflective [and I can’t read my notes - was it ‘eye’ or ‘exp(erience)?] Basically, don't trust what I say.  Check it out.  Something I always warned students to do. 

This was a three hour encounter (I think that’s a more accurate word than ‘class.’)  There wasn't time to fill in all the gaps.  But when I asked about things while students were doing an exercise, she filled in the gaps I’d inquired about.  My guess is that with time to discuss the areas I questioned, we’d be pretty close on our assessment of things. 

The session sent my brain into over drive as I thought about my own models of the world and questioned how well I use what I know to do good.  Being with the students reminded me of the intellectual challenge (that's a good thing) that teaching is.  Finding who the students are so I can find ways to help them connect to the subject matter.  Once you do that, it's hard to hold them back. And despite her toughness, I felt like we were old friends within the first few minutes.

Her take on the part of the world I'm intellectually most interested in seems very close to mine - even in those parts where I usually feel out there on my own. Am I filling in the blanks to make them look like I want them to look?  Are the apparent differences real?  Would we would come together if we sat down and talked through them?  What has she figured out that I'm still puzzling over?  I need to read her book The Responsible Business.

OK now.  This post is just the warmup.  Next I'll take another swipe at this from a different angle. 

[This all happened at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute Intensive I mentioned yesterday]

Part 2  is up here.