Saturday, January 23, 2021

Alaska Redistricting Board Meeting Next Tuesday - January 26, 2021 2:30pm - How Much Should They Get Paid? How Easy Should It Be To Follow What They Do? [Updated]

[Updates January 25:  I've added a couple of extra sentences which I've [bracketed].

So many momentous things happening that it's hard to blog meaningfully and not just repeating what readers already know.  Have some things I'm working on, but they aren't ready.  

But at this point it's easy to just offer a heads up about the next redistricting board meeting, with a thank you to EB who alerted me.  

[That's what I wrote yesterday, but when I started looking at the agenda, questions came up.  So I'll raise them here at the top and then give more details down below.]

How easy should it be to find out when meetings are and are audio tapes enough record or should there be transcripts?  If the Board isn't going to offer transcripts within a week of a meeting, then they should use the kind of system the Anchorage Assembly uses that allows people to search topics on their video tape (in this case audio tape.)

How much should the board get paid?  The recommendation is $477 a day.  100 days would be $47,700 for a 'volunteer' board.  That's twice a week per year.  Last time they met 5 days a week at times.  There is a lot of work, but the Anchorage Municipal Assembly makes $45,000 a year and I'd say they have a lot more work to do.  Aside from Assembly meetings, they have works sessions, Community Council meetings, PLUS they have to raise money and campaign for reelection.  Then there's also a budget for per diem.  Somehow the staff recommends the DOD per diem.  Not sure why other than it was more than the State per diem.  

Should they even be the ones to determine their own pay?  There aren't many government jobs where the incumbent decides her own pay.  This is the Board's fault.  The legislature should make this decision or give it to the State Officers Compensation Commission.


The Agenda

State of Alaska Redistricting Board

Date:  January 26, 2021   Time:  2:30 pm

Place:  Teleconference:

Public Numbers: Anchorage 563-9085, Juneau 586-9085, Other 844-586-9085

[I'd note the State's Public Notice website offers this link as well:  http://akleg.gov]

 Agenda

1. Call to order

2. Establish a quorum

3. Adoption of agenda

4. Board Policy Review and Discussion

a. Public Meeting and Notice Policy

b. Public Records Policy

c. Member Compensation Policy

d. Member & Staff Travel Per Diem Policy

5. Adoption of One or More Board Policies 

6. Adjournment


Here are the staff recommendations for items 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d:

4a. Staff Recommendation: Redistricting Board should adopt Alaska Open Meetings law, AS 44.62.310, as its public notice requirements. This action directs staff to ensure notice of themeeting, its location, attachments, and teleconference options, would be posted to the Alaska Public Notice System website within a “reasonable time”. Staff will further make notice of its meetings available on the legislative website.

It is the policy of the Alaska Redistricting Board that the board comply with the Alaska Open Meetings act and seek to provide 72 hours of public notice prior to board meetings with 24 hours notice being allowable. Notices shall be posted to the State of Alaska Public Notice System.

Advance public notice can be difficult if you aren't organized or if things come up at the last minute, but it's important for the public to be able figure out when the board is meeting.  Furthermore, while the State Public Notice System is there, it's not something that most people regularly use.  

I'd recommend:

  • The Board continue to use the State system.  But most members of the public are not familiar with that system and aren't likely to find it easily.
  • The board set up its own website where they include announcements of meetings and documents and access to tapes and transcripts of meetings.  It would also be a place where people could easily get links to listen in to meetings
  • They set up a system so that people interested in the Board can get emails alerting them to new meetings.  
4b.  Public Records

"Staff Recommendation: Adopt a policy that includes recording and maintaining electronic copies of the audio recording of each meeting and keeping minutes that capture votes, motions, and a “brief statement of the position of any Board Members who makes a statement on the issue before the board” (This is modeled on legislative committee minute recording language). This could be a simple summary like, “Member A expressed concern that the proposed House District 12 did not take into account the city boundary”
It is the policy of the Alaska Redistricting Board that meetings be electronically recorded and made available to the public and that written minutes be kept of each meeting which identify motion makers, seconds, vote tallies and a brief summary of the concerns of any Board member who states a position on the issue under consideration.

My comments:  The last board had a policy of making transcripts of all meetings.  This was a good policy, but implementation was problematic.  Instead of having transcribers at the meetings, they recorded the meetings and sent them in for transcribing.  This took eight weeks or longer, in part because the transcribers couldn't identify who was talking much of the time.  

Just making an audio tape is MUCH cheaper, but it's difficult for the public to listen to hours of tape.  In a transcript you can search (unless they make it in a format that isn't searchable) and find things you are looking for much easier.  And it is much easier to scan through a written transcript than a tape.  

Now, if they use a system like the Municipality uses, which allows the public to search the video tape for the topic they are looking for, that could be useful.  

Minutes that list the bare minimum are almost useless.  We don't need to know (in most cases) who moves and seconds a motion.  We need to understand the debate and reasoning behind decisions that were made and that can only happen if there are verbatim minutes.  Yes, the tapes are there, but for the reasons mentioned above, most people simple won't have the time to listen to hours of tape.  This gives advantages to organizations that can hire people to do that kind of work.  

[I'd also note that by having virtual meetings, there is no way for the public, so far, to have informal conversations with the board members during breaks and after the meetings as there was previously. Yes, people can send emails, though I haven't found these publicly listed yet.  And that's not the same. For example, there is no process for comments - like these here - to be conveyed to the Board.  In the public meetings I could have raised these issues with members before the meetings and during breaks.  And all the Board members' emails were posted on the Board's website.

I'd also note   

4c.  Member Compensation  

Staff Recommendation: Adopt a compensation policy of $477.20 per day. Legislators are currently compensated at $486.88 per day while the legislature is in session. Staff will assist in documentation and submission of board member days of service.

“It is the policy of the Alaska Redistricting Board that members be compensated at the rate of $477.20 per day. Compensation shall be paid beginning with the Board’s first meeting.”

The $477 figure comes from figuring out the 2010 Board's pay and adding 19% inflation.  If the Board meets 100 times a year, that's $47,700.  [The last meeting took about 30 minutes.  That comes to over $900 per hour.  Of course, later meetings will take longer.  And when comparing to the last redistricting board,  one has to consider that the current board meetings so far have been, and probably for quite a while will be, virtual meetings.  There is absolutely no travel time.  Travel per diem is set for actual costs, but does not consider the members' time getting to and from meetings.]  I checked with an Anchorage Assembly member.  As I mentioned above, they get $45,000 a year, not sure how many actual assembly meetings there are because I don't attend regularly, but probably at least 26, plus they have lots of work meetings, community council meetings, and tons of reading to do for each meeting.  And they have to raise money and campaign for election.  And they are directly accountable to the public.  

Like the Board, the Assembly is not considered a full time job.  I think the Board should consider a cap on how much they get paid per year.  

4d.  Member & Staff Travel Per Diem Policy

 "Staff Recommendation: Adopt a policy based on the State of Alaska Boards and Commissions Per Diem table with actual lodging and $60 per day for meals. Amend this to include up to $25 for incidentals and $60 per day for ground transportation or car rental to reflect the fact that board members may be sent on road shows to distant communities with little logistical support available on the ground. Provide the Board Chair the ability to waive policy caps if there is documented need (for example, renting a car in Utqiagvik may cost more than the specified daily car rental rate).

“'It is the policy of the Alaska Redistricting Board that members and staff receive per-diem reimbursement for actual lodging, meals to a value of $60, actual incidentals to a value of $25 and ground transportation to a value of $60 per day for board related travel that is authorized by the Board Chair or Executive Director. Reimbursement for actual costs incurred over the maximum amounts may be made at the discretion of the Board Chair.'”

I think my issue here is NOT with the staff recommendations, per se, but with the fact that travel expenses for government employees is often a way to travel nicely.  "Actual lodging" means if they choose to stay at a nice room at the Captain Cook it costs the state a lot more than if they stay at a more economical hotel.  I think there should be language like "actual rate up to $150 a night."  If they choose to stay at a more expensive hotel, they can pay the extra.  Or the number might vary if, for example, they stay in a remote area with limited and expensive availability.  And there would be a difference between season and off-season rates.  Again, for meals.  If the Board members stayed home, they would spend a certain amount for food any way.  

At the very least, I think the Board should publish quarterly the expense accounts for each Board member.  The Alaska legislature does this.  The Board should too.  I was never able to get a budget for the last Board - though that wasn't something I put too much effort into.  So, yes, we (the public) ought to be able to see the Board's budget and actual spending.  

Monday, January 18, 2021

Winter Tree Trimmers Spend 45 Minutes On The Mountain Ash

 The other day the Bohemian Waxwings came to harvest the berries of our Mt. Ash trees out front.

Today the moose were here to trim the tree a bit.  




While the young one was feasting, the mom was acting as lookout.








I'm guessing that one benefit of dirty windows is that moose are more likely to see the glass.  When it was looking in like this I was hoping it wasn't thinking about tasting the green things inside.   There was a spring visit long ago when just outside the windows was a row of budding tulips and I watched from two feet away as she - one-by-one - took each tulip bud.  












Saturday, January 16, 2021

Getting Vaccinated

This is an account of getting vaccinated Monday January 11, 2021.

In the Bingo like hit and miss of online appointments, I'd first gotten my wife on a waiting list at one clinic.  I got on as well, but she got a confirmation email and I didn't.  Most locations that showed up online had no available appointments. 

I started just rebooting the page several times a day, figuring that maybe if I get on just when someone puts up their announcement I can get an appointment before the run out.  About 6:15pm, I think on Friday, the Anchorage School District (ASD) had 259 appointments available Tuesday, January 12.  I snagged one for 3:30pm.  Then I started again, immediately, for my wife, but there was nothing left.

The next morning I suggested my wife check again - it was 7:15am.  The ASD had a lot again.  She tried to register, but it wouldn't allow her email. She was on an iPad, so I tried on my laptop.  There were still appointments and I was able to get her one at 1:45pm Monday January 11.  

I was seeing stuff online that things were a little loosey goosey about walk ins.  So I went with J to the ASD.  There was a short line outside - maybe 6 people.  I went in with Joan.  They checked her driver's license and pointed her in one direction.  I explained that I came with her, but had an appointment for the next day, could I possibly get my shot then and not have to come back.  She took some information, gave me a sticky note, and pointed me to another line.  It curved around back to the sign in desks.  There were white markers on the floor showing where 6 feet apart was.  Everyone, of course, had on masks.  A few people had plastic shields as well.  



This picture shows the line just after the sign in.  You can see the white 6" markers.  And there were a lot of chairs around for people like the man in front of me who had a cane.  Up ahead are the banks of tables for people to register people.  

The people who had appointments had been sent to another line, directly to the nurses giving the shots.  It was to the left of that cone on the far left.  










You can see a man sitting down signing in.  On the other side was someone just filling in the info that we had to fill in on the computer.  But these guys had to power to give us appointments right then and there.











This is pretty much the same picture, EXCEPT the guy you see where the main had been sitting in the previous picture was sanitizing the chair and table.  As soon as the guy got up, he swooped in and sprayed.  The person in front of me was moving up to the next white dot.  









Way up ahead are all the people with the needles.  It looks far, but with everyone 6 feet apart, it didn't take long.  












This is the nurse who vaccinated me.  The story in the newspaper was that school nurses were being used for this.  I looked at all the vaccine she sucked out of vial into the syringe and I knew it was going to hurt.  

But I was wrong.  She was great.  I barely felt the needle go in and the vaccine going into my arm was not seriously painful at all.  A mild irritation.  

She then pointed me to the next stations and explained what would happen.  

J wasn't as happy about the nurse who vaccinated her.






Someone took me to a table with a laptop to make my appointment for me second vaccination February 5.  Again, it was like the form I had filled out online, except there was no guessing if there would be an appointment. And this time I had to check yes for have you been vaccinated for COVID and mark 2nd rather than 1st.   Though we've since learned that the original plan to reserve a second vaccine for people when they got their first one has been abandoned as they try to get as many people vaccinated as possible.  They did that on the belief that there was plenty of reserve vaccine nationally.  But that turns out not to be true.  So at this point we're going on faith that there will be a second dose of Moderna on February 5.  

J was finished but saw me and came over to help me get the next appointment.  

Everyone was polite and ready to help.  The six foot distancing was violated a lot - obviously when I got the shot - but also by patients trying to figure out where to go.  


Somewhere along the line we got vaccination cards with the date and Moderna marked.  Someone suggested I take a picture of it, which I did.  That was a good idea since I already don't know where my card is.

The next station we signed out.  He checked that it was 15 minutes since we'd gotten the injections.  And off we went.  

Neither of us had any side effects but a sore arm, mine was barely noticeable.  The next day all my usual aches and pains were absent.  That only lasted a day.  

And I have to say I felt significantly lighter.  While I think I'm doing pretty well in isolation - certainly not bored - the idea that by mid-February I'm going to be significantly less likely to contract COVID, and if I do it should have much less severe effects on me, was liberating.  

So now I have five weeks to clean all the boxes that we have downstairs.  I can make a dental appointment while I still have teeth.  And I can get out and collect signatures for the Recall Dunleavy effort.  

Do I feel guilty that I got vaccinated while others have not?  I think guilty is a little strong.  I do think people who work in grocery stores and other essential jobs should be getting their shots now, but they are in this tier.  I'm also in this tier because I'm over 65.  But basically, I don't think that my waiting is going to make a difference.  (Yes, if all the healthy seniors waited a bit it might, but that isn't going to happen.)  And with the sizable number of people who are reluctant to get vaccinated - even health care workers - I think the push to just get vaccine into people's arms is the right approach.  We don't want any wasted doses because they were taken out of deep freeze but not enough people showed up in the next five days.  

Let's hope President Biden will be able to get the public administration of all this better organized and more efficient and effective and equitable.   We do know that the scientists and the president will be sending the same message out.  Let's hope that Trump's twitter ban means he won't be continuing to pollute the truth at nearly as high a level as he has been.  

Monday, January 11, 2021

Nature Keeps Doing Its Thing Despite Human Beings

 Humans have changed the landscape of the earth ever since they settled down in one place and began cutting down trees.  With modern technology we've been changing the earth at a devastating pace.  But nature is resilient and ever evolving.  Even if we were to kill half the life in the oceans and destroy half the landscape, nature measures time in millions and billions of years.  It will endure.  And if we aren't totally crazy, life forms will survive.  I even wonder whether COVID isn't one of nature's adaptations to human life, a way of slowing us down to allow other life forms to escape our hunger to destroy.  

But there is still much of nature to still awe and amaze us.  The other night when the clouds had briefly left the Anchorage sky, I walked out onto the deck and tried to capture the beauty of the frosted trees in the backyard.  The image on my iPhone was pretty dim, but editing tools on my laptop enabled me to get it back to what it actually looked like, and even more dazzling than it really was.  


And Sunday we enjoyed one of my Anchorage winter highlights - the visit of the Bohemian Waxwings to harvest the berries on our Mountain Ash trees.  They come in swarms of 30-50 birds, swooping down and then abruptly taking flight and then returning.  





















Sunday, January 10, 2021

Arnold Schwarzeneger Puts January 6 Insurrection Into Context

I invite you to spend seven minutes listening to Arnold Schwarzeneger's analysis of the insurrection we watched the other day.  He steps back and looks at what happened in the context of his own childhood growing up in Austria after World War II and the legacy of the war - his father and all the neighbors' fathers coming home drunk several times a week and beating his kids.  He likens last week to Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) when Hitler incited mobs to go out and destroy all the synagogues and Jewish shops.  Often on November 9 my mother would remind me about Kristallnacht which she witnessed as a 16 year old Jewish girl in Germany.  So his comparison hits home for me.

Schwarzeneger doesn't dwell on details but strongly outlines the danger, what we must do, and a reassuring belief that we will do what is necessary and come out of this stronger.   

It mirrors my sense of things.  Americans have denied having "a single racist bone in my body" as long as I can remember.  Trump has called on those racist bones and people have shed their lie and found the courage to proclaim what they really believe.  Now the widespread legacy of racism in this country is out in the open where it can't be credibly denied.  So we have finally gotten past the first step of healing.  

It won't be easy.  The tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump range from Neo-Nazis to people who simply believe the old Republican ideals of free market and rugged individualism, to those whose jobs have been automated or transferred overseas,  and those with a very literal belief in the Bible.  Their self insecurity has made them susceptible to the professional level propaganda and lies of the Right - from Swiftboating John Kerry, to denial of the dangers of smoking, guns, and climate change.   

Those of us who supported Biden must find the will to punish the worst of the transgressors, and find ways to respectfully find common ground.  Yes, there are many things we have in common - experiences (war, union membership, religious organizations, music of our youth), passions (gardening, dancing, drinking, fishing, cars, sports teams), and family (from dysfunctional families to happy families and for older folks, devotion to and from grandchildren.)  Let's find ways to start with those common bonds and then ease into the more difficult discussions.  Listening and asking questions rather than challenging.

Here's Arnold.  I can't quite remember him so on point and articulate.  

 

Saturday, January 09, 2021

Blogging During A Pandemic And Insurrection

1.  John Brown and Harper's Ferry

From History:

"Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed revolt of enslaved people and destroy the institution of slavery."

 This incident is in every American history textbook.  STOP  My students knew that if they wrote a sentence like that, I would underline it and write something like:  "Have you looked at every American history textbook?  

So, of course I had to see what I could find to answer that question.  I suspect one would have to sample as many US history books as one could gather and read through them.  (I did something like that in an article about the lack of Native American Law in public administration textbooks.)  In answer to that question I did find some related sites.  One is by a history teacher writing about how to use Harper's Ferry as a lesson. He writes:

"What the Textbooks Say

Brown’s raid often appears in the narrative of the Civil War as the point of no return—the moment in which the country’s deep divide between free and slave interests polarized with the injection of violence. Textbooks tend to describe the responses to Brown’s raid and trial in binary terms, with Northerners and Southerners displaying unified, and starkly opposite, reactions."

That doesn't answer the question, but does let us know it's a topic in many history textbooks both in the North and the South.  

Magazine of History looks at John Brown as an chance to teach history, not through the memorization of names and dates, but as an opportunity to explore difficult and ever present moral tensions.  

Although the institution of slavery was purged in the crucible of the American Civil War, John Brown's determination to expose and end chattel slavery still resonates. The multiple legacies of slavery and questions about the efficacy of violence as a tool for change in a democratic society continually bring historians and teachers back to the complicated life of John Brown. When students consider Brown's contributions to the American narrative, lines between advocacy and criminality, contrasts between intensity and obsession, and differences between democratic ideals and harsh reality are brought to the surface. To this day, artists, authors, historians, political activists, and creators of popular culture maintain a fascination with the antebellum rights-warrior and his death.

Wow.  I was planning an array of short comments in this post, and already I've gotten carried away on this first one.  But as I think about those who plundered the Capitol Wednesday, I have to think about Harper's Ferry and the fact that this nation is still divided over the same questions that led to Harper's Ferry.  While slavery has been abolished (but not completely eliminated if we consider things like sex trafficking and even prison labor, and some might suggest people who have no choice but to take minimum wage jobs), the belief that some people are inherently superior to other people based on skin color or ethnicity or religion is still capable of stirring people to violent attempts to overthrow the rule of law.  Just as the belief that everyone deserves to be treated by police with the same respect and the same level of force based on the real inherent danger to the police and the public got people out into the streets all summer.  

When John Brown took up arms, slavery was still legal in the United States.  His cause was to overturn those laws.  As much as I want to believe that slavery is inherently evil and that racism is evil, there are tens of millions of people who either disagree or think these issues are subordinate to other values they hold.  

2.  Both Energized And Drained by Zoom

Thursday I was in front of my screen from 3-3:30 watching Bridgman/Packer's presentation to APAP.  

"The Association of Performing Arts Professionals is the national service, advocacy and membership organization for the live performing arts field. APAP is dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting, booking and touring industry and the professionals who work within it."

My understanding is that every year they have artists - in this case dancers - perform for people who book acts to various venues around the country.  This year it was done virtually and Bridgman/Packer invited us to sit in.  Bridgman/Packer is a dance duo that totally dazzled me when I first saw them perform in Anchorage.  We've sent a modest check each year to support their work - it's criminal how geniuses in the arts have to scrape by.  Here's the blog post I wrote when we first saw them.  I was trying not to give anything away.  But the magic of what they do is combining live dancing with prerecorded dancing, use of screens and shadows.  It sounds odd, but it's amazing. In the showcase they talked about and showed video of their work.  They've been using abandoned factories in upstate New York as filmed backdrops.  They also do dances inside a large truck.  And they had one set that was filmed by a drone.  

Then I had back to back political fundraisers - we have a mayoral race in Anchorage in April - to attend.  And finally I tried to watch the Humanity Forum's annual awards to see Rachel Epstein get her award.  She ran the UAA bookstore speaker program for years and years - a real treat for many of us.  


3.  Turkish and Spanish

I've been doing 20-30 minutes a day of Spanish on Duolingo for over a year now.  It helps my vocabulary and grammar, and my listening, but not my speaking.  But I figure it keeps my brain active.  A couple of months ago I decided to add Turkish.  A month or two in Istanbul is something I've been wanting to do.  I skipped Istanbul in 1965 when I was hitching from Germany to Greece and back - promising to get there one day.  So we've watched a few Turkish movies on Netflix, and the one at the Anchorage International Film Festival.  Turkish definitely offers insights in grammar that I'd never considered.  Lots of things - like plurals and possessives - are done with suffixes.  Well, we add an 's' to make plurals, or 'ies' so I'm sure we're as bizarre to speakers of other languages.  Also, adjusting my brain and fingers to a Turkish keyboard is tricky too.  


4.   Prodding Dan

I sent my junior Senator another email.  I figure his original Koch backers have their own agenda for him in the US Senate so he's more loyal to that than to protecting Democracy.  But I figure I can keep reminding him I'm here and I want him to prove he's really a Marine.  And maybe the staffers who read the emails are more susceptible to reason.  

5.  Keeping My Photoshop Skills Alive


6.  And There's The Daily Alaska COVID Count Update


Friday, January 08, 2021

Alaska Redistricting Board: Approves RFI for Board Legal Services and Procurement Procedures

 The Board met from 1:30pm to 1:55.  They approved the Request for Information (RFI) for legal services.  One Board member asked if they should disqualify firms that had challenged previous Board positions in court.  Other members said it's important to consider conflicts of interest, but that if we disqualified firms that had litigated redistricting issues in the past, there wouldn't be any qualified firms.  If they have a current conflict, they won't submit a proposal.

They approved the RFI.  It should be posted by Monday on the statewide (not just legislative) site and will be circulated via the Alaska Bar Association website.  It will be open until Jan 29.  Members believed those with expertise have been waiting for this and will be looking for it.  

The Board also added approving the Procurement Procedures to the agenda, and they noted minor changes and approved it.  One substantive change was to only allow those who bid on projects to object.  


[NOTE:  My very rough verbatim notes are below.  This is only my second meeting and I'm not yet really familiar with people's voices.  Some members were called on by name, or identified themselves (thank you!), but usually by first name.  So I've used first name just because I was typing as fast as I could.]


Redistricting Board Jan 8, 1:30pm

Members and staff present:

  • Peter Torkelson as Executive Director 
  • TJ Presley as Deputy Director. 
  • John Binkley, Fairbanks, Chair of the Alaska Redistricting Board. 
  • Melanie Bahnke of Nome, 
  • Nicole Borromeo of Anchorage, 
  • Bethany Marcum of Anchorage  
  • Budd Simpson of Juneau.   

AGENDA:

State of Alaska Redistricting Board

January 8, 2021

1:30 pm

Teleconference:

Public Numbers: Anchorage 563-9085, Juneau 586-9085, Other 844-586-9085

Agenda

1. Call to order

2. Establish a quorum

3. Adoption of agenda

4. Discussion: Request for Information for Legal Services

a. Topic:Timeline for RFI closing

b. Topic: Routing of RFI related inquiries

5. Adoption o fRequest for Information for Legal Services 

6. Adjournment

MEETING NOTES:

1:30 roll call - all members here

John - short agenda

Adopt agenda


4.  Request for Info for Legal Services 

Peter - response by January 29, gives people three weeks to respond

Discussion:  Nicole - adequate;

Budd Simpson - adequate, certainly not shorter, compromise , get this thing moving and enough time.  

Melanie Marcum - probably small pool of bidders and are on the lookout for this.  Want people with experience

Routing - how will the RFI’s come to board and how we respond

Peter - should be careful respondents don’t have direct contact with board members.  Single contact - me - if technical I’ll answer.  If other I’ll contact Board.  

Questions for Peter or TJ?

Melanie - makes sense, I don’t want to be contacted.  Peter is good contact for me.


5.  Adoption of RF legal services

John:  Thanks Nicole and Budd for their work on this.  

Move to adopt by Bethany, seconded by???

Discussion?  

Melanie - I emailed yesterday with suggestion to add to quals, there shouldn’t be a conflict of interest if they are currently or previously engaged in litigation trying to affect outcome of prior Board’s decision.  I’m not an attorney.  You can’t represent two opposing clients at the same time.  Maybe not an issue.  

Budd:  Thanks.  I like that Melanie is concerned about conflicts of interest, but in something like this it’s critical to have legal experience with redistricting, so having been involved in the past with redistricting. [ Noise, please repeat.]  Good you thought about conflicts of interest and we should be aware.  But most critical thing is to have most qualified legal rep. and they get that from some kind of litigation on one side or another it doesn’t matter.  If we made a condition that they couldn’t represent one side or the other in the past, there wouldn’t be any one left with experience. 

We shouldn’t put it into RFI, but be aware and take that into consideration when reviewing proposal.  If we think they wouldn’t be objective and represent our interests, we don’t have to choose them.  But we should consider conflicts when we look at them.  

???:  Current conflicts would be important.  Good firms would have had previous experience.

Melanie - Just want the firm to have no conflicts.  

Budd:  If have a current conflict, they won’t apply.  Example:  If retained already by political party to represent them, they won’t apply.

Bethany? - Rules of Professional Conduct are clear and attorneys expected to comply.


John:  Any objection to motion?  If no objection, we can proceed.  [Adopted.]

All we have on the agenda.  Any comments?

Nicole - Peter and TJ did heavy lifting, though Budd and I willing to take credit, but they deserve it.  

John:  Then the two medals we were going to give you two will go to Peter and TJ.

Budd:  Draft on procurement procedures?

Peter:  Thanks.  Got feedback with some changes, I want to review those and I’ll bring that to board at final meeting.  Thought enough to do at this meeting. 

Melanie - I didn’t have issues.  I don’t need more time if others ready

???   - I’m prepared.

John - we could Amed the agenda to add approving procurement policy as presented by staff.  

Add item six:  approval of procurement code.

Budd:  Changes that staff made were largely ministerial and we discussed in last meeting in terms of what we want to see.  They provided the draft in advance so we had chance to look at.  We should thus go ahead and approve it so they can go on.

General State, the other was Legislative code.  Since we were thru the Legislative ??, so we deferred to Legislative and replaced the word “Legislative”  with the Board:

Peter:  one change of substance, “interested parties” people who could protest , limited to only those who had actually submitted a proposal.  

After the meeting I will publish the marked up pages.  That will be available for public as soon as possible.  


John:  Other discussion on motion to adopt?  Objections?  None, it is adopted.  

Other items board members want to bring up

Bethany - there’s another caller on the line ends with 19  - 

Someone from Juneau, member of public.


Peter:  One other item on RFI we will post this on full statewide public notice system.  Will put it up Monday morning (not just Leg site) and also through the Alaska Bar Association to make sure attorneys know.


John:  Motion to adjourn.  Talk about next meeting?  OK,  [they didn't talk about next meeting]

Melanie:  Move to adjourn.  Nicole, seconds

Objections?  Adjourned  1:55pm

Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Narcissists Who Are Also Psychopaths: The Dark Triad - Know Anybody Like This?

 






I was watching a video on YouTube about regional accents in the US and when it was over, a video on narcissism  showed up.  Eight questions a narcissist can't answer.  (They all involved having to admit some sort of personal weakness or listening to another person.)  Then this one was next:


Essentially, this therapist says it's impossible to work with psychopaths and he doesn't.  

And that's why nobody except complete toadies who shower Trump with praise and adoration manage to have any longevity in his administration.  This explains his relentless fight to overturn the election and his ignoring of norms and laws.  

It doesn't explain his followers.  Well, I can understand other psychopaths supporting someone who supports their horribly anti-social behavior, but we can't have that many psychopaths in this country.  

There wasn't any discussion of what happens when two psychopaths get together.  Do they bond?  Or do the quickly fight for dominance? 

Sure, the word narcissist has been used to explain Trump since early on.  Some have even used the word psychopath.  But now that we've seen Trump non-stop for four years, this description seems spot on to me.  

Monday, January 04, 2021

Dear Senator Dan Sullivan:


First, let me thank you working with Senators from both parties to get the Oceans Act passed.  This is a big achievement.  But it would mean nothing if President Trump were to succeed in overturning our democratic election.  As you know the courts have resoundingly rejected about 60 challenges made by Trump because there was no evidence presented to back up his claims.  And yesterday we learned that Trump called the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia and told him to find some 11,000 votes to overturn Biden's win in Georgia, with a threat of legal action if he didn't.  

Today I urge you to strongly endorse the certification of Biden's election and to denounce those senators who are threatening to challenge the election.  There is no doubt that Biden has legitimately been elected president of the United States.  Not denouncing those challenging this election merely feeds the white nationalists and others who want to reestablish 'the good old days' when White men were never challenged by women or people of color.  We need to resoundingly denounce these actions.  

I try to imagine what calculations you are making that prevent you from taking bold action on this issue.  I watched you take the oath yesterday to defend the Constitution.  This certification of the vote is one of the most important opportunities you have to do that.  To end the alarming talk of a number of people in your party, including sitting US Senators.  

I'm not willing yet to believe that you support this seditious action and would welcome an armed resurrection and coup to keep Trump in power.  

The only concern of yours that makes any sense at all to me is that you fear Trump supporters finding a candidate more amenable to their anti-democratic, racist views to run against you in 2026.  But you have nearly six years until you are up for reelection.  The world will be significantly different by then.  And probably most important on this point, Alaska will be using Ranked Choice voting.  There will be no Republican primary where you can be defeated by far right extremists in your party.  

As part of your campaign you told Alaskans that you are a Marine.  We expect you to show the courage of a Marine.  We expect you not to hide in the back of the crowd, but to stand up front to resoundingly defeat this challenge to our democracy.  


Readers can send their own email to Senator Sullivan here.  

Saturday, January 02, 2021

AIFF2020: The Festival Picks Versus My Picks

I was going to run through all the categories to compare the award winners chosen by the critics, the audience, and me.  But I just didn't see enough films in some categories to really comment, so I'm leaving them out.  Those that won that I didn't see are marked with an asterisk* in the tables below.  I posted all the winners here. 

As I was writing this, it became clear that the two narrative categories - Narrative Features and Narrative Shorts - were really strong categories with lots of excellent films.  Features, so much so, that I'll do another separate post on that category.  When it's up I'll put in a link here.  

I'd also note that evaluating films is never easy.  Lots of factors play a role - the quality of the film, how the topic and technique strike the viewer, and conditions of the viewing and the viewers mood and energy level while watching the film.  

Animated Shorts 


    Critics Audience  Steve
WinnerGon, the Little Fox Grab My Hand: A Letter To My Dad  Grab My Hand
Runner Up Diminuendo Just for the Record
2nd Runner Up Just for the Record  Sad Little Fact 

Grab My Hand: A Letter To MyDad was fantastic.  The best of the animation I saw by far.  The story was short and to the point.  The animation was original and beautiful and perfectly illustrated the story.  Identity Crisis and Encounters are worth mentioning.  Identity Crisis for the story, Encounters for the visual effect, though it was much too long.  I understand they wanted to show from the few to the many and back to the few, but it seemed to go on forever.  Maybe I wasn't in the right mood at the time.  

Diminuendo and Just for the Record were also worthy contenders.  Gon, the Little Fox and Sad Little Fact weren't my cup of tea.  


Feature Docs 
   CriticsAudience Steve
WinnerNever Too Late
Doc Severinsen
Race to Alaska*Cell
Runner UpRace to Alaska*Pushout:  Criminalization of 
Black Girls in HS*
Cell
2nd Runner UpEverything that 
Could Have Been   
Never Too Late
Doc Sev Story
Cell


In the past, this has been a strong category at AIFF.  But this year I didn't see any films that I thought were 'excellent'.  Doc Severinson  was interesting, but as a film it wasn't particularly noteworthy in technique or how it told the story.  Everything that Could Have Been  was to me a family home movie that went on too long.  It was a loving memorial, but it wasn't close to a great film.  



 Narrative Shorts 


   CriticsAudience Steve
WinnerJane*Masel Tov Cocktail Masel Tov Cocktail
Runner UpMasel Tov Cocktail Kama'aina (Child of the Land)  
2nd Runner UpUndercut*Rebel 


I'm not offering Runner Up winners because I thought Masel Tov Cocktail was so outstanding and it's hard choosing among many worthy runners up. And I didn't see them all.    
Masel Tov for me was the perfect film, meaning it took advantage of all you can do with the medium of film to get its story across.  It packed in LOTS on content but there was nothing unnecessary - not even the gefilte fish cooking video.  The acting was fantastic. And it used humor beautifully to discuss the sensitive topic of Jewish identity and stereotypes in modern Germany, and in the telling, broke all those stereotypes. I did have one friend who said some of it was over his head, so it's possible non-Jews missed some things. 

I didn't see two that the Critics chose, so I can't comment on those.  I would note that I have no problem with the Audience Choice winners.  Kam'aina was a powerful look at a homeless Hawaiian teen.  But I also thought The Woman Under The Tree also told as sensitively  a different homeless story.  
Rebel  looked at immigration from the point of view of a young boy whose dad has taken him to a biker sort of rally/camp in the Canadian woods.  
Gather in the Center  and Thoughts and Prayers  were both about school shootings.  The first featuring active shooter classroom training for the teacher and students that goes wrong.  The second took a more unconventional view and looked at school shootings by highlighting a few kids who would be dead (in the film story, this was a narrative, not a documentary)  by the end of the school day.  
Flora was a visually exquisite Spanish film with a compelling story.  Bainne (Milk)  was a visually striking Irish film.   While Flora had brilliant colors and style as though each frame were a classic painting, Bainne was black and white and eerily represented a time of Irish famine. 
I also thought that When It Falls told an interesting, unusual story.  
Anna and Cake Day are two other worthy films in this category.  


Documentary Shorts 


   CriticsAudience Steve
WinnerReclamation: Rise
At Standing Rock*      
Sky Aelans  Sky Aelans
Runner UpSky AelansKeep Saray Home*  
2nd Runner UpAntarctica Hysterical Girl




Again, I didn't see all the films in this category, but I'm more aligned with the Audience Awards than the Critics Awards.  .
I would also recommend a couple of other narrative shorts that made a good impression:
Hysterical Girl - did a good job of looking through history - from Freud to MeToo - where women are dismissed as being hysterical and not taken seriously.  
The Marker - very simply and straightforwardly, but effectively, told the story of an artist who is putting up crosses at all the spots where immigrants have died in the desert crossing into the US.