Board Gets Interesting Testimony And Works On Mapping Skills

 Morning so far has included 

Board discussing how they want to learn the mapping software during the day today

Testimony by:

James Squires Gulkana

Tom Begich - State Senator and very involved in past two redistricting processes

Rhonda Pitka -  Village of Beaver

Aaron Shutt - CEO Doyon

It's 10:38 now and the Board members are working together and individually on their computers to create districts in SE Alaska.  Basically, this is a learning exercise so they can get skilled on the mapping software.  They are each asking questions and staff are giving suggestions for what to do.  

Here are my notes from this morning.  Of most substantive interest is the testimony.  Regular disclaimers:  these are rough notes, a guide to what's happening at the Board, but not verbatim and not without errors.  

AK Redistricting Board Notes

Aug. 24, 2021

Meeting 

9am - 10:15am

9:17  Peter Torkelson demonstrating online website.

9:44 Board has been talking about the new software and how they want to learn the software.  

9:48  Board is going to take public testimony - looking for people on line who might want to testify.  Two people in line

9:50 James Squire, Gulkana District 9 describing district.  Even to Whittier - we have little in common - people living in Super Cold down to Whittier.  Delta to Valdez - north of Alaska range to Whittier and Palmer.  Distance to travel from one part to another.  Need something more reasonable, similar climates, life style.  They drive to Fairbanks, NOT Palmer.  Alaska Range is important boundary.  I understand you need to get population.  Alaskans in Palmer have little to do with what goes on here.  We go to FB and FB comes to us for recreation.  

John:  Thanks very much appreciate the detail and brevity.  If you’ve been looking online, can you give the online mapping project 

Nicole - Thanks for excellent, precise testimony.  

James Squire - We don’t go to Fred Meyers in Palmer, Go to Fairbanks.  Difference between -4 and -50.  

Sen. Tom Begich, from Anchorage - Thanks for letting me testify.  Couldn’t yesterday.  Commend you on your process.  I’ve served in 2001 and 2011 cycle.  First - caution, if you separate into group you’ll run into  interlocking puzzle problem when you put them together.

1. Two piece criteria - Federal and Constitutional guidance.  There are no existing districts.  They are built by scratch.  We start by looking at Burroughs because they are by definition socio-economic integrated.  You talked about starting with SE because has only one direction to go.  Having done that, there is a way to have a core district with Yakutat.  
2. Mr. Squires says Delta should be connected with FB.  He’s right.  No reason for Delta or Valdez to be connected with FB.
3. Matsu has to find that .6 percent and Anchorage will too, while Kenai and FB have to shed population.  Anchorage 15.8 will have to go south to get the extra population.  It can be done.
4. Matsu won’t be able to go south to Anchorage.  
5. Heard Doyon testimony.  Areas of Doyon region required by 39 can be returned to Doyon.

Starting with Socio Economic first, existing districts are irrelevant.

Start with SE

Take testimony.  

John:  Thanks Senator, that was a lot to absorb.  Couldn’t follow it all.  You have a lot of experience.  

Melanie:  Thank you.  For those not familiar with this, we have to follow Alaska Constitution, that we start with blank slate, look at Constitution.

Nicole:  Specific recs for Delta and Valdez.  Repeat?

Tom:  Palmer has grown.  Control of six seats.  Valdez, the largest pop center and Delta neither required by Palmer.   Move Cordova into broader district with Valdez.  Another thing:  Courts fairly strict of socio-economic relationship.  We tried to use community councils but courts said no, the whole city.  But because Fairbanks City was an elected govt. inside the Borough so it was given consideration.

Including Valdez in anchorage district struck down in 2001 because they had no relationship.  

John.  Thanks. You said not be relying on existing districts, just socio-economic aspects.  To me it’s intuitive because they’ve passed Court scrutiny.  They were binding.  Why not use that as a starting point.  

Tom:  Court ruled that Anchorage by definition is socio-economic area so line can be drawn anywhere.  In that criteria, massive deviation with new data.  In outlying areas .  No inherent right of district to exist.  But socio-economic unit does have right.  You do have natural districts - Nome area - but if you start there you ignore the socio-economic as most important.  You can use the districts to guide you.  You can have deviation within 5 points.  Start with Constitution criteria - socio-economic integrated, contiguity, compactness.  

Ronda Pitka from Village of Beaver  - Testifying on behalf of Beaver Village council.  Heavily rely on.  Support of strong consideration of work of Sealaska, ?????, to advance or suppress political power of Alaska Natives has been considerable.  We should be able to hold reps accontable.  In past, we’ve been fractured in deference to Fairbanks.  If map of unfractured representative.  Doyon and partners have looked at river systems, local boundaries.  ??

Melanie:  Thanks for calling in and testifying.  

John:  Audience wish to testify?

Mr. Aaron Shutt CEO Doyon  (https://www.doyonutilities.com/leadership/aaron-m-schutt)- Thanks mr. Squires.  The work we (Doyon) are doing supports Mr. Squires.  Interior is one socio-economic unit.  Rural parts of Alaska always come together.  Also share with Board, resources to board.  If you have questions for us we’re here to help.  We have a great team.  

John:  natural time for break.  Till 10:30

1:20pm

I decided to go home during the lunch break to see how this works online.  You can watch here: http://akleg.gov/index.php#

There were some redistricting board sessions done via phone last time, but I don't remember any live stream video.  It makes the meetings much more accessible to the world, and my blogging not quite as important.  

Redistricting Board Meeting Highlights August 23, 2021

The Board met from 10am today through  with a break for Executive Session to get briefed by the attorney on Alaska Redistricting Cases and lunch.

It's been a long day. It's clear that I'm ten years older than I was when I went to the Board meetings

ten years ago.   Let me try to pull up some key points from the meeting.  Then I'll add my very rough  notes from the meeting below

• Time table for map proposals
• Established Aug. 12 as official day they received numbers from Census Brea
• That starts the Constitutional clock for 
• preliminary map(s) adopted  by Sept 11 (non-Board maps by 9/17) and 
• final map by November 10 
• What Census data show  (see charts on Redistricting Website  and also here)
• Changes in districts and regions from 2010 to now - this was shown in a series of slides.  There was lots of detail and it will affect the makeup of the legislature.  Some key takeaways
• statewide, the smallest population increases in decades
• biggest gains in Matsu - plus 18,000 people (but previous decade gained 30,000);  Kenai plus 3400; Western Alaska plus 900
• both Anchorage (JBER lost @3000) and Fairbanks declined
• Executive Session with Board's attorney on lessons from previous Alaska Court cases.  The Board made a nod to my suggestion to make some of this public by having the attorney discuss the standards  Constitution and the Supreme Court have set for the Board to follow in making their maps.  But that sentence was pretty much all he said publicly and then they went into Executive Session for and hour or more (it was combined with lunch which was brought in for them)
• Attorney Matt Singer said (as best as I could type) 

"Meeting to review my legal advice.  Reviewing my opinions are confidential.  For public key places - 

Article 6 of Constitution Section 10 outlines process and requirements and Sec. 6    AK Supreme Court each time established guidelines for Redistricting Board  process by which it must be done and directions for deviation and how down in light of decisions - so another sourceAvailable where public can search those cases.  Guided by Constitution and Alaska Supreme Court."

• My recollection is that ten years ago the attorney did much of this in open session.  Here's a post from March 2011 that gives a lot of the requirements as outlined by the 2010 Board attorney.  There were other sessions where he gave other such overviews in public.  
• Discussion over how the Board is to go about creating maps.  The staff recommended dividing the State into six to eight regions and having subcommittees of Board members work on a couple regions each.  Then they would come together and put them all together and work out the edges.  There was pushback from a Doyon mapper and another group Alaskans for Fair and Equitable Redistricting (There were two groups with similar names last time.  I believe AFFR was representing Native groups and Unions generally and Alaskans For Fair and Equitable Redistricting (AFFER) was more of a Republican oriented group) both of whom felt that by making the six regional blocks first, the Board would lock things up and miss options to have better districts inside those regions.  It appears the Board is going to try with the Regional Approach but also try to be flexible with those challenges in mind.  Also the Board Chair said that the two groups - Doyon and AFFR - could submit their maps for the Board to compare and there would be 6o more days to get public reaction and make changes.
• Public Testimony  - you can find some of this in my notes below.

  

  Board ED Peter Torkelson and Chair John Binkley
  talking to Doyon mapper during break

  
  

My running notes from the meeting. Beware:  These notes give you the gist of what was discussed.  It's not verbatim but you can get a sense of who spoke and what was said.  The meetings of  the 2020 Census round are all available live and I believe recordings will all be available at the Board's website.  On the one hand, that makes these notes less important.  On the other hand, these notes can alert you to where to look for things of interest when the tapes are available.  For figuring out names of Board members, see this post.  I've tended to use first names because that's how they are being called and it's easier to type on the fly.   For staff, see this post.   You can also see pictures of the attorneys at this post of their mapping training.  

Redistricting Board Meeting

(Everyone masked as required)

10:10am  

All the Documents/Slides are available at:  https://www.akredistrict.org/alaska-population/

Public Testimony

Kay Brown - . . . .former legislator - Use maximum deviation possible.  competitive districts, where every vote matters,  consistent with public interest.  Finally do not gerrymander the map.  There is a party in control of this process, do not make that an issue.  Thank you for your service.  Actions you take will affect state for ten years.  

Question, Binkley  What do you mean by max deviation?  Given our size, be ready to protect minority strength using maximum deviation if necessary.  

Online:  Hooper Bay - William Manning - Camai.  [Cut off]

Move to Anchorage, no, audio tech says ok.  Brief at ease - kicked off the system.  

10:20 back on line after break where people were talking.  

William Manning - Hooper Bay, waiting for the connection.  Believe they can hear us, but we can’t hear him.  

Christopher Constant - MOA Assembly - Substantially consequential because we created a 12th member of Assembly - Downtown will be growing and we’ll be doing our own redistricting process in parallel with you.  Hope we can keep our precincts as close to your statewide districts.  

14 people in the audience.

Time frame:  immediately after State - we need 60 days and then 6 months to complete.  We are beginning internal process to get it done sooner and try to be early.  Probably won’t go into effect for 2022 because we need to do it by Dec. 2021.   Based on State’s initial final plan, not after all the court decisions.  

10:26  Suspended again because, I think, recording system isn’t working.  

10:32 Tech problems solved, hopefully.

Joelle Hall - President of Union.  Chair of Alaskans for Fair Redistricting.  Thank you for work you’re doing.  Important for so many of us.  

Look at size of districts - looking at rural Alaska maps, getting bigger and bigger as pop grows.  Max deviations to allow a little less geography.  Clearly have a majority-minority issue and diversity growing and should be recognized.  Community interest and urban diversity reflected in the districts.  This should be an educational and entertaining process.  

Paul Kendall - 

?? Silvers - Hulbert?  on council,  [Wanted to change pairings of Senate districts M and N]  Senate districts M and N in South Anchorage - underrepresentation for ??? Anchorage residents.  These districts should be mapped to reflect the issues of the two - Combing 25 M  and 26N ?? and 26 M 28 N Would better reflect socially .  East Anchorage in one district and South Anchorage in another district.  Go east/west not north/south.  

Major Felisa Wilson - Ret AF Med Officer, recently retired.  Came to give insight how Base is set up.  Now Joint Base El is in one district and Fort R with Eagle River.  Helpful if base communities stay together - near Boniface is lower rank folks,  Govt Hill more senior.  

Cols and Generals w/o off base homes on.   Lot more diversity in army personnel than Airforce.  Based on Housing areas.  

How can we get in touch with you to follow up?  

Melanie - took notes, lots of info, but would be helpful to be specific for maps later.

Try online:

William Manning in Hooper Bay - [We did receive letter from mayor of Hooper Bay - connected with that?]  Thanks for letting me speak.  Local leaders on the record letter, Hooper Bay should be part of Bethel district - it’s the key hub for us, funding, housing src services served by Bethel.  Consider ourselves as part of YK Delta.  

John:  Having lived in Bethel for many years, I understand what you’re talking about.  

Sarah Oped   From Doyon.  Morning from Fairbanks.  Thanks for opportunity.  Sarah Obed From Fairbanks testifying on behalf of Doyon.  20K  AK Native shareholders.  Strengthen our way of Life.  Fairbanks Native Association to create maps to ensure state support of Native Alaskans.   Communities are not included together in single districts - fractured.  We will be presenting Board with our efforts to make statewide map.  Approach to mapping interior to overcome current fractured interests.  

John:  Thanks, looking forward to seeing your maps.  If you can keep Doyon in a couple of House districts I’ll be impressed.  

Nicole - elaborate on how many districts fractured 

Sarah - voter turnout data, polled McGrath and other villages a minority vote for voters in that region. People in villages it’s very hard to have impact.  

10:58  John:  Followup, when you see fracturing, not socially economically related.  [If split into different districts] then have multiple senators or reps looking for you interests.  

Sarah:  Great question - that was discussion argument in 2014 amended proclamation plan.  We had a number of representatives for Doyon, but overall we need more focused representative.    That’s been in place since 2014 -

All the testimony - Mr. Kendall - Paul Kendall - concerned about our government, lost sense of purpose, priority, you are all very accomplished.  Open plea to you Juneau is now an embarrassing.  Magnitude is unprecedented. Keep plan target images, concentrations of populations.  Hubs of activity.  Like it or not, Anchorage is the hub of the state.  

[This is a macro critique about problems of the world, I’m not sure the direct connection to redistricting.]

No one else?  Close public testimony

Census Data presentation from Mr. Eric Sandberg  - 32 slides of changes from 2010 census and the 2020 Census.  Graph of growth over time - this last decade smallest growth

2.  Change by census areas.  Purple decreased

Largest growth Matsu 18K   Kenai 3400.  Outside of those in Western Bethel 900, Slope 

Fairbanks and Anchorage declined.  Unusual.  Much of missing growth in those two borroughs.

3.  Non-Census slide - Dept of Labor estimates - rate of early natural increase (births-deaths) everywhere had more births than deaths.  Highest natural increase in Western Alaska.  Lower map, rate of yearly net migration. 

4.  Pop changes for precincts  - Current house districts on top.  Western Alaska pop growth, remote as well as hub.  Decreases - Kotzebue, Red Dog mine went down.  Aleutians lost >100/precinct.  

5.  Anchorage- top JBER districts largest loss @3000.  Anchorage neg for decade, not just JBER.  Mt. View, Fairview, Seward Highway down,  Hillside up.  Downtown core up 500

6.  Eagle River stayed at 35K, but people shifted.  Downtown loss, but pop growth, north fork of ER Road.  

7.  Matsu - highest growth - 18K - a slowdown for them, last time by 30K - all over the Borough except for city of Palmer, Sutton and chicaloon.  Bishop region and Pt Mckenzie growing - prison is much of that.  

8..  Fairbanks lost 1600 people throughout all, but UAF campus 2010 1400, 2020 400, could be COVID related, appears some issue on counting.  Growth areas  - Frt Wainright  only base to grow, changed how deployed soldiers counted.  2010 - overseas pop in state where they enlisted, in 2020 at home base.  

9.  Kenai, about 3400 people up - Much of road system growth - outskirts of Seward, Homer, Kasiloff, Sterling, and parts of Kenai, Soldotna.  Off road system - all lost - Tyonek etc.

10.  SE mixed growth - highest Mendenhall Valley, Ketchikan, Hoonah, Skagway fastest, Haines down 500, still looking into why.  Number of housing units dropped.  Sitka and Wrangell declines.

11.  Juneau - airport lemon creek growth.  Downtown, North Doughlas, declined.  

12.  Same maps but with rates of change.

Questions:  Matsu faster or slower than state average.  3 areas grew 15% points.  Matsu, 20% also Slope 17% growth, and Skagway 28% growth.  

Above average - rural SE, Kenai,   Western Alaska- 

Answering question about rural areas - unclear why, could have been undercounted in 2010

14  JBER stands out for large decline -15%  also large sections of Western Anchorage- Mt. View, Bayshore.  Other parts grew - Downtown Core - Basher/Stuckagain,  Lower Hillside, Kincaid

15  Eagle River roughly same 2010 to 2020

16.  Fairbanks - Ft. Wainwright   Most FB -12%;  wondering if F35’s to eastern side of Borough, but did not seem to be the case.  Eilson declined.  

How districts from 2010 how far off on 2020 data.

12:06  

Back in session - Peter Torkelson Exec Dir  talking about how Board received information from Census.  This is on the Board’s website

Expect by Sept. 30.  Ohio sued.  Census determined they could get data done by mid-August.  

Aug 5 tweeted - August 12.  I checked if that was real.

Got data on drop site August 12, we downloaded the zip file.  Unzipped opens into four large text files.  About 45 MB of data.  Do contain fields.  Also have cells, but separated by a special character.  Shift Option key.  

Easy for program to read, not for people.  

Converted to excel

Validation - Compared 3800 cells we matched - they all matched perfectly.  Quite confident we have the right data.  

Census Bureau will ship us a disc and when we get that we’ll double check it all again.  

Look at Website you can see district by district changes in population.  

More files you can open with Google Earth.  

You can explore 2010 data vs. 2020 data.  [I tried and none of my programs worked.  KMZ  But now I know I need Google Earth to open them.]

Q:  What happens if the data doesn’t match when you get the final.  

John - Going into ES, but maybe we can have a little introduction. 

Peter:   AK Constitution   Board must adopt one or more plan within ?? Days - Last Board adopted 5 maps including their own and ones other had made.  They felt more better.  Trying to find areas of agreement.  Hoping we’ll get 3rd party maps and heard from some people we will.  

Constitutional part :  30 days to draft one or more proposed plan, the 60 more days (90 after official receipt) need to do that.  Need to take our plan(s).

Attorney Matt:

Asking Matt to talk a little about why going into ES and a little about the cases so public knows.

Matt  Meeting to review my legal advice.  Reviewing = my opinions are confidential.  For public key places - 

Article 6 of Constitution Section 10 outlines process and requirements and Sec. 6

AK Supreme Court each time established guidelines for Redistricting Board  process by which it must be done and directions for deviation and how down in light of decisions - so another source

Available where public can search those cases.  

Guided by Constitution and Alaska Supreme Court.  

Going into ES.  Motion with vague reason for going into ES.  

If lunch comes during ES, we’ll eat.  Come back when we’re done.  Not sure how long.  Maybe up to an hour.  

12:30 now.  Should we say 1:30?  

Coming back at 1:30.

1:50 post ES and lunch back in session.  9 audience members now

Timeline - Peter constant contact with Census because our timeline based on release of Census Data.  Told Sept. 30.  After the official release date by law.  Noticed that it said “Official” on our website for date.  Talked to CB and date of Aug. 12 is NOT official.  Don’t actually know for sure what the official date.  We are asking the Board to make Sept 11 which is 30 days after Aug 12.  

Sept 11, adopt at least one map.

John - Pushing process forward instead of pushing it back.  

Matt - tied to release of census.  In prior decades it occurred in March.  90 day deadline, 30 to put out proposed plan and then 60 days.  

Also had file deadlines, election dates that give time pressures for getting plan in place.  Treating Aug 12 as official data is most consistent with Constitution.  

Peter:  Sept 11 adopt ‘a plan’ by.  Then 90 days from official receipt - Nov. 10.  We can be earlier.  I recommend that due to change of dates:

Sept. 11 and allow 3rd parties a little longer - Dec. 2 - if a 3rd party gets a realistic plan allow them to explain their plan and allow it.  Adopt all 3 as drafts so when go on public tour we can have more plans.  

We’ll take the 2nd week and Board could have a second plan.  

John:  Census B had a later date, then gave preliminary data Aug. 12, then decided that Aug. 12 was official.  June 1, 2022 = expedite process as much as we can given the lateness already.  So legislators can know and file for office.  

Melanie - with shorter time frame, public needs adequate time to write up plans and comment on draft plan.  

John:  One of most important aspects is getting comments from public.  

Melanie:  Be clear, still waiting for official letter from CB, we just have email and cut and paste from their website.  CB could still change it to Sept 30 again.  

John:  We have better tools - software - and public has that too so it should be easier for public to make maps too.  

Recommended motion?

Peter:  

TJ:  Aoption of draft plan….?  

Matt:  Best practice to adopt a proposal and publish it.

 Nicole:  At least one draft by Sept 11 and 17 for others to submit and final plan by November 10.

John:  some flexibility.

Nicole:  Don’t intend to have flexibility for the end day.  It’s a Wednesday.  

John:  Can’t go beyond the 10th. 

Nicole:  In ES also talked about give public maximum chance to participate.  Not willing to add flexibility to end date.  

John:  We could work on 4th and 5th and have it by the 10th. 

Melanie:  Don’t want to be like CB saying maybe, we should have a clear and final dates.

John:  No objections?  Adopted.

Workflow process.

Peter:  No formal presentation.  One member to draw it up and show Board. Adopt that part of the state.  Probably most flexible.  Having two members in subcommittee might be better than just one.  Break it into smaller pieces.  Something that 

1st .  If do whole state, end up with one terrible district.  If we divide it into region, but each region must be given a population and divide it up.

Six natural regions.  And then interlock all six at the end.  There will be a reconciliation at the end.  

Regionalization to avoid the left-over seat problem.  

TJ:  2 members plus staff.  1 and floating member.  1+chair on each committee.  They would come to office and work with staff, public could come in.  There would be dead times and then time when full committee comes together.  Work of subcommittees is just to break up the work.  Make sure public is involved and subcommittee work not meant to be binding.  

Peter - this office belongs to Legislature and not available all the time.  In our office we’ll have big screen that people can watch.  Database with questions and rationale.  

Start with ??.  Questions, recs, rationale.  

Started with city X and did this and that for these reasons.  

Learned from Mr Sanders we have a lot of changes.  Can we modify existing districts.  Document decisions and bring them back to the Board.  We have room for maybe 20 people.  

John:  Start with Eric (Sandberg) thoughts on regionalization.  

Eric Sandberg:  

Kodiak Kenai 4.1 districts

SE  3.91 districts

Western - 37-40, over 4 districts

Nicole - How many 

Eric: 2010 1-6 

Nicole - were are the district boundaries of the 1-6

Sandberg:  Peter asked me to use the new data and do the same thing

Anchorage Same geography and add back Fort Rich with ER and back to Anchorage.  13.92 districts   

Questions from Board -  slides and handouts

[The regionalization process does make some assumptions about how to divide the population, but I’m guessing this is pretty neutrally intended.  Using terms like over and under populated - but that means compared to previously and related to 18,335 people per district. It seems to me that when the regional groups come together there will be big probs. As you adjust on one regional border, it will affect the other regional boarders.]

Melanie:  Can you drill down to see Alaska Native percentages?  

John:  Thanks for presentation  Board discussion?

Nicole:  In ideal world, preference we come together as a Board, but given the compressed time line.  We could work in different combinations of members on different regions.  More interaction among board members and also better understanding of the regions.  

Discussions of how to divide the regions up. Looking at total population in region along with geography.  

Each subcommittee represents  

How many people involved in how many regions - familiarity with regions 

John:  Maybe since Anchorage is so significant we do that as a whole Board.  

3:14  - Peter:  Agenda is for two days. Recommend we recess now.  Anyone who wants to work on map making now can stay and do that.  

Tomorrow Agenda 8c and 8d, 9 was done, tomorrow 10 Map making

5 minute recess  3:17

3:39  After lots of audience/Board (John and Peter) discussion during break about the impacts of starting with the Board’s regions and how that locks things in later.  

Now in session again.  Down to seven audience.  

Peter - looking at Matsu - where are the people - northern edge.  Talking about how to link people as social-economic community - debating how you make new Matsu districts - north, east, south?

The board is working on a a map starting from Matsu.  I’ve lost track of what they are doing.   Now they have focused on Fairbanks.  

4:25 - John - opening up to more public comment - a response to comments during last break

David Dunsmore - Alaskans for Fair Redistricting - suggest by Borough how much population and regionalization discussion.  One of most objective criteria is respecting local government boundaries.  Maps don’t allow the Anchorage-Matsu boundary - population doesn’t allow much combination.  Start by identifying - Anch has about 15.88 ideal house seats.  Choice of 16 house seats keeping socially-economically integrated, where you you get extra population.  Issues like that across the state.  Appreciate you taking time to listen to us.  

Tanner Ander???  Working with Doyon - Interior and SE Coalition.  Regionalization issues.  Work we have done shows some of the pitfalls when doing regionalization of interior.  Puts assumptions that regionalization imposes

1. Assumption - putting Matsu B with Ahtna region - so made changes in those areas.  But if you took the Denali B and assigned those instead of Glenallen Ahtna area, the numbers work out perfectly.  If you go to Fairbanks and take two districts and combine with rural communities that allow dominant rural voice.  We have 1.6%.  Numbers can work.  We hope Board will take our map into consideration.  Not presenting magical thinking, but a real map.  If you think Denali B has to be combined with Fairbanks B.  

Peter - are you going to have a statewide plan?  Yes

Nicole:  Can we see this?  Yes

BuDD-   

We’ve been working for months to get this done.  We know everyone is under compressed time frame.

Melanie:  Big change from ours?

Tanner:  Except for pairing Denali Borough with Matsu instead of FB, otherwise very similar.

John:  Anyone else?  

Matt:  As bord thinks about how it organizes itself, there’s no constraints, 

John:  Ultimately whole board makes its decision as a whole.  Just trying to figure out the best way to get the job done.  

Redistricting Board Agenda For Monday Meeting - Including Questionable Executive Session On History of Alaska Redistricting Cases

Below is the agenda for Monday's (Aug 23) Redistricting Board meeting.  Below that are some of my reactions.  I find the Executive Session to discuss Litigation lessons from Alaska Redistricting caselaw to be an overly generous application of the law Executive Session.  Most, if not all, of this discussion was done publicly by the previous board's attorney.  

[I tried viewing the agenda and copying it in two different programs.  The first ran most of the words together.  The second wiped out a lot of the formatting.  What you see below is the second.]

Date: August 23 - 24, 2021

Time: Monday, August 23: 10:00am; Tuesday, August 24: 9:00am

Place: Anchorage Legislative Information Office, Denali Conference Room, 1st Floor

1500 West Benson Blvd, Anchorage 99503

Live Video/Audio Web Stream: www.akl.tv

Teleconference public testimony dial-in numbers:

Anchorage 563-9085, Juneau 586-9085, Other 844-586-9085

Agenda

1. Call to Order and Establish Quorum

2. Adoption of Agenda

3. Adoption of Revised Travel/Per Diem Policy

4. Adoption of Public Testimony Policy

5. Public Testimony

Dial into one of the phone numbers above and indicate to the operator that you wish to testify

6. Census Data Overview

a. Overview Report on Alaska Population Changes

Eric Sandberg, Demographer, Alaska Department of Labor

b. Legacy Data and Population Change

Peter Torkelson, Executive Director

7. Redistricting Timeline and Schedule for Adoption of Draft and Final Maps

a. Understanding Alaska’s Constitutional Timeline

(including brief Executive Session to obtain legal advice)

Matt Singer, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt

b. Board Discussion: Adoption of Timeline

8. Workflow Process

a. Staff recommendations for workflow process: Possibilities & Logistics

Peter Torkelson, Executive Director

TJ Presley, Deputy Director

b. Regionalization Possibilities

Eric Sandberg, Demographer, Alaska Department of Labor

c. Board Discussion: Workflow process, Adoption

d. Steps forward: initial map drawing, task assignments, public input

schedule

9. Executive Session for the purposes of receiving a presentation on Litigation

Lessons from Alaska Redistricting Caselaw.

Matt Singer, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt

10. Map Drawing

11. Board Member Comments

12. Adjournment

The red indicates logistical information.  The blue shows the substantive part of the meeting.

My Comments:

• #s 6, 7, & 8 - are probably the meat of the meeting for the public.  
• So is #9, however that is scheduled now for Executive Session.  I understand that there may be some issues of strategy for the board.  But there are no cases at the moment and most of the overview should be description of the past cases.  I realize that the attorney doesn't want to tip off potential challengers to the Board's maps on the Board's legal strategy, but I know that the attorney could prepare the presentation so that much of it could be heard by the public.  Part I could be a list and description of the past cases that are important.  Part II could be "lessons from the past cases for the Board" and could be in executive session.  I think it's taking the easy way out to just say, since legal advice from the attorney is allowed to be in Executive Session, so whatever the attorney says to the Board will be.  There were relatively few times the previous Board's attorney required Executive Session to answer the Board's questions.  Most of it was done in public.  Transparency is a key value for all public meetings.  And Executive Session is ONLY for those items that cannot be public by law.  Much of this should be legal history that should be in open meetings.
• #10 Map Drawing - It would be helpful for the Agenda to estimate how long they expect this to take.  Are they going to be doing this individually on their computers?  Will it be done as a group?  I suspect the former so there won't be a lot to see most of the time.  Especially if people are watching online or listening in.  But during these types of sessions last time, the kinds of questions or observations Board members made were often of interest.  
• So, I'd recommend the Board put on the Agenda in the future how long they expect the meetings to take.  Is this meeting scheduled from 10am-5pm?  
• No?  Then how long? 
•  What about Tuesday's meeting?  
• How long do they estimate for the Executive Session?
• And I'd recommend that most of the discussion of redistricting court cases be held in public, if not all of it.  The previous board's attorney held this discussion last time.  

Here's the beginning of the Alaska Public Meeting Act:

AS 44.62.310. Government Meetings Public.

(a) All meetings of a governmental body of a public entity of the state are open to the public except as otherwise provided by this section or another provision of law. Attendance and participation at meetings by members of the public or by members of a governmental body may be by teleconferencing. Agency materials that are to be considered at the meeting shall be made available at teleconference locations if practicable. Except when voice votes are authorized, the vote shall be conducted in such a manner that the public may know the vote of each person entitled to vote. The vote at a meeting held by teleconference shall be taken by roll call. This section does not apply to any votes required to be taken to organize a governmental body described in this subsection.

(b) If permitted subjects are to be discussed at a meeting in executive session, the meeting must first be convened as a public meeting and the question of holding an executive session to discuss matters that are listed in (c) of this section shall be determined by a majority vote of the governmental body. The motion to convene in executive session must clearly and with specificity describe the subject of the proposed executive session without defeating the purpose of addressing the subject in private. Subjects may not be considered at the executive session except those mentioned in the motion calling for the executive session unless auxiliary to the main question. Action may not be taken at an executive session, except to give direction to an attorney or labor negotiator regarding the handling of a specific legal matter or pending labor negotiations.

(c) The following subjects may be considered in an executive session:

(1) matters, the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect upon the finances of the public entity;

(2) subjects that tend to prejudice the reputation and character of any person, provided the person may request a public discussion;

(3) matters which by law, municipal charter, or ordinance are required to be confidential;

(4) matters involving consideration of government records that by law are not subject to public disclosure.

C 1 is the usual item that would be used to cover discussion of litigation against a board or agency that might reveal the legal strategy and cost the board or agency an "adverse effect on finances."  But no one is currently suing the Board.  There are no cases.  This discussion is not about specific litigation, but about legal policy the Board might follow.  Like other policy advocacy, this is the type  of thing the public should hear so they know why the Board is taking a particular path.  And if there is a problem with that path, it's better for the public to hear about it now instead of down the line when there is actual litigation.  

If you scroll down to the Alaska section of this Reporters' Committee on Freedom of the Press page, you'll see an extended discussion on the limits of Executive Session in Alaska.

Afghan Corruption Got Lots Of Help From US

[I'm just writing notes today.  Consider this jotting down thoughts before other things interfere.]

Lots of commentators are listing corruption in the Afghan government and army as one of the major causes for the rapid collapse of the government.  

Westerners seem to wear one-way glasses when it come seeing to corruption.  "Poor" "third world" countries are seen as rife with corruption compared to Western countries.  

I would argue it's like alcoholism among the homeless and poor and among the middle and upper classes.  Homeless alcoholics are drunk in public while people with more money do a better job of hiding their alcoholism.  

I just want to point out that Western corruption in Afghanistan probably dwarfed local corruption.  

Some examples:

From a SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.)

"Gallery of Greed

 U.S. reconstruction activities in Afghanistan, or any other conflict zone, face the constant threat of criminal conspiracies among personnel who rotate in and out of theater, infecting their successors with the virus of corruption.

 Over the past five years, SIGAR’s Investigations Directorate has uncovered and detailed a classic example of this threat—an extended, widespread, and intricate pattern of criminality involving U.S. military personnel and Afghan contractors at the Humanitarian Assistance Yard (the Yard) at Bagram Airfield near Kabul, Afghanistan.

 In June 2012, SIGAR investigators following leads uncovered an unusual pattern of suspect criminal activity at the Yard. They found traces of criminal activity affecting inventories, accounting, issuance of supplies, payments, and contract oversight at the Yard, which serves as a storage-and-distribution facility for millions of dollars’ worth of clothing, food, school supplies, and other items purchased from local Afghan vendors. U.S. military commanders provided those supplies to displaced Afghans as part of the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) to meet urgent humanitarian relief needs for the Afghan people."

From The Marketplace:

"At just short of 20 years, the conflict in Afghanistan was America’s longest war. More than 2,000 U.S. service members were killed there. The U.S. spent billions over the years to sustain its troops in Afghanistan and hired military contractors to feed and house them.

Those contractors profited the most from the war, but those systems can lead to fraud and waste. The U.S. military relied on contractors like KBR and DynCorp International for all sorts of things in Afghanistan.

“For cooking, for driving, for delivering supplies — they were used across the board,” said Linda Bilmes, who teaches public policy at Harvard. She said that, sometimes, the Pentagon had so-called no-cost deals with contractors. Whatever a project cost, the government would pay.

“The whole system was set up in a way to enable contractors to rip off the government,” she said."

From the Daily Beast:

"America has spent at least $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan, but very few know that because the U.S. relied upon a complex ecosystem of defense contractors, belt-way banditry, and aid contractors. Of the 10-20 percent of contracts that remained in the country, the U.S. rarely cared about the efficacy of the initiative. While corruption is rife within Afghanistan’s government, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction repeatedly alleged bewildering corruption by American firms and individuals working in Afghanistan. In many cases, American firms even defrauded Afghans. A military member of the International Security Assistance Force explained to Carlotta Gall: 'Without being too dramatic, American contractors are contributing to fueling the insurgency.'”

Here's a Treasury official, reported in the Washington Post,  questioning an American consultant working with Kabul Bank for three years about the bank:

"A second unnamed Treasury Department official told government interviewers that soon after he arrived in Afghanistan in the summer of 2010, he met with an American who had been working on contract as a consultant to Afghanistan’s central bank for at least three years. The U.S. official wanted to know more about Kabul Bank, which unknown to both of them was on the verge of failure.

“We had an hour-long conversation,”  the official said. 'I asked him, do you think this is a financially sound bank? He said, ‘Yes.’ And literally 30 days afterward, the whole house of cards came down. This was one of the biggest misses in my career. A $1 billion bank collapsed, and the U.S. adviser swore to me it was financially sound.'”

You know this consultant was making a ton of money plus expenses that probably were well above the average US income.   His job, it would seem, was a scam itself.  

This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone.  No giant expenditures happen in Washington unless there are lobbyists pushing hard for it.  And war lobbyists are among the most effective.

Afghan citizens had to choose a path that would keep them safe from the Taliban and from the US backed government.  Supporting the government made them targets for the Taliban.  Supporting the Taliban made the targets for the government and the US.  For many of them, their petty acts of what we would call corruption, was how they managed to feed their families and stay alive.  

For American contractors it was a way to make huge profits.  

And is there anything more corrupt than the Sackler family working a deal in Bankruptcy Court to make it impossible for them or many other individuals or companies to be prosecuted for all the opioid deaths they caused?  Just because they can pay $4 billion and still have more than that left over?  That's the same kind of deal Jeffrey Epstein worked out with the Alexander Acosta, who then became Trump's Secretary of Labor.

Alaska COVID 2021 Highs And Some Vaccine Numbers

 Today's COVID tab entry:

Wednesday, August 18,2021 - Four new deaths reported today.  That's nine in the last two days.

Current COVID patients hospitalized 148 - that's 127 listed as 'Currently Hospitalized - COVID positive" and 21 more listed as 'Currently On Vent Statewide - COVID Positive or Suspected'.  Or, as I've been reporting 127/21.  That's an increase of one person since yesterday.  The cases dashboard says there are 13 newly hospitalized people.  That sounds about right - four people died and a few others maybe got better and left the hospital.  

28 available ICU beds Statewide.  Three in Anchorage!

633/617 new resident cases.  That's a new 2021 high for one day and the highest since Dec. 10, 2021.  The Cases Dashboard changed.  Instead of 'resident' and 'non-resident' options, we now get 'resident' and 'all' options.  But I couldn't get the all button to get me different data from 'resident' data.  Not sure why they thought this was a better idea.  Every time you change how you organize the data, you making tracking and comparisons harder.  So there has to be a really compelling reason.  And if you change the Dashboard, but it doesn't actually work . . .

About 10,500 tests.  Test Positivity is up to 7.43.  Another 2021 high.  Hasn't been this high since November 23, 2020 when it was 8.13.  

If you get to talk - not shout - with an anti-vaxxer, just ask when their relationship with their parents changed from parent/child to friend/friend.  

 These COVID updates don't usually show up in the main window.  They're at a tab under the top banner. Alaska Daily COVID-19 Count 3  I'm putting this one in here because Alaska's COVID situation continues to deteriorate.  Here's some added info on vaccination rate.

Last week- August 11, 2021:

The Key Numbers As Of August 18, 2021
# of people who have two vaccines shots in Alaska: 324,635. That's in increase of 3,101 since last week (Aug 11) # of people who have had one vaccine shot in Alaska: 36,519 That's an increase of 1,320 since last week.

It took Alaska four and a half months to get 50% of population with one or more shots.

It's taken three months to get the next 8%

And here's today's (August 18, 2021).  

In one week we have gone from from 58.8% with one or more shots to 59.5%.  From  356,823 people to 361,154 or a total increase of 4,669.

From 53% with two shots to 53.5%.  321,534 people to 324,635, or a total of 3,101 increase.

Remember, that the first number is people with one + shots.  So it includes all the people with one AND all the people with two shots.  To find out how many only had one shot, we subtract the two shots number from the one+ shots.

Last week: 356,823 - 321,534 = 35,289 people with just one shot

This week:  361,154 - 324,635 =  36,519 people with just one shot   

That would mean 1320 people got their first shots in the last week and 3,101 got their second shots

Looking at the graph on the bottom of this week's chart, I highlighted as close as I could get to 50% - (50.3%) on May 13, 2021.  

So, it took Alaskans about four and a half months to get to 50% with one or more shots.

And it's taken three more months to go another 9%!

I understand there are people who believe that the vaccine doesn't work, that it injects God knows what into their bodies.  There are people who make lots of money off of conning people into fearing the vaccines.  Those people who didn't vote in Anchorage's mayoral runoff election helped to vote an anti-masker/anti-vaccine guy into office.  Even though over 50% of people over 12 have been vaccinated twice.  People - you have to vote or we get crazies elected to make decisions for us.  

On a more positive note, I reached Nakorn Sawan the other day and have about 130 km left to get to Bangkok.  (No, I'm not in Thailand.  I'm doing this imaginary ride on the bike trails of Anchorage.  It looks like I'll make the 750 kms in plenty of time.  I can't tell people how wonderful it is to ride through the woods with creeks on one side several times a week.  I may have to do a short side trip after I'm done to keep me going until the snow falls.  

Trying Out My Wife's New Phone's Camera In The Yard

 

My wife just upgraded her iPhone at High Fidelity (a phone repair store) because ATT has told her that her old phone isn't going to work much longer.  My interest was in how much better her camera might be than mine.  

Much.  

Here are some pics I took in the yard today.  

Something took a chunk out of this amanita.  Hope it had a good trip.

These are astrantia.

A small broccoli.

High Bush Cranberries

Lysimachia, or loose leaf.

Snapdragon

Snap pea.

These are sub-arctic tomatoes.  Tomatoes require a lot of work in Alaska - the nights drop down below 50˚ F (10˚C) and the fruit doesn't set.  But these are supposed to set down to 40˚F.   

I've got some inside the house, these in the old greenhouse in the backyard, and one plant out on the deck. There are some tomatoes in all three locations.  The earliest were in the house.  But these in the backyard greenhouse are doing ok.  There are lots and lots of flowers, but not that many tomatoes.  Will the redden before it gets too cool?  This is an experiment.  I ended up with lots of plants because every seed I planted seemed to sprout two or three plants.  That part was successful. I don't think I'll be gathering that many tomatoes in the end though.

These are still very small cherry tomato size.

Without a doubt, J's new camera is significantly better than my old one.