Comment by Bill Halpin on August 5, 2011 at 2:17pm

More updates on the IRC and it's possible socialist ways.

Since the IRC would not answer my question even by email in a timely matter I decided to contact a good friend who is an elected official and who could maybe steer me in the right direction to get the answer from the IRC. This person referred me to someone else that answered my concerns.

I received the below email from Mike Flannery a citizen. Who has served the past thirteen years on the Prescott Valley Town Council. He was involved with the redistricting process last cycle and has some experience with it.

As you know, the "Independent" Redistricting Commission is just that. It is established to be independent and that they are. I can sympathize with you Bill. Karen had asked about the forms that they had out at the public hearings to comment on the six element of the redistricting process. In the Strategic Telemetry (mappers) presentation it says in writing that it is available on the website. It isn't and I informed them of that August 1st in Flagstaff. They told me that it would be on the website tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. It still isn't there. They do not want to hear from you. So much so that at the meeting in Flagstaff, none of the Commissioners showed up!
The best advice I can give you is that on their website the have a "contact us" banner. Go to that, complete it and suggest that if it is not answered in a reasonable time, you will be forced to contact Tom Horne at the Attorney Generals office (who is conducting a separate investigation on their conduct).
Sorry folks that's the best I can come up with given the "independent" nature of this Commission.

Mike Flannery

Well I took his advice and went back to their website and found that the "CONTACT US" banner has been deactivated. So the only course of action I see per Mikes' recommendation is to file a complaint with the State AG office. I am truly getting more concern with all the horror stories and events that are taking place since this "Independent" commission has been formed this year. The total intent of Prop 106 was to keep the selection of State and Congressional boundaries fair, equal and per the Voters Rights Act and to take these selection of boundaries or lines out of the State Legislature hands. I can't find in Prop 106 were it said because of the "Independent" Commission status they can lie, deceive and denied State meeting law, procedures, rules and ignore answering any questions and now investigations. Something is wrong with this whole mess and we haven't even discuss the boundaries or lines yet. All that has been discussed has nothing to due with the Voter Rights Act. Am I missing something here?

Bill Halpin

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 5, 2011 at 7:25pm

Bill and others:

Suggest you take a screen shot of the screen you get that tells you that the Contact Us is inactive.  Be sure you save it with the date.  It's possible valuable evidence that they really do not want to hear from us.

Comment by Bill Halpin on August 6, 2011 at 8:04am

I received word it was working as of 430pm yesterday. It could have been down or under work when I tried yesterday morning a couple times. Since it's now working I was able to use "Contact us" banner yesterday evening and stated I'm still waiting for my original answer to my question from July 28 and I will wait until August 11 (per their website I will receive an answer 2-4 business day) before I contact State AG. Your suggestion on taking a screen shot is absolutely good info.

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 14, 2011 at 2:13pm

SEE 'PAGES' HEADER TO THE RIGHT FOR NEW PROPOSED MAPS.  They cut across counties, precincts perhaps, communities of interest, put metropolitan areas in with rural areas.

In short, they've done everything we asked them NOT to do but nothing we asked the TO do.

Someone explain: what does Scottsdale & Fountain Hills have in common with Show Low and Pinetop and the reservations?  How can anyone represent these disparate communities?

Call to Action: we can't let them get away with this nonsense.  

Just guessing: these maps were all worked out well before the so-called 'community input.'

Get to the meeting and make your feelings known.... loud and clear

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 23, 2011 at 7:46pm

Agenda for August 25 meeting in Casa Grande attached:

Agenda-082511.pdf

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 25, 2011 at 7:31pm

The schedule of AIRC meetings between now and the beginning of the 30-day map review period (about September 24 / 26) has not been published.   It looks as if the commission will schedule as they see fit based on need.   There is no meeting currently scheduled beyond the one held today in Casa Grande.   So, we will watch for notifications at http://www.azredistricting.org/Meeting-Info/default.asp.   Again, you can sign up for email notification at http://www.azredistricting.org/Newsletter/default.asp.

 

It remains critical, and will be so until the end of this entire process, to encourage people to attend these meetings and get their comments on the record.

 

The 'zoomable' current (initial) maps are still available at http://azcapitoltimes.com/proposed-grid-maps/ and remember that the commission has chosen 'option 2' for both CD and LD maps.

 

Various people are working on maps that are more friendly to us, so that effort is being monitored and will be reported as appropriate.  The thought is that these maps, if the effort to create them is successful, may help people to better understand the possibilities, distill their comments, and direct them more effectively.

 

Again our talking points at this time are:

 

- Voting Rights Act - districts cannot be made *less* minority

- Communities of Interest:

o   Transportation corridors

o   Neighborhood master plans

o   Neighborhood associations

o   School districts

o   Where do you do shopping, recreation ?

o   Where do the participants in your clubs and charitable activities live ?

o   Socio-economic similarity

o   Types of occupations in a given area

o   High school sports

o   Natural boundaries – washes, highways, barren land, parks, canals

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 26, 2011 at 6:06pm

From the meeting on Aug 25th, a disturbing report:

It was a very long 6 hour meeting and was very distressing. Commissioner Herrera said yesterday that a "composite" majority minority district wasn't really one because in the last election there was no Hispanic elected so that proves that this district is not composite because the people did not get who they wanted to represent them!

There was no one there from Phoenix who spoke but the Democrat Commissioners were moving all kinds of very specific lines in the Phoenix districts and seemed to be taking the lines drawn by the Hispanic Coalition Group (Pete Rios and Richard Elias from Tucson are part of this group) VERY seriously!! I spoke for Oro Valley and Casa Grande not being split in half as the grid map shows. Then the commissioners said that the mapping consultant should not be splitting the smaller municipalities. Onita spoke for Shirl who had great information showing the bloggers and media are actually lobbyists and even the White House has had to reveal their logs for who has been visiting the White House, including media. There is a BIG deal being made about bloggers and media having to be logged in if they speak to Strategic Telemetry - Commissioners Herrera and McNulty want to overturn this amendment to Strategic Telemetry's contract - very odd and suspicious. James Kelley was there and said that as a blogger and journalist he didn't care if Strategic Telemetry logged him in if he called and talked with them. (bloggers and media can talk with Strategic Telemetry at any public meeting and not be entered into the log)

But there was good news from the AGs office and I have included his announcement. He is suing the Federal Government saying that the DOJ review of Arizona lines using the voting rights act doesn't apply to Arizona anymore. The bad news is that at the meeting in Tucson earlier in the week the commission hired an ex-DOJ lawyer to give them advice on drawing Arizona's lines so they will pass the DOJ review.

As in the last meeting, conservatives were VASTLY outnumbered

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 29, 2011 at 11:36am

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is announcing a Meeting.

Date:	August 31, 2011
Time:	1:30 PM
Location:	Executive Tower – Pharmacy Board Meeting Room – 312 1700 W. Washington St Phoenix, AZ  85007 More Information | Directions

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 29, 2011 at 1:26pm

August 31, 2011
1:30pm

Executive Tower – Pharmacy Board Meeting Room – 312 – 1700 W. Washington St Phoenix, AZ  85007

Estimated time when public comments begin: 4:30pm (based on the agenda)

Major topics covered:

• Possible amendment of ST contract regarding documentation of contacts
• Possible hiring of a "voting analysis expert" regarding voting rights, competitiveness, &c
• Compactness and competitiveness (presentation/discussion, no decisions should be made)
• More legal advice regarding AG investigation (executive session likely)

The complete agenda is online at
http://www.azredistricting.org/docs/Meeting-Info/Agenda-083111.pdf

Comment by Arizona Freedom Alliance on August 29, 2011 at 4:43pm

Received in our inbox:

It looks like next to the Voting Rights Act, competitiveness has jumped up to the number one most important criteria since the commission may hire yet another expert " a voting analysis expert to review, analyze, and recommend action on voting rights issues including polarized voting and conduct analysis regarding competitiveness. It would be nice to see what is actually being spent for all of these experts that are being hired along with the new staff and that may happen at this meeting as well.

According to the last meeting testimony and questioning on "competitiveness," the Hispanic Coalition County Supervisors said that the minority majority districts had to remain that way to comply with the voting rights act (so no competitiveness in their districts) BUT all the other districts could be competitive.

And a decision may be made on whether bloggers have to be logged in when they call Strategic Telemetry. I want to know why this is such a big deal. How often could the blogger who is objecting to this be calling Strategic Telemetry and why would he be calling them multiple times outside of the meetings where he is free to talk with them (and he does) without fear of being logged in on the call log.

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