United States Election Assistance Commission Board of Advisors Meeting Held at The Crowne Plaza Chicago Metro 733 West Madison Chicago, Illinois 60661 Wednesday, May 4, 2016 VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT 1 The following is the verbatim transcript of the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Board of Advisors meeting that was held on Wednesday, May 4, 2016. The meeting convened at 8:33 a.m., CDT and adjourned at 4:43 p.m., CDT. *** CHAIRMAN HICKS: Good morning everyone, a couple quick things before we get started. One, we have a packed day-and-a-half of meetings. The microphones on the table all you need to do is press them once and then they will light up and go, but the audience, when you are speaking you need to hold down your microphone. So you need to press the button and continually hold it to be able to speak, okay? With that, I want to introduce Lance Gough and David Orr to come up and give a presentation on welcoming to Chicago. Unfortunately, the mayor was not able to make it but Lance and David are experts here in Chicago and are going to do a great job. I also want to thank you both for the wonderful tour that we got yesterday at the warehouse, it was absolutely phenomenal. So with that, come on up. MR. ORR: Good morning, it’s good to see a lot of old friends out here and some new friends, you know. Welcome to Chicago. Chicago, as you know, is the biggest city in Illinois and we have no budget, but we don’t care. [Laughter] 2 MR. GOUGH: We don’t care, why? Because the Chicago Cubs are first, have the best record in the National League and the White Soxs have the best record in the American League and we are going crazy. So anyway it’s great for us. Now, I know you tried to get Mayor Rahm Emanuel and he couldn’t make it. And then I know you tried to get Richard J. Daley because he was the longest serving mayor in Chicago’s history and he took over for his father, who before him was the longest serving mayor in Chicago’s history. So since, you know, Chicago is a city of contrast, I think Tom decided, well, if we can’t get the real mayor or the longest-term mayor, let’s get the shortest term mayor. So, those of you that don’t know your Chicago history, you’re looking at the shortest, not in stature necessarily, the shortest term mayor in Chicago’s history. Back in 1987, when Harold Washington was mayor, I was his vice-mayor, he passed away, but in a great Chicago tradition the vice-mayor became mayor, not until the next election, only until the city council picked a replacement. So since I was not a darling of the old democratic machine, my term was one week. [Laughter] MR. ORR: 3 1 But there’s very few mayors if any in the world, big city mayors or in 2 the U.S., that has the record that I do. In my entire term no taxes 3 were raised. 4 [Laughter] 5 MR. ORR: 6 In fact, for you history buffs I want to tell you one more thing that 7 nobody in the world knows but maybe 12 people. We had a similar 8 crisis in terms of leadership. Back in 1933 Anton Cermak was our 9 mayor and he was traveling with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There 10 was an assassination attempt. They’re still debating on who was 11 the attempt at, but Cermak was killed. There was no succession 12 policy in the Chicago city council when it came to replacing the 13 mayor and so they found someone who served the second shortest 14 term in Chicago history. His name was Corr, C-o-r-r, so waiting for 15 the next likely sounding name. 16 Okay just one political story, okay? My staff told me not to 17 tell it but I’m old, I’ll tell it anyway. Now this is a true story. Back in 18 the council wars in the 1980s, you know, there was a gentleman 19 named Fred Brody. He was a very powerful Alderman. He was a 20 1st Ward Alderman. He was a 1st Ward Alderman which is 21 important because if you’re part of the machine, which 45 out of 50 22 Alderman would be, you didn’t have to pay attention. If Fred voted 23 yes, you voted yes. If Fred voted no, you voted no. Fred was also 4 mobbed up. I can say that now because he passed away. And he later in his career went to jail for his mob activities. But that particular morning the city council -- I had been talking to Fred before the meeting and I was kind of shocked because we weren’t the closest of buddies, but he did say to me that his wife, his wife’s maiden name was the same as mine, Orr. Well I was speaking on the floor and when you speak on the floor, the old guard over there, Fred and bunch of folks like to make a lot of noise to try and encourage the press not to pay attention to you. But as you know as elected officials you get used to that stuff, it doesn’t bother you. But that particular day since I talked to Fred before the meeting I stopped in the middle of what I was saying and I said, “As you can see,” and I pointed to the crowd over there, “that even though Fred’s wife is married to an Orr it hasn’t done me any good” sat down and immediately 25 press walked -- or ran from where they sit, shoved a bunch of microphones in my face and said, “Did you just call Fred’s wife a whore?” [Laughter] MR. ORR: All day long the notes kept coming up, “Hey Orr, the cement truck is out in front for you.” Anyway, fortunately I lived through that one and Fred is now gone so I can tell the story. 5 Just two quick other historical points, very historical, Lance is going to give you a little stuff about more current stuff, but a couple things that are fascinating. Like I say, Chicago is a place of contrast, amazing achievements and some other things we’re not so proud of. But one of those, and you may know the story, and if you have time when you do come back to, you know, travel the river, take the historical architectural tour it’s wonderful. The particular story, you probably know it, but the reversing of the Chicago river, very, very important. Back around the turn of the century the Chicago River, all the way coming from various angles from the Mississippi, flowed into the lake. That meant all that horrible filth moved into the lake and at that time around the country, particularly trying to deal with the very dangers of the pollution affecting the water and so forth, so they came with this amazing engineering feat. They reversed the flow of the water. Now to do that, if you’ve traveled over there, they built the locks so now you go up for the lake, and now so the lake water flows down. The good news is it saved us all from all the various diseases. The bad news is we just dumped all of our filth on the rest of Illinois, which is probably why downstate is still not too happy with us. That particular achievement in 1999 was given the Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium. It was an amazing feat and if you have a chance and you haven’t, go over there, ride one of those 6 boats and they’ll tell the story. The second thing which is fascinating to me, kind of an entrepreneurship, some of you have read that very interesting book “Devil in the White City” and if you haven’t you’d really get a kick out of it because it’s about the famous World’s Fair of 1893 and also some interesting murders going along at the same time. But the Ferris wheel that they built, named of course Ferris, we all know him now, this particular Ferris wheel was enormous, okay? The gondolas didn’t hold one or two people, they held 40 people each. Now think of that weight, think of that. What’s fascinating to me about it is they weren’t even sure that it was going to work a week- and-a-half before the fair started. Can you imagine that today? I mean you have to have approval from thousands and thousands of inspectors, you know, four, five, six, ten years ahead of time. So it was a fascinating feat, it did work, but it just shows the different kind of culture entrepreneurship lack of what you might call regulations at that time, fascinating thing. So I’m delighted that you’re all here enjoying our town. I used to be on the Board of Advisors. I know the good work the EAC does and I certainly congratulate the work that Tom and Christy and Bat are doing. [Laughter] MR. ORR: 7 I can’t help it, I talk about Bat Masterson. It gives me a big thrill. So I know it’s important work you’re doing.