New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic
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NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND REAPPORTIONMENT PUBLIC HEARING CONGRESSIONAL AND STATE LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING Bronx Community College Gould Memorial Library Auditorium 2155 University Ave Bronx, New York Thursday, September 8, 2011 10:00 a.m. to 2:23 p.m. Page 2 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 TASK FORCE MEMBERS: SENATOR MICHAEL F. NOZZOLIO, Co-Chair ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOHN J. MCENENY, Co-Chair SENATOR MARTIN M. DILAN ASSEMBLY MEMBER ROBERT OAKS DEBRA LEVINE ROMAN HEDGES WELQUIS LOPEZ LEWIS HOPPE Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 3 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 INDEX Page GUSTAVO RIVERA 12 SENATOR NELSON CASTRO 19 CITIZEN ALONZO DE CASTRO 23 PRESIDENT EAST OF LACONIA COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION CO-PRESIDENT NORTHEAST BRONX COMMUNITY COALITION NESTOR MONTILLA 28 CITIZEN HAILE RIVERA 36 FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HAND ON NY LINKED WITH DOMINICANOS UNIDOS DE NEW YORK RUTH HASSELL-THOMPSON 37 SENATOR BARBARA STRONCZER 38 PRESIDENT BEDFORD MOSHOLU COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MARIA TERESA FELICIANO 41 PRESIDENT DOMINICAN AMERICAN NATIONAL ROUNDTABLE GREGORY LOBO JOST 49 DEPUTY DIRECTOR UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING PROGRAM CECILIA BAEZ 53 CITIZEN WILSON TERRERO 56 CITIZEN PAOLA MARTINEZ 58 CITIZEN Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 4 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 IDELSA MENDEZ 60 CITIZEN RAFAELA ZAPATA 62 CITIZEN EDUARDO HOPELMAN 64 CITIZEN BILL MIZELL 66 REVEREND BRONX/WESTCHESTER CLERGY LUIS FACUNDO 72 CITIZEN BRIAN PAUL 74 RESEARCH AND POLICY COORDINATOR COMMON CAUSE NY HONORABLE CYNTHIA COX 84 DISTRICT LEADER 79TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT CARMEN ACOSTA 87 ASSOCIATION MUJERES PROGRESISTAS ALDRIN BONILLA 93 EX-CUNY IN THE HEIGHTS RAFAEL BEAUMONT 96 161ST STREET MARCIA GARCIA 99 CLUB DE LEONES JOSE ZABALA 100 ZABALAALDIA.COM-181ST STREET STEVE SANTANA 102 CITIZEN LEONIDA GARCIA 103 CITIZEN LUIS ESPINAL 106 CITIZEN Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 5 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 ALANDIS SANCHEZ 109 CITIZEN DAVID WILLIAMS 114 CITIZEN ABRAHAM JONES 116 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CLAREMONT NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER, INC. MARIA LUNA 120 DISTRICT LEADER AD 71 HAZEL N. DUKES 125 PRESIDENT NAACP NYS CONFERENCE WALTER J. EDWARDS 133 CHAIRMAN HARLEM BUSINESS ALLIANCE WILLIAM STANFORD 140 CITIZEN CARLOS SIERRA 145 CITIZEN ELIZABETH THOMPSON 148 KHNIA LARRY SEABROOK 150 COUNCILMAN FRANCIS CHAPMAN 155 PRESIDENT KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD IMP GREGORIA FELICIANO 156 COMMUNITY BOARD OF BRONX LORETTA RUDDOCK-SMITH 159 RESIDENT OF BRONX TED MARTIN 161 CHIEF OF STAFF ASSEMBLY MEMBER ERIC STEVENSON Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 6 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 BEVERLY SMITH 165 RESIDENT OF WEST BRONX BERNEL-ARTHUR RICHARDSON 168 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR BLACK UNITED LEADERSHIP OF THE BRONX KENNY AGOSTO 172 DEMOCRATIC DISTRICT LEADER 80TH AD BRONX RAMON MURPHY 180 CITIZEN LUIS DUCASSSE 183 BUSINESS OWNER 143RD STREET, NY NAOMI RIVERA 185 ASSEMBLY MEMBER MANUEL LANTIGUA 191 COMMUNITY LIASON DOMINICAN OFFICERS EVELYN RIVERA 193 CITIZEN Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 7 1 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 2 (The public hearing commenced at 10:00 3 a.m.) 4 ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOHN J. MCENENY, CO- 5 CHAIR, NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON 6 DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND REAPPORTIONMENT: Good 7 morning, and welcome to the Bronx Community 8 College in the Bronx community, who is hosting 9 this public hearing of the New York State 10 Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research 11 and Reapportionment. 12 The purpose of our meeting today is 13 obviously to listen to the community as to their 14 thoughts of the current districts which are 15 already drawn and now obsolete, and how they 16 would like to see the new districts for the New 17 York State Assembly, the New York State Senate, 18 and the House of Representatives in Washington. 19 What do they feel would be most representative 20 and serve well the people of their community? 21 We have well over 60 people signed up-- 22 once again. We had a very good hearing with 40 23 people testified over in Queens yesterday. We 24 will be back to do the other three boroughs two Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 8 1 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 2 weeks from now. What you're witnessing is a part 3 of the first phase of information gathering, 4 which is--at this point, 12 public hearings 5 across the state from Buffalo down to Long 6 Island, and people talking conceptually the 7 changes that they would like to see that they 8 feel would be most in compliance with the law-- 9 the spirit of the law, the state constitution, 10 and all of the other restraints that we have to 11 make sure that we deliver good government to our 12 people. 13 We would ask that as you come forward to 14 testify, we remind you that this is televised. 15 It goes on the website. People who obviously 16 can't make it here during the day, people who 17 want to watch it in detail can watch this on the 18 LATFOR website. LATFOR is the abbreviation for 19 the Task Force. 20 Now, we are joined today--and I'll let 21 my fellow members speak in a moment. I am Jack 22 McEneny. I am the co-chair from the--from the 23 New York State Assembly. To my right, Roman 24 Hedges is the Citizen Participant--also from the Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 9 1 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 2 Assembly. And not with us today, the first 3 meeting that he's missed, is normally a colleague 4 from the New York State Assembly, Robert Oaks 5 from Wayne County. The group is bipartisan. It 6 comes out 50/50 Democrat and Republican, 50/50 7 Senate and Assembly. And I will turn it over to 8 my co-chairman, Senator Mike Nozzolio who will 9 introduce his members representing the Senate, 10 and make whatever remarks he feels are 11 appropriate. 12 SENATOR MICHAEL F. NOZZOLIO, CO-CHAIR, 13 NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON 14 DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND REAPPORTIONMENT: Thank 15 you very much, Assemblyman. Good morning ladies 16 and gentleman. I'm Mike Nozzolio. I probably 17 represent the 54th Senatorial district and 18 prouder to be a member of this Task Force and co- 19 chair with Assemblyman McEneny. 20 That on my immediate left is a colleague 21 representing on the Task Force, Senator Martin 22 Dilan. An individual who is not here yet, as a 23 citizen member, is Welquis "Ray" Lopez. And that 24 also here is the Executive Director of the Task Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 10 1 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 2 Force, Debra Levine. 3 The Task Force, as Assemblyman McEneny 4 said, its mission, it's fiduciary and ethical 5 obligation is to go into the state and every 6 corner of the state and hear what people have to 7 say about redistricting. And specifically about 8 what types of community of interests they wish to 9 see reflected in redistricting for the Congress, 10 the State Senate, and the State Assembly. 11 That this is our eighth hearing, Jack, 12 and that there will be another four hearings 13 after this, and that we will have another dozen 14 hearings after all that, to continue to take 15 testimony. And our goal has been to make this 16 the most open and transparent process possible. 17 Emphasizing again--we are being 18 recorded. That your testimony in its entirety 19 will be recorded and placed on our LATFOR website 20 for anyone to view. We ask you who have--those 21 of you who have written testimony, to submit that 22 written to us for the record. And that entirety 23 of written testimony will be submitted and be the 24 volume of background that we are collecting. And Ubiqus/Nation-Wide Reporting & Convention Coverage 22 Cortlandt Street – Suite 802, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 212-227-7440 * 800-221-7242 * Fax: 212-227-7524 Page 11 1 Committee on Redistricting, 9-8-2011 2 feel free to summarize that testimony and 3 emphasize the key points that you wish to--the 4 Task Force to focus on. 5 Without further ado, I know Senator 6 Martin Dilan, who has been at every hearing, and 7 worked very hard, also would like to say a few 8 words. 9 SENATOR MARTIN M. DILAN, NEW YORK STATE 10 LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 11 AND REAPPORTIONMENT: I would just like to say 12 good morning to everyone. And I really look 13 forward to listening to your views regarding what 14 you feel your State Assembly and State Senate-- 15 and especially your Congressional district should 16 look like in the--in the future.