1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 2011 Illinois State Senate Redistricting Committee Public Heari
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1 2 3 4 2011 ILLINOIS STATE SENATE REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE 5 PUBLIC HEARING 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 March 28, 2011 Michael A. Bilandic Building 17 160 North LaSalle Street Room C-600 18 Chicago, Illinois 19 20 21 22 23 Sullivan Reporting Company, by Tracy L. Overocker, CSR 24 License No. 084-004439 1 1 PRESENT: 2 SENATOR KWAME RAOUL, Chairperson 3 SENATOR MICHAEL NOLAND, Vice Chairperson 4 SENATOR JACQUELINE Y. COLLINS, Member 5 SENATOR DON HARMON, Member 6 SENATOR MATTIE HUNTER, Member 7 SENATOR EMIL JONES, III, Member 8 SENATOR KIMBERLY A. LIGHTFORD, Member 9 SENATOR EDWARD D. MALONEY, Member 10 SENATOR IRIS Y. MARTINEZ, Member 11 SENATOR DALE A. RIGHTER, Minority Spokesperson 12 SENATOR SHANE CULTRA, Member 13 SENATOR KIRK W. DILLARD, Member 14 SENATOR DAN DUFFY, Member 15 SENATOR MATT MURPHY, Member 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 2 1 I N D E X 2 NAME PAGE 3 Theresa Mah 19 4 David Wu 27 5 Bernarda Wong 31 6 Ami Gandhi 37 7 Josina Morita 57 8 Rob Aspholm 60 9 Michael Rodriguez 62 10 Betty Magness 73 11 Sharod Gordon 75 12 Vaughn Wilson 80 13 Kyle Hillman 81 14 Virginia Martinez 87 15 Melissa Williams 90 16 Valerie Leonard 95 17 Erku Yimer 100 18 Harendra Mangrola 112 19 Kiran Sidddiqui 114 20 Sharda Thapa 120 21 Rabya Khan 123 22 Robert Garcia 130 23 Xavier Roman 133 24 3 1 I N D E X (Cont'd) 2 3 NAME: PAGE 4 Joseph Watkins 137 5 Paul McKinley 141 6 Asiaha Butler 148 7 Rosa Perea 168 8 Jim Ginderski 170 9 Jeff Smith 179 10 Martin Torres 193 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4 1 CHAIRPERSON RAOUL: The Senate Committee on 2 Redistricting will be called to order. Please take 3 the roll. 4 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Duffy? 5 SENATOR DUFFY: Here. 6 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Luechtefeld? 7 (No response.) 8 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Murphy? 9 SENATOR, MURPHY: Here. 10 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Dillard? 11 SENATOR DILLARD: Here. 12 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Cultra? 13 SENATOR CULTRA: Present. 14 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Righter? 15 MINORITY SPOKESPERSON RIGHTER: Here. 16 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Martinez? 17 SENATOR MARTINEZ: Here. 18 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Maloney? 19 SENATOR MALONEY: Here. 20 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Lightford? 21 (No response.) 22 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Jones? 23 SENATOR JONES: Here. 24 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Hunter? 5 1 SENATOR HUNTER: Here. 2 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Harmon? 3 SENATOR HARMON: Here. 4 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Haine? 5 (No response.) 6 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Collins? 7 SENATOR COLLINS: Here. 8 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Senator Noland? 9 VICE CHAIRPERSON NOLAND: Here. 10 MR. NOE CHAIMONGKOL: Chairman Raoul? 11 CHAIRPERSON RAOUL: Here. 12 There being 17 members present -- it 13 is necessary for a quorum -- the Redistricting 14 Committee will now come to order. 15 I will first read through the witness 16 slips that I've been handed -- a nice healthy stack 17 of them -- excuse me -- ahead of time. If I 18 mispronounce any names -- being on the receiving end 19 of that for many years of my life, I can understand 20 sensitivities to that. 21 We have Theresa Mah, Coalition for a 22 Better Chinese-American Community, oral testimony, 23 written statement filed. 24 David Wu, Pui Tak Center, Coalition 6 1 for a Better Chinese-American Community, with oral 2 testimony, written statement filed. 3 Bernarda Wong, Chinese-American 4 Services League, oral testimony, written statement 5 filed. 6 Ami Gandhi, Asian-American Institute, 7 oral testimony, written statement filed. 8 Lawrence Hill, African-Americans for 9 Legislative Redistricting, oral testimony, written 10 statement filed. 11 Terry Smith, African-Americans for 12 Legal Redistricting -- Legislative Redistricting, 13 oral testimony, written statement filed. 14 Josina Morita, United Congress of 15 Community and Religious Organizations. 16 Michael Rodriguez, Enlace Chicago -- 17 MR. MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ: Very good. Very good. 18 CHAIRPERSON RAOUL: -- oral testimony. 19 Sharod Gordon, TARGET Area 20 Development, oral testimony. 21 Vaughn Wilson, Kenwood-Oakland 22 Community Organization. 23 Virginia Martinez, MALDEF, oral 24 testimony. 7 1 Erku Yimer, Ethiopian Community 2 Association of Chicago. 3 Richard Martinez, Jr., New 10th Ward 4 Community Service Organization, oral testimony, 5 written statement filed. 6 Generation to Generation Church, oral 7 testimony. Generation to Generation Church, two 8 individuals who signed their names, I can't make them 9 out. 10 Kyle Hillman, oral testimony. 11 James Harland, The Answer, Inc., oral 12 testimony. 13 John Baggett, The Answer, Inc., oral 14 testimony. 15 Rabya Khan, Asian-American Institute, 16 oral testimony, written statement filed. 17 Sharda Thapa, Asian-American 18 Institute. 19 Melissa Williams, NAACP, oral 20 testimony, written statement filed. 21 Rob Aspholm, MAGIC, Inc., oral 22 testimony. 23 Martin Torres, Latino Policy Forum, 24 oral testimony, written statement filed. 8 1 Betty Magness, IVI-IPO. 2 Idida Perez, West Town Leadership 3 United, oral testimony, written statement filed. 4 Kiran Siddiqui, Hamdard Center, oral 5 testimony, written statement filed. 6 Harendra Mangrola, Sumit Construction 7 Company, oral testimony, written statement filed. 8 George Lieu, written statement filed. 9 Jim Ginderski, Neighbors for a 10 Healthy, Rogers Park, oral testimony, written 11 statement filed. 12 Rosa Perea, Centro Communitario -- 13 Juan Diego. I apologize if I mispronounced. 14 Ron Taylor, Neighbors United, oral 15 testimony. 16 Paul McKinley, oral testimony. 17 Jeff Smith, oral testimony. 18 Joseph Watkins, oral testimony. 19 Robert Garcia, oral testimony. 20 And Valerie Leonard. 21 Senator Martinez, for what purpose? 22 SENATOR MARTINEZ: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 23 I would like to ask for a motion to 24 allow any media to take still photos and videos of 9 1 these proceedings. 2 SENATOR HUNTER: I second the motion. 3 CHAIRPERSON RAOUL: Senator Martinez moves to 4 allow members of the media, seconded by Senator 5 Hunter. 6 Is there leave? 7 Leave being granted, the media will be 8 allowed to videotape. 9 Senator Harmon, for what purpose do 10 you -- 11 SENATOR HARMON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 12 I move that this hearing be 13 transcribed by the Court Reporter so that the 14 Committee can have a full transcript of this hearing 15 which the Committee can approve at a future hearing 16 once members and the staff have had time to review 17 the transcript and make any needed corrections. 18 SENATOR COLLINS: I second the motion. 19 CHAIRPERSON RAOUL: Senator Harmon moves to 20 allow a court reporter to transcribe the hearing. It 21 is seconded by Senator Collins. 22 Is there leave. 23 Leave being granted, the court 24 reporter will be allowed to transcribe the hearing. 10 1 Senator Noland, do you seek to be 2 recognized? 3 VICE CHAIRPERSON NOLAND: Yes. Thank you, 4 Mr. Chairman. 5 I would make a motion that the members 6 of the public also be allowed to take still 7 photographs, as if we could dissuade them otherwise. 8 (Laughter.) 9 CHAIRPERSON RAOUL: Senator Noland moves to 10 allow the public in attendance to take still photos, 11 seconded by Senator Maloney. 12 Is there leave? 13 Leave being granted, you guys can take 14 pictures. 15 (Laughter.) 16 I will start with an opening statement 17 and then the Minority Spokesperson wants to make an 18 opening statement -- I'll allow that -- and we'll go 19 right into testimony. 20 First, I'd like to remind everybody 21 that the Senate Redistricting Committee is a standing 22 committee in the Illinois Senate; therefore, 23 Committee members of this Committee conduct 24 themselves in accordance with the rules of the 11 1 Illinois Senate and I request that your decorum 2 during these proceedings be above par. 3 As you all know by now, the United 4 States Census Bureau recently released detailed 2010 5 Census population totals in Illinois. In accordance 6 with the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Voting Rights 7 Act, Article 4, Section 3, of the Illinois 8 Constitution, and the Illinois Voting Rights Act, the 9 General Assembly must redraw the boundaries of the 10 Illinois congressional, legislative and 11 representative districts in order to account for 12 population shifts since the year 2000 Census. 13 This hearing is designed to seek 14 information from the public in order to facilitate 15 the redistricting process and ensure full 16 participation. 17 Recently, Governor Quinn signed two 18 changes in the redistricting process into law that 19 will make this mapping process different from any 20 other process in Illinois history. 21 While there are those who undervalue 22 these reforms, I would like to remind them that it 23 was through the work of this Committee and hearings 24 all around the state that we were able to bring the 12 1 first changes to the Illinois redistricting process 2 since the 1970 Constitutional Convention and the 3 first Voting Rights Act and thereby bringing the 4 first Voting Rights Act into Illinois history. 5 Despite the challenges State 6 Government faces today, this shining achievement 7 continues to be a proud and progressive path for 8 inclusion for all Illinoisans in the political 9 process. 10 As Chairman of the Senate 11 Redistricting Committee and sponsor of our new 12 redistricting law, it is my hope that this process 13 reflects the spirit of our recent reforms. 14 This Committee took input from the 15 public all around the state over the last year and a 16 half on reforming the redistricting process.