1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS + + + + + MEETING + + + + + Friday, October 13, 2006 + + + + + The meeting was held in Room 540 of 624 Ninth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., at 9:00 a.m., Gerald A. Reynolds, Chairman, presiding. PRESENT: GERALD A. REYNOLDS, CHAIRMAN ASHLEY L. TAYLOR, COMMISSIONER ARLAN D. MELENDEZ, COMMISSIONER MICHAEL YAKI, COMMISSIONER PETER N. KIRSANOW, COMMISSIONER JENNIFER C. BRACERAS, COMMISSIONER STAFF PRESENT: KENNETH L. MARCUS, STAFF DIRECTOR DAVID BLACKWOOD, ESQ., GENERAL COUNSEL MANUEL ALBA, PUBLIC AFFAIRS UNIT TYRO BEATTY, HUMAN RESOURCES DIVISION NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 2 STAFF PRESENT (Continued): MARGARET BUTLER, OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS EVALUATION CHRISTOPHER BYRNES, ESQ., OFFICE OF STAFF DIRECTOR PAMELA DUNSTON, ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AND CLEARINGHOUSE DIVISION DEREK HORNE, ESQ., OFFICE OF STAFF DIRECTOR SOCK-FOON MACDOUGALL, OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS EVALUATION TINALOUISE MARTIN, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT BERNARD QUARTERMAN, ESQ., OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL MICHELE YORKMAN RAMEY, IT SPECIALIST RICHARD SCHMECHEL, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO COMMISSIONER MELENDEZ KIMBERLY SCHULDZ, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO COMMISSIONER BRACERAS NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 3 C O N T E N T S PAGE I. Approval of Agenda .......................... 4 II. Approval of Minutes of August 18 Meeting .... 5 III. Staff Director's Report ..................... 6 IV. Program Planning ...........................12 V. State Advisory Committee Issues ............ 44 VI. Briefing on Voter Fraud and Voter Intimidation ..............................108 Dr. Robert A. Pastor ................ 114 Mark F. Hearne, III, Esq. ........... 121 Donna Brazile .......................130 John Fund ...........................138 Adjourn NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (9:10 a.m.) 3 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Okay. This meeting will 4 come to order. 5 This is a meeting of the U.S. Commission on 6 Civil Rights at 624 Ninth Street, N.W., Room 540, 7 Washington, D.C. 8 COMMISSIONER YAKI: Zip code? 9 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: No zip code. 10 With the exception of the Vice Chair, Abigail 11 Thernstrom, all Commissioners are present. 12 I. Approval of Agenda 13 The first item on the agenda is the approval of 14 the agenda. I would like to move to amend the agenda 15 under Program Planning. I'd like to delete "Research 16 on Academic Mismatch." That's not ready, and the same 17 would be true for "Procedures for National Office Work 18 Products." That's not ready. 19 So with that amendment is there a second? 20 COMMISSIONER BRACERAS: Second. 21 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Discussion? 22 (No response.) 23 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: All in favor say aye. 24 (Chorus of ayes.) 25 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Any abstentions? Dissents? NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 5 1 (No response.) 2 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: The motion carries. 3 II. Approval of Minutes of August 18 Meeting 4 Okay. The second item on the agenda is the 5 approval of the minutes of the August 18, 2006 6 meeting. May I have a motion approving the minutes? 7 COMMISSIONER KIRSANOW: So moved. 8 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: A second? 9 COMMISSIONER MELENDEZ: Second. 10 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Discussion? 11 (No response.) 12 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: All in favor say aye. 13 (Chorus of ayes.) 14 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Any objections? 15 Abstentions? 16 COMMISSIONER YAKI: Question. 17 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER YAKI: The August 18th meeting, was 19 that the meeting where all of the votes were voided, a 20 lot of them? 21 MR. MARCUS: That was one of the meetings, yes. 22 COMMISSIONER YAKI: Okay, and are the minutes 23 being recalibrated to reflect that? 24 MR. MARCUS: The minutes do reflect that on page 25 4. NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 6 1 COMMISSIONER YAKI: Okay. 2 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Okay. Should we vote? 3 Okay. 4 III. Staff Director's Report 5 Okay. Mr. Staff Director, do you have anything 6 to report? 7 MR. MARCUS: Certainly, Mr. Chairman. I think 8 there are a few things that I'd like to report on. 9 First, as the Commissioners know, over the last 10 year and a half we've put in place a number of new 11 procedures and new controls, in order to address the 12 significant management and operations problems that 13 had been recognized in numerous audits. Including GAO 14 and OPM audits, and which we've been talking about 15 over the past years. 16 Our hope is not only to remedy the defects that 17 we've had in the agency, but ultimately to serve as a 18 model of excellence in government administration. And 19 to provide best practices that can be emulated 20 throughout the government. 21 I don't think that we have reached that yet, 22 with respect to all of our management and operations 23 issues, and we have still quite a number of challenges 24 to deal with, but we do have staff members who are 25 working diligently to try not only to correct past NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 7 1 deficiencies, but to provide best practices. 2 I'm very pleased that our human resources 3 activities have been recognized through best practices 4 within the last month. In particular, our new 5 Director of Human Resources has put in place a 6 recruitment system to implement the OPM career 7 patterns, which has been recognized by OPM. They have 8 asked our HR Director to be one of three HR leaders to 9 provide best practices in a significant 10 intergovernmental meeting last month. They've also 11 asked to give other sorts of input from the Commission 12 based on our early experience getting very good 13 results from our application of the career patterns. 14 I think that we are indebted to our new Director 15 of HR, Tyro Beatty, who has come on board and helped 16 us to provide not just a remedy for weaknesses, but 17 for some early best practices that have already been 18 recognized. 19 CHAIRMAN REYNOLDS: Okay, and would you also 20 talk about the activity, the meeting that was held in 21 Connecticut by the Connecticut SAC? 22 MR. MARCUS: I'd be pleased to, Mr. Chairman. 23 I did have the opportunity to travel to Hartford 24 last month to attend the meeting of the Connecticut 25 State Advisory Committee. This is the first meeting NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 8 1 of the newly chartered Connecticut State Advisory 2 Committee, and I think it is one of the most exciting 3 events that we've had in our State Advisory Committee 4 system, in quite some time. 5 The Connecticut SAC had been dormant for a 6 significant period. I spoke with long time members 7 who had never attended a Connecticut SAC event, simply 8 because, there had not been meetings in the past for 9 resource problems and other issues. 10 The Connecticut SAC, as you know, was very 11 recently re-chartered by this Commission. It was re- 12 chartered only last month, and I am pleased that the 13 event signaled that we have within the State of 14 Connecticut a newly vigorous presence. The meeting 15 was conducted in the State House in Hartford. It 16 featured participation by the Mayor of Hartford, a 17 senior representative of the Office of the Governor, 18 well known government officials at a municipal level, 19 and a wide variety of speakers representing different 20 perspectives, different political perspectives, 21 perspectives from different stakeholders, different 22 takes on the issue. 23 The issue was school choice, as a civil rights 24 issue. There were members of the panel who were not 25 familiar with the issue, and I think they learned a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 9 1 great deal. There were also members of the panel who 2 were rather expert on the topic, and even they learned 3 a great deal. 4 The panel itself, I think, worked together in an 5 exemplary fashion. It is a new group composed of both 6 returning members and also new members. It is, I 7 would say, an unusually distinguished group of with a 8 wide variety of individuals. 9 I was really pleased to meet some of these 10 people, who I think are among the leading citizens of 11 the state of Connecticut. They included the Pastor of 12 the First Cathedral Baptist Church in Bloomfield, 13 which is one of the largest churches in New England, 14 and certainly one of the largest predominantly 15 minority churches. 16 One of the leading civil rights litigators in 17 the state of Connecticut, the President of the 18 Connecticut Institute of the Blind, the Shelby Cullen 19 Davis Professor of American Business and Economic 20 Enterprise, a Chairman of the East End Community 21 Council and a Veteran of the Bridgeport Police 22 Department, a Legislative Analyst for the Connecticut 23 Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, the 24 Director of the Asian American Cultural Center at the 25 University of Connecticut at Stores, the Indian NEAL R.