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Today Crystal is joined by Amy Sundberg, author of Notes from the Emerald City & Co-Chair of the Seattle Committee of People Power Washington - Police Accountability and Shannon Cheng, Chair of People Power WA - Police Accountability. Crystal, Amy and Shannon break down the latest on the Seattle City budget process, the mess that is Washington State redistricting, and talk about a wonderful opportunity to get involved with the Institute for a Democratic Future. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-hosts, Amy Sundberg at @amysundberg and Shannon Cheng at @drbestturtle. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   References: “Seattle's Divide on Public Safety is Fueling a Fight Over Next Year's Police Budget” by Ben Adlin from The South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2021/11/15/seattles-divide-on-public-safety-is-fueling-a-fight-over-next-years-police-budget/ “In Reversal, Council Keeps Durkan's Expanded Police Budget Mostly Intact” by Paul Faruq Kiefer from The South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2021/11/19/in-reversal-council-keeps-durkans-expanded-police-budget-mostly-intact/ “Seattle's LEAD program wins accolades, but not everyone is a believer” by Amy Radil from KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-s-lead-program-wins-accolades-but-some-officials-want-more-options “The Community Responder Model: How Cities Can Sent the Right Responder to Every 911 Call” by Amos Irwin and Betsy Pearl from the Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/community-responder-model/ “Council Declines to Fund Two Big-Ticket Asks from Homeless Authority” by Erica C. Barnett from Publicola: https://publicola.com/2021/11/17/council-declines-to-fund-two-big-ticket-asks-from-homelessness-authority/ “In a first, court will decide new WA redistricting plan as commission falters” by Melissa Santos from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/politics/2021/11/first-court-will-decide-new-wa-redistricting-plan-commission-falters Learn more about how you can get involved with Institute for a Democratic Future here: https://democraticfuture.org/ Find the contact for your Seattle City Councilor here: https://www.seattle.gov/council/meet-the-council   Transcript: [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program today's two co-hosts - Chair of People Power Washington-Police Accountability and indispensable member of the Hacks & Wonks and Fincher Consulting teams, Dr. Shannon Cheng. And, Amy Sundberg, author of Notes from the Emerald City and Co-Chair of the Seattle Committee of People Power Washington-Police Accountability - an excellent live-tweeter of municipal meetings in Seattle, indispensable informer of all of us, and the person who's happy to take your baked goods for compensation. Welcome to both of you, Amy and Shannon. [00:01:21] Shannon Cheng: Thanks Crystal. [00:01:23] Amy Sundberg: Good to be here. [00:01:24] Crystal Fincher: So I am happy to have you both on here to start talking about the Seattle budget process, the actions that the Council just took - particularly because you both have been instrumental in keeping people up-to-date on where we're at in this process. And this was an eventful week. So what has been happening? [00:01:48] Amy Sundberg: Well, a lot of very long meetings have been happening, especially yesterday's marathon all-day meeting. I signed off at 6:30p and it was still going. So the Councilmembers have been talking about proposed amendments to the Budget Chair's Balancing Package this week. [00:02:12] Crystal Fincher: Okay. In that process, what was under consideration and what ended up getting passed? [00:02:19] Amy Sundberg: I mean, there was a fair amount under consideration. In terms of public safety, there were several proposed amendments that would - basically the Chair's Balancing Package decided to invest a bit less in the police department than what they had asked for in the mayor's proposed budget. And- [00:02:51] Crystal Fincher: So pausing for a second. What is a Balancing Package? [00:02:54] Amy Sundberg: The Balancing Package is basically Budget Chair Mosqueda - she gets feedback from community, she gets feedback from Central Staff about various issues having to do with the mayor's proposed budget, she speaks with her colleagues. They already went through a round of amendment proposing, and then she looks at where she thinks the strong consensus is going to be for the Council in terms of what they all agree on - what should be funded and what should not be funded in the year's budget. And then she puts together a package that funds these priorities and balances to where they think revenues will be for the year. [00:03:46] Crystal Fincher: Okay. So where are the points of likely agreement? What did they end up saying, "Yeah, we're all on the same page."? [00:03:55] Amy Sundberg: I mean, the Balancing Package - and one of the great things I think that was in that package was a huge investment in affordable housing, much more than we've ever seen. So that was very exciting. I would say that's probably the most notable thing that was happening in the budget. But in general they were funding a lot of services for people - so a lot of food assistance. And there were also a lot of district-specific investments - fairly small investments for various projects within a particular district. And obviously that varied a lot, but there were a bunch of those - different parks, different sidewalk projects, different community centers, all of that sort of thing. There was some consensus around public safety, but a lot of the requests for funding for alternatives, like alternative emergency response, for example, or for LEAD to be scaled up, or for mental - [00:05:16] Crystal Fincher: And LEAD is Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, which is an alternative to incarceration or further involvement in the criminal legal system and trying to give people pathways and alternatives out of the system. [00:05:31] Amy Sundberg: Exactly. Just Care, which helps house people in hotels if they don't have a home or a place to stay. Behavioral health response - all of these things were proposed in amendments and most of them were not fully funded in the Balancing Package. So there was - [00:05:57] Crystal Fincher: And these proposals were making good on commitments that Councilmembers had made to fund alternatives to basically police patrolling the streets, and alternate responses that may be more appropriate to the challenges that people calling 911 are actually calling about. So if someone is having a behavioral health crisis, if someone is unhoused, many Councilmembers have said, "Yeah, actually probably an armed patrol response is not the appropriate response for that." Or certainly isn't able to address some of the root causes to address the issue that's being called about. So having someone with a different set of expertise that may not be armed, that doesn't introduce or escalate a situation in an unhelpful way may be more appropriate in addressing the root cause of the issue and actually solving the problem that's being called about. And the Council collectively had previously signaled and made commitments to move in that direction. Is that a fair synopsis? [00:07:11] Amy Sundberg: Yeah. I would say that's correct and I would even go further and say it's not even particularly controversial. In general, people would like there to be alternate responses. In general, people would like people who are qualified to answer some of these needs and some of these calls - they don't all need to be armed policemen. [00:07:35] Crystal Fincher: And so, these community responses were a number of the ones that you just talked about, but the Council seemed like it changed direction and didn't follow through on there. How did that come about? What were the votes that changed what happened? [00:07:53] Amy Sundberg: I mean, it wasn't voted upon. I mean, that's what happened. The first round of amendments are not voted upon - and basically Chair Mosqueda has to go back and she has to look at all the different proposals, all which cost money. And then, she has to look at how much money is available and she has to make some hard choices about where to spend that money. And she did not find the money to fully fund some of these programs. One of the ones I was personally most disappointed to see not funded was - Andrew Lewis had proposed money for standing up a CAHOOTS-style community-based alternate emergency response for 911 calls. And you know - a couple million dollars. It wasn't, in the scheme of the budget for Seattle which is very large, it was not much money. And $400,000 of that did get allocated to start working on dispatch protocols so that 911 dispatchers can start to figure out how to route calls in alternate ways, which is great. I mean, that is an important step, but the rest of the money was not given to that project to start to actually stand it up. [00:09:14] Shannon Cheng: Yeah. I think it's just been really frustrating that it is kind of generally agreed upon that we want a faster ramp up of alternative responses to armed police, but obviously the money does have to come from somewhere. And this whole budget process has been about SPD digging their heels in - whenever any even tiny amount of money or arguing about semantics about funded versus unfunded positions. And all the energy is being spent on that instead of actually building actual solutions that are going to help all of us. [00:09:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And I mean, there were certainly articles this week and some clarifications that were trying to be made about the funding of 110 police positions and that being - that right now they are positions that are not filled. And so, it's not like they are removing any police from the streets. That was never the proposal and nothing there, even though that had been strongly implied by several of the usual suspects who report on it. But even things like that seem to be caught up in political spin and moving that away from the roots and the crux of what's being discussed. And what the community voted for. And to say that you support moving in a different direction, making a commitment to do that, and then failing to provide any funding to do that is just plain old not meeting the commitment and going back on your words. So I certainly hope that gets addressed throughout the budget process. What are the options to address this further on in the budget process and how can people advocate for seeing a budget that reflects their values? [00:11:10] Amy Sundberg: Well, the budget process is almost over now. It will be done on Monday. So if you want to speak up, now is the time. You can definitely call and email your Councilmembers now. And there will be a chance for public comments on Monday at 2:00 PM. So I guess signups would be at around noon then - right before all the Councilmembers take their final vote on the budget, which will be at the 2:00 PM meeting on Monday. I will say, also, regarding those positions that you talked about in the police department that aren't filled but are funded - not only are they not filled, they cannot be filled. It is literally impossible for SPD to fill those positions because they have a hiring pipeline. They've figured out how many officers they can hire next year - that amount of officers, there's money for that. And then, these are in addition to any officers that they could possibly hire. They probably can't even hire them in 2023, to be frank. So these are not positions that are going to be filled any time in the near term. The fact that this amendment was not able to be passed, even though it's completely about transparency of budget and fiscal responsibility and has very little to do with staffing, is deeply disappointing. [00:12:47] Shannon Cheng: Yeah. I was really frustrated about that one as well, Amy. I guess I was trying to think about how to relate that to a household budget situation. So I was thinking it'd be like you have two people in a household but you only have one car. And so, you're trying to budget money to buy a second car for the second person to get to work, but conditions are currently difficult - used cars are super expensive, maybe you aren't able to get the car. But then it would be like the first person who has the car telling the other person, "No, you can't use any of this money that's been allocated for a car to take the bus to work and you have to walk." And I guess that's just how I feel about these unfunded positions - that SPD gets to hold the money and we don't get to use it for any of the other things that we desperately want and need. And it's just going to sit there. And then, if Council does ever try to take the money back that SPD isn't even able to spend, it just becomes this big messaging spinning from - we've seen already Chief Diaz and others come out and make it sound like we're trying to take money from them. [00:13:52] Amy Sundberg: But even in the dialogue going on right now, we've been talking about these amendments that are going to restore a $10 million cut in the police department. But I mean, it's only a $10 million cut because they had all of this money to begin with for these unfilled, unfillable positions. So then, it gets to be called a cut but it's not actually - the framing of it becomes very convoluted and it becomes harder to talk about it in a really honest and straightforward way. [00:14:23] Crystal Fincher: I mean, there is a City Councilmember who was just elected, a future member who was elected, who talked about finding waste in Seattle and finding money that isn't being used optimally that we can use for other things in the City, and there has to be somewhere. We found the somewhere. We found where money cannot be spent, where money is allocated that is not serving any purpose. These are residents' funds, this is public money. And so, where there is money that cannot be spent, it's not even possible to spend it, and is only there to serve as a budget line because they just solely want a bigger number for vanity purposes and for messaging purposes - that could be used to help the people of Seattle in different ways more directly and be spent on something, instead of just sitting dormant in an account. We found it. It's SPD budget. It is for positions that not only are not filled, cannot be filled. And for some reason there are not the votes at this moment to use that funding for something more productive. It really is mind-boggling. It's disappointing, and I certainly would hope that people listening and those that you know, that you encourage people to call their Councilmembers to talk about this, to ground this conversation in reality and facts. And that we need dollars that are there to be spent on people, on the residents of Seattle, and not sitting in an account because of some political messaging war. It just doesn't make any kind of sense. We are facing too many challenges that are so big and so pressing that we can't let funding get caught up in this pettiness. And it is pettiness. And I'm just very challenged by that. And hope it changes, but yeah, that's been a frustrating conversation to look at. And another frustrating thing was that the Council declined to fund two requests from the Regional Homelessness Authority and Erica Barnett wrote piece about this in PubliCola. But we have had so many conversations about the priority of addressing homelessness - certainly the mayor-elect, who is coming in, made commitments about doing this. The Council has made commitments about this. Residents of Seattle have talked about this being the most important thing. And what we've heard for years really, and heard continuing conversation about is, well, this really needs to be a regional solution. We really have to take action in conjunction with our regional partners. And we all have a role to play in this. And Seattle certainly is the largest city in the region and would be carrying the lion's share of that responsibility with contributions from others. But there is a responsibility from the City of Seattle in this. And the City declined the requests from the Homelessness Authority. As Erica Barnett mentioned in her article, there was a request for a high acuity shelter to help stabilize unsheltered people experiencing health crises. The King County Regional Homelessness Authority asked for $19.4 million. They will receive $5 million of that, with potentially another $5 million from the county to begin work on a shelter. That's supposed to help that, but certainly looking at a quarter of the funding there. And then a $7.6 million request to fund 69 peer navigators, people who have lived experience being homeless to help unsheltered people navigate through the homeless system, won't receive any funding. This one came with a justification that there are several existing providers that provide similar services that may be able to do that without incurring additional expenses and be able to build on their current expenditures and current processes. So that will be interesting to see how that shakes out. And they're looking at certainly coming up with proposals to see how they might be able to address that, but this is something to keep our eye on and just feels a bit counter to all of the rhetoric and a number of the promises that have been made. And certainly the direction of the solution that a number of electeds in the City and people who were just elected have made. It's a bit confusing to hear rhetoric for years - we need to participate in a regional solution. It's like, "All right, regional solution, got everybody on board. Here we go." And it's like, "Yeah, never mind, maybe not so much." But we will see if the City comes up with a better plan on their own or not. But I think that's something to keep our eye on. And also looking at how legitimate is this Regional Homelessness Authority going to be if the charter it's been given and the solutions that they are looking to implement may be dead or disabled on arrival because of a lack of funding. I mean, really a lot of what we talk about in policy - it's great to talk about these policies, it's great to talk about these alternative public safety programs. And it's great to talk about needing to address all of our unhoused neighbors and getting them into housing. It takes money and that money has to be allocated. And when it's not, we're not going to make progress on solving these problems. So I am curious to see what results from this - and what targets they have, how they plan to meet the commitments that they've made. And if not funding this as part of a regional solution is in their plans, what is the regional solution they've been talking about for years and what are they going to do about it? And I'm interested in hearing that from the mayor's perspective and from the Council perspective. Certainly it's an issue that people want addressed. It's an issue that people who are unhoused need addressed and so we will see how that happens. [00:21:24] Amy Sundberg: It's going to be really interesting to watch the transition and see how much power the City of Seattle is willing to cede to the regional authority, because they're used to kind of doing their own thing, right? And so, I think there might be a little bit of resistance there. I also know, for example, that the Council has been very excited about tiny home villages for some time now. And the new CEO of the Regional Homelessness Authority is not so excited about tiny house villages. So you get these interesting kind of policy discussions and power dynamics that I don't think we know how they're going to play out yet. [00:22:12] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And speaking of things we don't know how they're going to play out yet, we might as well talk about redistricting. Redistricting. So this has been a bit of an eventful, not eventful week in the arena of redistricting. So if you haven't seen, and do not fault anyone for not having seen - this is not a fun thing to be following. But our state has a bipartisan Redistricting Commission that we put in charge of redrawing maps every 10 years in response to the changes in population and demographic compositions that we learn from the Census that is taken every 10 years. In Washington state, we have Democrats appoint two members and Republicans appoint two members. And then there is a different Chair of the organization - that is the Redistricting Commission. They are responsible for collecting public comment and basically balancing the population and composition within districts, which involves adjusting boundaries of different districts to even out population - some districts grow a lot in size, some shrink. And so, from Congressional Districts on down, the boundaries have to be adjusted to balance out - to rebalance - population and representation to make sure everyone is being represented fairly and accurately throughout the state. This process has successfully produced maps every year that it has been in existence, which this current process has been in existence since 1983. Every 10 years they have successfully performed their jobs and produced maps, until the deadline this past Monday, which they missed. And they didn't just miss it, they missed it in such interesting, ridiculous, and we can plug in whatever adjective we want to use their way. [00:24:19] Amy Sundberg: Shady. I would say it was kind of shady. [00:24:23] Crystal Fincher: There was a lot shady about it, and likely straight up potentially illegal about how it happened. Because the deadline was Monday night. Now it is not at all uncommon for a commission to take to nearly the deadline, or any entity to take until nearly the deadline to complete their job. A lot of times a deadline is a helpful pressure point to help people who may be disagreeing negotiate and come to an agreement. And that clock ticking down is helpful in getting that done. However, as the deadline approached, there didn't seem to be any progress. And oddly and troublingly, as the deadline approached, in what was supposed to be a public meeting - because by law, these commissioners and these commission meetings have to be held in public. This is not like the Legislature - this is like most other bodies where their deliberations have to be held in public. And they actually are forbidden by law to meet in groups of more than two to prevent there being any meeting basically that is not in view of the public. However, leading up to this deadline, instead of meeting in view of the public, the commissioners retreated - they said - to meet in groups of two, and they were going to meet and come back and discuss publicly. And then they didn't come back. And then they didn't come back again. And then, the updates were non-updates and the meeting that was supposed to take place in public view did not. And then, there was an update that coming up to the midnight deadline on Monday, maybe there is a vote to be taken. There wasn't. And then, the word came that - they came back just in time to take the vote, to approve - it's still confusing what they did or did not approve and what timeline and this is part of the confusing part. What was presented in public at the time - they said that they voted to approve a framework, just after the midnight deadline, I believe. But that framework did not have any maps attached to it. And so, this was a very confusing time, and it's not quite sure what was approved and they have not clarified much about their deliberations or what was approved. And then, the next day, late in the day, and this was well after the deadline, they published some maps that they said were what was approved in the framework. Both Congressional District and Legislative District maps, which a lot of people - I mean, the first reaction was just, for most people, well these maps are invalid. One, you missed the deadline to vote - that's kind of very cut and dry, that's actually a pretty black and white thing. They admitted they missed the deadline, there doesn't seem to be any disagreement that they missed the deadline. What they do seem to be saying is, "But we voted just after the deadline. And so we put so much work into it that maybe you should consider what we did." However, the maps that they eventually - that the commission eventually published a day later after the deadline passed - it has issues. It has a number of issues, but I think a lot of people are really not even getting into those issues yet at this point in time, just because they missed the deadline and therefore - in a situation where it would've gone to the Legislature to be approved, now it is up to the Supreme Court. If you missed a deadline, it gets kicked over, Redistricting Commission is done. What they have done is basically all null and void because they did not produce what they were supposed to approve and produce in the timeline that they were supposed to do this. And this is prescribed by law, so it's not like someone can just decide to take a little bit more time. And in this process with the Supreme Court, they have until now - April 30th - to approve maps. So what seems pretty clear is that the Supreme Court has no obligation to consider anything that the Redistricting Commission has done. The challenge becomes that the Supreme Court is not a mapping body. This is not anything that is in their - it's not in their job description. [00:29:09] Shannon Cheng: Yeah. And Crystal, isn't that April 30th deadline really problematic? Isn't filing week for a lot of these positions, that people need to know their districts for, the second week of May, usually? [00:29:22] Crystal Fincher: It's so problematic. And that's such a good point. I mean, the reason why the deadline is in mid-November is because we actually moved it up from the end of December. We moved the deadline up because it was such a stretch to implement all of this and have people learn their new districts. And so we said, "Hey, we actually need more time to - once we decide what these maps are, everything that follows the new maps - need more time to implement it." So not having maps now and moving this deadline to April 30th does mean that some representatives do not know which district they are going to ultimately represent. Depending on which version of which map you look at, some representatives are in one district on some maps, they're in another district on another map. They maintain their incumbency according to some maps, they don't according to others. Different candidates who have run four different positions or are considering - are in one district according to some maps, another district according to others. So this uncertainty now goes until April 30th. The candidate filing deadline is May 20th. So there are less than three weeks, fewer than three weeks between the time districts become final and the time that people learn, not just whether if you're an incumbent, whether you're still in your district, but what the composition of your district is. And we know that there are going to be several districts whose compositions meaningfully change. So you don't know what neighborhoods, what areas you're going to be representing or not. As someone who may potentially be a candidate, you don't know where you might end up running, who you might challenge. There may be one person who you're very interested in running against, there may be another person who you're not. This is all up in the air until April 30th. I hear a lot of people say, "Well, maybe the Supreme Court will get done early." And to that I say, what entity has ever gotten done early? There is nothing that has happened in the past that suggests that this would happen early. It could happen. The thing is this is actually a completely unprecedented process and we don't know what's going to happen, but trying to assume upfront that they're going to get done early does not seem like it's the most likely thing, given that, I mean, you have a commission whose job it was just to figure out these maps - who came in and it was on their job description, part of their job description, to get these maps done. They had process, they had staff, they had this whole thing. They were unable to get this process done by the deadline. I don't know why kicking it over to a body that doesn't have any of the preparation that this one had would make us think that they would get done faster. Certainly is possible but - [00:32:16] Amy Sundberg: And weren't there also problems with a lot of the proposed maps in terms of the legality?So I mean, that becomes an issue as well. [00:32:24] Crystal Fincher: Oh there are so many problems. Yeah. There have been several independent analyses, from Harvard to UCLA, I think the League of Women Voters - looked into several of these maps and several of them have pretty blatant Voting Rights Act violations. They appear to be unconstitutional, they appear to be illegal maps. That's certainly a major issue that had been talked about throughout this process. The alleged maps - it's hard to even say - this last map that was published after the deadline, which seems to have several issues even on top of the Voting Rights Act violations. Yeah, that's a problem. And so, the one thing I would say is I would assume, I would hope and I actually would assume from our Supreme Court, our Washington State Supreme Court, that they are interested in adhering to the Voting Rights Act, which would automatically mean, because of that would mean that some of the maps that have been published, that their maps would not look like those. And so, there's going to be a question of where do they start? Because the process is not defined. There are some states who have gone through similar processes. Some would be useful to follow, others may not be good to follow - but that's all going to be determined. But really what we have now is we're in an unprecedented situation for our state. The Redistricting Commission did not complete their job by the time that was required, so the normal process that we are used to following is no longer the process that we're in. We're in a brand new process, we are going to see what happened. Because there is so much - I'm sitting here probably - I still don't get what happened on that Monday, and what they approved, and what they didn't approve, and what happened when. And I probably did a horrible job of explaining that - the reason why, is because we don't know. It is very confusing as to what happened. In fact, the Supreme Court has ordered the Chair of the Redistricting Commission to basically submit a sworn statement about what did happen because no one knows. We are supposed to know. It's supposed to be in public for deliberation. What was the timeline of the events? What happened? When did it happen? And that is due by this coming Monday, the 22nd? I think Monday is the 22nd. So we will hear the Redistricting Commission's sworn version of events and from there we'll see where it goes. But it seems pretty black and white from what they said before that they did not make the deadline for the map. So that basically - question one, the most important question is, did you approve those maps in time by the deadline? They did not. I'm sure they will be like, "But it was only by a little bit." And the thing about when a deadline is prescribed by law - is when you miss it, it doesn't matter whether it's by two seconds or two days. It is missed. And so that's question one, which is why it is now in the hands of the Supreme Court. And we'll see where it goes from here. We will probably have other shows talking about this in more detail, but certainly as we get more information. But this is something to continue to pay attention to and certainly to make sure that you are engaging, especially as we have, these conversations about whether districts adhere - proposed districts - and that's adhere to the Voting Rights Act primarily. And that's important for issues like in Central Washington, looking at places like Yakima - are there attempts, bad faith attempts really, made to dissect that community in a way that eliminates voting power, organizing power that would normally be there because of the population? Or are they looking at that and trying to dilute the power of specifically non-white populations in order to maintain electoral power? And this is the conversation that we see with gerrymandering in so many other states, right? And so we were trying to avoid that here. So we'll talk about this a lot more, but it's a mess. [00:37:10] Amy Sundberg: I think too, that it bears repeating how shocking it is that we don't know what happened. And that it's now Friday and we still don't know what happened. And that these are meetings that are legally required to be within public view. And that all the commissioners felt emboldened - they felt just fine not having to be transparent. [00:37:35] Crystal Fincher: Well, I will be careful in characterizing what all of the commissioners done - I mean, did. I don't know where all of the commissioners were, I don't know if a couple of them felt strongly about this and a couple others didn't. I don't know that, but I do know that the process overall was certainly not ideal. And even that meeting in pairs - it is also illegal if you meet in pairs and then have an intermediary relay information from one of those meetings in pairs to a member of the other pair. You can't pass information back and forth that derives from those smaller meetings, because that in effect is a meeting. That is also specifically illegal. So I think most people are going now - it is not believable to think that this process happened completely behind doors, behind closed doors, there was no agreement beforehand. You come back in time to take a vote, but no one talked to each other, even though we didn't see what you were doing and somehow came to an agreement. No one believes that. [00:38:47] Amy Sundberg: No. [00:38:48] Crystal Fincher: I think we're there. I don't believe that. [00:38:54] Amy Sundberg: And I would say if you're appointed to be a commissioner, one of your tasks is to work towards transparency. So making sure the public does know what you're doing. And I mean, yes, maybe there are circumstances we don't know about, maybe you can just be swept along - but, I mean, transparency is part of what you should strive for. [00:39:18] Crystal Fincher: Part of what we should strive for. And really that issue in itself, whether or not they violated Open Meetings Acts and whether or not they adhere to the law there, even if they would have voted in time, could invalidate that entire process. So there are just so many issues with how this process came to its non-conclusion conclusion, but we will get more information about what the commission says happened by Monday. And certainly we'll be talking about this next week too on Hacks & Wonks. One last thing I wanted to talk about before we left was - we are approaching the deadline for applications to the Institute for a Democratic Future. What's the Institute for a Democratic Future, you ask - I'm glad you asked. It is a fantastic six-month fellowship where you spend about a week in a month immersing yourself in politics and policy on the ground throughout the state of Washington and there's even a trip to DC. But it is an excellent way to get an education on not only a range of policy and politics, but to see how the policy that is passed connects to real-world conditions on the ground for people in different circumstances and in different walks of life. So being in Eastern Washington, being in Central Washington and talking to farmers and talking to farm workers and talking to union leadership and talking to people who are doing environmental work and talking to business organizations and just the full range of people in communities. And how different legislation impacts them, how different challenges are presenting themselves, and what their feedback and perspective is on different things. And it's varied. And especially, I think most of the people who are listening to this podcast are in the King County area, how things look in rural communities is different. How life is experienced in rural and communities elsewhere is different. And it's important to understand how that manifests in order to create policy in a way that actually does help people. This program is for people who are 39 or under. The deadline is approaching, coming up in about a week. So if this sounds like it's something interesting to you, I would highly encourage you - reach out to me on Twitter, I'm @finchfrii, send me a text message, email, send me a message to the website. I'll be happy to talk about it more with you, but this is actually how I got my start in politics. I had a career before I worked in politics - I was in corporate sales, but I knew that I wanted to make a change and do something different. I was pretty naive - I didn't know what jobs and stuff there were in politics, what options were. I had watched the West Wing and knew of those positions there, but really didn't understand the wide variety of positions in politics. But also how that also works together with policy positions, advocacy positions, and there is a rich world that you can work in and contribute to. And it can be in a full-time paid capacity or not, but it's just really useful and helpful to be able to see how policy translates. What type of policies in the conversation, what different people from different areas are saying about their lives and what they're facing. And what is helping and what is not helping. And a lot of it will surprise you. A lot of it may not fit neatly into rhetoric that we're used to hearing. And that's really important to engage with and understand. So I highly encourage you to do that. If you're listening to this and you know me, there's a letter of recommendation required - talk to me. If you know me and we can do that, I'm happy to do that. I've done it before for people, but highly recommend this for anyone interested in being more engaged in the world of politics or policy or advocacy, it really is invaluable. You would not be hearing my voice on this podcast right now if it weren't for the Institute for a Democratic Future. I wouldn't be working in politics. It is just really important and helpful. So if this sounds interesting to you or you think it would sound interesting to any others, you can go to democraticfuture.org. I'll also put that in the show notes so that you can read more about it. But it really is valuable. And for young leaders, young progressive leaders, age 21 to 39, and the program itself runs January through June. And there are 11 weekends between January and June plus a Washington, D.C. week. So give me a chat if this is interesting, but Institute for a Democratic Future is great. And it's also just a great network of people and really helpful and useful network of people to belong to, and you would be surprised how many people have been through this program and who are working there. It has been useful for a ton of us. So that's where I'm at on those. And I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on today, November 19th, 2021. And thank you to the producer of Hacks & Wonks, Lisl Stadler, who is assisted regularly by Shannon Cheng and our wonderful co-host today - who, hey, Shannon Cheng, the Chair of People Power Washington-Police Accountability, as well as Amy Sundberg, author of Notes from the Emerald City and Co-Chair of the Seattle Committee of People Power Washington-Police Accountability. You can find Shannon on Twitter @drbestturtle, Amy Sundberg @amysundberg and you can find me @finchfrii. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks & Wonks" in the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave us a review wherever you listening to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion: Politics and Religion in America -What is the constitutional foundation of the separation of church and state? -Why is it important? -Is freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights? How did the doctrine emerge and develop from the prohibition on the establishment of religion? -How is the interpretation and practice affecting modern politics? -What is the intersection of political activism and religious groups, now and in our history? Guests: Mark Brewer, Professor of Political Science and Department Chair, University of Maine Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life, Department of Political Science, Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame University To learn more about this topic: Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, James Madison, presented to the Virginia General Assembly in 1785 In U.S., Far More Support Than Oppose Separation of Church and State, Pew Research Center, October 2021 The Sleeper SCOTUS Case That Threatens the Separation of Church and State, The Atlantic, October 2021 Two Concepts of Religious Liberty: The Natural Rights and Moral Autonomy Approaches to the Free Exercise of Religion, Vincent Phillip Munoz, American Political Science Review, May 2016 Opinion | If they're going to keep passing religious laws, we're going to need exemptions, Washington Post, September 2021 The 2020 Census of American Religion, Public Religion Research Institute, July 2021 How ‘In God We Trust’ bills are helping advance a Christian nationalist agenda, The Conversation, July 2021 Relevant No More?: The Catholic/Protestant Divide in American Electoral Politics by Mark D. Brewer, 2003 The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther Judith Lyles, Wendilee O'Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League's priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board. The post Democracy Forum 11/19/21: Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion: Politics and Religion in America first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Led by the League of Women Voters and People for the American Way, Mark joined forces with protestors in Washington D.C. to demand President Biden FIX OR NIX THE FILIBUSTER. You'll hear one-on-one conversations with: April Albright, Legal Director and Chief of Staff at Black Voters Matter Fund; Judith Brown Dianis, Executive Director of the Advancement Project; Rev. Tim McDonald, Chair of the Board for People for the American Way; Senator Lena Taylor of Wisconsin; Cliff Albright, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter, and Wes Bellamy, Co-Chair of Our Black Party; and a closing word from Rev. Dr. WIlliam Barber II. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Louisville League of Women Voters and Louisville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. presented a Community Forum on FAIR MAPS - 2021 Redistricting: Gerrymandering vs. Fair Maps at the League of Women Voters on October 18, 2021. Results from the 2020 Census have been released, with the Kentucky General Assembly expected to redraw the districts in early 2022. Their decisions will last for 10 years. In their talks, Ms. Pregliasco (Vice President and Redistricting Chair of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky) and Ms. Perkins Weston (of the League's Kentucky Redistricting Committee) explain issues of transparency, public input and their work on drawing FAIR MAPS for the State of Kentucky.

Erica Shields, Police Chief of the Louisville Metro Police Dept. answers questions from moderator Dr. Wayne Tuckson and from the audience. This event was sponsored by the Louisville League of Women Voters and took place o August 25, 2021.

Mary Schuermann Kuhlman Ohio News Connection The 2021 general election in Ohio may not have the same level of excitement as the 2020 presidential election, but the end results are just as important. Ohio voter turnout for 2020 was just 74%. The 2018 mid-term was 55%, and the 2017 general election had just 30% turnout. However, Jen Miller - executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio - said even in these "off" years, every eligible voter should show up to ensure their voice is heard. "This election is important because we're talking about local school boards, local judges," said Miller. "Those elected officials that can really affect our daily lives, how funding will be spent in our communities, what policies are implemented." Ballot issues include tax levies to fund fire, police, parks, and road repairs. Early voting started four weeks ago and ends today. Tomorrow, Election Day polls are open from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. A proper ID is required to vote, and Miller said voters can find their polling location and other important election information at vote411.org. "A lot of folks are frustrated with our government," said Miller. "They feel as though our government is dysfunctional. The best thing you can do is vote and make sure that you've done your research, especially in those local races." There are also two special elections. In the 11th Congressional District, voters will replace Marcia Fudge, who left to serve the White House. Democrat Shontel Brown and Republican Laverne Gore are vying for that seat. And the 15th Congressional race is between Democrat Allison Russo and Republican Mike Carey. Republican Steve Stivers left to head the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Miller contended that Ohio has a solid elections system with multiple ways to access the ballot and strong security measures to ensure accuracy. But she added there's always room for improvement, including automatic voter registration. "When voters go to the DMV and their registration is out of date, that can automatically be updated," said Miller. "That helps every voter because it makes our voter rolls more accurate and more secure. It reduces provisional ballot counts and, overall, makes our system more efficient." She argued that other measures to expand voting access would include allowing online absentee requests, and expanding early voting centers and drop boxes per county. This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation. Subscribe now Thanks for listening to the podcast. Help us out by sharing the episode, subscribing to the podcast, supporting our sponsors and joining our listener support program. You can also leave a voice mail for our show here. Check out previous shows and enter to win contests. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chris-pugh6/message

Today, on the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, We begin with hearing from Jennifer Wilson, the deputy director of the New York State League of Women Voters, about Proposition 1; Then, Corinne Carey speaks to Cindy Doran who is seeking a second full term as a Rensselaer County legislator representing District 1 in Troy; Later on, Our Soil goes to Chile and we speak with Dan Walls; And finally, we take you under the Hoosick Street Bridge to speak with some people involved in the mural installation.

We're back with our TallCity Elections podcast to bring you information about the upcoming City Council race. On this episode, we sit down with Dan Corrales. We do podcasts for our visually impaired audience. This show is sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Interested in sponsoring shows like this? Send us a message! Listen now and get ready to place your vote!

Rachel Vindman, Co-host @theswppod, joins Naveed Jamali to talk about the Democrats apparent lack of interest in suburban women voters heading into the next election cycles. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

League of Women Voters of Connecticut President Laura Smits discusses the upcoming municipal elections  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The cheesy mom-and-pop billboards, the endlessly unreadable ballot measures, the ridiculous number of candidates (34? 37?) scrumming for nine Cincinnati City Council seats… You really have to be a geek for politics to get into local elections, especially in an odd year, with no Presidential or Congressional races on the ballot. And that's too bad. Because as we know, being politics geeks ourselves (despite still being too young to vote), what happens at the local level can have a huge impact on our lives, while revealing a lot about government in general. Once you start paying attention—showing up at school board meetings, canvassing for a municipal campaign, maybe even thinking about running for office yourself someday—you realize local politics is kinda cool. We hope that if you're of age, you'll do your homework, make yourself an informed voter (the WVXU Voter Guide and the local League of Women Voters are two of our go-to's), and show up at the polls on Nov. 2. The podcasters: Owen Derico (host), Walnut Hills H.S. and Young Activists CoalitionEliza O'Keefe, Walnut Hills H.S. and Young Activists CoalitionLael Ingram, Walnut Hills H.S. and Democracy & MeMichelle Miao, Talawanda H.S. and Democracy & MeEmma Feldmeier, Wyoming H.S. and Democracy & Me Conversation recorded on Zoom Oct. 24, 2021 Photo caption and credit: Student activist Klarke Griffith speaking outside Cincinnati City Hall during last year's racial justice demonstrations. WVXU/Democracy & Me photo by Julie Coppens

This week, we talk to Liz Donovan, a board member of both the New Canaan and state League of Women Voters, about the organization's efforts to educate electors during this local election season. We talk about the League's online voter guide for New Canaan, which also was the first town in Connecticut to roll out the League's Vote411 program, which now brings municipal election-specific candidate and other information to more than 40 Connecticut towns.

The League of Women Voters, People for the American Way, and Declaration for American Democracy have initiated a season of direct action and civil disobedience at the White House to demand President Biden take action to end the filibuster and protect our voting rights. Mark participated in yesterday's rally (stick around ‘til the end to hear him speak), where leaders of the movement demand President Biden and his administration address their campaign-trail-promise to protect our voting rights. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We talk about trust and distrust in government. What is the history of distrust in government in the US? How has it been weaponized in the last half-century? What do we lose when we have a blanket distrust in government: who loses and who gains? What motivates strategic attempts to weaken government? In what way is distrust a weapon in the arsenal of attempts to weaken or reduce government? Guests: Amy Fried, John Mitchell Nickerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine Steven Webster, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University To learn more about this topic: How Republicans Stoke Anti-Government Hatred by Luisa S. Deprez in Washington Monthly, August 27, 2021 Covid vaccine resistance and the Capitol riot stem from the GOP long weaponizing distrust, by Noah Berlatsky in NBC New Think, Aug. 3, 2021 Are Liberals to Blame for Our Crisis of Faith in Government? by Louis Menand, August 9, 2021 in The New Yorker At War with Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump by Amy Fried and Douglas B. Harris, August 2021 Rebuilding Trust in American Institutions By Sonal Shah & Hollie Russon Gilman Jan. 27, 2021, Stanford Social Innovation Review American Rage: How Anger Shapes Our Politics, Cambridge University Press, by Steven W. Webster, Indiana University. August 2020 Stoking the Beast By Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic JUNE 2006 Key findings about Americans' declining trust in government and each other, Pew Research Center, July 22, 2019 The Republicans waged a 3-decade war on government. They got Trump. By Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann Jul 18, 2016, Vox Prerecorded on 9/13 using Zoom technology. The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther,Judith Lyles, Wendilee O'Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League's priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board. The post Democracy Forum 10/15/21: In Government We Trust — Or Do We? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We talk about trust and distrust in government. What is the history of distrust in government in the US? How has it been weaponized in the last half-century? What do we lose when we have a blanket distrust in government: who loses and who gains? What motivates strategic attempts to weaken government? In what way is distrust a weapon in the arsenal of attempts to weaken or reduce government? Guests: Amy Fried, John Mitchell Nickerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine Steven Webster, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University To learn more about this topic: How Republicans Stoke Anti-Government Hatred by Luisa S. Deprez in Washington Monthly, August 27, 2021 Covid vaccine resistance and the Capitol riot stem from the GOP long weaponizing distrust, by Noah Berlatsky in NBC New Think, Aug. 3, 2021 Are Liberals to Blame for Our Crisis of Faith in Government? by Louis Menand, August 9, 2021 in The New Yorker At War with Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump by Amy Fried and Douglas B. Harris, August 2021 Rebuilding Trust in American Institutions By Sonal Shah & Hollie Russon Gilman Jan. 27, 2021, Stanford Social Innovation Review American Rage: How Anger Shapes Our Politics, Cambridge University Press, by Steven W. Webster, Indiana University. August 2020 Stoking the Beast By Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic JUNE 2006 Key findings about Americans' declining trust in government and each other, Pew Research Center, July 22, 2019 The Republicans waged a 3-decade war on government. They got Trump. By Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann Jul 18, 2016, Vox Prerecorded on 9/13 using Zoom technology. The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther,Judith Lyles, Wendilee O'Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League's priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board. The post Democracy Forum 10/15/21: In Government We Trust — Or Do We? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, October 14th, 2021. Later in the program, we have the October edition of Civic Conversations – a podcast collaboration between WFHB and the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County. Our guests today are Simone Smith, the winning contestant in the League of Women Voters …

Welcome to the October edition of Civic Conversations – a podcast collaboration between WFHB and the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County. In today's podcast, host Jim Allison speaks with Simone Smith, the winning contestant in the League of Women Voters Brown County’s essay contest on redistricting, and Shari Frank, the president …

Election Day is less than a month away. This year, there are five proposals on the ballot -- four of which will directly impact voters in Western New York. This hour, we discuss the first proposal: Amend the process for determining congressional and state legislative districts. Our guests weigh in on the process of redistricting at the state/federal and county/local levels. The County Legislature and the Independent Redistricting Commission are hosting public hearings about proposed state maps. Our guests this hour explain what voters need to know. Our guests: Barbara Grosh, president of the League of Women Voters of the Rochester Metropolitan Area Jennifer Wilson, deputy director of the League of Women Voters of New York State Tom Ferrarese, member of the League of Women Voters, and former Commissioner of the Board of Elections Mark Assini, former Gates Town Supervisor, and current chief administrative officer at American Rock Salt

Today on the Denton Insider, we talk with Chamber Member Amber Briggle, owner of Soma Massage and Community Advocate. Amber brings insight into the economic case for LGBTQ inclusion in the Texas workforce. Read more in Amber's essay: https://lovetothemax.net/2021/10/07/economic-case-for-lgbtq/Resources from Amber: ·Sign up for League of Women Voters of Texas Action Alerts at lwvtexas.org/take-action·Texas Competes: people can sign up (for free) and join the alliance at https://www.texascompetes.org/pledge/·Sign up for alerts from Equality Texas at https://secure.everyaction.com/KR74XUWtBUix8clQ9S5NdA2

Another special newscast alert! On Monday evening, KZMU hosted a live radio event with all of the candidates running for mayor of Moab City: Sherri Costanza, Aaron Davies, Kent Green, Joette Langianese, Stephen Stocks, and Bill Winfield. We are now releasing this special program on our newscast! During this candidate event, they answer questions on their experience facilitating meetings and working collaboratively, restoring citizen confidence in Moab City, lobbying at the Utah Legislature, water issues, housing and more! Tune in. Big thanks to the Grand County League of Women Voters for sponsoring this event. And thank you to The Times-Independent and the Moab Sun News for partnering with us. Show Notes: Live in Moab City? Register to Vote! https://secure.utah.gov/voterreg/index.html Moab City Election Info Portal https://moabcity.org/236/Election-Information

Special newscast alert! On Monday evening, KZMU hosted a live radio event with all of the candidates running for city council: Anthony Charles, Josie Kovash, Mike McCurdy, Jason Taylor, and Luke Wojciechowski. We are now releasing this special program on our newscast! During this candidate event, they answer questions on property taxes, the police department, noise, housing, workforce shortages and more! Tune in. Big thanks to the Grand County League of Women Voters for sponsoring this event. And thank you to The Times-Independent and the Moab Sun News for partnering with us. Show Notes: Live in Moab City? Register to Vote! https://secure.utah.gov/voterreg/index.html Moab City Election Info Portal https://moabcity.org/236/Election-Information

Anette visits with her friends, Carol Scott and Dr. Manuel Gonzales, both leaders in the world of Texas Community Colleges and the Community College Association of Texas Trustees. Manny is the CCATT Director and Carol is board president, a board Anette is honored to also serve on. A great discussion! Find their bios below. Carol A. Scott, APR, Fellow PRSA is chairman of the Community College Association of Texas Trustees board.Carol was first elected to the Del Mar College Board of Regents in November of 2014 and re-elected in 2020. She is serving her second term as DMC Board Chair.Carol is a public affairs consultant from Corpus Christi serving a variety of business sectors including energy, manufacturing, refining, financial, retail and government. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America's College of Fellows and received PRSA's Paul M. Lund Public Service Award.Carol is a graduate of Texas A&M University – Kingsville. She is past president of the Javelina Alumni Association, serves on the President's Leadership Council and is a Distinguished Alumni from the University. Previously she was elected to the Corpus Christi Independent School District Board of Trustees and served three terms as president of the board. She is a past president or chairman of the Texas Public Relations Association, Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters, and the Arts Council among others. She is a graduate of Leadership Corpus Christi and Leadership Texas.Dr. Manuel Gonzalez serves as Director for the Community College Association of Texas Trustees (CCATT), a membership organization representing more than 400 elected trustees and regents across the state's 50 public community college districts. Dr. Gonzalez builds trustee and regent capacity through professional development, supporting CCATT's leadership and committees, and engaging CCATT members with legislative issues and strategies coordinated by the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC). Prior to joining CCATT, Dr. Gonzalez served as Senior Institutional Support Consultant and Project Success Operations Lead for Trellis Company where he supported a portfolio of under-resourced 2-year and 4-year Minority-Serving Institutions across the south/southeast region. Dr. Gonzalez's career includes work for the University of Texas at Austin, the Texas House of Representatives, and the White House Domestic Policy Council. Dr. Gonzalez holds a baccalaureate degree from Trinity University, an M.Ed. in College & University Personnel Administration and Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership & Policy, both from the University of Texas at Austin. During his higher education academic career, Dr. Gonzalez received several graduate fellowships to support his studies, along with various recognitions commending his scholarship. In his free time, Dr. Gonzalez enjoys spending time with his wife Andrea and their three young children, watching his favorite teams (Chicago Cubs & San Antonio Spurs), and weightlifting.

October 7, 2021 - The ballot referendum reforming the state's redistricting process has divided good government advocates, so we got the two sides from Jennifer Wilson, deputy director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, and Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York.

**This podcast was recorded using Zoom | September 28, 2021 **DRNY's PAAT, PATBI, and PAVA Program Director, Christy Asbee, Esq., is joined by Helen Hellmuth, Senior PAVA Advocate, to discuss your voting options when submitting your ballot for an election in New York State.**Resources**County Board of ElectionsVoter Registration Statusballotpedia.orgDRNY's 2021 "Voter Registration Toolkit"How PAVA Can Support YouLeague of Women Voters' Election InformationHow to File a HAVA Administrative Complaint during a Federal ElectionImportant Dates:Deadline to register to vote for General Election (must be hand-delivered or postmarked by) – October 8, 2021 Deadline to change address for General Election – October 13, 2021Deadline to request absentee (or accessible absentee) ballot online, e-mail, fax, or mail – October 26, 2021NYS General Election Early Voting Period: October 23 – October 31, 2021NYS General Election – November 2, 2021Support the show (https://donate.democracyengine.com/DRNY/contribute)

Tonight's guests are Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Senator Amy Klobuchar; David Michaels, former OSHA administrator; and Virginia Kase Solomón, CEO of the League of Women Voters.

Erika Shields, Chief of the Louisville Metro Police Dept. (LMPD), speaks at the Louisville League of Women Voters on 8/25/21 on issues of gun violence, police recruitment, training and accountability as well as how she views her role in re-shaping the LMPD.

JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs at Human Rights Campaign and Adri Perez, Policy & Advocacy Strategist at ACLU of Texas discussed the state of LGBTQIA+ rights in the US. JoDee Winterhof addressed national LGBTQIA+ issues and initiatives, followed by Adri Perez who focused on the state of Texas. A moderated conversation with Q&A was facilitated by Rev. Troy Treash, Senior Pastor at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church. About the Presenters JoDee Winterhof, a veteran political strategist and respected advocate with over 25 years of experience in navigating the complex intersection between politics, campaigns, messaging and public policy, currently serves as Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign. In this role, she leads the organization's federal, state and local legislative, field and legal teams, while overseeing management of HRC's political action committees and electoral engagement. This includes the launch of HRC Rising, the largest grassroots expansion effort in the organization's history. Winterhof joined HRC after serving as a Chief of Staff in the US Senate and US House of Representatives, as well as head of advocacy for CARE, an International Non-Governmental Organization. She served as Chief of Staff to former US Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09).  In addition to her work on the Hill, Winterhof has held leadership roles on multiple presidential, senatorial and congressional campaigns including Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. She hails from Walnut, Iowa and is a graduate of Simpson College. She presently resides in Washington, D.C. with her wife and two children.  Adri Perez is a life-long El Pasoan, UTEP graduate, and policy & advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Texas, where they lead LGBTQIA+ advocacy on the Sexuality & Gender Equality team. Adri represents the ACLU of Texas in statewide coalitions, trains and educates families of trans kids, and advocates at the legislature on bills that affect trans Texans. Adri is an organizer whose intersectional experience motivates their advocacy as a native fronterizx, transgender, queer educator and abortion storyteller. Prior to joining the ACLU of Texas in 2018, Adri started West Fund, the first abortion fund in West Texas. They also co-founded the Fronterizx Fianza Fund that raises money to pay bonds for people in immigration detention. Adri previously worked at Ngage New Mexico, Fund Texas Choice, and YWCA El Paso Del Norte. Adri received the Rising Star Award from the League of Women Voters of El Paso and the “Golden Girl” Award from the El Paso Queer Bar Association in 2019. They were recognized as the Texas Rising 2015 Organizer of the Year while a student at the University of Texas at El Paso.   Rev. Elder Troy Treash has served for eight years as the Senior Pastor of Resurrection MCC in Houston, TX. For ten years prior to Resurrection as the Executive Director of Reconciling Ministries Network, Troy flew nationally from home base in Chicago, IL to advocate for equality for LGBTQ persons church by church, network by network, and conference by conference within the United Methodist Church. His ordained ministry began in 1991 in the trenches of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Houston, TX as the Director of the Bering Support Network. He is a member of Houston Coalition Against Hate and serves on the Congregational Council for Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston. He shares life with Walter, his husband of 23 years; Michael, their adopted son; one beagle, Tip; and one cat, Spot. He enjoys cooking, reading, weeding, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, oceans, and aspen trees. He struggles at times with teenager parenting, marathon zoom meetings, defeating white supremacy, and balancing life. He relies upon God's grace.

This episode is brought to you by National Office Systems Rebecca Rolfes with the League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia join the Tuesday Commute to talk about the special session on redistricting coming up and what people should know as well as a look at the changes to the voting rights act. Then, Savannah Morning News sports reporter Nathan Dominitz talks about Georgia Southern's decision to fire football coach Chad Lunsford and where the Eagles go from here. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts

You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Rhode Island native Thomas Garrett Cavanagh was an American professional ice hockey center who last played with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League. After playing four seasons at Harvard University, he was drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the sixth round. Cavanagh made his National Hockey League debut with San Jose near the end of the 2007–08 season and recorded an assist on his first shift. Now for our feature story: An open government coalition is asking Rhode Island's governor to allow public agencies to hold meetings online due to the surge of COVID-19 infections. Access/RI said Friday that it sent a letter to Governor Dan McKee asking him to issue an executive order because his previous order to waive the requirement that members of public bodies meet in person expired in July. Since then, the coalition said, some public bodies have had difficulty getting enough members to attend in person for a quorum and some members of the public have been reluctant to attend. The coalition said: “Members of the public face a choice between their health and their ability to participate in our democracy,”  State legislatures in neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts codified similar executive orders to allow for online meetings until the spring, the coalition added. Rhode Island's legislature considered allowing online meetings until July 2023, which Access/RI opposed due to the length of time and the belief that in-person meetings should be the default. The letter was signed by Access/RI, the ACLU of Rhode Island, the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, Common Cause, University of Rhode Island and the New England First Amendment Coalition. Meanwhile in Connecticut: Governor Ned Lamont got his third dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine over the weekend and urged others on social media to follow suit. The 67-year-old Democrat posted on Twitter saying: “Getting your booster is so easy! Same with your first shot,” along with photos of him stripped down to a white t-shirt and face mask while getting the vaccine at the Durham Fair. An estimated 270,000 Connecticut residents who are 65 years and older and who originally received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, including nursing home residents, could begin getting their third booster shot this week. Residents ages 50 to 64 with risky underlying health conditions and who received the Pfizer vaccine are also allowed to obtain a third dose at more than 800 locations across the state. Those sites can be found online. For more about the coronavirus pandemic and the latest on all things in and around Westerly, head over to westerlysun.com. There are a lot of businesses in our community that are hiring right now, so we're excited to tell you about some new job listings. Today's Job posting comes from Crimmins Residential Staffing in Westerly. A couple in Watch Hill is looking for a part-time housekeeper. Pay is $35 per hour and you'll work there 3 days per week in season and one day per week during the off-season. For more job requirements, check out the link in the description: https://www.indeed.com/jobs?l=Westerly%2C%20RI&mna=5&aceid&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpf2IBhDkARIsAGVo0D2S3gEb-328GyRpBuTTeeKPdn3-klOh0KYAsfete6MEZmI5S4qTg-4aAnQkEALw_wcB&vjk=028da372fc87d663 Today we're remembering the life of Patricia Murphy of Westerly. Mrs. Murphy was born in Montclair, NJ, the eldest of seven children. As a child, Mrs. Murphy moved with her family to Wheeling, WV. In 1953, she graduated from Villa Duchesne Convent of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, where she excelled in art and tennis. At Rosemont College, Mrs. Murphy captained the tennis team and earned All-Philadelphia honors as goalie on the field hockey squad. During those years, she also won seven consecutive West Virginia state singles titles in tennis. In 1955, it was tennis that led Pat to meet J. Austin Murphy, the man who would become her husband of 63 years. After graduating from Rosemont in 1957, Mrs. Murphy was a reporter for the Wheeling News Register, the Camden Courier Post and the Columbus Little Weekly. In 1958, she married her husband. A salesman with US Steel, Austin's job required frequent relocation. Mrs. Murphy lived with her rapidly growing family-at one point, she had seven children under the age of seven-in eight different cities. In 1995, she and Austin moved permanently to the family's summer homestead in Shelter Harbor. In Westerly, Mrs. Murphy continued her lifelong, tireless work for others. She served on numerous healthcare boards, volunteered for both Hospice Care and her beloved parish, St. Clare, where she was a daily communicant. And when her husband joined the Chorus of Westerly, Mrs. Murphy did too. She dedicated thousands of hours to the Chorus, running the annual auction and managing myriad day-to-day duties. After a few years, she was elected President of the Board of Directors for the Chorus… only the second non-singing member ever to hold the post. Mrs. Murphy was old-school tough. As she committed herself to these groups full-bore, she never complained about her debilitating arthritis, complications from a battle with Hepatitis C, or the countless struggles brought on by her irredeemable offspring. She soldiered on through a great deal of difficulties, constantly mentioning how "delightful," "terrific," and "super" her life was. In addition to her husband of 63 years, Mrs. Murphy leaves seven children, 20 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, her sister-in-law, and her siblings, and many nieces and nephews. Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Patricia's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September 25, 2021 — We look at redistricting with Lynn Teague, vice president of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. Also on this episode: an update on COVID-19 vaccine boosters; state economists break down the massive tax revenue hauls hitting state coffers; and testimonies from medical experts at this week's state Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee hearings. We want to hear from you! Leave us a 1-minute long voicemail at 803-563-7169 to tell us what your life has been like over the past year.

#VoteHerIn, a collaboration of Two Broads Talking Politics & Rebecca Sive.Julie Castro Abrams is an expert in board governance and building diverse boards that are a strategic advantage. She is an experienced non profit CEO and entrepreneur and through her consulting practice she supports leaders to build high-performance boards, break through performance for the leaders and high performing multicultural teams. She is Chair and CEO of How Women Lead, a network of over 13,000 women dedicated to promoting diverse women's voices and propelling women's leadership forward as well as the Managing Partner of BoardLeaders.com where she actively places leaders on corporate boards and supports them to build inclusive and high-performance boards.An active investor and advisor to start-ups, Julie also sits on the advisory boards of the fin-tech start-up LENDonate, The New Search Collaborative and is the Governance Chair for the Women's Funding Network, a network of women's foundations across the globe. She has previously led the board of multiple nonprofit organizations located throughout the country, including Board Director for the National Council of La Raza, Governance Chair for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and Board Chair of Cypress String Quartet.The recipient of many accolades, Julie has won the More Jobs Genius Award, the Morgan Stanley Innovation Award, Cisco's Innovation in Technology Award, the League of Women Voters' Women Who Could Be President Award, the Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and the Commission on the Status of Women's Human Rights Award, and is a member of the Women of Color Action Network, Leadership California, and the Marin Women's Hall of Fame. She has also been featured in four books, including “Scrappy Women in Business,” “Women of Courage,” and “The Missing Mentor,” and Fast Company's video series “30 Second MBA.”

Opening statement - Pick Your Voters!Chat with Marilyn McLeod, President and Nancy Price of Missouri's League of Women Voters, about redistrictingTalking Politics with Rachel Parker and Sean DillerParson Admin new Director of Health and Senior Services: Donald G. Kaueraufhttps://missouriindependent.com/2021/09/16/missouris-new-health-director-says-masks-work-as-covid-cases-rise-school-in-session/He said words that were not bonkers nutsAs of yet has not been sued by AG Schmitt Biden vaccination & testing policy is fairly popular https://twitter.com/natesilver538/status/1439605560412934151?s=21PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA QUESTION Redistricting Is HappeningClean Missouri - We voted for a new plan that would use a non-partisan demographer, that was then changed again last fall and we are back to a political processMO 1, MO 2, MO 5 - All look to be in play herehttps://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article253786858.htmlSplitting Communities - “Community Districting”Lack of competition across parties leads to extreme candidatesMissouri has Cori Bush and EmanuelCleaver, hard to imagine either could win in say the MO 3rd or 4thLikewise, Jason Smith in the MO 8th would lose in the MO 1st by about 80%, give or take 10%

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We’ll talk about the history and the future of the two major parties, How parties change and evolve, how/why they splinter. Are the parties too strong or too weak? Are the two major parties in this moment so polarized that the system itself is undermined? Has the modern two-party system made us ungovernable? What reforms and options might be realistic? — multi-member districts, proportional representation, ranked choice voting? Guest: Lee Drutman, senior fellow at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America Sandy Maisel, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government at Colby College (emeritus) To learn more about this topic: “Quiz: If America Had Six Parties, Which Would You Belong To?” by Lee Drutman in the New York Times, September 8, 2021 “Have Democrats become a party of the left?” William A. Galston and Elaine Kamarck, for Brookings, July, 2021 “The Decline of the GOP,” Norm Ornstein in The Atlantic, August, 2020 Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America, by Lee Drutman, March, 2020. Watch an interview with the author at Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop – Political Reform. Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process. by Mark D. Brewer and L.Sandy Maisel, ninth edition, 2020 The Parties Respond: Changes in American Parties and Campaigns (Transforming American Politics) Mark D. Brewer and L. Sandy Maisel, fifth edition, 2018 (essay collection) “This Maine Initiative Could Shake Up the Two-Party System,” by Hendrik Hertberg in The Nation, October, 2016. It’s Even Worse Than It Looks by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, April, 2016. “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: America’s Love Affair with the Two-Party System,” Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, Marc Horger, July 2013. Prerecorded on 9/15 using Zoom technology. The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O'Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League's priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board. The post Democracy Forum 9/17/21: The Two-party System and the Future of Our Democracy first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

The first of two Patreon-fueled shout-outs!WTJU 91.1 FM is a different sort of radio station. It's dedicated to sharing the transcendent experience of music while raising funds from listeners across the world. From October 4th through 10th, WTJU airs its annual Jazz Marathon. Tune in for a deep dive into everything from bebop to blues. WTJU's Volunteer DJs will play the spectrum jazz – from Billie Holiday to Canonball Adderly to Pharoah Sanders. Plus live, local jazz performances throughout the week.  Visit wtju.org to learn more. On today’s show:Charlottesville City Council discusses the costs of reconfiguring Buford Middle School and make a decision on West Main StreetEarly voting in Virginia begins tomorrow, and a look at voting as it stands in Albemarle and Charlottesville in 2021 Rio Hill Shopping Center has asked Charlottesville Area Transit to stop stopping thereAnd a new job for Charlottesville most recent planning director Another day, another large number of new COVID cases. That number is 4,181 and the percent positivity is 10.6. There are another 145 new cases in the Blue Ridge Health District and one more fatality reported. That person lived in Greene County. The COVID-19 model created by the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute currently projects that the Charlottesville area will reach a peak of 2,245 new cases a week in mid-October. “Models can help us understand the potential course of COVID-19, but they are not crystal balls,” reads a statement on the website for the model. “Most models struggle to project policy changes, changes in human behavior, or new and rare events.”With the pandemic raging, many indoor venues are now requiring proof of vaccination before admittance. To make showing that proof more convenient, the Virginia Department of Health announced today they are offering QR codes.“As more and more employers and businesses respond to calls by President Biden and Governor Northam to require that employees and customers be vaccinated,” reads a press release. “QR codes will help improve the consistency and security of vaccination information while protecting individual privacy.”Visit vaccinate.virginia.gov to obtain a QR code. Virginia is the fifth state to adopt protocols developed for SMART Health Cards. *Early voting in Virginia begins tomorrow as acting Charlottesville Registrar Taylor Yowell explains.“Under Virginia election law, voters can vote up to 45 days early in-person or absentee,” Yowell said.  “So with that 45 days in advance of an election, that is 33 actual days that you can come into our office and vote.”Yowell made her comments this past week at a Sunday seminar held by the League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville Area.  Yowell said mail-in ballots will be distributed beginning this week. (listen to the whole event)“In order to receive a mail ballot, you must fill out a mail ballot application and that can be submitted online, in-person to our office, mailed in to us,” Yowell said. “We do have a lot of voters and say ‘hey, I don’t have availability to get online and fill one out’ so we will send them the application with a return envelope so they can be added to the list.” Once registrars across Virginia receive ballots, there is a process known as curing that validates the vote. According to the instructions on voting absentee in Virginia, there’s an A envelope, and a B envelope.   “Whether this is by mail, whether you drop to our dropbox, whether you drop into our office, we take it inside and it will be automatically opened up and we check to make sure every component on your B envelope… this is where your name, your address, your signature, your witness signature, the day you filled out the ballot… this is where we make sure everything is correct. And we have three days after we receive a ballot to notify you if there’s something that needs to be cured, so that way your ballot can be accepted and processed in our office,” Yowell said. In 2020, the state of emergency related to the pandemic temporarily waived the requirement for a witness signature. That will be required again this year. Yowell said voting early in-person is just like voting on Election Day. “No results are pulled until 7 p.m. on Election Day, just like at the precincts, because no one will know and no one can prior to 7 p.m.,” Yowell said.Now, what if someone requested a ballot via mail, and then shows up in person anyway? Yowell said in that case, the person is asked to sign an oath.“It’s just a gold piece of paper saying ‘I have lost or not received my ballot’ and it’s pretty much an affirmation signing that you will not attempt to vote twice,” Yowell said. “If you do, it will be turned over to the Commonwealth’s Attorney.” The last day for in-person voting before Election Day will be October 30. Charlottesville Area Transit Route 5 will no longer serve the Rio Hill Shopping center, according to a release from the bus agency. The release states the property owner has requested the change, and that means two stops within the shopping center will become dormant. The 31 acre property is owned by SCT Rio Hill LLC, a firm associated with the retirement system for employees of the state of Connecticut. The manager of the Rio Hill Shopping Center said in June 7 letter to the city that planned renovation implements a vision that does not involve public transit.“Not only are the buses a safety hazard for the customers crossing the main drive lanes to get to the stores, but the weight of the buses is also causing significant damage to the asphalt resulting in wear and cracking,” wrote Jim Paulus, the center’s manager. The planned route changes that have not yet been fully approved had already taken the request into account. In addition, Route 5 will no longer terminate at the Wal-Mart but instead will stop at Fashion Square Mall. Route 7 will instead travel to Wal-Mart and the plans show the alignment as missing Rio Hill Shopping Center. There is no date for when the transit changes will be made. H   The Regional Transit Partnership meets next Thursday. Previous coverage:February 6, 2021: Catching up with Albemarle's Comprehensive Plan, Entrance Corridors, Rio Hill Shopping Center renovationJuly 4, 2021: Preparing for Charlottesville area's transit future; Water authority gets update on cybersecurity, capital projectsNow that Charlottesville has a new director of Neighborhood Development Services, the person who last held the position now has a city post in a newly created city department. Alex Ikefuna is the interim director of the Office of Community Solutions. “The Office of Community Solutions will reside in CitySpace and the team will concentrate on our housing priorities, commercial redevelopment interests, federal entitlements/investments coordination and management, and neighborhood constituent services,” said city communications director Brian Wheeler in an email. Ikefuna will oversee the Office of Housing, which will report to Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders. “The vision for this office is to expand and deepen the City’s approach to a variety of community-based efforts, especially related to addressing our affordable housing crisis,” Wheeler continued. In today’s second Substack-supported public service announcement: The Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and perpetuation of all that  jazz, and there’s no time like now to find a time to get out and watch people love to play. The Charlottesville Jazz Society keeps a running list of what’s coming up at cvillejazz.org. Last night, the Charlottesville City Council got the latest details on the plans for reconfiguration of the city’s middle schools. Go back and read/listen to the September 14, 2021 edition of the show for the details. Since that was posted, a Community Design Team that has been shepherding the work of architectural firm VMDO has made their final recommendation. Here’s Wyck Knox of VMDO with the latest information. (presentation from September 14, 2021 CDT meeting)“The unanimous choice by the CDT was Option 3 that builds in the bowl and gives a new look to the school and the most square footage and the most variety of outdoor spaces to the new building,” Knox said. This is also the most expensive option at an estimate of $73 million. The five-year capital improvement program budget has a $50 million placeholder for reconfiguration. If Council agrees to proceed with the project, they’ll need to approve a budget with actual numbers in order to calculate how many millions of dollars in bonds need to be sold to pay for the capital costs. (FY22 adopted CIP)For the Council meeting, the city’s budget office presented funding scenarios all of which include an increase in the property tax rate to cover the cost of the additional debt service to pay the bond proceeds back. These hinge on whether the city proceeds with a long-planned and multi-phased project to upgrade West Main Street that grew out of a $350,000 planning study requested in 2012 by the PLACE Design Task Force. While the currently adopted CIP does not include any additional funding for the $49 million project, Council has previously allocated $20.54 million in local money to match state funding for the first two phases.  That’s according to a slide presented to Council back in February. Council could opt to transfer that to the school project. The tax increases were initially to have been phased in gradually at two cents a year to cover the five-year plan as adopted by Council in April. For the purposes of these scenarios, the tax increases are shown happening next year all at once, and include an additional five cents to cover the additional cost to finance the reconfigured schools.“If you want to start construction in FY23, which is next year, then we have to have the money to sign a contract, so that means all the money all at once,” said Krissy Hamill, the city’s budget performance analyst. Option 1 would cover just the cost of that $50 million placeholder and would include the West Main project. This would result in a 15 cent tax increase next  year to a rate of $1.10 per $100 of assessed value. “Option 2 would decrease the amount of tax increase that would be required if West Main Street were removed,” said City Manager Chip Boyles.That would be a 13 cent tax rate to $1.08 per $100 of assessed value. The next two options raise the reconfiguration cost to $75 million. Option 3 keeps West Main Street with a 18 cent tax rate increase. Option 4 drops West Main and is also a 15 cent tax increase. Those actual rates could be different depending on the results of the 2022 assessment. That’s why you see the phrase “tax rate equivalent” in the options. There will be no room for any additional capital projects for at least two years under these scenarios. “There are a lot of variables in this,” said Boyles. “This is making the assumption that there is no sales referendum and no sales tax increase.” Boyles estimates the one percent increase in the tax would bring in an additional $12 million a year. The current sales tax is 5.3 percent, but Charlottesville only gets one percent of that amount. The budget for the current fiscal year anticipates the city will collect $12 million a year. In Fiscal Year 2020, the city collected $11.4 million according to data compiled by the Auditor of Public Accounts for the Commonwealth of Virginia. That’s up from $9.3 million in 2010. The capital budget for FY22 includes $1 million for a parking structure at Market Street and East High. Earlier this year, Council opted to wait a year on that project and wait until next year to spend the remaining $7 million. So far, the options presented to Council did not factor in what happens if the project is dropped but that project cannot get totally zeroed out. (FY22 adopted CIP)“What we have been looking at is reserving at least a couple of million if we had to create surface parking on the properties that we own,” Boyles said. “I would say definitely $5 million could be transferred if needed.”However, Hammill said that would not affect the projected tax rates because the capital budget already assumes bonds will be sold to cover the cost of paying projects. The housing plan adopted by City Council calls for $10 million a year to be dedicated to affordable projects. The current five-year capital improvement program anticipates $13.5 million on public housing, $925,000 a year on the city’s affordable housing plan, $900,000 a year for housing vouchers, and $11.4 million in city funds for the redevelopment of Friendship Court.  (FY22 adopted CIP)There was no specific decision point on the agenda last night but Knox said he wanted to know what Council is thinking. There will be an information item presented to Council on October 4. A decision on West Main?Mayor Nikuyah Walker wanted to know where Councilors stood on the West Main Street project. The results were pretty clear. “The only way I can see West Main Street surviving is if we get this one [percent] sales tax for the school reconfiguration,” said vice mayor Sena Magill. “That’s it.”“I would definitely fully support reallocating the West Main project to schools,” said Councilor Michael Payne. “I can see West Main continuing as just as Hail Mary of if Congress passes the stimulus bill and there’s no local city money required.”“I would prioritize this ahead of West Main,” said City Councilor Heather Hill. “Projects like West Main had a lot of revenue come in from other sources and I’ve said before that it’s a hard one to swallow but I think we’re at a point where there’s not another option.”“As probably maybe the last defender of the West Main project, I also agree that whatever option we end up taking is going to have to be an option that does not include the West Main project,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook. Much of the Virginia Department of Transportation funding for West Main Street comes in the form of Smart Scale, which requires projects to be completed within six years. In the current round, the city was awarded $10.4 million for the third phase. None of that funding requires a local match. The University of Virginia committed $5 million to the West Main project as well. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, September 16th, 2021. Later in the program, we have Civic Conversations – a monthly podcast in collaboration between WFHB and the League of Women Voters of Bloomington-Monroe County. Our guest today is Keri Miksza, chair of the Bloomington chapter of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. Our …

E58: Redistricting with Senator Adam Morfeld Senator Morfeld serves on the committee for redistricting. Hear directly from the Senator on his opinion on how it's going so far and the expected path forward in redistricting. Find the Linehan and Wayne maps here: http://news.legislature.ne.gov/red/proposed-base-plans/ Check out our previous coverage with MaryLee Moulton from League of Women Voters: https://seeingrednebraska.com/the-pod/e57-redistricting-with-marylee-moulton/ *Support the pod for just $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/seeingrednebraska. *Support SeeingRedNE and independent bookstores by purchasing books with our link. You can find all the books we've recommended on the pod! https://bookshop.org/shop/seeingrednebraska Social Media links: https://seeingrednebraska.com seeingredne@protonmail.com Tweet@seeingredNE FB@seeingrednebraska Instagram @seeingrednebraska

E57: Redistricting with MaryLee Moulton MaryLee Moulton is the co-president of the League of Women Voters of Nebraska and the Communication Director of the League in Omaha. She educates us all on how to engage in the redistricting process, what to be looking for, why it matters. The legislature is drawing lines for not only for their own races but also others including regents (think CRT debate) and board of education (think health standards debate). Get more information from the League of Women Voters here: https://lwvnebraska.org/redistricting/ Here are a few highlights from our conversation with Marylee: -Districts should create competitive elections, not predetermined party outcomes -Districts should all be about the same size to ensure equal weight of every vote, look for variances -Cities and Counties should generally not be split -Demand transparency in who made any map put forward and the process to approve it *Support the pod for just $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/seeingrednebraska. *Support SeeingRedNE and independent bookstores by purchasing books with our link. You can find all the books we've recommended on the pod! https://bookshop.org/shop/seeingrednebraska Social Media links: https://seeingrednebraska.com seeingredne@protonmail.com Tweet@seeingredNE FB@seeingrednebraska Instagram @seeingrednebraska

In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, host Mike Thompson discusses the maps released by the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Jen Miller, executive director for the Ohio League of Women Voters, joins the show.

A new nonpartisan poll reports that 62% of likely women voters approve of Gov. Newsom's job in office and 66% of them are against the recall. COVID-19 variant mu has been detected in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Rutgers University has barred a New Jersey student from attending courses online because he failed to get vaccinated according to university policies. A new study concludes that most parents want online or hybrid learning for students as uncertainty about student safety at schools grows.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**MARCH ON FOR VOTING RIGHTS** Voting rights are under assault across the country. This Saturday, the organization March On is putting on a series of marches across the country, with a flagship event in Washington DC. Here in Washington State, we are having a satellite event online, in conjunction with the Washington League of Women Voters, the Washington Indivisible Network, this podcast, and Fix Democracy First. Joining us on the podcast are the lead organizer, Cindy Black, Executive Director of the voting-advocacy group Fix Democracy First, and Cameron Lavi-Jones, lead singer and creative force behind the Seattle alt-rock band King Youngblood, one of the musical guests for the virtual march. SHOW NOTES: To sign up for the event: https://marchonforvotingrights.org/ King Youngblood: http://www.kingyoungbloodmusic.com

This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, August 26th, 2021. Later in the program, we have Civic Conversations – a monthly podcast collaboration between the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County and WFHB. Today's topic is redistricting with guests Julia Vaughn of Common Cause and Sonia Leerkamp of Indiana Citizens Redistricting …

Today, on the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, We begin with talking to Blair Horner with NYPIRG about the pending departure of Governor Andrew Cuomo Then, for our peace bucket, I talk with Stephen Zunes about Afghanistan Later on, we will talk to the League of Women Voters about their August 19th event on gerrymandering and legislative redistricting. After that, we hear about JACOB ALEJANDRO a new coffee store and center in Troy Finally, we hear about the Hideaway Circus' show "Stars Above" this Friday to Sunday at Prospect Park in Troy

In this episode: Timothy Christian feels the full coercive power of the state, and the fight for parental rights takes another blow; law enforcement officer and former state representative John Cabello shares his perspective on the Ella French shooting; Are the League of Women Voters are in bed with Antifa? A Rolling Meadows resident has the scoop and is naming names; Illinois goes full 1984 with their Vax Verify system; and Breakthrough Ideas' week-in-review. 

Dee Pregliasco, the VP of the Kentucky League of Women Voters, discusses redistricting as a result of the recent census data and the League's desire to have public input be a part of that process...

Support our Police, fight for the Blue Line in Mount Prospect Season 3, Episode 7 Two Chicago Police officers were attacked by thugs who they pulled over during a routine traffic stop in West Englewood near 63rd and Bell Avenue on Saturday, August 7 at around 9 PM. One of the officers, Ella French, 29, was killed. The other was hospitalized. Had this been reversed with two minorities shot by police, there would be riots and protests and calls to defund the police. But instead the activists are fighting to defend the criminals and are stepping up their campaign to defund police and weaken police, exposing the majority of citizens who are law abiding to crime. This week, the radical League of Women Voters -- which claims to be non-partisan but is in fact one of the most partisan political organizations in America, and biased, too -- is helping to organize protests targeting the police in Mount Prospect, Illinois. What are they angry about? They are upset that the police there wear an emblem that supports Police and uses the popular symbol of a "blue line" among the stripes of the American flag. The League of Women Voters asserts the Blue Line is a symbol embraced by White Supremicists, bullying and demonizing law abiding citizens who recognize the Blue line as a symbol of support for the men and women who wear the blue uniform. Enjoy this podcast and read the special column not his topic by clicking this link. Don't forget to sign up for my exclusive and free eNewsletter and get my Special Columns that are only distributed to subscribers like this one. Visit www.SuburbanChicagoland.com for more details and to subscribe.

Audio from a recent candidate forum with candidates for St. Petersburg City Council Districts 1 and 4. It was hosted by the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area and the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College.

This episode is brought to you by National Office Systems The League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia's Rebecca Rolfes joins the Tuesday Commute to discuss redistricting in Georgia and what voters need to know about the process before looking at redistricting on a local level. Then, Savannah Morning News reporter Katie Nussbaum joins to recap the week of news from city hall, including the new mask mandate and a city manager being selected. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the latest episode of Kentucky Newsmakers, WKYT's Bill Bryant talks with Dee Pregliasco with the Kentucky League of Women Voters and State Auditor Mike Harmon.

Sarah Carlson is one of those people who make things happen, quietly leading on social justice and housing issues. She chairs the commissioners on the CDA. She is active on the Chaska Human Rights Commission. She is active with the League of Women Voters. She volunteers with Launch Ministries. She forgot to mention her work with the Historical Society and she was one of the original founders of the "Blessed Bee Thrift Shop." Sarah was fun to talk to because she is passionate and smart. We are a better community because of her commitment to doing good work. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/greg-anderson29/message

The 2020 Census gives Americans a chance to redraw their district lines, fundamentally shifting the map of Democracy. But we often wonder - is our system set up to provide the kind of change necessary? How can Connecticut use this opportunity to create an electoral system that serves its people? And what can we learn from experts outside our state about how to do things better? My guest is Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program His work focuses on redistricting, voting rights, and elections. He was the author of a widely cited blog on redistricting and election law issues that the New York Times called “indispensable.”  This conversation was recorded earlier this Spring as part of a virtual conversation, before Connecticut's passage of a bill outlawing prison gerrymandering. This podcast is presented in partnership with the League of Women Voters, Connecticut and Everyday Democracy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.