EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES, LTD. 200 Old Country Road - Suite 620 Mineola, New York 11501 (212) 962-2915 APPEARANCES: SENATOR DEAN G. SKELOS Co-Chairperson, Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment ASSEMBLYMEMBER WILLIAM L. PARMENT Co-Chairperson, Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment SENATOR RICHARD A. DOLLINGER ASSEMBLYMEMBER CHRIS ORTLOFF MARK BONILLA, ESQ. ROMAN B. HEDGES DEBRA A. LEVINE Co-Executive Director ALSO PRESENT: SENATOR GUY VALELLA ASSEMBLYMEMBER GARY PRETLOW ASSEMBLYMEMBER PETER RIVERA LIST OF SPEAKERS: Saul Scheinbach Vice President, Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance Ramon Cabrera President, Caribe Baseball Little League Robert Rivers, Jr. President, Thurgood Marshall Independent Democratic Club Lilly Lonzao Parkside Residence Council Ed Mulrain President, NAACP, Williamsbridge Branch Tomas Francisco Suero President, Great Alliance Democratic Club Luis Alvarez Labor Organizer, Local 1199, Coalition for a Fair Representation in the Bronx Joe Goubeaud, Esq. Representing City of Mount Vernon Joe Solomine Supervisor, Town of Pelham James Vacca District Manager, Community Board #10, Bronx John T. O'Toole Resident, Yonkers David Burrell Eastchester Heights Tenants Advisory Board Monica Berry President, Parkside Association Ray Solano Resident, Bronx Jonathan Agusto Representing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Juan Carlos Polanco President, Norwood Volunteers, Resident, Bronx Honorable Peter DiPaola Mayor, Pelham Manor, Westchester County James P. Sullivan Resident, Riverdale, Bronx John McAffree Resident, Riverdale, Bronx Garth Merchant Resident, Queens, formerly of Throgs Neck, Bronx Manuel Sanchez, Esq. Attorney, Bronx, New York Rev. Jerome A. Green Democratic District Leader, 77th Assembly District, Pastor, Bronx Christian Charismatic Prayer Fellowship Hilda Alvarez Democratic District Leader, 77th Assembly District, Bronx Unity Democratic Club Ted Jefferson Executive Director, Bronx Shepherds Restoration Corporation Robert A. Williams Black United Leadership of the Bronx Rev. Robert Lewis Foley, Sr. Minister of Information, Black United Leadership of the Bronx, Pastor, Cosmopolitan Church of the Lord Jesus Catherine Stroud 77th Assembly District, Riverwatch, Inc. Ade A. Rasul Executive Director, Woodycrest Center for Human Development, Inc. Eunice Ajaiyeoba Resident, 77th Assembly District Marcella Brown Founder, Marcella R. Brown Foundation for Scholarship and Humanitarian Services Sedelle Thomas Resident, 77th Assembly District Pater Wagner Assistant Director, Prison Policy Initiative Kay Roberts Dunham Inez Harvey Concourse Village Pa' Saikou Kujabi The Gambian Society of New York Louis Lithgow Dominican Liberation Party Lucia Solano Dominican Students Association Carlton Baldwin Resident, Bronx Duane Jenkins Vice President, Resident Council of Throgs Neck Gloria Mangual Resident, Pelham Parkway Michael Pricoli Resident, Northeast Bronx Egidio Sementilli Resident, Bronx Joseph Thompson President, 49th Police Precinct Council, Member Community Board # 11, Vice President, Pelham Parkway Little League Irene Estrada Rukay Resident, Bronx Sallie Caldwell Resident, Tracy Towers Lucia Gomez Representing, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund Kermit Allen Resident, Newburgh, New York 96th Assembly District Silvio Mazzella Board Member, Morris Park Community Association, Community Board # 11, 49th Precinct Council, Advisory Board, Jacobi Hospital Center James Pinsley Resident, Yonkers Carol Craft Resident, Northern Yonkers Julio Munoz Resident, Bronx Ottis Edwards Resident, 77th Assembly District Louise Brown Resident, 77th Assembly District Mr. Rojas Resident, Bronx Albert Tuitt Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Uptown Express SENATOR SKELOS: We are going to start the meeting. My name is State Senator Dean Skelos. I'm Co-chair of the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. The purpose of this hearing is to receive input from you, the public as to the proposed lines that have been published, and I underline the word proposed, by the Task Force. The Task Force's responsibility is to come up with proposed lines, based upon, to the extent we can, your input, and then at some point vote on the lines and make a recommendation to the entire Legislature. It is ultimately the Senate, the Assembly and the Governor who have to approve or disapprove the recommended lines of the Task Force. So, we look forward to hearing your testimony today and at this time I would like to introduce my co-Chair, Assemblyman William Parment. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you, Senator. I'm happy to be here in the Bronx. I am hopeful of having a successful day and hearing from the people of this community about the proposed district plan, and with that, I would just say welcome, and we look forward to your testimony. SENATOR SKELOS: A member of the Task Force, to my left, Mark Bonilla. Mark. MR. BONILLA: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am the newest member of the Task Force. I'm a practicing attorney. I have practiced in all the boroughs of New York. My parents are both from Puerto Rico. I am born and raised here in New York. My parents had raised eight children, of which I am the seventh of the eighth. I am the only one in my family who received a college degree, let alone a law degree. I say that, because I find myself very fortunate to have received that opportunity, and I recognize that minorities do have difficulty in achieving a certain amount of success in society. That's why I commend the Senator Majority for appointing a minority to this Task Force, and acknowledging that diversity is necessary in society, and certainly as part of this process. So, thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Another member of the Task Force is Roman Hedges. MR. HEDGES: It's great to be here today. I look forward to hearing from you over the course of the day, today, and thank you for having us. SENATOR SKELOS: Senator Dollinger and Assemblyman Ortloff are here. When they come in, certainly they can make their opening remarks. Our first speaker -- and certainly we would ask everybody to stick to five minutes. We have - - right now, we're up to 82 speakers, and I'm sure there will be more. So, if you could keep your remarks to five minutes, we would appreciate it, and certainly those who follow you would appreciate it. The first speaker is Saul Scheinbach, of the Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance. Welcome. MR. SCHEINBACH: Good morning. SENATOR SKELOS: Good morning. MR. SCHEINBACH: I am the Vice President of the Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance. SENATOR SKELOS: Can you speak into the mic, please? MR. SCHEINBACH: The NBDA is a civic and political organization created a little more than a year ago, to address issues of concern -- SENATOR SKELOS: Excuse me, if you could wait just a minute. If you could close the door in the back, that might help. MR. SCHEINBACH: To address issues of concern to residents of our community and expand participation in the political process. That's why we are extremely interested in and concerned about how the lines of our State Legislative Districts are redrawn. SENATOR SKELOS: We can't hear you. If you could just MR. SCHEINBACH: You can't hear me? SENATOR SKELOS: No. MR. SCHEINBACH: How about now? SENATOR SKELOS: That's better. MR. SCHEINBACH: I want to begin by thanking the task force for its hard work thus far in developing the draft of State Legislative Districts, and for the opportunity for the community to be heard on this matter. The NBDA previously submitted a set of recommendations to the Task Force as it prepared the current proposed lines. Our central recommendation was that legislative districts should be drawn to encompass the natural boundaries of whole neighborhoods and communities, and even more specifically, that the majority portion of any legislative district in our area be located within the Bronx. Since elected officials may come and go, we believe that legislative districts should not be drawn to favor any political party or candidate for office, but should encompass whole contiguous communities, which naturally share common interests in issues such as schools, parks, public safety, the environment and housing. We believe that since the Bronx residents share a common experience and concern regarding these issues, it would be beneficial for our legislative districts to be predominantly Bronx based as opposed to being only a small part of Manhattan or Westchester legislative districts. We want to commend the Task Force for all the work it has done in redrawing the lines for the 81st Assembly District, which covers many of the communities of concern to our members. It is easy to see when looking at a map, that this district encompasses a large part of whole communities, such as Kingsbridge, Norwood, Riverdale, and Woodlawn. We think the residents of this Assembly District will be well served in having a single member of the Assembly represent them on a host of issues, for which they share a commonality of interest. However, we are very concerned about the State Senate Districts that overlap with the boundaries of the 81st Assembly District. The proposed 31st and 34th Senate Districts have been the source or ridicule by almost every concerned citizen group and media outlet, including the New York Times. These two tortured examples of political horse trading resemble the random doodlings of a two-year old, rather than a coherent attempt to group communities with common interests. We recommend that the entire 81st Assembly District be part of a single State Senate District. We believe this change will benefit all communities within this newly configured Senate District by consolidating representation into one elected official and aggregating the voices and resources of its residents. We would, also, like to take this opportunity to comment on your upcoming task of redrawing Congressional Districts in New York State. We strongly oppose the loss of a Congressional seat in the New York City area. The population of New York State grew by only 5.5% because many of the counties in upstate New York decreased in population. However, New York City grew by 9.4%, and the Bronx gained 10.7% in population. It would be a gross injustice to the voters of the City of New York if any downstate districts were lost. I guess, my time is up. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: A question, sir, a question. MR. SCHEINBACH: Yes. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: I know we're here on the State Legislative District lines, and you'll have another opportunity to be heard on the Congressional lines. But, I want to point out that the whole state is going to have to lose two Congressional Districts, and if you want to know where those districts are going to come from, the first thing I would suggest you do is find out where the line is where half the population is on one side, and half is on the other, because certainly each half is going to have to lose a seat. Up on the wall over here is the proportionate populations of the three areas of the state. The 55 upstate counties, 8,214,000. The five counties of New York City, 8,008,000, and the two counties of Nassau and Suffolk, 2,753,000. Those are the numbers that Congress, Senate and Assembly have to go by. So, as you're discussing and thinking about how the math works out, perhaps, those numbers of there will serve to guide us. MR. SCHEINBACH: Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Louis Rojas. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Vinico Tavares, T-a-v-a- r-e-s. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Ramon Cabrera. Welcome. MR. CABRERA: My name is Ramon Cabrera. I live at 2124 Harrison Avenue, number 2, in University Heights and represent the Caribe Baseball Little League. I am the President. I have lived in the northwest Bronx for 15 years and seen the growth of our neighborhoods. I have devoted my time to work with baseball little league ever since. In the northwest Bronx we have a big Hispanic community. We have approximately 15 baseball little league organizations that serves 4,500 children and adolescents of this community. 90% of this population is Hispanic, and the majority of these are Dominicans. I am here today to testify that we support the creation of the new proposed Assembly District, which will allow our neighborhoods to elect a representative of their choice, who knows and respect our needs and concerns. The growth of Latinos in the Bronx make the creation of a new district in this area an obvious choice. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much, sir. MR. CABRERA: Okay. SENATOR SKELOS: You're going to have to help me with some of these names. Y-u-g-e-l-k-a, Tapiea, T-a-p-i-e-a. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Nelson Castro. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Robert Rivers. MR. RIVERS: Good morning. SENATOR SKELOS: Welcome. MR. RIVERS: My name is Robert Rivers, Jr., and I use the Jr. I am from the Bronx. It's nice to see you gentlemen again, but I see the makeup of the Committee is the same as it was the last time we met. I see you have taken to our suggestion and made this a public meeting, where everyone can get into it, and I applaud you on that. But, my objections are the same as they were then, that we in the northeast Bronx -- you cannot hear me? SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. Rivers, maybe, if you speak directly into the microphone. MR. RIVERS: That those of us who live in the northeast Bronx, that I represent -- and since I met you, I am the President of the Thurgood Marshall Independent Democratic Club -- are happy and pleased with the representation that we now have, that we are getting into place, and we are reluctant to change the demographics. As the gentlemen previously said, I agree with the gentlemen, that New York City itself gained in population, and you showed us these numbers up here and you keep telling us, according to the numbers we must lose two -- not you, but your colleague showed us these numbers and explained these numbers to us, and said according to the numbers, is where the City will lose two Congressional seats. I know this is a State Senate and Assembly District hearing, but again, we are happy with the districts, and the representatives that we now have, and you keep insisting that according to some magical formula, you must change things. We hope that you change them for the better, because it's a foregone conclusion that you're going to change them. We hope that you change them, and you consider what the people here are telling you and not just having us coming in to do this exercise in futility. Again, you're back here in the Bronx, and I understand that this is a Bronx-Westchester hearing. There are no representatives on your panel from the Bronx or Westchester. The young man comes from Nassau County, and it's great to see Mr. Bonilla, but I don't see anyone there that looks like me, and it's time, if we're running a democratic society, that people that look like me, that represent me, be on these panels that decide the fate and the configuration of the districts in the City. Any questions, gentlemen? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MR. RIVERS: Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: And we thank you for applauding the Senate Majority in appointing Mr. Bonilla to the Task Force. MR. RIVERS: But, Mr. Bonilla is one of - - and he doesn't represent the Bronx, nor Westchester County. I think the panel should be made up to show representation from New York City and Westchester County, and it doesn't reflect that. SENATOR SKELOS: I think your complaints should be taken up with the Minority Leader of the Senate, Marty Connor, who comes from New York City, and he opted to appoint somebody from upstate. That was his decision. MR. RIVERS: But, I also made this comment at the last hearing sir, and apparently, it was ignored. Not only did I make that comment, sir, other people made the same comment. So, apparently, it was ignored by the panel is virtually the same. There is no New York City representation here or Westchester County, and I think there should be if you're going to decide the political structure down here in New York City, if you're going to decide what the districts are going to be. I think we should have some input, up front, on the panel that's drawing these different districts. Have a nice day, gentlemen, and lady. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Is Lilly here, come on up. What we're going to try to do is maybe move that table up a little bit. MS. LONZAO: Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Lilly Lonzao. I'm from Parkside Houses in the north Bronx. I'm also a Community Board member, and a community activist, so I'm very proactive in my community. I'm here on behalf of Ruth Thompson. She's been newly elected as Senator, and I would like the present boundaries to remain. In the past, we had a Senator who was not a hands on Senator, who was not committed, was never seen in our community. We had the opportunity to meet with Ruth Thompson. She's made herself available to our community and our constituents as well, and she's demonstrated that she has true dedication and concern as far as our community concerns. I, also, want to take this opportunity to also support Assemblyman Jeff Klein. I've worked with him for a number of years. I've had the opportunity to work closely with him. Any time any of my constituents or any of my community or the surrounding community, he's always been there. I think you would be doing a great disservice to our community at large for losing Jeffrey Klein. I also want to take this opportunity, that as a Hispanic and as a woman, I think that it is important that you take into consideration that as active parts of the community, we need the attention, and when we have certain political people who show true dedication in their public service, it should be at least something that we should cherish. As community individuals, I think that you should take that into consideration, because whatever changes -- have you ever heard that phrase, if it's not broke don't fix it, because maybe the changes that you do make may be the biggest mistake ever. That's all I have to say. Thank you and have a good day. SENATOR SKELOS: So, you think that one of our considerations in drawing the lines should be, perhaps, preserving existing lines in order to facilitate the continuing relationships that people such as yourself have established? MS. LONZAO: Yes. I mean, for example, Jeff Klein has always been -- any time we needed him, he's always been there, and that's why his constituents time and time again have elected him, because he's always been there for the forefront. Wherever there's a cause, whenever there's been police brutality, whenever there's been some injustice or something that isn't fair, he's always showed his true convictions, and that's honorable, and because of that, we don't have that many individuals in public service that demonstrate that quality, it's very rare in this day and age, and I think that it would be doing a great disservice to the community at large to change our district. SENATOR SKELOS: Well, I know that I've had the opportunity to work with Mr. Klein on numerous issues, whether it's concerning, the City, update or the Island, and it's been a very, very responsible relationship, and I thank you for being here today. SENATOR DOLLINGER: Could I ask one question? SENATOR SKELOS: Yes. SENATOR DOLLINGER: The question that I have is, you've talked about the importance of preserving the boundaries and relationships, but one of the things we have to deal with is the rising new voices in communities. Communities change. My question to you is, you obviously have stated a preference for maintaining current relationships, but if a community changes, shouldn't those relationships change as well, because of the nature of change in the community on the ground, where the neighborhoods change as new voices and new communities need a voice, shouldn't those be a consideration as well? MS. LONZAO: Well, you know, I'm privileged. In my community, we're a diverse community, and you know, this is not a Hispanic or Black issue, this is a people issue, and I think that, you know -- I mean, a perfect example, you know, the Assemblyman is caucasian, he's Jewish, but he's never, never ever demonstrated prejudice to a African-American, a Hispanic, and he's always had a good rapport with the community at large. I mean, the diversity doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that if you have true dedicated public servants, then don't you think that it would be doing a grand disservice to take that away from the community? We're the ones that live in these communities, we're the ones that are faced with all the trials and tribulations. If it's not because of people such as myself and others who are proactive in their community, would our voices be heard? I mean, it takes a few of us, like the former First Lady, she says it only takes a couple of people to build a small village. Well, that's what we are. Each community is a small village,and it's up to us to take responsibility, and don't insult our intelligence, because we know that it's about time that we stepped up to the plate, because the government can no longer do it for us. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much, ma'am. MS. LONZAO: Thank you, and have a good day. SENATOR SKELOS: You, too, and thank you for being here. Ed Mulrain, of the NAACP. MR. MULRAIN: Good morning. SENATOR SKELOS: Good morning. MR. MULRAIN: I'll read my testimony so that no words will go unsaid, and if it's all right, that we stand and I'll have my two assistants stand here with the map; is that okay? SENATOR SKELOS: Yes. MR. MULRAIN: So you can understand clearly what we're talking about. I think visual is good. The Coalition of Bronx NAACP branches would like to thank the State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment for allowing us this opportunity to speak on behalf of our constituency in the Bronx. As you know, the NAACP is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, with over 2,000 branches worldwide. The Coalition of Bronx NAACP branches, with over 2,00 members, make up four branches throughout the Bronx, which includes Bronx Branch, Co-op City Branch, Parkchester Branch and the Williamsbridge Branch. The Coalition of Bronx Branches have reviewed the redistricting lines proposed by the Task Force and find them to be grossly misrepresenting at best and totally unfair at worse. The NAACP has always protected the rights of African Americans who were under represented or misrepresented. This proposal by the Task Force not only disempowers the African American community, it denies it its basic right for fair and proper representation. The 2000 Census suggests that 46% of the Bronx population is Hispanic, while 34% is Black and 14% is White. The proposed plan by the Task Forces gives Whites the same number of Assembly Districts as Blacks, whose population is almost two times more. The current proposal by the Task Force would give Hispanics 46% of the representation of the Bronx while giving Whites and Blacks the same share of 27% representation. This is unfair and unequal representation. The Coalition of Bronx NAACP Branches have proposed a way to fix the inadequacy and unfairness of the Task Force proposal. We have redrawn the lines to promote a fair fight, better representative Assembly District in the north Bronx. The proposed Assembly District by the NAACP would make it possible for African Americans to compete for the district in order to better represent a viable constituency in the Bronx. Using the 82nd Assembly District and Co- op City as an anchor, the NAACP would reverse the Task Force lines to the north and bring them west towards Pelham Parkway and into the Norwood Section of the Bronx, ending with the landmark buildings of Tracy Towers. These lines would better represent the Bronx's overall population shift according to the Census. With the NAACP proposed lines for the new Assembly District, Whites have 18% of the representation and Blacks have 36% of the representation, all in proportion to their population. What has kept the NAACP alive is the fear of turning back the clock of time, those days when discrimination and misrepresentation was the order of the day and no justice could be found for miles. We don't want to turn back the clock. Instead, we want to declare, as we all raise our flags, that America is fair and wrong can be turned to right and injustice to justice. We believe that those who hold the power of the pen can draw the lines that fairly represent all women and men. We hope that you will redraw the lines that the NAACP has proposed, and that you will consider our fair representation and our fair way of drawing these lines. Thank you for your time in this matter. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Assemblyman Parment. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Yes, so that I am sure I understand your proposal, these lines that you show are suggested districts to be created in the Bronx, the enclosed by the red line? MR. MULRAIN: Right. The red lines outline the lines that we would like to propose for the district. Currently, the district goes toward the north. Instead, we would reverse the 82nd Assembly District and move it towards the west, so that it takes into the population that's in proportion to the Census data in the Bronx, and that we could have a fair fight district in the Bronx, so that another African American could run for the seat, and it would simply be a fair fight district, which means that it takes into the population consistent with the information that we've received. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: And would your plan maintain the existing 83rd District westerly boundary as is? MR. MULRAIN: I'm sorry? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: The westerly boundary on the current 83rd District, where would that fall? MR. MULRAIN: The westerly boundary would go towards Pelham into Co-op City, all the way over to Tracy Towers in the Norwood section. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: What about the west boundary of the current 83rd District; what shape would that be? MR. MULRAIN: The current 83rd Assembly District would basically remain the same. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: It would; okay. MR. MULRAIN: I mean, we went slightly into the 83rd, but the overall 83rd Assembly District would remain the same, and then it wouldn't take anything away from any other constituency, because if they felt like running, they could still run and represent that constituency. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: You mentioned percentages of population. Do you have a number of what the proposed district total populations would be in those two districts that are outlined? MR. MULRAIN: The proposed 82nd Assembly District? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Correct. MR. MULRAIN: It would be 42% Black, 32% Hispanic, and 19% White. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: What would the total population be? MR. MULRAIN: Oh, 121,000. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: And that's the case with the 82nd that you've drawn there, 121,000? MR. MULRAIN: Right, 121,000 give or take. But, according to the Assembly Districts, they're supposed to be within that range. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Okay. thank you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: May I? SENATOR SKELOS: Go ahead. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: I don't want argue with you, but the appropriate average Assembly District is 126,510. MR. MULRAIN: Right. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: These districts are already too small. MR. MULRAIN: We used this as an average of what we've given you here today. We can make the numbers. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: You can make the 126,510? MR. MULRAIN: We can make the 126,510. Just keep it a fair fight district. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: I believe you can. That's a -- I just wanted to point out that it's not 121,000, it's 126,000. Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Charles Quinlan. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Is Charles Quinlan here? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Tomas Suero, S-u-e-r-o. MR. SUERO: Good morning. SENATOR SKELOS: We welcome you. MR. SUERO: I am Tomas Francisco Suero. I live in the Bronx -- SENATOR SKELOS: Can you just get a little bit closer to the microphone? MR. SUERO: All right, I am Tomas Francisco Suero. I'm living in the Bronx for about ten years. I bought a house in 152 West 175th Street. I represent the Coalition for a Just Dominican and Hispanic Representation in the District. I'm going to read my testimony in Spanish, but I'll give you ten of them in English; all right? SENATOR SKELOS: We do have a person that can interpret it if you would like. MR. SUERO: Mr. President, and members of the committee of the political distribution of the State of New York, the Coalition for a Just Representation in the Bronx. This coalition which includes more than 40 organizations, community leaders, professional associations, commercial leaders, religious congregations and others, take this opportunity to let it be known its wishes that districts be created that reflect the characteristics of its population. We have seen the districts proposed by the committee for the political distribution by the Assembly of New York for the Bronx borough. We have, also, checked the plans presented by the committee for the rights of the voters of the Metro New York area, and we support the two plans. Such plans include the creation of a new Assembly District, which covers the following neighborhoods, University Heights, Morris Heights, Tremont, Fordham and Kingsbridge Heights. The creation of this new district would maintain our community unified, which is in accordance with the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. Also, such criteria of the traditional political distribution, which includes that the communities be compact and contiguous, respecting political subdivisions, also preserving the common interests, and also protecting the incumbents and reaching the political goals, the court has recognized as additional factors, the following. Countries with a common origin, cultural ties and economic characteristics, common means of communication, public services shared by the community, including health clinics, stores, public transportation, work places, and also, a means of voting. This new Assembly District satisfied all the criteria of the political distribution previously mentioned. It will be a compact district, with a majority of its population that resides in the northwest of the Bronx. It will preserve a common interest with commercial ties. This district will respect the political subdivisions. It will also protect incumbents and will reach the political goal of empowerment, and it will give a voice to the community with common interests in the Assembly of the State. Also, it will be a great opportunity to elect a representative which will understand the needs and the wishes of the community. During the last decade the Hispanic community in New York experienced a tremendous growth. The 2000 Census registered that the Hispanic community represents 27% of the total population of the City of New York. The Dominican community has experienced the largest growth within that community, making it one of the biggest Hispanic communities in the Bronx, of the City of New York, and the nation. The Dominican Community has made great contributions to the Bronx, the City, and the nation. It is a hard working community, which owns approximately 1,500 small businesses in the northwest Bronx and over 6,000 in the entire City, and it has approximately $2 billion in its buying power. Nevertheless, this neighborhoods only count with the representation of a member in the Assembly, and one member in the City Council. The time has come for these common interests to allow us to obtain a post in the political table. The time has come for this community in the Bronx to have the opportunity to elect its favorite candidate for the State Assembly. The creation of a new Assembly District will allow this community to simply do that. The organizations and individuals signing below are all in support of the creation of the proposed new Assembly District, which will finally give a voice to this presently silent community. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. It won't be necessary to read all of them. Would you please give the stenographer the testimony so we can make sure we have the names, and we thank you for being here. Luis Alvarez. (Applause.) MR. ALVAREZ: Good morning to everybody. My name is Luis Alvarez. I am a labor organizer for Local 1199 and, also, a community activist in the Bronx. Mr. Chairman, and members of the Reapportionment Task Force, the Coalition for a Fair Representation in the Bronx, comprising of more than 40 community based organizations, community leaders, professional associations, business leaders, religious congregations, among others, takes this opportunity to make known its wishes for the creation of districts that are reflective of the characteristics of the residents that inhabit them. We have reviewed the proposed Task Force districts for the Bronx, specifically the newly created AD 86, and the proposed AD 78. We, also, reviewed the proposed plan from the Latino Voting Rights Committee of Metro New York, and we strongly support both submissions. The new district will connect the following neighborhoods. University Heights, Morris Heights, Tremont, Fordham and Kingsbridge Heights. The creation of this new district will keep the community together in accord with the rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to the traditional redistricting criteria that include compactness and contiguity, respecting political subdivisions, preserving communities of interest, protecting the incumbents, and meetings political goals, the court has recognized as additional criteria to be keep in mind. For example, common country of origin, cultural background and economic status, common medical markets, shared community services, including health clinics, stores, public transportation and work places, and voting patterns. This new Assembly District would satisfy all of the redistricting criteria. It will be a compact district with a majority of its inhabitants residing in the northwest Bronx. It will preserve an entire community of interest bound together by business, professional, cultural, health and community based organizations. It will respect the current political subdivisions. It will protect incumbents and meet political goals, and the entire community of interest will be empowered, giving it a voice in the New York State Assembly, and an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice. During the last decade, this Hispanic community in New York, as you know, Mr. Chairman, experienced tremendous growth. The 2000 Census has the Hispanic community representing 27% of the total population of the City of New York. The Dominican community has experienced the most growth within the Hispanic community, making it one of the largest Hispanic communities in the Bronx, New York, and the nation. The Dominican Community has made great contributions to the Bronx, the City, and the nation. It is a hard working community, which owns approximately 1,500 small businesses in the northwest Bronx and over 6,000 in the entire City, and has approximately $2 billion in its buying power. However, this community can only count with the representation in our neighborhood of only one the Assembly member, and one member in the City Council. Mr. Chairman, the Dominican community have only two representatives, a City Council member from Washington Heights, and also, an Assembly member, also, in Washington Heights. We don't have any political representation in the Bronx, even when we are the second largest Hispanic group in the Bronx. The time has come for this common of interest to obtain its own representation in the political table. The time has come for this emerging community in the Bronx to have the opportunity to elect a candidate of its choice to represent it in the State Assembly. The creation of the new Assembly District will permit this community to do just that. The organizations and individuals signing below are in support of the creation of that proposed new Assembly District, which will finally give a voice to this presently silent community. I'm going to read the following organizations. Episcopal Church The Mediator, Bronx Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Great Alliance Democratic Club, Club Deportivo & Cultural 30 de Marzo, Dominican Women Caucus, Dominican Coalition of New York, Center for the Development and Protection of Dominicans, Caribe Baseball Little League, Inc., Hermandad Dominicana, Fundacion de Becas para Estudiantes Dominicanos, Alianza Maena, Asociacion Egresados de la UASD, Asociacion Cotuisana USA, US Healthcare, Liga Deportiva Los Diamantes, Liga Deportiva Sol Naciente, Movimiento Deportivo & Cultural Dominicano, La Mano News, Asociacion de Mujeres Progresistas, Asosciacion de Navarretes Ausentes, Centro Hispano Dominicano, All Green Corporation, Parada Dominicana de New York, Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana, Congreso Dominicano USA, Bhomea Arte Vivo, Prestige Car Service, Asociacion de Enriquillences Ausentes, Quick Services Center Corp., The Computer Repair Networking Organization, the Bridge to Martial Arts, Rev. Luis Barrios, Dr. Rafael Lantigua, Guillermo Linares, Miguel Martinez, City Council Member, David Rivas, Dr. Bienvenido Fajardo. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MR. ALVAREZ: As you know, Mr. Chairman, I just only stress that this is a big opportunity to allow our community to have a fair representation. Thank you so much. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. I'm just going to remind everybody, the Task Force has indicated in its notice, and at the beginning of the meeting, and we're going to ask you to keep your testimony to five minutes. We have a lot of people that are looking to testify. The Task Force will be here all day, all night if we have to be to take all the testimony, but for those who are waiting patiently, we're going to ask everybody for five minutes. I you have testimony, you can submit it. It will be the same weight as oral testimony, but please, from now on five minutes. Joe G-o-u-b-e-a-u-d. MR. GOUBEAUD: Good morning. It's Joe Goubeaud, 22 West 1st Street, Mount Vernon, New York. SENATOR SKELOS: Nice to see you again. MR. GOUBEAUD: Nice to see you. I had come before you when you were in Westchester back in July. I've had an opportunity to look at the plan that you've come up with, and I'd like to thank you for listening, at least part of the way, to that plan. We had asked you at that point in time, on behalf of the citizens of Mount Vernon, to keep those cross county line districts with respect to the Senate and, also, the fact that we had two Assembly people at that point in time. I see that you did, with respect to the Senate plan, continue the concept of having two different Senators represent the City of Mount Vernon, and while it does run over the Bronx and Westchester border and people sometimes point out that that may not be the best. I would argue that it is, and I would ask you to continue with that plan. As you see, if you draw on the map, and you follow what would be, presumably the border between the Bronx and Westchester, you see that there is a jut which runs up into Westchester. I don't know what happened roughly 120 years ago, when they decided where that line should go, but if you look at all of the properties on the tax map in the City of Mount Vernon, which abut the Bronx, every one of them has the city and county line drawn through the middle of it and, apparently, every tax lot there is part in the Bronx and part in Westchester. Presumably, it goes back to the concept that all of what is now Westchester County and much of what was the Bronx was all Westchester County before the turn of the century. If you look at the earlier maps, the town of Eastchester ran from where Eastchester currently is today, all the way to Throgs Neck, which was located in the Bronx as well, and was to the west of that. That's why it became Westchester. If you look even the murals that are depicted here in this room, it indicates that Westchester was in the Bronx. So, they do have that commonality of interest that we would think should be considered by the new districts. I know there had been some talk of extending one or two of the Senate Districts over into Queens. Having spoken with people from Representative Lowey's office, which currently has part of Westchester, part the Bronx, and part Queens, they had indicated quite a bit of difficulty in terms of melding the interests of the various counties. The current plan would, I believe, serve the City of Mount Vernon, and the County of Westchester, and those people in the 34th and 35th Senate District very well. Initially, I had said you hadn't done so good, and that was with regard to Assembly Districts. I think with regard to Assemblyman Pretlow's (phonetic), guidelines or boundaries, it might have been wiser to run his district into that northern Bronx area, because as I said, there is still a commonality of interest among many of the people who are there. I'm a practicing attorney. I practice in the City of Mount Vernon, and you see many of the clients come in, they come in from both areas. They do feel that there is a community there, and the communities that are there are well represented. Mount Vernon, being only four square miles, but containing 70,000 people, being one of the most densely populated cities on the east coast, needs to have more voices in Albany. In the past, we've been represented as many as three Senators. 1982 to 1992, we were in three Senate Districts, and had three Senators represent us. Prior to that, we were all in one district, which was represented by Senator Pizzani (phonetic), and it also included New Rochelle and the south shore, and Mount Vernon was kind of the tail on the cat. Since we've been represented by more than one Senator, we have, I believe, obtained our fair share. As I said, it's only four square miles, but it contains 100 different divergent population sources. We have a parade each year where we honor the diversity that we do have. Accordingly, I believe we are represented very well by the two Senators that we do have, and with the currently Assembly where it is. It's been lovely to see you this morning, and I do want to thank you for holding the Bronx Westchester hearing at a time when we can all be here. SENATOR SKELOS: Let me ask you a question. Your Senators in Mount Vernon are? MR. GOUBEAUD: The Senators we currently have in Mount Vernon are Senator Guy Valella (phonetic), and Senator Ruth Thompson. SENATOR SKELOS: And you think it's important that where we can as a task force, that we preserve existing lines because you've established relationships with your representatives, people are used to who their representatives are, and that's something that we should consider? MR. GOUBEAUD: I think that that is important. Senator Valella and Senator Thompson have represented the area very well. And as I said, while it does cross that imaginary boundary line between the Bronx and Westchester, the communities that are there are represented well by those that are currently in office, and I believe there should be a continuity with respect to that representation. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Any other questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. Good seeing you again. MR. GOUBEAUD: Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: Joe Solomine. How are you? MR. SOLOMINE: I am Joe Solomine. I am the Supervisor for the Town of Pelham. My comments will be very brief. When last we met in White Plains, if you recall, Mayor Davis and I stood together. We talked about advocating - SENATOR SKELOS: I'm not sure if you have to move the mic away a little bit or closer, we'll try it that way. MR. SOLOMINE: Is that any better? SENATOR SKELOS: We can barely hear you. MR. SOLOMINE: Is that better? SENATOR SKELOS: Yes. MR. SOLOMINE: I'm the Supervisor for the Town of Pelham. Pelham is the southern most town in Westchester County. The population is 12,000. We're right between New Rochelle and Mount Vernon. When last we met in White Plains, I think you'll recall Mayor Davis and I were advocating the status quo in the 34th Senatorial District, which is represented by Senator Valella. I'd like to compliment you, I think you listened. I think the Senatorial plan that you've devised has identified what wished. There's a general feeling out there, in the locally elected officials, that state elected officials just don't listen to us, and you did, and I appreciate that. I think it works. The relationships that have been developed in the southern tier with Ruth and Guy works, and I want to thank you for that. Basically, you know, this feeling of Bronx and Westchester and boundary lines, you know, I'm originally from the Bronx, born and raised in the Bronx. Pelham Bay. I don't know if any of you are Kiwanians, do any of you belong to the Kiwanis Clubs? I don't know if you know this, but Bronx and Westchester are a division. The southern part of the Bronx -- I mean, northern part of the Bronx, and the southern part of Westchester are a division because of the commonality, the hospitals that we service, the churches that we service, the youth programs that we service. They interlock so much, so there is a real commonality of interest. That's basically my statement. If you would like to engage me in a question or two, I'd be happy to entertain them. Otherwise, that's my statement. Thank you for being so responsive. SENATOR SKELOS: Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. Jim Vacca. MR. VACCA: Hello, my name is James Vacca, and although I don't represent any organization today, for identification purposes, I've been District Manager of Community Board 10 in the Bronx for 21 years, and I've also served as -- SENATOR SKELOS: Could you just wait a minute? If you just move away from the mic, let's try it that way, moving it away from the mic. MR. VACCA: Okay. My name is James Vacca, V-a-c-c-a. Is that better? SENATOR SKELOS: Just keep going. If he can hear you, that's what's important. MR. VACCA: Okay. My name is James Vacca, and although I do not represent any organization today, for identification purposes, I am the District Manager of Community Board 10 in the Bronx, where I have served for 21 years. I have also served as Vice President of the Pelham Bay Taxpayers, as an Executive member of my Precinct Council. I have been very, very active in the northeast Bronx, and all of its civic associations and fraternal groups for many, many years. When I look at the map for the 34th State Senate District, I really have to say it brings back memories, because in 1975, I served as President of the Northeast Bronx Community Council, which was a federation of 25 civic associations and those civic associations spanned an entire community in the northeast Bronx, and we were brought together to fight common issues, high real estate taxes, the Pelham Bay garbage dump. These were issues that impacted many, many communities. Well, those communities banded together in the '70s, and those communities have been left intact by your proposed map of the 34th State Senate District. It's important that communities with common interests be grouped into contiguous districts. Insomuch as what I see at the 34th District, it's very much like it is now. It groups neighborhoods with common concerns. In fact, in my community, I'm a resident of Throgs Neck, we basically coined the term quality of life, and quality of life issues are what dominate the 34th Senate District. I would add that I know it goes into Westchester County, but those of you who know the Bronx, and who know Westchester County, know that one house in the Bronx is bordered by the next house that's in Pelham Manor. Mount Vernon is across the street from the Bronx. People who live in Yonkers lived in the Bronx all their lives before moving to Yonkers. We have friends, family, we're not separated by bridges. We're not separated by vast park land. It is really a district where people in the suburbs border people in the city and face common issues. We have a continuity of interests. So, therefore, I hope that when this commission, who I know has worked very hard and who I thank for your diligent efforts, that when this commission reviews the testimony, you will decide to keep the boundary lines of the proposed 34th intact, as is, because they group neighborhoods with similar issues and similar concerns together. Thank you. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Jim O'Toole. If I could ask the people in the audience, it's getting a little noisy, and it's very difficult to hear. So, if we could just keep the chatter down or at least move it to the back, it would be appreciated. Thank you. MR. O'TOOLE: Ladies and gentlemen, my name is John T. O'Toole. I'm a resident of Yonkers, however I did spend my more than formative years in the Bronx. I've been reminded of that by Mr. Vacca, who I have not seen in 25 years. I want to thank you for hearing me today. Most of all, I want to thank you for listening to the community. I, too, was one of those people who testified before you in White Plains. I testified before you in favor of keeping Senator Guy Valella in Yonkers, in Westchester County. I should precede this by saying that I am Chairman of the Board of Bryn Mawr Knolls Taxpayers, and the former Chairman of the Save Yonkers Federation, which was na umbrella group in Yonkers of 40 taxpayer groups, which is in reformation. I appreciate the fact that it appears that you have listened to the community. I have not seen the lines, but what's been explained to me, the proposed Senate plan is much better than any other plan I have heard about. I've heard the plans about Queens, I've heard plans about taking the Senator and pushing him down into the Bronx, all sorts of things. The community would be against any of these changes. The residents of Westchester and the Bronx share certain issues, as has been indicated before to you. Most of us, like myself grew up in the Bronx, or lived in the Bronx at some time and now have moved to Westchester. We share issues on school, crime, property tax, most of those. Senator Guy Valella has been the most responsive State Senator that I have experienced in all my years of life. Senator Valella works for his district and its residents. He is responsive, as I said, he's helpful, and he's supportive to community needs. He has bridge the gap, if there is one, between the Bronx, the northwest Bronx, the northeast Bronx, and Westchester County. He has brought them together, brought their residents together, and we've addressed issues together. There are natural borders, as has been explained to you between the Bronx and Westchester. I feel like I've been listening here today, and I may be in the minority. You know, I believe in one nation under God. I believe that the best person to do a job, the most successful person that does a job, should be allowed or at least able to do a job. I don't believe - - you know, if what I've heard here today is followed by you guys, we'll have a State Senate, and Assembly, and a City Council of maybe 235 people, because everybody is going to want one representative on it. We have to stick with what's best for the community, what's best for the taxpayers, what's best for the voters. In my opinion, in Yonkers, that's keeping Guy Valella, and I thank you very much. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: The next witness is John, F-r-a-t-i-a. Is John here? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: David Burrell. MR. BURRELL: Good morning, all. Before I begin, I have to state that in my testimony before you there is a typo, and when I reach that line, I will tell you what that typo is. My name is David Burrell, and I am a resident of the northeast Bronx, which is served by State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson. I am a member of the Eastchester Heights Tenants Advisory Board, which serves over 1,400 families. I am, also, a community activist, and I serve the Williamsbridge and Baychester sections of the Bronx. I first met now State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, at a meeting of the Thurgood Marshall Independent Democratic Club. After examining her record, I was impressed with her experience as a legislator, and with her dedication to the people she served in Mount Vernon. Her past record included her stand on community issues, such as children and education, the elderly, health, the quality of life and family values. As a State Senator, she has maintained her dedication to the people she serves, and has established an open rapport and dialogue with the community. My community has not had the privilege of such a legislator for many years. I say now my community is confident in its senatorial representation, and I look forward to working with her for many years to come. At this time, I want to state that I am in full support of the Task Force proposal for State Senate District 36, and I welcome new constituents to my community. SENATOR SKELOS: Now, you've indicated that you're in support of the Task Force recommendation, at this point, or proposed lines -- MR. BURRELL: That's correct. SENATOR SKELOS: -- for this Senate District, that is presently represented by Senator Hassell-Thompson. MR. BURRELL: That's correct. SENATOR SKELOS: And you think it's important that, basically, the communities, whether it's Westchester or the Bronx have developed a relationship with her, that would be good to continue if we keep the district the way it is? MR. BURRELL: Absolutely. SENATOR SKELOS: Okay, thank you. MR. BURRELL: Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Monica Berry. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Is Monica Berry here? Welcome. MS. BERRY: Good morning. Good morning, my name is Monica Berry, and it's a pleasure for me to be here this morning on behalf of Senator Ruth Thompson. I am the President of the Parkside Association, and our organization works very, very hard in order to provide our residents and our community with the assistance and the support that they need to have. Our community is a very diverse community. We try to have as many types of community activities and meetings so that people can be proactive in working together. Our community has, also, in the most recent years, been kind of disenfranchised, because some of the services of some of our political people were words only. Words are great, but we need someone who is going to provide the services to our residents, and meet their concerns. At this point, Senator Ruth Thompson is our newly elected Senator. Our community came out and voted strongly for her. She has come out already to our community and has reached out, inquired about some of the concerns, and is moving to action to resolve some of those. Any change at this point in time would be very heartfelt for our community. We need to have Senator Thompson remain with us. We need the boundary lines to remain the same, so that the services that she is now beginning to fulfill for our community will remain consistent. It is important because we are a community. We are family. Our needs are the same. She has said to us that she will be there for us. Others have said that, but others have not been. So, please, with the boundary lines, please keep them the same so that we can continue to forge our relationship with our new Senator. I thank you. I would, also, like to use this time to speak on behalf of Assemblyman Jeff Klein. Again, our community has worked very diligently with him. He is a person whose office door is always open. We have worked with him for many years. He visits our community, he holds meetings. He hears what our constituents have to say. It is important, again, that these lines remain the same, so that we can continue the relationship that we have with him. As you all know, anyone who has worked with Assemblyman Klein, knows his fairness, knows his openness, and knows that he will do anything to try to help a community or help an individual. Because of his involvement over the past number of years, again, our residents, and our community have hope. He has been the beacon of light that has helped people to say there are political people whose word can be trusted. This is important. Communities need to know that there are people working on their behalf. A lot of folks do not understand what the changing of boundaries and lines can do. They only know that when their person that they have voted for is no longer there, or is being threatened, that they will come out on their behalf. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of Senator Ruth Thompson, and Assemblyman Jeff Klein. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: If I could just ask you a question. As I mentioned earlier, with Jeff Klein I, too, have -- we're of opposite parties, but have developed a wonderful relationship working on legislation that I know that Senator Hannon has been involved with as Chair of the Health Committee to help Calvary Hospital, even though it's not within our districts. We've established tremendous relationships there with Nassau and the Bronx, and I believe that's what government should be about. MS. BERRY: Absolutely. SENATOR SKELOS: And certainly I would say you're relatively or you are happy with the lines that we've drawn right now for Senator Thompson, and for Assemblyman Klein, and you would ask us to preserve these district lines as drawn, because you have established a relationship with these legislators, and you think the lines are appropriate as drawn? MS. BERRY: Absolutely. For a community at one time, which was not proactive, not interested, and disenfranchised, a new light has been triggered by their involvement, and as a community leader, it would sadden us to have our constituents be disappointed. So, we do want those lines to remain the same. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MS. BERRY: Thank you very much. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Ray Solano. Before you start, I would like to mention, there are some of our members here. I know that Senator Valella is here. Senator, we welcome you. I'm not sure if there are any other State Senators here. If you are, I do welcome you. Assemblyman Parment. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Yes, I would like to recognize Peter Rivera, who is here in the audience, and Gary Pretlow. Hopefully, I haven't missed any of my other colleagues, but I know those two are here. Welcome. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MR. SOLANO: Good morning. Thank you for this hearing. I want to thank you specifically for listening to us a few months ago, and for keeping the 34th Senate District similar to what it was before. I have to tell you, I'm a little biased because I own a medical supply company in Westchester, and I live in the Bronx. So, I've had a tremendous experience working with Senator Guy Valella's office. I have to tell you, having been a lifelong resident in the north Bronx, that all of my friends either live in the north Bronx, or live in Westchester, and their parents still live in the north Bronx. So, there is a tremendous commonality of interest in terms of, just thinking about my family, where my parents live, and where my sisters live in Westchester. I'm very excited about you keeping the lines the same, because if you recall, the lines were redrawn about ten years ago, and if you look at what's happened in the Bronx and Westchester County, you've seen a tremendous success in delivering services to the community, capital improvement, our roadways have increased. For me, it takes me about 15 minutes to go to my business, and then to go back to my home. So, I can tell you friends and family -- I'm basically speaking from the heart, are very excited about keeping the Senate District the same as it was, that you developed ten years ago. One thing I am adamantly opposed to is making this Senate District part of Queens County. If you know the history of Queens -- I don't know, some of the Assemblyman, the communities you represent, but Queens County probably about 100 years ago, was part of Long Island, and as a matter of fact, as you said, when you mail out a letter to somebody that lives in Queens County, you must put the respective town, because there are many 69th Avenues, Glendale, Fresh Meadows, Middle Village, Maspeth. Those communities have common interests with Long Island. So, I must tell you, that I like to stay the course and keep Bronx-Westchester in that 34th Senate District, and I am adamantly opposed to putting Queens County in the district. Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. Jon Agusto. MR. AGUSTO: Good morning. My name is Jonathan Agusto. I'm representing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I agree with the proposed change of the lines. It's beneficial to all the communities, to all the businesses in the Bronx. As a Bronx resident myself, I notice sometimes the districts are not fairly represented, but I also feel that the new changes will make this borough, and all the district in the borough fairly represented. That's all I had to say today. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Juan Carlos Polanco. We welcome you. MR. POLANCO: Good morning. Thank you. My name is J.C. Polanco, and I'm a Bronx resident. Thank you for being here today. I know you guys were beaten up this morning for not being from the area, but the fact that you care enough to be here this morning speaks for itself. Again, you've paid careful attention in the past to the concerns of the constituents, and I hope that, once again, you take our concerns under consideration. I am here to express my concerns about some who are not content with the plan presented by the New York State Senate. I have studied the alternative ideas and can tell you ,without a doubt, that the proposed Senate plan is by far what's best for us the constituents. The Senate has demonstrated, once again, its understanding that keeping neighborhoods together is vital. It's vital for running the operations of day to day government. Just think about it for a second. In the Bronx itself, our Senator, Guy Valella, has managed to take neighborhoods from far northeast Bronx, and the northwest Bronx and bring us together and, also, neighborhoods from Westchester County, and I want to take this opportunity to explain that we do share very similar demographics in the northeast and northwest Bronx, with our Westchester counterparts. Demographics, such as age group, annual income, and concerns such as crime, education, high taxes, property taxes at that, and you can even ask our neighbors in Westchester, being Pelham, New Rochelle and Yonkers, whether they share more with the northwest and northeast Bronx, than they do with their Chappaqua, White Plains neighbors. Just ask the Clintons, I guess. The issue of Queens County, I think, should be taken into consideration. We have very dissimilar interests, us and the 34th, that proposed 34th Senatorial District. For example, we don't have an airport in our backyard, and that alone is a huge problem that us in the 34th Senatorial District, we have nothing to do with. I want to make sure that the Committee understands that Senator Valella leading the fight in Albany, as a powerful member of the majority, has been able to pay careful attention to the details in the neighborhoods, whether it's parking or the Norwood Volunteers, which I head. He has been there for us day to day. I want this committee to understand this carefully. Any plan of redistricting that you heard this morning, for example, from one of the organizations, based on race, is absolutely prejudicial, and to think that we should make our districts representative of some proportion of races and ethnicities, and make an assumption of how they're going to vote is absurd, and I want to make sure that this committee decides to keep the 34th Senatorial District the way it is. It is incumbent that you do it. We need Senator Valella in there fighting for us in the Senate in Albany and in our Bronx community. I thank you again, for taking this opportunity. SENATOR SKELOS: I have a question for you. MR. POLANCO: Please. SENATOR SKELOS: The Senate line as drawn in the '90s, and as proposed now for the next ten years, you believe that your community has been effectively represented? MR. POLANCO: Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt. I think -- just picture it for a second. We have a powerful Senator in Albany, who cares about the district. Why would anyone want to change a powerful Senator? He not only cares about the district, but has managed to keep people of all different ethnic groups, and as you heard earlier from Mr. Vacca, all the different civic groups and organizations together. Why mess with that on some proposal of prejudicial ideas based on ethnicity and percentage is absolutely absurd. SENATOR SKELOS: I believe two of the prior witnesses, Mr. Burrell, and Ms. Berry, indicated that their district they're very happy with their district lines, the representation that Senator Hassell- Thompson has provided, and they want us to keep those lines the same, also. MR. POLANCO: Right. SENATOR SKELOS: So, what you're basically saying, where a community has established a relationship with a legislator, whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, and sometimes the Assembly or the Senate, that it is appropriate for the Task Force to take this into consideration when drawing the lines. MR. POLANCO: Definitely. You must take that into consideration. Forget about race percentages, and forget about voter registration, because we're in a district in the 34th Senatorial District, where our Senator is a four to one underdog, as far as Democrat to Republican, but we continue sending him up there to fight for us, and he continues to win. There is a point that you also forget about race when it comes to this and you consider issues. I'm an educator myself, and I can tell you that Senator Valella has fought for education. I'm a public high school educator in the Bronx, and I can tell you without a doubt, that he is a person that we need representing the Bronx in terms of education in Albany, and that's just one of the issues. We must keep him up there, we must keep the Senatorial Districts the way they are. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MR. POLANCO: Are there any other questions? SENATOR DOLLINGER: I just have a quick comment. Your comment about race and other issues, I would just point out that your suggestion that we can ignore these really flies in the face of, frankly, legal restraints that are placed upon us. The Voting Rights Act, the Federal Voting Rights Act, and other requirements from the United States Supreme Court say that we can't ignore it. How we deal with it -- (Applause.) SENATOR DOLLINGER: How we deal with that issue is a matter left to the Legislature, to this Task Force, and to the State Legislature and the Governor. And the other thing I just want to say, I appreciate your comments about the hardworking Senator Valella. There's no question we heard at the last hearings, we've heard today, about the importance of having someone who does a good job. But, I would suggest that the notion simply of having a good legislator, somebody who works and does the right thing is not the preeminent concern that we have. We're looking at contiguousness, compactness, Federal Voting Rights requirements, State Constitutional requirements, and Federal Constitutional requirements. We can look at incumbency. We can look at the way communities have representative who have served them well for a long period of time, but the question we have to answer in this Task Force, and in the State Legislature, is to what extent that becomes the preeminent factor in all those other factors. So, I appreciate your comments about Senator Valella, we've heard them in the past. But, in considering the options and the choices and the variables that we use, that's one of them. It's not the only one. That's the point I want to make. MR. POLANCO: Is that a question; can I answer? SENATOR DOLLINGER: You can comment if you wish. MR. POLANCO: Thank you, Senator. I appreciate the comment, however, I am, also, a second year law student at Fordham Law School, and I got an A in Constitutional Law, and I could tell you I know very much about the Voting Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act, as it pertains to the 34th Senatorial District, I need you to understand that racial gerrymandering is what the Voting Rights Act was after, and any sort of proposal brought to this committee on the fact that we should not create Senatorial lines and Assembly lines on the basis of race is racial gerrymandering. I think that it is wrong, and it is wrong for the committee to undertake. Thank you once again, and I appreciate your time. SENATOR SKELOS: There is a proposal, I believe, that would take this district, and I think it was touched upon, and totally reverse it and put it into Queens. I mean, would you consider that a political gerrymander? MR. POLANCO: That would be a political gerrymandering, of course. Why take a community that is so close together, as far as issues involving property tax, education, and crime, quality of life issues, and take millions of gallons of water, a bridge and some new airports to divide us on the whole point of gerrymandering. I think it's totally wrong, and I think the committee should really look at the interests of the constituents, like you did in the past. You've done a great job as far as listening to us, and I hope you take our concerns under consideration again. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MR. POLANCO: Thank you very much, Senator. SENATOR SKELOS: Peter DiPaola. MAYOR DI PAOLA: Well, you're going to hear some more good things about Senator Valella. Good morning. My name is Peter DiPaola. I live in Pelham Manor, Westchester County, and presently, I am the Mayor of Pelham Manor. I want to thank you for allowing me to speak today concerning the Senate's plan for redistricting. In previous appearances before this committee, the community had suggestions that were put before you, and this committee listened and responded by following those suggestions. You understood that the problems and concerns of the northeast Bronx, the northwest Bronx and lower Westchester are similar. Many of these problems and concerns can't be separated by a man made line on a map. There are issues that these neighboring communities face such as crime, runaway property taxes, school funding, and school security. These problems and situations need to be addressed by representatives who are responsible and responsive to all who live in these contiguous communities. We have nothing in common in this area with the residents of Queens. These people are not only separated from us by a natural divide, they Long Island Sound, but by different concerns. They have needs unrelated to the ones we have or are concerned with. Queens is affected by airport traffic and sound pollution problems. They're affected by of highway congestion, flooding, shoreline erosion and concerns that are not held in common with the northeast and northwest Bronx, and lower Westchester County. As a representative of a lower Westchester County community, I want to express my gratitude to Senator Valella for all he has done for the region he has represented. Whatever the situation or the need that has arisen, Senator Valella has always been there for all the people he represents. He has been a champion for the aged, tending to their needs. Whether it has been a community transport van, or fixing up a senior citizens center or meals on wheels program, the Senator has come through for his constituents. If a children's program has a need for assistance, Senator Guy Valella is the guy you call. He has helped after school programs, organized recreation and day care programs. Our concerns for our children have been his concerns. The respect he has for the great war veterans of our glorious nation is evident in the assistance he has secured for tax relief, medical funding, and in securing funds for memorials to honor our heroes. Senator Valella has worked to improve conditions for commuters in this district by upgrading parking and stations. This makes train travel more attractive, and reduces automobile usage, and reduces pollution and congestion. Senator Valella, along with Senator Thompson, and Assembly persons Klein and Kaufman, have served their community in a truly bipartisan fashion. They have managed to bring together political organizations, religious groups, and people of diverse ethnic backgrounds in both the Bronx and Westchester. This is why I feel strongly that the Senate plan is much better than any plan that anyone has proposed. The Senate plan is going to preserve the status quo in the best way it can. We want things to remain the way they are now, and any attempt to change, we are against, and we hope you will listen to our wishes. I thank you for listening to me, and hope that you will heed the request of our joint communities. I, also, want to add that I am -- I was born in the Bronx, and came from those roots, as they say. Presently, we have a family business, and we are in the situation where half our building is in the Bronx, half is in Westchester. We have common concerns with both communities. It is true, we have very little in common with Chappaqua and further north. They're different types of communities. I work in those areas, also. So, to redistrict -- to change the district from the Senate plan would be very wrong. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Any questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much, sir. Jim Sullivan. MR. SULLIVAN: Good morning. My name is James P. Sullivan, and I'm a resident of the Bronx. I live in an area called Riverdale, which you may be familiar with. just by a point of information, besides being a community resident, I have, also, been a Community School Board member. I have been the President of a Home School Association, and I have been on a Parish Council. Currently, I am a member of a co- op board in Riverdale. I would like to say that I have been a Bronx resident all my life, except for the time I spent in the Marine Corps. I want to thank this committee for doing a good job in proposing the Senate District number 34 plan and following the suggestions of community residents. I have seen the plan, and I am glad it preserves the status quo as best that it can. It keeps the northwest Bronx, and the northeast Bronx together with Westchester, where we share some of the common concerns regarding crime, schools, and real estate tax issues. On a personal note, I would like to say when Gaelic Park -- those of you who are not familiar with it, it's the Irish Athletic Field, which is still in the Bronx, still in Senator Valella's district, he was very supportive to keep it open and keep the lease going for the athletic associations of Irish communities. We, also, have coming up with the St. Patrick's Day Parade, which I'm sure you're all familiar with, that we have an East Bronx St. Patrick's Day Parade, and we have other parades, whether in Westchester or in other parts of New York City, which continue the Irish heritage, which Senator Valella has always supported. I would, also, like to say -- you've heard some previous speakers mention a program, which could be designed, which would include Queens as part of a Senate District. You've heard numerous statements from speakers here, and also, that there are a number of bridges so you would have to pay tolls to go back and forth to Queens County. That would create some kind of hardship for members of people who live in the Bronx. Also, they have the Long Island Sound in between. I would, also, like to say that Senator Valella has always been supportive and responsive to our community needs in the Bronx and Westchester. No matter what they have been, Senator Valella has brought us all together. We now have many elected officials and delegations, such as Senator Valella, Senator Thompson, Assemblyman Klein, Assemblyman Kaufman, who have acted in a truly bipartisan fashion, bringing together all ethnic, religious and political organizations in the Bronx and Westchester. For those and many other reasons, I would encourage you to support, which you have done, the continuation of the present lines, which is why we're holding this hearing today. Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: If I could ask a question. MR. SULLIVAN: Surely. SENATOR SKELOS: It seems that whether it's Senator Valella's district, Senator Hassell- Thompson's district, Jeff Klein's district or other individuals in those communities, that your community has established a relationship, a positive relationship with that delegation, that they work hard for the communities, and that you would like to see that continue. MR. SULLIVAN: Yes, that is true. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MR. SULLIVAN: In addition, let me just add, it's not just my community in the northwest Bronx, because I know people both in Westchester, and also in the east Bronx, some of the previous speakers whom I know because of different organizations and committees, we have all worked together. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just one question. SENATOR SKELOS: Sure. SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. Sullivan, one of the things that a number of speaker have focused on is this relationship between Westchester and the northeast Bronx. But, there have been other changes in the Bronx, in the character of its population, in the number of people, and the communities in the Bronx itself. So, when people say to us, we've got to keep the status quo, the problem is, that the status quo is not what exists in the Bronx. It's not the same community, the same county it was ten years ago, and one of the things that we have to do is take into account those kinds of changes, changes on the ground. Does the fact that that's one of the things we have to do, does that affect your testimony in any way? I mean, if there were a portion of this district that was -- that had changed, is there any portion of it that you, as a representative coming from this district would acknowledge has changed? MR. SULLIVAN: Let me digress, if I may, to your question. Most of you, if not all of you will recall the Bronx, probably, in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, and possibly even into the '60s, where we had a Bronx Borough President, James J. Lyons (phonetic), where we had a lot of elected officials in the Bronx, who were predominantly Irish, then Italian, then Jewish. Having lived in the Bronx all my life, and having been involved in a lot of elections, both as running campaigns and assisting campaigns, from the Mayor on down, I myself have personally gotten involved and run campaigns in the Bronx in the Assembly, State Senate and other offices where I have supported minorities all throughout the Bronx. I'm familiar with the latest census, why we're holding this hearing, that the Bronx is only 14% ethnically white, and therefore, I know that it has shrunk. Right now, I believe, and you probably work in the State Senate, where you have three out of the four State Senators from the Bronx, who are Hispanic. Therefore, I agree with you, it has changed, and the demographics have changed from the different ethnic groups, which I have mentioned. So, I am sensitive to that. SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. MR. SULLIVAN: But, still, in the district you have drawn, it includes, if I may dare say, my group in that district, who have a lot of commonalities, such as the Gaelic Park and such other interests, such as the St. Patrick's Day Parade. So, I believe the State Senate now has been fair to ethnic groups, where you have three out of the four, meaning three-quarters of the Senate in the Bronx, who are representing minorities, and only one- quarter that would be representing people of my distinction. So, I appreciate your comment, and I'm very much aware of that, and I hope I have answered your question. SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Eme Davis. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: John McAffree. MR. MC AFFREE: Good morning. Almost afternoon. SENATOR SKELOS: Almost afternoon. MR. MC AFFREE: Okay. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee. My name is John McAffree, and I'm a lifelong resident of that section of the Bronx known as Riverdale. I'd like to thank you for holding these hearings on the proposed Senate Districts, and for the opportunity to address the committee on such an important issue. Let me begin by saying that the Senate delegates have done and excellent job in accumulating and analyzing the substantial critical information to develop as fair an equitable proposal as possible. I know I am not alone when I am saying, I am pleased that under the current proposal, Senator Guy Valella will continue serving the citizens of the northeast and the northwest Bronx. Senator Valella has proven to be a representative of the people and for the people of his district. He has been acutely attentive to the issues that affect all of his constituents. As the Vice President of the Riverdale Community Association, coach in the North Riverdale Baseball League, parent of school age children, and a homeowner, I have witnessed first- hand the profound impact Senator Valella has had on our community. For example, when the Russian mission proposed a five-year construction project in our area, without financial guarantees for completion, Senator Valella listened to our concerns, and was instrumental in its defeat. When a group of well intentioned individuals wanted to open a homeless shelter in an area highly populated with young children, Senator Guy Valella was the only politician who did not disappear into the woodwork on this very sensitive issue. He was not swayed by the social agendas of the Riverdale elite, but instead, heeded the concerns of his working class constituents, the people most directly effected. Our the years, Senator Valella has continuously responded to our community's quality of life issues, by negotiating with the MTA to preserve the Gaelic Park, keeping buses off side streets, steam cleaning graffiti from our commercial strips, boarding up abandoned houses, and funding Bronx based special prosecutors, whose sole purpose is to prosecute car theft. Senator Valella has, also, initiated substantial legislation in the areas of crime, gun control, health and education. He has accomplished all this despite the fact that he is a Republican and has been elected time after time in what is considered a Democratic stronghold. This is because he truly understands the needs of his constituents crossing party lines. I'm honored to have this opportunity to speak out for the man who has for so long spoke out for us. I strongly urge this committee to implement your redistricting proposals as drawn. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Manny Sanchez. MS. LEVINE: You passed number 26. SENATOR SKELOS: I'm sorry, Garth Merchant. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Garth Merchant, and then Manny Sanchez. MR. MERCHANT: My name is Garth Merchant. I've been a lifelong resident of the Bronx, in Throgs Neck, and recently moved to Queens, and been active in Queens politics. I'm here to say that the proposed district for the Senate, where Senator Valella represents, I oppose it moving into Queens, and the lines should remain moving into Westchester, and the way the Senate generate their lines, because I'm quite sure that as a resident of Queens, we don't want to see that district moving into Queens. Naturally, what the Senator has represented is very good for the district, and it should remain that way. Secondly, for the Assembly Districts, I think it's a shame. 37% of the residents of the Bronx are African American, yet out of 11 district proposed for Bronx County, only one African American major district. So you need to go back to the drawing board and take a look at that, because that's very discriminatory. You couldn't find, out of 11 districts, with 37% of the population being African American to only draw one district majority African American. So, therefore, some more proposals will come before you to reflect some changes, and we reflect the changes proposed by members of the NAACP for the Assembly Districts. It's just too discriminatory to have only one district with 37% of the population. Thank you. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Now, Manny Sanchez. MR. SANCHEZ: My name is Manuel Sanchez. I am an attorney. My office is in the Bronx. I have looked at the plan that's been suggested, and I support it wholeheartedly. I find that the way it is proposed, you have parts of different communities, you have what we call the northeast Bronx, the west Bronx, part of Westchester. If you are familiar with these communities, I wouldn't necessarily say that they are homogenous, but there is a sort of a common denominator. They're very similar in many ways, and I think that the plan, as proposed, is a very good plan. It provides for representative government in its best sense. I've known Senator Valella for many, many years. He has served on Community School Board. My wife, at the time, was a Community School Board member, so I got to know him quite well, and I can tell you that as a board member, and as a State Senator, he's been very responsive to his community, and that includes everybody. I speak now, not only as an attorney, but as Puerto Rican, and Guy Valella has always been there for my community, and I applaud him for that. I think, basically, what I'm saying is, to summarize, I fully support the plan. I think it's a well thought out plan, which includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester which are very similar in its composition. SENATOR SKELOS: Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much, sir. Marnio M-e-j-i-a. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Miriam Ventura. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Hector Ramirez. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Reverend Jerome A. Green. REV. GREEN: Good morning. I am Reverend Jerome A. Green. I am the Democratic District Leader for the 77th Assembly District, and I am, also, Pastor at the Bronx Christian Charismatic Prayer Fellowship. I appear before you, today, to voice my support for the proposed district lines delineating the 77th Assembly District, which is represented by my wife, the Honorable Assemblywoman Aurelia Green. As proposed, the planned 77th Assembly District preserves African American and Hispanic voting strength by keeping neighborhoods intact. I want to commend the Task Force for maintaining the fair and meaningful representation of African American and Hispanic populations in the redrawn Assembly District. The public should know that with regard to the 77th Assembly District, the Task Force has preserved local communities of interest, by respecting the political traditions and histories of the Highbridge, Claremont and Concourse neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have been in the same Assembly District for over 20 years. As proposed, and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and its amendments, the plan preserves and does not dilute the voting strength of the African American community in the 77th Assembly District. Further, under the proposed plan, minority voters in the 77th Assembly District, have an equal voice or an equal chance to elect their candidate of choice. It is incumbent upon me to remind critics of this plan, that it is permissible for the State Legislature to draft a district most likely to return an incumbent to office. Voters in the 77th Assembly District have returned my wife and my Assemblywoman to office very year since 1982. I mention this fact, because I understand that other plans had proposed concentrating African Americans into one South Bronx Assembly District. Such plans, if acted upon, would do a great disservice to the Highbridge, Claremont and Concourse neighborhoods. In conclusion, I want to thank the Task Force for conducting the redistricting hearing in a manner that is open and accessible to the public. Thank you for giving your time and attention to this important matter, and please have a blessed day. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, sir. Hilda Alvarez, 77th A.D. Leader. MS. ALVAREZ: Good afternoon. My name is Hilda Alvarez, and I'm the District Leader for the 77th A.D., and I'm speaking for my constituents, and I also, work with Ms. Aurelia Green. SENATOR SKELOS: Could you just speak up a little bit, thank you. MS. ALVAREZ: In my testimony all I want to ask is to be left intact. Upholding the fair and meaningful representation of African American and Hispanic populations in the redrawn State Assembly, preserving African American voting strength, and adhering to the Voting Rights act by not diluting the community's voting strength. Redrawn districts must ensure that the Bronx African American communities have full and fair opportunities to elect candidates of their choice. As proposed, the 77th Assembly District preserves African American voting strength by keeping neighborhoods intact. Communities of interest are preserved by respecting the political traditions and histories of the Highbridge, Claremont and Concourse neighborhoods. As proposed, minority voters in the 77th Assembly District have an equal chance to elect their candidate of choice. That it is permissible to draft a district most likely to return an incumbent to office. The proposed 77th Assembly District will still, most likely, elect a Democrat, since we're mostly a Democrat area. The proposed 77th Assembly District is compact and contiguous. I would like to state the following, that according to the Census of 2000, over 450,000 Bronx residents, which is 33.9%, are African American and Hispanics. Whites fell to 14.5% of the total population. As the African American community has grown, so should our political representation. Thank the commission for conducting the redistricting process in a manner that is open and accessible to the public. Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Ted Jefferson; is Ted Jefferson here? MR. JEFFERSON: Yes. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I rise to give testimony, today, to what are the very essence and principles on which this country is founded. The original settlers died for it, some of which were African Americans. Though unable to exercise their precious right, nonetheless, laid down their lives in support of the principle. The founding fathers struggled and grappled with this critical issue in the formidable days of the country that we love so well. I speak of the inalienable and, yes, sacred concept of one man, one vote concept. My name is Ted Jefferson. I am the Executive Director of the Bronx Shepherds Restoration Corporation, located at 1932 Washington Avenue, in the Tremont Section of the Bronx. The Shepherds are a borough wide faith based organization, whose churches and constituents across the Bronx, represent an aggregate number that exceeds 7,000. I am, also, here on behalf of the Black United Leadership of the Bronx, located at 1874 Washington Avenue, which has a combined membership which represents more than 200 and growing. We welcome this proceeding this morning, for it provides an opportunity to express our concerns with the disproportionate representation in the State Assembly. The 2000 Census shows that the borough currently has a total of approximately 1.3 million people. When broken down into ethnic compositions, Black comprised, approximately, 33.9, whites comprise 14.5, and Hispanics comprise approximately 48.4. I support the proposed Assembly District boundary lines that have been presented by the State Legislature for the 78th, 79th, and 83rd. I further support the majority minority 80th Assembly District proposed by the NAACP in the northeast Bronx. The proposal is compact and contiguous and unite Co-op City, Olinville, and the minority of the upper northeast Bronx. I trust that you hear our concerns and will act on them with equity and fairness. I beseech you to be mindful of the one man one vote concept, and how important it is, in that it is our passport to government. It is our passport to services, it is our passport to community. I thank you. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Robert A. Williams; is Mr. Williams here? MR. WILLIAMS: Good afternoon, lady and gentlemen. My name is Robert A. Williams. I reside in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, at 81 Metropolitan Oval, which is located in the 17th Congressional District, the 18th Councilmanic District, the 76th Assembly District, the 32nd State Senatorial District, and in Community Board #9. I am a member of BULB, the Black United Leadership in the Bronx. I am the Governing officer of Sports Foundation, Incorporated, which is a Bronx organization for over 33 years, and I am, also, the Chairman of the New York Yankee Community Council. The Foundation was incorporated March 19th, 1969, as a 501-c-3 public, not-for-profit corporation. I am not going to read my testimony that describes the accomplishments of the Foundation. I'll go forward to thank you for conducting the redistricting process in a manner that is open and accessible to the public. It provides me with a public forum to speak out against inequities, policies and actions that we know will be detrimental to youth and other populations of Bronx County for generations to come if demographics, simple mathematics, fairness and sanity do not rule at the end of the day. The Sports Foundation's motto is, building social responsibilities through sports, with the notion that our youth and adult leadership development programs will help to motivate and facilitate local resident participation in social, civic and political matters that affect their day to day lives. This is a part of the strategy to help build the Bronx communities from within. I come before you today to discuss two matters pursuant to the 2000 Census. Specifically, the modification and redistricting of the Bronx State Assembly boundaries, and the creation of a new 80th State Assembly District in Bronx County. The Bronx County population has grown to over 1.3 million people over the past ten years, justifying the 11 Assembly Districts for the Bronx. First, I rise in support of the Assembly boundary lines that have been presented by the State Legislature to the incumbent Assembly person in the 77th A.D. -- and I've included the map for your edification - - and the proposed Assembly boundary lines that have been presented by the State Legislature to the incumbent Assembly person of the 79th A.D. That map is, also, included. And the proposed Assembly District boundary lines that have been presented by the State Legislature to the incumbent Assembly person in the 83rd A.D. All three of those maps have been submitted with my testimony. Secondly, if logic and fairness are the standards applied regarding the creation of a new Assembly District in the Bronx, then the 2000 Census population count and demographics must determine what are fair and equitable ethnic distribution of representatives in the New York State Assembly is. If this is acknowledged and provided for by this committee, and the State Legislature, then Blacks in Bronx County will no longer be forced to endure the circumstance of de facto taxation without representation. We insist that the redrawn districts must ensure that the Bronx's racial and ethnic minority communities have full and fair opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. District must preserve Black residents voting strength in the Bronx by adhering to the Voting Rights Act, by not diluting Black communities' voting strength. Frankly, what motivated me to testify today, is that the numbers are so clear to me, and the current distribution of power simply defies decency and logic. Or it may represent a higher form of mathematics, one that I cannot grasp. If I am not mistaken, the 2000 Census reported the ethnic distribution in the Bronx as only 14.5% of Bronx residents are non-Hispanic Whites. Currently, the Bronx has three White Assembly representatives. I strongly oppose the three districts proposed by the Task Force, 80th, 81st, and 82nd, where Whites will prevail again, retaining a disproportionate 27% of the 11 Assembly Districts. As proposed, the Assembly Districts in the north Bronx dilute minority voting strength. This dilution occurs by splitting concentrated minority populations between the proposed 80th, 82nd and 83rd Assembly Districts. As proposed by the Task Force, minority voters in the 80th and 82nd District will have less chance than other voters to elect their candidates of choice. It is highly probable that White voters in both the 80th and 82nd Districts will elect their candidate of choice, because historically they constitute the majority of likely voters. Blacks comprise 33.9% of the Bronx population, over 450,000 people. Currently, the Bronx has three Black Assembly reps. Hispanics comprise 48.4% of the Bronx population. Currently, the Bronx has four Hispanic Assembly reps. Given the Bronx's ethnic breakdown percentage, there is a flagrant and obvious disparity in the corresponding number of Bronx ethnic representatives in the Assembly. I understand how this circumstance came about, and how, as a consequence, Blacks in Bronx County have suffered from under representation for the past ten years or more. This trend must stop, and it will, because we trust that this hearing is not simply an exercise in pacification. Therefore, as a remedy to this unacceptable situation, I propose the following boundaries for the creation of the new State Assembly District in Bronx County. I believe that it represents and qualifies as a fair fight opportunity district, and I support strongly the majority minority 80th Assembly District proposed by the NAACP in the north Bronx. It unites Co-op City, Olinville, and the minority neighborhoods of the northwest Bronx. With this proposal, uniting north Bronx neighborhoods of color preserves communities of interest and the NAACP's proposed district is compact and contiguous. Finally, I suppose the sentiment and theme of my presentation is, in part, inspired by the character, Piggy, in George Orwell's novel, "Animal Farm", when he said, in this democracy all people are equal, but some people are more equal than others. This committee has the power to change this glaring inequity. Give us a fair deal. Don't consciously let this circumstance of under representation of Blacks in the New York State Assembly continue in Bronx County. Thanks again. Thank you for your time, and attention. Good day. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Rev. Robert L. Foley. REV. FOLEY: To the honorable members of the State of New York Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, I am Pastor Robert Lewis Foley, Sr., the Senior Minister of the Cosmopolitan Church of the Lord Jesus, and the Minister of Information for the Black United Leadership of the Bronx. Cosmopolitan Church is a Christian congregation, whose membership is predominantly people of African descent. Our house of worship is located at the corner of West 190th Street and grand Avenue, which is situated within the boundaries of the 78th Assembly District. Although the church property is within the boundaries of the 78th Assembly District, the members of our congregation are scattered throughout Bronx County and we, therefore, have some members residing in all of the Assembly Districts presently existing, as well as those Assembly Districts being proposed. It is in their interest and, indeed, the interest of all people of African descent residing in Bronx County that I appear before you here today. According to the information that I have received this Task Force is proposing the creation of 11 Assembly Districts, as per the results of the Census for the year 2000. A careful analysis of the 11 Assembly Districts proposed, suggests that the likely result of an election would yield five Latino or Hispanic members, three Black Assembly members, and three White Assembly members. At first glance, that seems innocuous. However, when one considers that people of African descent compose 34% of the population of Bronx County, and whites only 14% of the population of Bronx County, to deliberately set forth district lines that would likely provide parity between these two populations does not satisfy a logical, mathematical or reasonable standard of equity or justice. It may be legal, but it is not just, and it is not fair. It is the position of the NAACP, the Black United Leadership of the Bronx, and my own personal view, that this unjust and unfair imbalance with respect to the representation of people of African descent from Bronx County in the State Assembly can probably be cured by a redrawing of the lines of the 80th, the 82nd, and the 83rd Assembly Districts. As presently constructed and as presently proposed by the Task Force, these districts dilute the voting strength and the election opportunities of people of African descent residing in the north Bronx. I, therefore, appeal to you, the Task Force, to withdraw the proposed district lines for the 80th, the 82nd, and the 83rd Assembly Districts and make as a part of your official report and recommendation, the 80th Assembly District lines proposed at this hearing by the NAACP. This proposed district will extend westward from Co-op City across the north Bronx to Jerome Park Reservoir. A copy of the outline of this proposed 80th Assembly District is herein attached. On behalf of the residents of the Bronx, who are members of our congregation, and on behalf of the general assembly of the Black United Leadership of the Bronx, I thank you for the opportunity to testify today as an advocate for equity and justice regarding the voting rights of people of African descent residing in Bronx County. Thank you. (Applause.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Mr. Ken Mercer. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Is Ken Mercer here? (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Catherine Stroud. MS. STROUD: Good afternoon. My name is Cathy Stroud, and I am the female State Committee member in the 77th A.D. I, also, like to think that I was one of the representatives that went to Kansas City, and we brought back the All American City award for the Bronx. I am the President of my Tenants Association, also Co-convener of the Sedgwick Undercliff Safety Council. So, I've been a community activist for some time here in the Bronx, and in my area, at least, I've been here over 30 years now. It is imperative that we keep the district as close intact as possible. It affords those of us -- we are in an area where it's necessary for us to know that we need a fair representation of the African American and Hispanic population in the redrawn State Assembly. We need to preserve the voting rights. We need districts that will ensure that the Bronx's African American communities will continue to have their opportunities to elect the candidates of their choice. Our desire is that our Assembly District preserve the voting strength to keep our neighborhoods intact. Our communities of interest are preserved by respecting the political traditions and histories of the Highbridge, the Claremont and the Concourse neighborhoods. As it is now, it will be permissible to draft a district most likely to return an incumbent to office, and we would like to say our Assemblywoman, Aurelia Green, has been in office for the last 20 years, and she has been there as one who is for our community. She has kept an open door, where we are free to go to her and get results. She has been one for whatever needs that we have had. Health issues, those who are uninsured, senior citizens, she's been there for us, and we would like to make sure that our district is intact, as close as possible, to maintain the issues. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Task Force for being here, for making yourselves available for us to address these issues. Thank you. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Ade Rasul, R-a-s-u-l. MR. RASUL: Good afternoon. SENATOR SKELOS: Welcome. MR. RASUL: My name is Ade A. Rasul. I'm the Executive Director of Woodycrest Center for Human Development, Inc, which is a youth development agency in the 77th Assembly District. Woodycrest Center for Human Development has been providing youth and family services for thousands of community residents for more than 20 years. I am one of the co-founders of the agency, and I am a registered voter in the 77th Assembly District, which is represented by the Honorable Aurelia Green. Let me thank you for providing me with an opportunity to speak at this redistricting hearing and to voice my support for preserving African American voting strength by adhering to the Voting Rights Act, designed not to dilute the community's voting strength. I am concerned about my community, where I have had the fortunate honor or working and voting in for more than a quarter of a century. I insist and ask that we continue to preserve the interests of my community, by respecting our right to have full and fair opportunity to elect qualified candidates of our choice. According to Census 2000, over 450,000 Bronx residents, 33.9% once again, 33.9% are African American, and non-Hispanic Whites fell to 14.5% of the total population. As the African American community has grown in the Bronx, so should our political representation. Do not unfairly change the rules of representation through a redistricting when we start participating in the political game. I oppose any redistricting in the 77th Assembly District if it is not permissible to return an incumbent to office. I, also, request that redrawn districts adequately reflect the 2000 Census and provide people of color, particularly African Americans with the maximum opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. I am specifically to or particularly referring to the 80th, 82nd and 83rd Assembly Districts. In closing, I would like to state that we are all well pleased with our Assembly representative, Assemblywoman Aurelia Green, who we have elected to office for the last 20 years. She is a woman of integrity, moral strength, and a much needed role model of political success in our community. Thank you for allowing me to speak in a manner that is open and accessible to the public. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. D. Lee Ezell, E-z-e-l-l. SENATOR SKELOS: (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Eunice A-j-a-y-i-e-o-b- a. Welcome. MS. AJAIYEOBA: Good afternoon. I am here representing the African American community and Assemblywoman Aurelia Green. My name is Eunice Ajaiyeoba. I live at 112 Tudor Place, apartment 2A, Bronx, New York. I would like the Task Force to be mindful of the following. Redrawn districts much ensure that the Bronx African American communities have full and fair opportunities to elect candidates of their choice. Redrawn districts must ensure that they preserve the African American voting strength by adhering to the Voting Rights Act by not diluting the community's voting strength. Also, I would like the Task Force to please be mindful of the history, the tradition of the Highbridge, Claremont, and the Concourse Houses. Presently, we have something great going. We have Assemblywoman Aurelia Green. She's been there for 20 years, and she has done an excellent job. Her door is always opened. She has helped the community in so many ways, in terms of health, in terms of education, you know, different issues, and she is a woman of integrity. We would like to have a fair representation of African Americans. I am in support of the redistricting, but I would like for the Task Force to please bear in mind, the African American community, because if you go back through the history of America, they did a lot to contribute to this country, to this nation. So, please, as you work on this, I am in support of this, but please, bear the African American community in mind. In conclusion, I would like to commend the Task Force on the manner in which you have handled the public hearings. Thank you very much. (Applause.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Loretta Ruddock Smith. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Loretta Smith. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Marcella Brown. MS. BROWN: Good afternoon, gentlemen. My name is Marcella Brown. I live at 1162 Washington Avenue, in the 79th Assembly District. I am the founder of the Marcella R. Brown Foundation for Scholarship and Humanitarian Services. I'm a former District Leader of the old 76th Assembly District. I am the immediate past Chairperson of Community Board #3. I served as a member for 20 years, and out of the 20 years, I served 12 as the Chairperson of Board #3. I am the President and the founder of the 1162 Washington Avenue Tenants Association in that particular development, and also, a founder of the 1162 Community Center for children. We service over 200 children daily in the Morrisania area. I am a member of the Black United Leadership of the Bronx, BULB, and a member of the NAACP. Today, I come before you to voice my support for the proposed district lines and the 79th Assembly District. My concern is to preserve my community. After living there for 43 years, and been involved in the community life for 35 of those years, by respecting the tradition and the history of the Morrisania, Claremont Village, and the Concourse Village neighborhoods. These are strongly African American neighborhoods, that have been in the same Assembly District for over 20 years, and I want to make sure that the interests and those of my neighbors continue to be represented in Albany by the candidate of our choosing. I just want to continue to give my support to the NAACP and BULB, for a stronger majority minority Assembly District in the north Bronx which unites Co-op City, Olinville, and the minority neighborhood of the northeast Bronx. In closing, I want you to remember that under the Voting Rights Act, redistricting should not be diluting minority voting and strengthen the process. We would like not to be short changed. I would like to thank you for coming here to the Bronx today and conducting this redistricting hearing. Thank you and God bless you all. (Applause.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Willie E.P. Bowman. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Willie Bowman. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Gregory Gustavson. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Gregory Gustavson. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Beverly Smith. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Ottis Edwards. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Leah Ray. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Keith Glover. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Helen Ransom. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Dorian Marshall. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Sedelle Thomas. MS. THOMAS: Good afternoon. My name is Sedelle Thomas. I am a constituent of Assemblywoman Aurelia Green. I have been living in that district even before it became the 77th Assembly District. I am a member of the Undercliff Sedgwick Safety Council. First, I should like for you to consider the following objectives, and I think you have. One, to uphold the fair and reasonable representation of the African American and Hispanic American residents in the realigned Assembly Districts. Two, to not dilute the African American voting strength, by using the Voting Rights Act as your guide. Three, to ensure to the fullest extent that the African American population of the Bronx have a fair opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. In our favor, and as you'll see, I do favor the proposed realignment, the proposal for the 77th Assembly District seems to keep intact African American voting strength. It seems to respect the traditional voting history of the Highbridge, Concourse and Claremont neighborhoods, and no matter where I work, or where I live, I seem to be still in the 77th Assembly District. Three, allow minority voters in the 77th Assembly District to have an equal chance to elect the candidates of their choice. Four, most likely provide for the election of a Democrat, and as has been said before, it is permissible to draft the district to return the incumbent to office. Five, show the Assembly District to be compact and contiguous. Finally, I should like to bring to your attention that according to the Census of 2000, there is approximately 34% of the total population of the Bronx that are African American, meaning that our numbers have grown. In that respect, so should our representation. In closing, thank you for making this process open and accessible to the public, and now I can return to work, because I'm on my lunch your. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. Fannie Hatter. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Florine Watson. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thomasina Busby. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Is Thomasina here? (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Peter Wagner. MR. WAGNER: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the Task Force. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Peter Wagner, and I am Assistant Director of the Prison Policy Initiative, an organization that conducts research and policy advocacy around incarceration policy. I am, also, a third year law student at Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, Massachusetts. For the last year, I have been researching the constitutional requirements for redistricting, given the unique demographics of New York State's prisoners and New York State prison construction. I urge you to adjust the U.S. Census data you use to redraw state legislative district lines, because the Census methodology is not applicable for purposes of state redistricting. The purpose of the U.S. Census is to conduct a count for purposes of apportioning representatives between the states. To fulfill this national aim, the Census counts prisoners where they are incarcerated. Such a procedure is a low cost way to accurately count populations between the states, but the Census methodology is not applicable to New York. New York State has experienced a tremendous growth in the size of its prison population since 1980. 20 years ago, New York incarcerated 123 for every 100,000 citizens. Now, the state incarcerates more than three times that number. 66% of New York State's prisoners are from New York City, but since 1982, all new prisons built in New York have been upstate. As you know, since 1963, in REynolds versus Simms, the Supreme Court has required state legislative districts to be divided on an equal population basis. As the Court remarked, legislators represent people not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests. The principle is that the weight of a citizens vote cannot be made to depend on where he lives. Rural prisons reduce the weight of urban voters, in violation of Reynolds versus Simms. Unlike Congressional districts, which much be as equal as is nearly as is practicable, state legislative districts are within limits, allowed to deviate from precisely equal sizes to protect traditional state community boundaries. However, in my position, taking in large numbers of prisoners from elsewhere in the state to boost population, violates the concept of respecting traditional community boundaries. Actual population must be the starting point for any redistricting, and counting urban prisoners as rural residents violates the equal protection requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment. Urban prisoners are far from traditional rural residents. Because of the large increase in the prison population, and where the prisons have been built, the impact on redistricting is not slight. The more than 11,000 prisoners in Senator Volker's district make up 13.3% of his district. Senator STafford's district is 4.4% prisoners. Assemblyman Ortloff, your current district is 7.5% prisoners. 86% of the Black adults that you represent are not allowed to vote for you, because they were shipped in and then in prison, they're not allowed to vote. The remedy here is simple. Adjust the Census data by restoring prisoners to their home addresses via the addresses on file with the State Department of Correction. Future Censuses should be planned around letting prisoners disclose if their home of record has changed from the address on file. The idea of using home of record to address special Census populations is not new. At the last minute, when the 1990 Census decided to count military personnel stationed abroad, they used home of record, despite information that this might have been a little bit outdated or biased toward the state tax laws of New Hampshire. The best solution would be to adopt the rule of the Federal Courts when determining a prisoner's residence for purposes of diversity jurisdiction, namely to create a rebuttable presumption that the prisoner's last address is his home address. Let me quote briefly from the Second Circuit's rationale in Stifle v. Hopkins. "It makes eminent good sense to say as a matter of law that one who is in a place solely by virtue of superior force exerted by another should not be held to have abandoned his former domicile." I'm not here, however, to ask you to let prisoners vote, because while the New York State Constitution does explicitly authorize the State Legislature to disenfranchise prisoners, it also explicitly instructs as to where prisoners should be counted. Quote, "for the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while confined in any public prison". I believe I'm out of time, but Reynolds and the State Constitution require you, for purposes of your redistricting, the Census data to count prisoners at their home districts, where they will return when they are released. Thank you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Mr. Chairman, may I ask a question? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Go ahead. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Are you aware of the total population of the State Correctional system? MR. WAGNER: Yes, as of January 1st, 2000, it was 71 or 72,000 people. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Okay, and where are all of those facilities located? MR. WAGNER: They are spread throughout the state. The majority of them are in upstate and western upstate New York. 42,000 of the prisoners in the state system are from New York City and housed outside of the City. It's essentially a third of an Assembly seat has been taken from New York City and distributed out to various rural Assembly Districts. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: So, your contention is that New York City ought to have the equivalent of an adjusted population, which would be 42,000 larger than it does now? MR. WAGNER: I had a hard time hearing your question. My position is that there are 42,000 residents that were impermissibly removed from New York City by a result of the Census methodology. So, 42,000 people counted upstate are prisoners that belong to New York City, and there's another 25,000 that go to Long Island or other parts of upstate. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: So, at the very least, you're suggesting that if we could, and you know we can't, but if we could, that you would adjust the population of New York City upward by 42,000. MR. WAGNER: Yes, I would. I believe -- ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Are you aware that the Assembly plan already adjusts the population of New York City upward by 206,000? MR. WAGNER: Does that include prisoners, or is that a separate adjustment? Because I know that you have made a number of adjustments, but I don't believe you have included and adjustment for the prisoners; is that correct? ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: I don't believe they've made an adjustment for the prisoners. They've just made an arbitrary adjustment that New York City gets two additional seats, to which it's not entitled by the Census population. If you look at the numbers on the chart over there, the upper number, 8,214,000, is the population of the 55 upstate counties. The lower number, 8,008,000, is the population of the five counties in New York City. Now taking your argument, let's just add that 42,000 to the lower figures. I think we can probably do the math in our heads. It still comes out that upstate should have at least one more seat in the Assembly than New York City. Do you follow me? MR. WAGNER: I follow you, except I have not studied the reasons why you did adjust the Census numbers to give New York City 200,000 additional people. I'm not sure specifically how you decided to do that and what that estimate was based on. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Well -- MR. WAGNER: But, the question with the Department of Corrections is, those are real people where we can very explicitly count. I can see how there is certainly a critique of the 200,000 number that you're calling arbitrary. I haven't heard of it or seen where it comes from. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Well, I don't know where it came from either, it just kind of happened. I think it was just kind of grabbed and that's going to be the contention of upstate in this process. My point to you is, you've already gotten more than you should have, even if you include your 42,000. So, I would ask that you join with upstate in seeking a mutual adjustment, which would come out at least with upstate having 65 seats and New York City having 64, not the other way around. MR. WAGNER: I would certainly be open to looking at any discussion, in terms of what adjustments should be made. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: Thanks very much. MR. WAGNER: Thank you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER ORTLOFF: We'll be in contact with you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Albert Tuitt. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Kay Roberts Dunham. MS. DUNHAM: Good afternoon, everyone on the New York State Task Force. I'm Kay Roberts Dunham, and I just wanted to do a small memorium for the Honorable Pauline Grace Monica Cummings (phonetic), who was of the Bronx prior to be located in Brooklyn and being elected in the Assembly, the 31st District out in Far Rockaway. She passed in January, so I just wanted to mention it, because she lived in the Bronx at some time. The proposal submitted to the Task Force by several organizations, the Latino Voting Rights Committee of Metro New York, the African American Political Action Committee of New York State, the Dubois- Bunche Center for Public Policy, and the Majority Coalition of Redistricting Professionals show how an additional compact Hispanic majority district could have been created, including the Highbridge section of the Bronx. Compact districts should be created, and keeping existing political subdivisions intact, the Senate Majority's proposal has a highly non-compact 34th Senate District based entirely on racial considerations. The proposed 34th Senate District meticulously divides the Bronx and Mount Vernon along racial lines, and links together distantly separated, non-Hispanic White populations. This results in a district with a 59.7% non-Hispanic White voting age population, and an increase from the 52.6% non-Hispanic White voting age population that the 2000 Census shows in the existing 34th Senate District. This racially gerrymandered district violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The creation of the non-compact racially gerrymandered 34th Senate District is precisely what stands in the way of creating an additional compact Hispanic majority district. This is further evidence that failure to create the additional compact Hispanic majority district would be discriminatory both in purpose and in effect. The Legislature should create Senate Districts that include an additional compact Hispanic majority district in northern Manhattan and in the Bronx. Proposed Senate and Assembly District lines, 2002, should caption the county as it captions the Assembly District or the Senate District. I only know where I am by certain streets when I do the maps. Tributes to Assembly Districts in the Bronx, 76, Peter River; 77, A. Green; 78, Jose Rivera; 79, G. Davis; 80, J. Klein; 81, J. Dinowitz; 82, S.B. Kaufman; 83, Carl Hasting; 84, Gerry Pretlow; 85, R.C. Tossy; 86, R.L. Brodsky; and in the Senate, 31, Gonzalez; 32, Espada; 33, H. Thompson; 34, Valella. I left the 28th for last, because I had a problem when I looked at the 28th. That should be Mendez. You know, it's -- it looks broken up very bad. Harlem River Drive, East -- FDR, East 93rd, then it goes all the way up to Grand Concourse. Please take a look at it. I'll be finished in a minute. The book of proposed Senate and Assembly District lines 2002 is available and the telephone number is 212-618-1100. I think that you should each have a copy, so I thought I'd give the number to you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Can you repeat that phone number? MS. DUNHAM: It's the one at your office, the number is 212-618-1100, and the address is 250 Broadway, Suite 2100. That will give you all the maps, the Assembly Districts and the Senate Districts for what the hearing is all about. Thank you very much. I have to go to school. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. Hilda Hernandez. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Inez Harvey. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Mamadou Jaiteh. MS. HARVEY: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Good afternoon to the distinguished panel. My name is Inez Harvey. I've lived in Concourse Village for more than 30 years. I have served on the Board of Governors, and seen many politicians come and go, but I accept that as the natural course of things. If we lose representation by Senator Ruth Thompson, it will be most unusual and most insulting for us at Concourse Village. Unusual, because we have had proper representation, as required by the Voting Rights Act, for more than 30 years. First, by our own, the former Senator Joseph Galiber (phonetic). We claimed him there, because he was a resident of Concourse Village. He represented us until he could do no more. He passed away. He was succeeded by Senator Larry Seabrook (phonetic), and even though Senator Seabrook lived in the north Bronx, he kept us and continued to work for our interests. We, in turn, continued to vote for him, keeping our representation secure. Senator Seabrook relinquished his post when he decided to seek higher office. Then candidate Ruth Thompson, someone we had never heard of, came to us and asked that we vote for her. Let me say that we got a lot of those requests, because of our well documented high voter turnout. We did not know her or her opponent. He, also, came to ask for our vote. We did not know him, and we took Ms. Thompson at her word, that she wanted to represent us, and we voted for her in high numbers. So, second, we find it insulting that after only one term, and with restructuring, she chose to let us go, taking this historical seat from us and securing it for herself and anyone else in Westchester who wants to run for us. In fact, she is abandoning us, stripping us of this historical Black seat and of our protection under the Voting Rights Act. She is the only African American State Senator in the Bronx. This seat, if you allow it, is moving more and more into Westchester, changing the entire dynamic of our representation, and stripping us of our rights. Most politicians want to represent us and seek our support, just like Senator Thompson did, because we vote, and because we are loyal voters. This, again, is insulting. No one ever gives up. I know in politics it's all about winning, but we can win in Concourse Village. I see no reason that the complex of registered voters and with a percentage of who votes, people who believe that their votes count, could be treated in such a fashion. I don't want to bring up Florida, but if you let this go through, what you'll be telling us is that our votes, and our loyalty really do not count, and that the Voting Rights Act excludes us. I hope this is not so. We're asking to continue with our representation we have historically had, and that we are in need of by redrawing the lines of our Senatorial District, giving us a fair chance at proper representation. Our request is that we be redrawn into the 33rd Senatorial District line and remain there, instead of being redistricted out. This is the only way that we can be sure that we have the representation that we need and keep our seat in the Bronx. Thank you very much for listening. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. Mamadou Jaiteh. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Bakari Camara. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Omar Trawala. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Lamin Ceesay. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Pa' Saikou Kujabi; how close did I come? Close enough you recognized it; all right. MR. KUJABI: Good afternoon. I don't intend to waste your time. Actually, most of my points have already been dealt with. I just want to emphasize some of the important points. I represent the Gambian Society in New York, which is in District 77, under Honorable Aurelia Green. First of all, we want to thank you for conducting this hearing, which we actually feel is done in a manner that is accessible to the public. The few points I want to deal with is, as this is a very important process, it is important for this Task Force to put into consideration as proposed, that District 77 preserves African American and African immigrant voting strength by keeping neighborhoods intact. It is a fact that communities of interest are preserved by respecting the political tradition and histories of Highbridge, Claremont and Concourse neighborhoods, where my community, African immigrants, are highly concentrated. As, also, proposed by this Task Force, minorities in District 77 will actually have, in our opinion, an equal chance to elect candidates of their choice. As the African American, Hispanic and African immigrant communities have grown, it is our belief that our political representation also should change and grow. In this regard, we want to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to Honorable Aurelia Green, who we have been working with for the past eight years in District 77, in the areas of health, education, and other social activities. Most importantly, on our endeavor on community health education on HIV-AIDS prevention campaigns, which she really is a champion working with the African communities within her district. So, we felt it is only fair to express our appreciation at this very important forum. On that note, we want to thank you again for your time and willingness to go through this process. We thank you very much. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. Jeannette Puryear. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Walter Houston. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Shirley Johnson. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Diego Delgado. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Louis Lithgow. MR. LITHGOW: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and the distinguished members of the committee. My name is Louis Lithgow. I'm representing the Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana, a well known organization from the Dominican Republic. The Hispanic community in the last few years, is a community that grow and make great contributions to the City and the nation. Mr. Chairman, it's a good time to recognize the value of the growth of the Hispanic community. In the Bronx, where the Hispanic community has grown so much that considering the important issues that this committee has in front of them, I think that our consideration is strongly supporting that this committee at the time, at the moment when a new district is created, we think it would be right for the Latin community to give them the opportunity to have a new representative. In the Hispanic community, we're seeing the Dominican community, a community that has made great contributions to the City and to the Bronx. As a member of the Dominican community, I know how important it is for us to take this opportunity to ask you to make a big consideration at the moment of your decision. Dominicans love baseball. Dominicans love politics. Sometimes I think that we could live without food and live with baseball and politics. The value of the Dominican community can't exactly in the last 2000 decision of the creation of a new district. That's why, Mr. Chairman, the new district will be connected to the following neighborhoods. University Heights, Morris Heights, Tremont, Fordham and Kingsbridge Heights. If that consideration is made for this committee, we're going to have a new Hispanic representative, the first Dominican representative in the Bronx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. SENATOR SKELOS: Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, sir. Lucia Solano. MS. SOLANO: Hello everybody. My name is Lucia Solano, but I need the translation, please. She has lived in New York City, in the Morris Heights community for nine years and works in the education community. I have noticed the large growth of the Dominican community during this period, and they believe that they should have a representative in the Assembly representing the Dominican community. She works in teaching, and she has noticed that in her classrooms most of the new students, up to 17 per class, tend to be Dominican. And for this reason, I thank you for allowing me to express my views. It is my hope that the new district that will be created in the Bronx will be beneficial to the Dominican community, as well as the whole Hispanic community. Thank you. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Raysa Castillo. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Sandra Brown. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Richard Dubois. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Dorothy Young. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Marie Thompson. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Daniel Figueroa. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Melda Torres. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Luis M. Diaz. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Peter Rivera. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Ellie Jurado. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Ruben Franco. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Carlton Baldwin. MR. BALDWIN: To the honorable members of this New York State Legislative Task Force, I thank you for holding these hearings. I rise today to point out the extent to which some of your proposed Bronx district lines fail to provide opportunities for minorities to elect candidates of their choice or occupy seats in the New York State Legislature, in proportion to their percentages in the population of the Bronx. The existence of a disproportionately small number of Assembly persons of African descent suggests the extent of the problem of minority voter disenfranchisement. According to the 2000 census, the Bronx population increased to over 450,000 residents, and that increase warranted the creation of 11 Bronx Assembly Districts. The non-Hispanic Black population increased to 33.9%, but the non-Hispanic White population fell to 14.5%. However, the Assembly District lines proposed by you would create a situation wherein this small 14.5% of the residents, non-Hispanic Whites, would prevail not only in the 81st and 82nd Assembly Districts, but this small block of White voters would, also, control the new 80th Assembly District. Therefore, this small non-Hispanic White population of 14% would prevail in a disproportionate share, 27.3%, of the 11 Assembly Districts. The consequences of discrimination have resulted in minorities of African descent residing in concentrated housing clusters. Some relatively large, others relatively small. These clusters are scattered throughout the Bronx. In several cases, your proposed district lines cut across such Black neighborhoods, and then combine them, the resulting weakened Black voting factions, with other non-Black voting factions, often with conflicting or hostile interests, thus effectively eliminating the opportunity for persons of African descent to elect representatives of their choice or occupy a proportionate number of seats in the State Assembly. This is precisely what happened in the north Bronx. As presently drawn, the lines in the north Bronx dilute minority voting strength in violation of the several laws, including the Voting Rights Act, by splitting concentrated minority populations between the proposed 80th, 82nd, and 83rd Assembly Districts. Consequently, minority voters in both the 80th and 82nd Districts do not have an equal opportunity with their non-Hispanic White counterparts to elect candidates of their choice. Since non-Hispanic Whites constitute an electoral majority in each of these proposed districts, they are likely to elect candidates of their choice in both. Therefore, I encourage your task force to revisit the proposed 80th Assembly District and seize the opportunity to redraw its lines to, one, diminish the aforementioned glaring inequity and, two, preserve the voting strength of persons of African descent, as required by State and Federal law, including the Voting Rights Act. I am convinced that the injustices which would result from the implementation of the lines as presently proposed, could be significantly reduced if not completely eliminated by substituting the NAACP plan for drawing the lines for the 80th Assembly District. The NAACP proposal unites Co-op City, Tracy Towers, Gunhill Houses, Allerton and Olinville. The NAACP proposal will enable minority residents to elect candidates of their choice, while satisfying the prevailing principles of redistricting, including the principle of compactness and contiguity. Finally, it should be noted that the new majority minority Assembly District, as proposed by the NAACP and recommended by me, appears to come closer to satisfying all legal requirements, including those of the United States Department of Justice, than does your proposal in its present form. Please see the attached map and please implement this NAACP plan as expeditiously as possible. In conclusion, I would like to thank you for conducting these hearings, and for providing me an opportunity to testify. Thank you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. I'd like to recognize the presence of Assemblyman Klein, who has joined us. Margie Harris. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Sobeyda Rogue, R- o-g-u-e. (No response.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Duane Jenkins. Welcome. MR. JENKINS: Good afternoon. Good afternoon to all. You guys must have to practice like a boxer to hear all these testimonies here and endure it. It's a beautiful day out there. My name is Duane Jenkins, and I'm Vice President of the Resident Council of Throgs Neck. I speak for nearly 6,000 tenants that live in that development, and that falls in the line of the 34th Senatorial District, which is Guy Valella. Guy Valella has been a great Senator and a great person for the people in that development. The development has a annual income of roughly $15,000. Guy Valella has been able to come in and help out on Throgs Neck day, which is a summer day where Guy Valella donates his time and his money to help the kids out in the community. He comes to Christmas parties and shows his support. First, I want to support the proposed Assembly lines submitted by Ed Moran, of the NAACP and Ted Jefferson, of BULB for creating a district that compresses Co-op City and Tracy Towers, at the same time merging the 80th and the 82nd Assembly District together. I believe it would make our community more compact and give us the opportunity to better the resources and also give us a stronger political voice. Senator Valella has an open door policy with the Throgs Neck Resident Council. There was a underpath where the bird droppings were dropping on people as they were going to work in the morning. We contacted Guy Valella's office. They resolved the situation, moved the bus stop back to its original spot so now people can go to work without bird droppings on them. Lastly, our Senator, Guy Valella, has provided great strong leadership. He helps resolve all our issues and our special needs. We need to keep Senator Guy Valella as our representative, and most important we need to keep this district as one. Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, sir. Any questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. Gloria Manguash, M-a-n-g-u-a-s-h. MS. MANGUAL: Good afternoon everyone. My name is Gloria Mangual. I'm from the Pelham Parkway section in the community of the Bronx, and I am, also, a member of the American Legion in Portchester, New York. I'm here, today, because I wanted to find out. I got a little information, but I wanted to know - - MS. LEVINE: We can't hear you. MS. MANGUAL: I'm from the north side of Pelham Parkway and my Assemblyman is Jeff Klein, and I just wanted to know if we can keep him in our community. I have know Jeff Klein for over seven years now, and during this time I've had the pleasure or working with him on numerous occasions, attending community functions and community meetings. He has always displayed a strong leadership quality and a professional demeanor over the years in the community of Pelham Parkway. He has helped the community in every way. He has worked with us numerous times, and we would like him to be our Assemblyman for the north Bronx, and it would be a shame to have him just stay on the south side, and not the north side of Pelham Parkway. He has made a big difference in the community, he has made a big difference in all our lives at Pelham Parkway, and I don't know if I'm ready for a new Assemblyman, so let's just keep Jeff. He's been doing a wonderful job for the neighborhood. I thank you all very much for being here and taking your time. Thank you so much. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Joanne Smitherman; is Joanne here? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Miguelina Reyes. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: John Lemon, NAACP of the Bronx. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Michael Pricoli. MR. PRICOLI: Hello, sirs, good afternoon. Thank you for affording me the time to speak today. My name is Michael Pricoli, and I'm a long time resident of the northeast Bronx, except for when I was in the military. I've, also, for the last 17 years been privileged to work in HRA and, also, serving the same communities that I live in. Redistricting should not be done to aid elected officials or small population enclaves at the expense of fair representation of a district. The Bronx has had an increase in population, not a decrease as in other districts of New York State. Proposals should not be further limiting in fair representation to the northeast Bronx. The district in which I reside already shares both a Congressman with Queens County and a State Senator with Westchester County. Further dilution of representation would greatly impact on the quality of life for all the residents in the area in which I live. In an environment where cooperation and putting aside party politics exist, the state politicians seem intent on doing business as usual and on punishing the same old punching bag, the northeast Bronx. Proposals floating around would combine two Assembly Districts into one and have a face off between those two elected officials. Another proposal would further widen a State Senator's Westchester County district and decrease parts of the Bronx the Senator represents. Is there no other are that can be shortchanged? Perhaps a Republican upstate district that has seen a dramatic decrease in population not an increase as in the Bronx. Hopefully, this honorable Task Force will try to improve the northeast Bronx representation by either having an additional representative or having a representative that solely serves the residents of the northeast Bronx. I could think of no greater honor for that representative. This community has been increasingly affected by a decrease in representation shown in the shortage of police, parking spots, supportive services for all the social institutions in the area that care of not only its residents, but many others throughout the City. Thank you very much for your time. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Ursula Aybar, A-y-b-a-r. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Louise Brown; is Louise here? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. Sementilli, S-e-m-e- n-t-i-l-l-i. MR. SEMENTILLI: Good day. For the record, Egidio Sementilli, E-g-i-d-i-o, S-e-m-e-n-t-i-l- l-i. Apparently, everybody gets my name wrong, so I want to make sure for the record. SENATOR SKELOS: Welcome. MR. SEMENTILLI: I'm here -- I testified prior, at the earlier meeting in the Bronx at Lehman College, and I just want to say congratulations to all the members of the Task Force. You did extremely great job on the Senate lines. I understand this is a bipartisan organization, and you came up with lines that are reflective of the Bronx, specifically with reference to Senator Guy Valella. Senator Valella's district is compact, it's solid, it represents the interests of the community, and I just wanted to be on the record that I'm in favor of it, I support it, and it's a plan that we could adopt. In reference to the Assembly lines, I want to say it very clear, that I support the NAACP plan to merge and create a district from Co-op City to Tracy Towers. I think it's a great plan. I mentioned this at the prior hearings, that the Throgs Neck community, Pelham Bay community, country club community has different needs, especially with Co-op City. Co-op City should never have been part of the 82nd Assembly District. It is a great plan, and I support it. A lot of the community supports that plan. In turn, we will receive, also, a compact district, derived from the 80th Assembly District and the 82nd Assembly District. So, I just want to go on the record for that, and whatever it takes, I will support the NAACP. If we need to go to court, we have lawyers ready to do pro bono work on the issue. I, also, need to say that back to the Senatorial lines, the so-called proposed new lines that the Task Force has not brought forth, and is being brought forth so-called by the NAACP Chapter, which it's not a local Bronx chapter, it's not a Westchester chapter, and since we're in the Bronx, and we have a room full of political hacks, we all know where the plan is coming from, but I want to go on the record. We understand that this is Marty Connor's plan. Regrettably and shamefully, and I repeat, shamefully, Marty Connor is utilizing the NAACP's good name to push an agenda for his own political gain, and what specifically especially the district that he proposes to split up, Senator Guy Valella and merge it into Queens, this is what he calls a compact district, with a big ocean or river, I would like to say an ocean, that splits us and Queens. This is his so-called compact district. The transparency of Marty Connor's bad plan is obvious here. All the political hacks in this room know it, and I want to make sure that it's on the record, because we need to follow up on it. We find it insulting and I'm sure a lot of the members of the NAACP that have not endorsed Marty Connor's plan find this insulting and racist, that he cannot stand and propose these plans on his own merits. So, I thank you for the time. God bless you, and once again, you did a terrific job on the Senatorial lines, although we need to change the Assembly lines, and I support the local branch of the NAACP's proposed plan to merge Co-op City and create a majority district. Thank you so much. SENATOR SKELOS: Senator Dollinger has some questions. SENATOR DOLLINGER: If you could just stay there for one second. MR. SEMENTILLI: Of course, sir. SENATOR DOLLINGER: I guess, I don't know you're referring to as political hacks. I mean, you look at four elected officials from -- MR. SEMENTILLI: I was not referring to - - the reason I made that reference to -- SENATOR DOLLINGER: Let me finish for a second. MR. SEMENTILLI: Of course. SENATOR DOLLINGER: With all due respect, the four elected members of this Task Force, I think this is our seventeenth or eighteenth hearing, where we've toured around the state to hear what people have to say about these plans, and I would just strongly -- I personally, I guess, resent being called a political hack, when I am one of four elected officials out here trying to come out and listen to what people have to say, including you. So, I frankly, since you had suggested there were people in the room who fit that definition, I would ask for an apology for myself and, frankly, for the other hardworking members of the Task Force. Secondly, you refer to the Minority Leader of the State Senate for his shameful conduct. I would -- I strongly suggest that before you do that, one, you have some facts to back it up; and Number two, number two, that if this plan is submitted from the NAACP of the State of New York, I would suggest you go talk to them about whether they think this is the right plan for New York State, including the Bronx, because they may have a bigger perspective than you do. Finally, if you can answer just one question; is it your testimony today that the current drafted plan for the 34th District meets your definition of compactness, the district that starts on one side of the Bronx, marches north into Westchester, marches down the other side of the Bronx, and then circles around, that is your definition of compactness? You described it as compact; is that your definition of compactness? MR. SEMENTILLI: Absolutely. Especially, the other alternative would be what, to bring it out to Queens? Apparently, the hack statement is -- went to heart, and I'm sorry for that, but -- SENATOR DOLLINGER: No, no. MR. SEMENTILLI: -- let me tell you something. SENATOR DOLLINGER: It hasn't gone to my heart, sir, because -- MR. SEMENTILLI: Let me tell you something -- SENATOR DOLLINGER: -- I don't fit that definition. MR. SEMENTILLI: -- I went to a meeting at Co-op City, of the local branch of the NAACP, and they were proposing the new Assembly District from Co-op City to Tracy Towers. I was there to support it, and I stood up and I supported their plan in favor of it. Do you know who was there? There was a gentleman from the Minority Leader, Marty Connor's office there, proposing the so- called new Senate lines, that was supposed to be from the NAACP. None of the local NAACP from Yonkers to the Bronx were aware of that plan. So, that's where I got my facts, sir. SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. MR. SEMENTILLI: For the record, of course. Thank you. SENATOR DOLLINGER: I would suggest your -- MR. SEMENTILLI: Anything else? SENATOR DOLLINGER: No, nothing, thanks. MR. SEMENTILLI: Thank you. SENATOR DOLLINGER: You've made your point. SENATOR SKELOS: Dawn J-a-v-e-s. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Pauline Galvin; is Pauline here. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Joseph Thompson. MR. THOMPSON: Don't feel bad, I'm a community hack. My name is Joe Thompson, and I'm the President of the 49th Precinct Council. I sit on Community Board 11, I chair a couple of committees, and I'm a Vice President of Pelham Parkway Little League, and I do have a community patrol. I say that merely to state that in District 11, this is my community, and that's what I'm here to talk about, is the community. I'm almost sorry I came to this hearing, because I hate to see everything equated along racial lines, because what we're trying to do in District 11 is create a community, and we've had the kind of leadership that has responded to that very, very strongly. We've had Senator Valella, and Jeff Klein, Madeline Provenzano (phonetic), from the Council, and our people seem to work together, and they work together with the same objectives. Here we are in our community. We have senior citizens programs. We have youth programs. We've got five separate community patrols in our area, all supported by these political leaders. I'm just not talking about them. I'm talking about what we demand as a community. We demand from our community, that you look after us. That you make sure that our quality of life continues to grow. Luckily, our people have been responsive. There's any number of programs. Every program that I'm connected with, whether it's the youth program, whether it's the patrol programs, every one of these programs is always supported by these three individuals, and it's supported by the new people that have come in, which is Assemblyman Hasty (phonetic), which is Senator Ruth Thompson. So, in our District 11, and that's the only one I can speak about, but I do know that they work together very closely with the community. We look at the community, and when we're talking about racial lines, I was just elected President of the 49th Precinct Council. In that election, 90% of the people were White. I ran against a White candidate, and I did win. So, it's -- there are a lot of ingredients to running a community, and those ingredients have to be we demand not just rhetoric from the people that we elect. We demand people that can perform, people that will help our community. So, this is how we reach out for that. So, I am very, very much in favor of maintaining our 80th District intact. Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Irene Estrada R-u-k-a-y. MS. RUKAY: Irene Estrada Rukay. I'm here to represent Community District 11. I am a member of the 49th Council, with Mr. Thompson, and we work together with the 49th Precinct, with Captain Shea, and a lot of other wonderful people. But, the reason I decided to come today is, not to so much go into the redistricting of District 80, because I am on the border line of District 12 and District 11, and I've been, for the last 20 years furious of the people who have represented me for District 12. Now, in District 11, at that time when I met State Assemblyman Jeff Klein, he was a Councilman. At that time, he didn't have to come and hear my problems, because I'm not in his district. But, he took out the time to come and listen to us. He is what I call the backbone of my district, and I'll tell you the wonderful things about why it's going to have to stay the same, and why it should not be changed. First of all, he's not only the backbone, he's also one of my friends. He became my friend because in 1994, I had a children's organization called the mini Olympics. I belong, again, to District 12. There is no youth programs right at this corner. When you work with District 12, it goes all the way up towards Co-op City. Everybody's concern is Co-op City. It's never been Gunhill all the way to Wakefield. When you take a look at that area, and if you ever drive through that area, it's all desolate. There is nothing happening there, there is nothing working there for 20 years. Under this program, our representatives were Larry Seabrook, and I believe, Mr. Warren. During all these 20 years that I have been at this same corner on Wallace and Arnold, I have contacted them, and not one time have they called me back for any of our problems. 1994, before that, five years ago, we had nothing but drugs at that corner. We lived in the hottest hot spot in the Bronx for drugs. We called the D.A.'s office, we called everybody's office, and no one would hear us. So, we took the initiative as a tenant association to take them out of our own building, and our building has been clean since 1994. They have not come back, and they're not going to come back. But, no representative -- we didn't have nobody representing us. We took the initiative to save our own community. If a State Assemblyman has a certain map that he has to be concerned with, that it one man; how much blood do you want to squeeze out of a person when you have so many people you have to represent? The people have to take the initiative to take care of their own communities. They, also, have to align themselves with their leaders, Community Council members or the Councilman or woman, or the State Assemblyman. They have to align themselves to find out what kind of programs they offer to help their own communities. They can't wait for somebody to come save them, they have to save themselves. I'll try not to be long, but I would like to share something with you, why Jeff Klein is important to me, and why I believe it's going to stay the same, by the faith of God, is one reason. He's not only my backbone with my youth organization, the mini Olympics, that caters to over 150 children just on Arnold and Wallace Avenue. Every Wednesday night we take 30 children faithfully to the 49th Precinct Council for the Explorers Program. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be getting a van that the Police Department brings to me every Wednesday night, so they can take the children and transport them to the Police Department every Wednesday since November faithfully. Last night, the van wasn't there, and to show you how effective this program is, the kids were willing to walk in the rain all the way to the 49th Council. These kids are good kids. Our program teaches them home, school, and community, but at the same time, we teach them how to be leaders in the future. We cannot wait for somebody to save our kids when we're not teaching them the right way. I personally have been very offended at this meeting today by all this racism and all these other cultures speaking about another culture, because number one, we all come from the same God. Number two, if you squeeze any of us, we all have the same color blood. My opinion to this meeting, today, I have a Promise Garden, called the Community Garden from the New York Botanical Gardens. Jeff Klein was at my event; why? Because I called him. We had the Cinqo de Mayo Festival. I'm Mexican American. I grew up with Randy Vallardi, who plays for the Yankees. I grew up with George Bush, who is the President of the United States, and I do not value anybody more than Jeff Klein as my State Assemblyman; why? He took the time out to give me away at my wedding last year in April, because my father couldn't come. I am Mexican American. I just recently found out what nationality he was. Community District 11 is not about racism. We're about a body. We work together. If the head hurts, the leg cannot function. If your arm is dysfunctional, then the body can't go, and we all work in one mind, and one spirit. Before I go, I'll share something with you. We must take care of our own community and not wait for someone to be our hero. With the budget cuts everywhere, we will test where the redistricting lines over the workshops that people should be having in their own communities to learn to work with their State Assemblyman, their Senators, their Council, and their leaders. They must be involved with their own precincts. I love my State Assemblyman. He is at every event in our community. In Christmas, he comes to my Christmas parties, where the children are Jamaicans, Haitians, Africans, Mexicans, Albanians. We're a multicultural building. He comes to my parties, and he brings my kids toys for Christmas. When I call him, if I need anything, he is at my disposal. If he cannot fix it, he will tell me where I can go and get my resources. I am not welfare oriented. I do not teach my tenants in my building, let's lean on the system. If we don't like something, we change it. Right now, the porters and the supers are on strike, so because of them we're not going to have a clean building? You come to my building, it will be clean. We're not going to wait on somebody to come and put the blame on anybody else. Another issue, when you look at youth programs anywhere in the Bronx, everything costs. There's no youth programs anywhere. We took the initiative to start our own youth program. It's vital, it's supportive, and it works. Our kids are not on the street, they're doing good in school, and I invite you to come to the 49th Council meetings, to the 49th Precinct for the Explorers on Wednesday, and you will see the difference it is when a community works together with your State Assemblyman, and you work hand in hand how much fruit you will know. You know how you know a good person, and you know how you learn? The people who are wrong are the people who continue day in and day out every year faithfully vote for someone who will not do nothing for you. Well, today I stand here by faith to tell you that I have seen the fruit of my friend, the fruit of my State Assemblyman Jeff Klein. I have seen fruit of his head with the senior citizens program, the Promise Garden in the Botanical Garden, my youth program, the mini Olympics, the 49th Council faithfully there. He selects a Cop of the Month every month faithfully. He worked in 9-11. I have never seen anybody work so hard. I'm having a hard time keeping up with him, because he is very energetic. So, before I leave, I plead with you, that if you make the mistake and change the boundaries, that's going to effect me. If you could do me the favor and change me to District 11, because I'm right on the borderline, then you would be doing me a favor. But, when you're changing the 80th District, when you're looking at Co-op City all the way to Tracy Towers, there's no possible way today, tomorrow, or any time in the future that these people in Tracy Towers and Gunhill Houses or even Edenwald will get the same representation as Co-op City, because it does not align itself with the leaders, and they do not have the same judgment and the same goals as we as a people have. But, before I leave, I would like everyone to think about it. When you squeeze yourself, and you're bleeding, think of the color you are, because we all have the same blood. Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Sallie Caldwell; is Sallie Caldwell here? MS. CALDWELL: Good afternoon. My name is Sallie Caldwell, and I am from Tracy Towers. Since Tracy Towers seems to be one of the top things here, today, I represent Tracy Towers. Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein have been the best thing that ever happened to Tracy Towers. All before, no one even know we even exist. Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein came along, and he start helping us with the quality of life in Tracy Towers, the senior citizens, everything that we as taxpayers in Tracy Towers deserve just like anyone else. The most beautiful and important thing about Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein, he started the first Black History program in Tracy Towers. It's been eight years since he been doing this, and he also contribute to all the other activities that we have in Tracy Towers, and they way we feel about him is like part of the family. We do not want to lose Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein, because we feel like if we lose him, we're out of the picture. I don't think anyone could be as much important to us as Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein. No one would do the things that he have helped us to accomplish in Tracy Towers. We wouldn't be where we are today if it weren't for Assemblyman Jeff Klein. I speak for everyone in Tracy Towers. Thank you very much. (Applause.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Lucia Gomez, from PRLDEF. MS. GOMEZ: Good afternoon. I really wasn't planning on testifying, but I heard a couple of testimonies today that I thought I had to bring some clarity to. SENATOR SKELOS: Could you move back from the mic? MS. GOMEZ: Move away? SENATOR SKELOS: Yes, it's better for us to hear. MS. GOMEZ: My name is Lucia Gomez. I represent the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and I'm sure many of you continue to hear references to the Latino Voting Rights Committee of Metro New York. In fact, I felt that there might be a need to actually explain what the Latino Voting Rights Committee of Metro New York was, and then I, also, want to be able to speak a little bit regarding this issue of using race as a factor during the redistricting process. I found it a little troubling to hear the different testimonies regarding the use of race, and I felt that there was a need to make some clarity. The Latino Voting Rights Committee of Metro New York was founded in May of last year, as a result of the Latino Voting Rights Project of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, where our desire is ultimately to get Latinos to participate during this redistricting process. We felt that if anybody was going to be asking -- if anybody was going to be drawing lines, it should be the people who are going to be mostly effected by these lines. So, we provided technical and legal support to this committee, so that they can, in fact, propose lines that they can make reference to when, in fact, lines would be proposed by the Task Force and they had already been able to understand the geography and the numbers and the way in which those numbers impact the neighborhood in which they live in. So, that is, in fact, the proposal that people constantly keep referring to in some of the maps that they, themselves, have actually taken Sundays, Saturdays, and evenings and nights to put together. So, I think between the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, and the Latino Voting Rights Committee, they've come up with some type of what they consider to be a neighborhood analysis of where the neighborhoods exist and where, politically, they might be able to have a stronger impact. In regard to the issue of race, I do have something prepared that unfortunately seems to have to be repeated every state that I -- SENATOR SKELOS: Excuse me, can you speak up just a little bit? MS. GOMEZ: Yes, of course. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. MS. GOMEZ: I can speak very loud. One, that race can be a factor in redistricting. The courts have recognized that those drawing district lines are always aware of where people live, and usually know the race and ethnicity of those individuals. Race is thus always a part of redistricting, always. The Census numbers, the PO94171, all you actually get is just racial breakdown, whether or not these racial breakdowns are 18 and over, and total populations numbers. That's about the only thing you get when drawing these lines. The fact is, as socio and economic characteristics, the only type of data that you have available are the local data. Data from the Census bureau will not be out until May. As a matter of fact, we're expecting New York City not to be out until August. So, the only other data you have to work with is 1990 data. I wouldn't rely heavily on that data, considering the racial composition, and the way in which New York City has changed so dramatically, although I would have to say that many of the Latino neighborhoods continue to have the same issues, and the same socio- economic indicators as, in fact, in the 1990s. So, that socio-economic status hasn't really changed much since the 1990s. States must be race conscious enough to make sure that the redistricting plans that they create do not dilute minority voting strength, and a redistricting plan would not necessarily be held invalid, simply because the redistricting is performed with consciousness of race. The courts said it themselves, you can be conscious of race as long as traditional redistricting principles are not violated; compactness, contiguity, incumbency, although the Latino Voting Rights Committee of Metro New York didn't get incumbency home addresses from the web site. So, insomuch as either party or either friends one has within the Task Force provides that type of information, that's about the only way the community is able to know whether or not the lines proposed are even feasible, are even protecting incumbency. So, we know that that's one of the factors, and luckily we had the opportunity to take that into account. So, the lines that people are referring to, also, take incumbency into account, and minority incumbents in particular have to be respected. Therefore, race can be one of many factors line drawers may consider in redistricting. However, even though race can be a part of drawing district lines, everybody knows, and the courts emphasize that traditional redistricting principles must, in fact, not be violated. Lastly, there is lines of law that do indicate that when possible, majority minority districts may, in fact, need to be drawn in order not to violate the Voting Rights Act. One of the major things, one of the major things that New York City and New York State has to really consider is the fact that they have to undergo Section 5 pre-clearance, and I would strongly say, lastly, regarding some of the comments in which the Assembly drew the lines, and the way in which -- I found it very ironic how Democrats who dominate the Assembly, drew the plans to favor the Democrats in New York City, and then the Republicans who dominate the Senate, drew the lines in order not to give New York City that much power. So, everybody knows that little power play and whatever negotiations you may have behind closed doors, certain things are just apparent. So, what the Democrats did to the Republicans, the Republicans just went ahead and screwed the Democrats in return, and I would caution you to note one thing. The community is aware of these things. I mean, it's not like nobody knows. So, do not put the community and the voters on the back burner, because in the end, that's going to cost you a lot of money in court. It's going to cost you. You might want to undergo those battles, and that's fine, because I'm all excited and ready for it, but I will tell you right now, that one of the things that we are not going to be supporting is the elimination of these two new districts, both in the Bronx and Queens, because ironically enough, the community also has been talking about that since they got the Census data in late March. So, these two new districts in the Bronx and Queens, they shouldn't be tampered with. The lines, we might want to have a discussion about the way in which these district lines are drawn, but the creation of two new districts in heavily populated areas, based on Census numbers, I think we can prove the issue of the under count in these areas, and I think we can prove the fact that these districts have grown immensely, immensely since 1990, and they deserve these two new districts. With that, that's it. Thank you. (Applause.) ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: You represent PRLDEF? MS. GOMEZ: Yes. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: I wanted to just point out to you that I've looked at the plan that was presented to us by PRLDEF for boroughs in the City of New York, and one of the suggestions I would make to your group is that they attempt to adjust the plans that they have presented to us to reflect the New York State Constitutional requirement for a balance on block on border. It's difficult for us to respond to your plan, specifically, because the district populations that are associated with the plan that you've presented to us are so disparate in their population as to suggest to me that they have not been balanced in accordance with the New York State Constitution. I think that because of that, people may have assumed that things could be done that, in fact, we have had a very difficult time in doing, because our plan does comport with the New York State Constitutional requirements. And I would respectfully say that the plans submitted to us by PRLDEF does not. MS. GOMEZ: I'm sorry, you're making reference to Assembly or Senate? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: I'm looking at the Assembly plan. MS. GOMEZ: You're looking at the Assembly plan, and you're looking at the deviations; is that what you're making reference to? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Well, let me just -- MS. GOMEZ: The difference in deviations between some counties and other counties? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Let me just point out to you that in the PRLDEF plan, as I understand it, the suggested 84th Assembly District would have 121,698 people. MS. GOMEZ: Within the deviation. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: The next door seat, 78, would have 126,617 individuals. If you comply with the State Constitutional requirement to balance districts by the smallest block on the border of adjoining districts, it is very difficult to have districts that vary in population within a county by an amount greater than 30 or 40 people. So, to have a difference within a county of nearly 5,000, suggest to me that the people who have drawn this plan have not complied with the New York State constitutional requirement to balance block on border. Without balancing block on border, it is difficult to know whether the plan would, in fact, pass constitutional muster and, also, it brings people to believe that percentages of minority voters in these districts are, in fact, in compliance with the requirements that we must adhere to. MS. GOMEZ: The minority requirements, you mean the total population of ethnic minorities within these districts? ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Well, there is - - MS. GOMEZ: Because from my understanding neither 78 nor -- ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: There are claims made for the percentage of minority population within these districts, and those claims may, in fact, be accurate. But, it doesn't mean that we are allowed, under the State Constitution, to draw the districts the way PRLDEF has drawn them, and I think, consequently, it puts into people's minds that we, in fact, could draw the districts the way you have presented them, and I can assure you that we cannot do that and be in compliance with the New York State Constitution. MS. GOMEZ: I guess, what you're referring to is the fact that some districts are zero deviation, whereas other districts are a negative four deviation; is that what you're making reference to? And I'm finding it interesting that you're saying that where we go from 4% deviation in one area, and then negative two deviation in upstate -- I mean, in downstate a negative two. I'm just wondering how -- you're right. I mean, I guess, in that sense then the unproportionate way in which the Assembly Districts, and the Senate Districts, both, are drawn -- ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Let me just point out that deviation in regard to the U.S. Supreme Court's requirements for one person one vote, are a different deviation than that that is allowed by the New York State Constitution. We have to comply with both the New York State Constitution, and the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in regard to one person, one vote. We believe that the plan we have presented to the public does meet both of those conditions. The plan that PRLDEF has presented would possibly meet, although I am somewhat skeptical of that, it would possibly meet the U.S. Supreme Court requirements for one person, one vote, but I am almost certain that it does not meet the State Constitution's requirement that adjoining Assembly Districts within a city cannot vary by an amount greater than the smallest block on their common border. That's why I would say that a district that is 121,000 next to a district that is 126,000 cannot possibly be balanced to meet the requirements of the New York State Constitution. I would just urge you to look at that and have your group resubmit the plan with a balance that does comport with that requirement, because we will have to do that. MS. GOMEZ: In that sense, your comment is noted, and I will make that recommendation in order for them to reconfigure the plans according to New York State constitutional requirements. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. MS. GOMEZ: You're welcome. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Neil Grimaldi. (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Kermit Allen. MR. ALLEN: Good afternoon, Assemblyman Parment, Senator Skelos. My name is Kermit Allen. I presently reside in the City of Newburgh, which is currently in Assembly District 96. I've been requested by some associates to come and propose a question to the Legislative Task Force And the question is, why change the 96th Assembly District? SENATOR SKELOS: Could you back from the mic just a little bit? MR. ALLEN: Sure. SENATOR SKELOS: Just back up a little bit, and then speak louder. The acoustics are a little bit better. MR. ALLEN: Can you hear me now? SENATOR SKELOS: Just a little bit louder, and we'll be good. MR. ALLEN: Can you hear me now? SENATOR SKELOS: Yes. MR. ALLEN: Currently, it consists of three cities and surrounding towns in Orange, Duchess and Ulster County. It includes the three cities of Newburgh, Beacon, and Poughkeepsie, and the Towns of Newburgh and Orange, and three towns in Ulster. The enrollment is slightly Democratic, although a Republican represents us in the Assembly. Since its creation in 1982, there has been one Democrat until he retired in 1994, and a Republican since. The margin of victory over the past eight years has generally been between 1,000 and 4,000 votes. It is a competitive district. It joins three cities along the Hudson with a common bond of the river and history. The new district has the City of Newburgh, and the Town of Newburgh in Orange County, and the City of Beacon, Fishkill, East Fishkill and LeGrange in Duchess County. Why change? The current district is competitive politically. While politics does exist in an ideal world, the district will be competitive so that there can be a fair contest of competing ideas, which would foster participation and community involvement. As noted, it is slightly Democratic by about 2,100, but with a conservative enrollment that evens the district. The new district is Republican dominated by 4,800 votes, and 6,100 if Conservatives are included. The current district is competitive. Why change? There is a common history and economic interest of the current district among the communities. The district borders the Hudson River, joined by the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, and the Mid Hudson Bridge at Poughkeepsie. Economically, the area has been interdependent. The three cities have similar prospects and problems, similar solutions and population mix. The new district is more a commuting district in Duchess, and ignores common interests of the cities. A significant minority population would be ignored in the new district, since the minority vote would be diluted. The City of Newburgh is over 65% African American and Hispanic. The City of Beacon is about 40%, and the City of Poughkeepsie is approximately 50%. The cities and their minority populations have a chance to be heard in the current district. Their voices will be drowned out by the suburban communities in the new district. The Legislature should take this into consideration, as well as the applicability of the Voting Rights Act, and the possible legal challenges which would throw the entire redistricting plan into question. I know that you do not have an easy job. There are legitimate competing interests here, but the current 96th District need not be changed, not for population reasons, not for an imbalance in enrollment, not for conflicting interests among communities, and not for the dilution of a significant proportion of the voters. The current district is competitive politically. There is a common history and economic interests among the community. As state earlier, a significant minority population will be ignored in the new district, since the minority vote will be diluted. Thank you for your time. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Would your position be that if the three river cities were separated, that it would tend to dilute the opportunity for African Americans to elect a candidate of their choice? MR. ALLEN: Yes, sir. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Any other questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much, sir. MR. ALLEN: Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: Silvio Mazzella. MR. MAZZELLA: My name is Silvio Mazzella. I am a board member of the Morris Park Community Association, Community Board 11, 49th Precinct Council, and the Advisory Board on Jacobi Hospital. First, I want to thank the board. Last time I came before the board, you came in agreement with the community. We do appreciate that very much that you're listening to us. I've seen the Senate plans, and I have to say, I am in complete agreement. The community is completely supporting that. We have a lot in common with the Westchester neighborhoods, okay, our schools, crime, taxes, and even health care. As you know, 9-11 effected all of us and changed our lives. What was important before is not important now. But, I can tell you during 9-11 we went through a lot of crisis and a lot of pain. It actually brought the communities together. Community coalitions were formed with our neighbors in Westchester, and they created an emergency preparation coalition. The purpose was networking resources, and that was for mass casualty beds, ventilators, transporting vehicles, cardiac monitors, decontamination supplies. Senator Valella was very instrumental, by the way, in keeping our microbiology lab at Jacobi. I have to commend him completely. They wanted to move that to Queens. As you know, during 9-11, all the bridges were closed. Jacobi is in the number one trauma unit and burn unit. It could have effected a lot of lives, especially our police and firefighters, who use that trauma unit quite often. I need to say that we're blessed by our elected officials, Senator Valella, Assemblyman Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Kaufman, and Senator Thompson. We support them completely. They supported us, the community, and always had an ear towards us. I have to say Queens has different priorities and different concerns. They have problems with the airports, the pollution, and again, if you -- this plan is actually best for the community, that's all I can actually say to you. Again, I want to thank you because you took the opportunity to be here. You don't know how important it is that you come out here to the community, to the people to hear what they have to say. It's a blessing. This is what makes America. I want to thank you, again, for your time. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much, sir. MR. MAZZELLA: Thank you. SENATOR SKELOS: James Pinsley. MR. PINSLEY: My name is James Pinsley. I've been a resident of Yonkers for over 40 years, and I'm in favor of the plan, because it's going to give Yonkers an extra voice in the Assembly, which is something that can always help. We have two very strong Assemblyman, but to have three, I believe is something positive, and we need that, because right now with the Governor's budget for education being as bad as it is, we need all the voices we can to avoid layoffs and problems obtaining materials and supplies for the school system, which has always needed help, and we haven't gotten enough of it. So, I just hope I'm in favor of the plan. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Carol Craft. MS. CRAFT: I'm Carol Craft. I'm a resident of northern Yonkers. I am a former Executive Vice President of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers. I am presently am a retired teacher. I came to support the fact that Richard Brodsky will be back in Yonkers again. When I first moved to Yonkers, Richard represented our section of Yonkers. He was taken away from us, and now I understand under the new plan he'll be coming back. During this time, he's always been concerned with things that are happening in Yonkers. We have many problems in Yonkers. As Jim just said in his comments, we have a big budget gap. Education is an important feature in Yonkers. We need somebody who will fight for us. We have a very fine Assemblyman, two very fine Assemblymen now, but a third Assemblyman can do nothing but help us. We'd like to have him, and we appreciate the fact that we'll be getting a Democrat in a Democratic district to represent us for a change. I, also, happen to be a Democratic District Leader. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: That completes the two lists that I have. At this time, does anybody else wish to be heard? The gentleman, then you. We'll get everybody. MR. MUNOZ: Thank you, Senator. I just wanted to say for the record, that I had called on Tuesday to -- SENATOR SKELOS: Give you name, please. MR. MUNOZ: My name is Julio Munoz, M-u-n- o-z. I want to testify, just for the record, that I called on Tuesday to get on the list. I wasn't on the list this morning, I registered again, and I'm still being left. So, I thank you for listening to my comments today. I'm going to make them brief. I've been a resident of the Bronx for the last 40 years. Prior to that, I lived in Puerto Rico. During the time that I lived here in the United States, I've had the opportunity to take advantage of the educational system, and all the things that America has to offer. So, I'm proud to be an American. I'm here today as a Puerto Rican representative of our community. As I saw the lists of numbers you have on the web site. I noticed that our community, the Puerto Rican community has been lumped together with the Hispanic groups in each of the districts, and I'm speaking now about the Bronx, our numbers come up to about 45, 46, 47%. If I'm incorrect, I'm willing to listen and be corrected. Within that 45 to 46% Hispanic, quote, unquote, the Puerto Rican community has 25 to 30%, maybe, less. I'm concerned, and I think that Senator Olga Mendez has made it for the last 20 years, a promise in reference to that the Puerto Rican community, our customs, our traditions, are being lost in the overall picture. As it stands right now, I oppose the Assembly seats that you've proposed. I think that as a resident of the central Bronx, there is space and opportunity to develop Puerto Rican districts, where the majority are not Hispanic, but Puerto Rican, and I do not apologize for the fact that we're again, the way the lines are being written, are marginally kept in each district. The numbers are kept to 25 to 30%. We're lumped together with the Hispanic larger group, but it is instead, we lost out. Now, I'm sure there's no master plan. No one sat down to write this up. I'm just bringing this observation. I have no comment on the Senate seat, as I have not seen it, and I have not read the numbers. Tonight, I'll b studying it on the web site. But, I am concerned, again, as an activist in this are, Puerto Rican civil rights, that we're being lumped again together with other groups and our political power is being diffused. I hope that the committee, before making a final decision, will look at this situation. Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Just a comment. In our work, we are not given data that would demonstrate to us the national origin of any of the populations. We, basically, are required to work with U.S. Census data, which has several identifications for ethnicity, but it does not divide any of the ethnic groups by the heritage of individuals in relationship to any specific previous community. So, what we have to work with is a category of Hispanic or non-Hispanic Black or Asian or White, and beyond that, we don't have data that would allow us to do, I think, what you've asked us to do. MR. MUNOZ: I understand that Assemblyman. >From the data that I saw last night on your web site, there are -- again, you have a breakdown of Hispanic, and in the Hispanic category there is a further breakdown. What I'm saying to you is that common interests and tradition, I think, are factors that I'm asking you to look at, and in our community, the Puerto Rican community, there are common traditions and factors. I would just, for a remedy, just off the top of my head looking at your map, I would say that in the central Bronx, where Community Planning Board 6 is presently, and a piece of Planning Board 5, you could make that the new district, where it would be the majority Puerto Rican. Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. She's next. I'm just trying to do it by the way I saw the hands, and then I believe you, and then over there. MS. EDWARDS: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ottis Edwards. I live at 1100 Grand Concourse, in the 77th Assembly District. Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this redistricting hearing. I came today to voice my support for the proposed district lines delineating the 77th Assembly District, which is represented by Assemblywoman Aurelia Green. I am concerned about this community, and I ask that we continue to preserve the interests of this community by respecting the political traditions and histories of the Highbridge, Claremont, and Concourse neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have been in the same Assembly District for over 20 years. We are pleased with our representative in Albany, Assemblywoman Aurelia Green, who we have elected to office for the past 20 years. In closing, I want to thank the Task Force for conducting this redistricting hearing in a manner that is open and accessible to the public. Thank you for giving us your time and attention. SENATOR SKELOS: We thank you for taking the time to be here. Any questions? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. This lady is next. MS. BROWN: Good evening. My name is Louise Brown, and I'm from the 77th Assembly District. I am an advocate for breast cancer. I'm, also, the President of my tenants league. I'm a community person who live here. My youngest son went to school here for 27 years right where I live at now. I would like to see the lines of the 77th Assembly District remain the same to ensure adequate African American and Latino representation in the New York State Assembly. I understand that the Task Force has done a monumental job in projecting the equitable distribution of the meaningful representation for African American and Latino populations in the redrawing of this Assembly District. I hope that you continue to be in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion in front of this panel. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. This gentleman is next. MR. ROJAS: Good afternoon. I will testify in Spanish, please. SENATOR SKELOS: Could we have your name, please? MR. ROJAS: My name is Rojas. I am a superintendent in a building. Good afternoon, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you, and also, thank you for allowing me to speak in Spanish. I do it in Spanish because I've been a super for 18 years, and member of the 32 BJ. I want to testify because during these 18 years, I have noticed the population that was displaced from Fordham, University Heights, and they left all the buildings empty and burned. The power of a community which has been growing in the Bronx, which is the Hispanic community, fixed those neighborhoods. If we look at the Census data from the last census, we can see that the Hispanic community is the one that has been growing the most in the Bronx, and within that group of Hispanics, the group with the greatest growth has been the Dominican community. I want to testify that 95% of the supers in all of the buildings in the Bronx are Hispanic, and out of those 95%, 62% are Dominican. The citizens of our buildings, especially the building where I work, has changed. 100% of the citizens in this building is Hispanic, which is why I support the new map drawn by the Assembly, because it recognizes the growth of the Hispanic community, especially that sector of the community. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and God bless you. SENATOR SKELOS: This gentleman is next. MR. TUITT: Good afternoon. My name is Albert Tuitt, a native of the Bronx, born and bred in the Bronx. SENATOR SKELOS: Could you spell your last name. MR. TUITT: T-u-i-t-t. I did call in to speak, but I had to go out and come back, so I'm glad to be given the opportunity to speak at this time. It is factual, that because of racial discrimination, Blacks and other minorities have been denied the right to vote through restrictions such as poll taxes, literacy tests, language tests, property ownership, et cetera. The purpose of these restrictions were to prevent minorities from voting and electing representatives of their choice. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted to prevent racial discrimination in voting practices by state and local governments. One of the broadest state actions effecting voting is redistricting. The Bronx, one of the three counties in New York State, which is covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, requires that any jurisdiction with a history of discrimination in voting to submit any law that could effect voting changes to the Federal government for review In the last five years we have seen a dramatic population shift in the Bronx. A sizable number of African Americans,most from the South Bronx, have moved into the north Bronx, to the extent that it now has one of the densest concentrations of African Americans in New York City. At the same time, we have seen a substantial reduction in the numbers in the White population in the north Bronx. This population shift requires that as the Black population of the north Bronx has expanded, so should our political representation. The redistricting process must adhere to the Voting Rights Act, by not diluting Black voting strength. Redrawn districts must ensure the Bronx Black communities have full and clear opportunities to elect candidates of their choice. The plan proposed by your Task Force has redrawn the Bronx, particularly the north Bronx, as if there were no population shift with a substantial increase of Blacks in the past ten years. I strongly support the redistricting plan submitted by the Coalition of Bronx NAACP branches, and the Black United Leadership of the Bronx, which fully reflects the population trends in the north Bronx, and recommends new Assembly Districts in the north Bronx. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act specifically speaks to the worsening of the position of a group in the redistricting process. The Black community in the north Bronx if the proposal on the table is adopted, and I recommend you incorporate the proposals of the NAACP branches and BULB into your redistricting plan. Respectfully submitted, Albert E. Tuitt, Sr., Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Uptown Express. Just on a personal note, I noticed a lot of my good friends were here today, speaking of their desire not to lose Jeff Klein and Steve Kaufman, who are both friends of mine. They are both wonderful gentlemen. But, you are going to draw lines for ten years, and we're not drawing them for personalities, we're drawing them because they should be fair, and I urge you to draw these lines as we propose. Thank you very much. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you. Does anybody else wish to be heard at this time? (No response.) SENATOR SKELOS: Seeing nobody, I move to adjourn the meeting. ASSEMBLYMEMBER PARMENT: Second. SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you very much. (Whereupon, 2:45 p.m., the Hearing was concluded.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, FRANK X. GRAY, a Notary Public in and for the State of New York, do hereby state: THAT I attended at the time and place above-men tioned and took stenographic record of the proceedings in the above-entitled matter; THAT the foregoing is a true and correct transcript of the same and the whole thereof, according to the best of my ability and belief. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 27th day of March, 2002. ________________________ FRANK X. GRAY |
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