[CLASSICAL MUSIC]
If you're OK with that, Senator.
Thank you.
Waiting for [? me, ?] excellent, OK.
So we'll bring this hearing to order.
My name is Michael Moran.
I am the the House Chair of the Redistricting Committee.
And just by way of process, I will
be the one sort of calling the balls and strikes today
at this hearing.
Because my co-chair did that last hearing.
And we go back and forth hearing for hearing.
I am going to, at this point in time,
turn it over to my co-chair, Senator Brownsberger,
to say a few words and to introduce
some of his colleagues that are here.
He will then give it back to me.
I will introduce some of the House members that are here.
I'll introduce Representative Jerry Parisella, who
is from the 6th Congressional District,
to give us some greetings.
And then I will introduce the Congressman for,
as the first person to testify.
So without further ado, I want to pass it off
to my co-chair Senator Brownsberger.
Thank-- thank you, Mr Chairman.
Thank you Congressman Moulton, looking forward
to your testimony, looking forward to working with you
as the process goes forward.
Want to introduce my Vice Chair Anne Gobi, Senator Anne Gobi.
If she'd like to say anything, I'd
give her the opportunity, other than hello.
Thank you.
I think hello iw--
will be fine and look forward to hearing
from Congressman Moulton.
Thank you.
So that is the hellos from the Senate.
Back to you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Senator.
I'd like to introduce a few members that
are in attendance, as always, my stalworth, my Vice Chair Marcos
Devers from the great city of Lawrence.
Incidentally, Marcos served on this committee
10 years ago with me.
So I'd also like to introduce another gentleman
from Lawrence, same name but no relation,
Frank Moran is with us.
All the way from Pittsfield via Zoom
is the gentle lady from Pittsburgh--
Pittsfield, Tricia Farley Bouvier.
And down in the other direction, we
have the gentleman from Barnstable,
the newest member of the House on this committee,
the gentleman from Barnstable is Kip Diggs.
Thank you all for your attendance.
I appreciate you being here.
Now I'd like to introduce, if I could,
the gentleman from the 6th Essex District, which
is Beverly, Jerry Parisella.
Jerry is a native of Beverly.
He went to Beverly High School.
He has served 27 years as an Army Reserve.
He is the current title is Lieutenant Colonel.
He serves as a JAG, Judge Advocate General,
in the Army and the Reserves.
Jerry, would you like to join us now and give us some greetings
from the 6th District?
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And thanks to both chairs for just allowing me to pop in.
It'll be very brief, I promise you.
As you mentioned, I represent the 6th Essex District,
which is part of the 6th Congressional District.
And just before I start, I just want to say, I'm thrilled.
And Congressman, I think you'll be thrilled, too,
with the chairs that are leading this effort.
When I was a freshman 10 years ago,
Chair Moran led the effort back then.
And he received a tremendous amount
of accolades for his work in the redistricting process.
And I'm sure that those same accolades will come about
after the two chairs are done with this process and all
the committee members.
So anyway, as for the 6th Congressional District,
I'm not going to steal Congressman Moulton's thunder
here.
But just a couple of highlights about the district,
which I think kind of make it unique,
is we have the oldest continuously operating
fair in the country in Topsfield, which,
unfortunately, had to take a pause last year
but will be up and running again this year.
We have one of the busiest fishing ports
around in Gloucester, which has a tremendous fishing history,
and is still a very vibrant fishing industry.
And we also have some of the most innovative, high tech
research going on at Lincoln Labs, which is affiliated
with Hanscomb Air Force Base.
And as you mentioned, I'm still in the reserves.
So I get to go to Hanscomb and shop up at the commissary
and get my Cheerios for $2 a box.
So that's a pretty good deal.
And we sort of want to make sure that we have that continuing
to operate in Massachusetts.
And also we have some of the best Chinese food in our area
with our colleague Don Wong at Calhoun in Saugus.
So it's a diverse district, very important to the Commonwealth.
It hugs the New Hampshire border.
We have a long coastline that goes from Salisbury
down to Nahat.
And it's a great district.
And I'm really happy with the representation
that we currently have with Congressman Moulton.
So it's great to be with you.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity
to provide some greetings and thank you for all
you're doing in this process.
Thank you, Chairman Parisella.
Incidentally, Jerry is the Chair of the Economic Development
Emerging Technologies Committee here in the House.
He's got a number of important bills in front of him.
And we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule
to bring us greetings.
So thank you, Jerry.
So without further ado, I would like
to ask Congressman from the 6th District, Seth Moulton,
if you would--
if you would come and join us and give us his testimony.
Congressman.
You have to unmute yourself, Congressman.
Can you hear me now?
We got you.
There you are, live and in color.
Fancy microphone system that's obviously not working,
so we're back to the standard.
So that's what you get when you try to spruce things up.
But I was saying that Jerry, it's
great to serve with you here in the 6th District.
And while you and I are both veterans of the United States
Armed Services, I am certainly not a veteran of this process.
This is the first time I've been through it.
And Mike, you're a veteran here.
You're certainly been a great mentor
in trying to help me understand how this all works.
And I appreciate that.
And Senator Brownsberger, as I said to you before,
you were someone that was identified as a person
to watch when I was first getting into politics.
And so for both of you leading this committee,
I appreciate your leadership and your gentle mentorship,
as you explained to me how it all works.
I will also try to be brief with my remarks.
But I do have some prepared remarks,
because that's what I was instructed to do.
So thank you again all for joining us, and here we go.
It's an honor to be with you and to speak
about this important undertaking before you.
As you know, every 10 years, legislators
undertake the momentous task following the census,
in order to adjust for changes in our population
and to strive for fair and proportional representation
for all Americans.
The process is meant to be apolitical.
But unfortunately, we all know that, across America, this
isn't always the case.
All too often in red states and blue states,
legislators and state houses dominated by one party
use their positions of power to serve themselves
and their friends, drawing districts in their favor
in order to win more seats.
In fact, here in Massachusetts, within the 6th District,
the district I represent, is where gerrymandering
was born, named after Elbridge Gerry, former Vice
President and Governor of Massachusetts whose house still
stands in my hometown.
That historical fact isn't lost on me as we meet here today.
However, I know the honorable members of this committee
will do their best to avoid those salamander-shaped
districts for which gerrymandering is infamous.
I trust that all of you also understand the stakes.
Minority voters often see their votes concentrated
in single districts, where the district
lines divide their communities.
Both practices dilute their influence
and silence their political voice.
And you can fix this problem.
I did notice, looking through the membership
of this committee, that none of you are from the 6th District.
So beyond imploring you to conduct
a fair apolitical redistricting that empowers and unites
our communities, I have no advice, only some observations
about the area that is currently the 6th Congressional District.
There's no place better.
From my hometown and communities like it on the North Shore
that are home to a resilient and adapting fishing industry,
to the historical mill towns along the Merrimack Valley,
to the fast rising city of Lynn, to the VA hospital in Bedford,
where I get my own health care, I
am proud to represent the communities of this district
and its residents.
It's one of the greatest honors of my life
to work with and serve the place where I grew up.
And I'm continually inspired by the people who
are engaged on the issues that Congress considers,
many of whom volunteer their time.
We've worked together to protect the coastline on Plum Island
from climate change, to regulate pipeline
safety after the Columbia Gas explosions.
We've returned mailboxes removed by the Trump appointees
in Gloucester and Amesbury and have worked together recently
to protect each other from the coronavirus pandemic.
I didn't fully appreciate these communities
until I returned between deployments in Iraq.
My appreciation for it is why my wife Liz and our two
daughters, Emmy and Caroline, have settled in Salem.
The communities in the district, as it currently is drawn,
share a rich history, economy, and identity.
And while I can't say I would want anyone
to be drawn out of the 6th District,
I am also aware that change is inevitable.
And there is a good chance that my own district borders could
change, even if only slightly.
When all is said and done, I'm confident that any constituents
finding themselves in a new district will be in good hands.
The districts surrounding mine are
represented by hard-working and capable officials.
In a similar vein, I plan to rise
to the challenge of earning the trust
and approval of any new residents who
could find themselves joining the 6th District.
So whatever you decide, so long as the process is fair,
I will be happy with the results,
so long as you keep at this first and foremost
in your minds, as you do your important work.
In America, the voters should pick their representatives, not
the other way around.
Thank you.
Thank you Congressman for your testimony.
I will also point out that, while the 6th Congressional
District doesn't have any members on this committee,
it swings a pretty large bat here in the State House.
So guys like Jerry Parisella and the gentle lady from Gloucester
will most certainly be heard in this process.
So I'd ask now if any members of the committee
have any questions from the Congressman.
Any members?
OK.
Hearing none, I'd just like to thank the Congressman
for taking time out of his busy schedule to testify here today.
Wish him the best and enjoy the rest of your evening.
Thank you, Congressman.
Thank you all very much.
OK, next to testify.
Good evening.
Next to testify would be Mehreen Butt.
She is a Wakefield City Council--
Town Councilor, sorry.
Mehreen, Mehreen, I think it's Mehreen Butt.
Hi, Chair.
Can you hear me?
I can, loud and clear Mehreen.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you, Representative.
And just to give everyone a warning,
Wakefield has lost their power, about five minutes ago.
So I somehow can see you and am following this.
But if you lose me, I will send everything
in with written testimony.
But thank you.
Thank you Chair Moran and Chair Brownsberger
for the opportunity to provide testimony
for the special joint committee on redistricting
hearing for the 6th Congressional District.
My name is Mehreen Butt, and I'm a Wakefield Town Councilor.
In 2017, I was the first American Muslim woman
elected to a municipality in Massachusetts
and one of the first Asian-Americans elected
in the entire state.
I went to public schools in the district.
My dad worked and retired from hospitals in the district.
My parents moved from Lynnfield to North Reading,
and I live in Wakefield, all within the 6th District.
I'm also a Democratic State Committee Member.
And my day job is advocating for sexual and reproductive rights
and electing candidates who fight for equality and justice.
I'm a member of the Drawing Democracy Coalition
and work closely with the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Mass Voter
Table, and other organizations dedicated to this process
and looking--
and look forward to working with you
towards a transparent redistricting
process and fair maps.
I'd like to offer two items for the committee's consideration.
First, Wakefield is split into two House districts.
Wakefield's a town of roughly 25,000.
It's odd we are split in half.
What is even odder is half the town,
my precinct included, is part of Saugus and Lynn
districts, which are part of Essex County.
Wakefield as-- Wakefield is part of Middlesex County.
Residents of every city and town deserve responsive,
high-quality services that meet their unique individual needs.
Cities and towns must work together
and find solutions that meet the needs
of their residents in sustainable, cost-effective
ways.
The current split makes that more difficult
and simply doesn't make sense.
I would urge that we stay whole and, if that's not possible,
we are in districts with other towns in Middlesex County.
We have more in common with the neighboring towns
of Melrose, Reading and Stoneham than we
do with Lynn and Saugus.
We share services with Melrose and Reading,
including an assessor and a board of health director.
We also share Boys and Girls Club with Stoneham.
Because Wakefield is fortunate to have two commuter rail
stops, we are much more likely to build community
with others who get on the train in Reading and Melrose.
Our state senator is Jason Lewis,
who represents other towns and cities in Middlesex County.
Second, beyond Wakefield, I encourage
you to draw districts that create opportunity districts.
It is hard to run as a non-traditional candidate.
And we need more districts that equitably represent
BIPOC communities, low-income people, and immigrants
in Massachusetts.
In particular, Lynn and Saugus are opportunity districts.
Their residents deserve to be represented
by members of their communities and have their voices heard
at the State House.
When looking at these districts, please take into
account the diverse ethnicities and language groups
in those communities.
Representation matters.
And you have an opportunity to--
we have an opportunity for people in Massachusetts
to be reflected at the State House and with their elected.
Thank you again for this opportunity.
Thank you very much, Mehreen.
I can assure you that the things that you testified for
were foremost on our mind 10 years ago.
As a matter of fact, in the city of Lynn, in the rep districts,
we reconfigured that city.
So we did have a majority minority district in that city
10 years ago.
First time ever, I might add.
And it is our intent to take a look at those districts first,
to make sure that they don't slip or have
any sort of seepage when it comes to the majority
representation in those districts.
So I appreciate your testimony.
And I'd ask my colleagues if they
have any question for Mehreen.
Excellent.
Thank you, Mehreen.
I appreciate your testimony in the darkness.
Good luck with getting some light out there.
And I appreciate you taking the time
to step up and be heard on this issue.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
OK.
Next I'd like to invite John Lippitt from the Reading town
meeting, Reading town meeting member John Lippitt,
to come and testify.
And before John does, I'd just like to, if I could,
draw attention to a couple of my-- one of my colleagues who
have joined us, all the way from the great town of Provincetown,
Sarah Peake.
Thank you for joining us, Sarah.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Glad to be here.
John, what say you?
Good evening.
Thank you all for the opportunity invitation
to testify here.
I really appreciate the opportunity.
As was mentioned, I am an elected town meeting member
in Reading and also the Vice Chair
of the Democratic Town Committee here in Reading.
I would echo what has been said before,
that I think it's important in the district process
to empower and unify towns and communities and their voters.
As Mehreen said about Wakefield, Reading
is currently split between two state rep districts.
We're all in Jason Lewis' Senate District and we are all in CD-6
right now.
Although there was a time when Reading
was split between two congressional districts.
Splitting towns between congressional districts or even
state rep districts confuses voters
and makes the process of running the elections
and writing and printing the ballots much more complicated
for town officials.
So to the greatest extent possible,
I would encourage you to keep the district lines coincident
with other town and jurisdictional boundaries,
to keep towns and communities together.
Secondly, I would encourage where
at all possible to keep whole Senate
districts within the congressional district
and whole rep districts, so 4 rep
districts within each senatorial district.
It is confusing to voters to have
two different reps in Reading but everybody
to have the same state Senator.
And the last thing I'd suggest is
that work be done to keep the districts as compact
as possible.
Mathematically, the simplest way to state
that is that the ratio of the perimeter
of the area of the district to the area of the district
be as low as possible.
So those are just suggestions.
I would encourage you to keep those in mind
as you put the districts together.
And look forward to the great job
that I know you're going to do.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, John.
I appreciate it.
And if you look at some of the principles
that we use and have employed over the years, a lot of them
will coincide with exactly what you said.
You're familiar with I'm sure, the town of Reading,
which I believe, at the top my head, is around 25,000 people.
Yep.
So it just goes to-- stands to figure
that we have to go to another city or town around you
to get that population.
And sometimes that math doesn't always add up nice and neatly.
And you have to split some towns.
And you know, there's 351 cities and towns.
And there's 160 rep districts.
So and they range from 81 people in Gosnold
to over 700,000 people in Boston.
So somewhere in between them two lies your city or town.
And we try where we can to keep them whole.
We certainly do.
But, you know, we can't succeed.
It's an impossible task.
But I appreciate your testimony.
And I'd like to ask all my colleagues if they
have any questions for John.
Please raise your hand, step forward and do so.
OK.
Hearing none, I thank you John for your testimony.
I appreciate it very much, taking time out
of your schedule.
And I'd like to call on now Christopher Campbell, who
is a Burlington Democratic town meeting member, a town
committee member, I think.
Oh, the chairman of the Burlington Democratic town
committee, Christopher, are you with us?
Christopher is not with us.
That's what I'm being told, my apologies.
Then I would like to ask the Executive
Director of the Essex County Community Organization, Andrea
Shields.
Dr. Andrea Shields, are you with us?
Oh, there you are.
I can see you.
I think you need to unmute, though.
Thank you.
Good evening, I am Alexandra Pineros-Shields.
I'm the Executive Director of ECCO, the Essex County
Community Organization, and a professor
at the School for Social Policy at Brandeis University.
Thank you so much for the opportunity
to share some thoughts with you tonight.
So over the past 40 years, ECCO has
worked with the residents of Ward 5 and Ward 6 in Lynn.
Over the years, we have organized
to ensure that our children are safe in our neighborhoods,
that our schools provide the best education possible,
and that housing is safe and affordable.
And our organizing work is led by the local residents.
Because, like you, we believe in democracy.
We are dedicated to ensure that every person has the right
to influence the decisions that affect their lives.
In other words, we believe in self-determination,
like all of you.
Just on this past Sunday night, I was at the White House
for the 4th of July celebration with one of ECCO's immigrant
leaders and essential worker and her two teenage daughters,
[? Fernanda ?] and [? Federline. ?] The two
of them spoke candidly with President Biden about
their dreams of having their whole families become US
citizens and going to college to become a lawyer
and a cardiologist.
We work to create the conditions so that local residents can
speak on their own behalf and create
the policies that will shape their well-being
and their hopes.
Again, this is how we make democracy real
in our neighborhoods, in our community, which
is I know your vision as well, to make democracy real.
So to that end, over the past few months,
we've conducted some research to make sure
that our work is guided by the community needs, what
the community wants, using a participatory action research
model, where community residents decide on research questions,
develop research instruments, in this case, surveys
and collect data, and then analyze that data.
Lynn residents, who are low-income, Black, Latino,
or immigrant, and/or immigrant, research together
to learn the needs of their neighbors
and their entire neighborhoods.
And through this research, we learned
that the residents in Ward 5 and Ward 6
rank the following three variables highest among 17
variables or policy areas.
First, technical assistance and loans
to start small businesses.
Two, technical assistance and financial assistance
for prospective homeowners.
And three, financial assistance to for renters.
In closing, I ask you to ensure that the political voice
and political power of working class people
and people of color in Lynn and, in particular, Wards 5 and 6
remain intact.
So that they can continue to organize and advocate
for the policies that will advance their families
and neighborhood's well-being.
Thank you so much for your work preserving our democracy.
Thank you, Alexandra.
I appreciate your testimony and thank you for your work.
The city of Lynn has got some very strong representation
up here in their new rep and former city council
president who has been here now for a while.
But both of them are very proud of the minority representation
that Lynn has and work hard to represent them.
Even if they are not a minority themself,
they work very hard to make sure that they have a voice.
So and I'm sure you put a lot of pressure on them to make sure
they do that so.
That's right.
I appreciate that.
And that's how this process, I think,
is supposed to work at some level.
And we are committed on the House side
certainly, because we do have a district there
that is majority minority, that stays
majority minority in a strong majority minority district.
So that is something that we are very aware of.
And I'm very proud that we did that 10 years ago.
So I have no questions.
But I want to thank you again for your work.
And I would ask any of my colleagues,
do they have any questions for Alexandra?
Just also want to thank you for your work and let
you know we're keeping those considerations very much
in mind.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much.
Before I introduce our next person,
you have a good night, Alexandra.
Before I introduce the next person, who is Jeffrey Crosby,
I would like to recognize another colleague of mine
that has joined us, the gentleman from--
I, of course, I lost you, Josh, Duxbury.
Josh Cutler has joined us.
Thank you Josh for coming into the hearing and joining us.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
And next, I'd like to call again Jeffrey Crosby.
If you're here, Jeffrey.
I am.
Can you hear me all right?
I can, Jeffrey.
Thank you very much.
Welcome and thank you for taking the time to join us.
I appreciate it.
And I want to thank all the representatives and Chairman
Moran on all the work you're doing on this,
and I appreciate your time and effort.
So I live in Lynn.
I'm the director of the New Lynn Coalition
and been a union official at General Electric
for a long time before that, before I retired there.
And I'm currently active in Lynn and Lynn politics and Lynn
neighborhoods, and have been living here for about 20 years.
So I appreciate the kind of time and effort
you're going into to try to figure out
a structure that's democratic and representative
of our neighborhoods.
One possibility-- I'm looking particularly at the 11th Essex,
which is, if I have my figures right,
is possibly up to, say, 4,000 people short
and could be in line for switching some precincts.
And I have two thoughts on that.
One would be to take 5-3 and 5-2--
that's Ward 5, Precincts 3 and 2--
and switch them into the 11th Essex.
And that would make Ward 5 whole, for one thing.
Right now it's split between two representative districts.
And also, I think, kind of hold some neighborhoods together.
It would also increase the likelihood
of Latino representation in the city, which is now,
I don't know, maybe 40%.
It's more than that minority altogether,
it's up towards around 60-some percent.
So I think that would make some sense with minimum disruption.
Those two precincts are both around 40% Latino.
One other possibility-- and this might feel a little bit
of a stretch--
would be to add precincts that are currently
tied in with Swampscott and Marblehead and in Lynn--
I think there's one in Lynn--
one or two-- and add those back into the Lynn representative
districts.
And that would mean possibly also switching the HoD.
And the HoD is not out of the district,
out of those currently.
And the HoD is not geographically, physically
connected to, say, Marblehead and stuff,
but it actually has a pretty strong community
of interest in terms of nationality make-up.
The kind of people who live there
is sort of the equivalent of the Upper Peninsula
being a part of Michigan.
Even though there's a body of water in between them,
it's about a three minute drive.
So that'd be another possibility of swapping the HoD
and putting it in with Marblehead and Swampscott,
and then taking a couple of precincts
and switching them back into the Lynn districts there.
Lynn has two representatives right now,
and also a scattering of precincts
that are represented by people in other cities
where they're a very small minority
and wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, I think.
So those are the two possibilities
that I think would increase the community
representation in Lynn, and that I think would be helpful.
And I appreciate your time, and I
hope you'll consider those two options.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jeff.
I think Lynn is, if memory serves me right,
almost 95,000 people or thereabouts.
And right now the ideal rep district
I think is around 43,000.
So Lynn is slightly larger than if you add the two ideals
together.
And that depends on how it plays out because each precinct has
a different number attached to it,
and obviously, as you pointed out, some have 40% Latino.
So in Lynn, as the House sits, as the House of Representatives
sits in Massachusetts, we're certainly
going to take a hard look at that majority-minority
district.
And we're not going to do anything
to hurt that because we want that to remain strong
because that's one of the principles that we believe
is good and necessary, at least on the House map.
Because it's a little bit more challenging sometimes when you
have to draw a hundred and--
we have to draw nine congressional districts,
and we collaborate on that.
We collaborate on all of it, actually.
But there's 40 Senate districts, but there's
160 House districts.
And we want to make sure that as many
of those majority-minority districts that we
created 10 years ago remain.
And if we can build on that, we'd like to.
So that's the first thing that we'll look
at when we'll look at Lynn.
And then I think the second thing that we'll look at
is what you just referred to, which
is community of interests, and which communities
line up better with the community of Lynn
when you're considering those districts.
So those are two principles that we employ.
And you're right to look at 5-2 and 5-3,
and you're right to mention the HoD.
And all of those will be on the table,
and we will consider all of them as we move forward.
And I just want to-- you came to us with some insightful
and thought out testimony, and I appreciate
that, when somebody goes that deep that talks about Wards
and Precincts in surrounding towns.
So thank you very much for that.
I'd ask my colleagues, if they have any questions,
to please let me know at this point in time.
Any questions for Jeff?
Appreciate the thoughtful testimony.
OK.
Thanks, Jeff.
Thanks again.
Thank you.
Next up is Christina Eckert.
Christina, are you with us?
Sorry.
My name's Christina Eckert, and I ran for office
in the second Essex district, which is part of CD 6.
And I've knocked on thousands of doors in the district,
so I feel very familiar with it.
As a mother of school children, schools
are very important to me, and we have three regional school
districts in the second Essex district.
We have Masconomet, we have Triton, and we have Pentucket.
Now, Masconomet's on the edge of the district,
so we have five reps who represent Masconomet.
I think that's a great thing.
I think it's-- the more reps we have representing the district,
the better representation we have.
The reps will do earmarks for the district,
they will let if there are grant opportunities coming up.
It's a wealth of information that we get.
Triton has three state reps, but Pentucket,
which is wholly contained within the second Essex district,
only has one.
So I would testify that you might consider breaking up
the three towns of the Pentucket District and put one or two
of them into different districts--
and that is West Newbury, Groveland, and Merrimack--
so that they can have more representation rather than
less.
And I do think that Pentucket would benefit from that.
When multiple reps are advocating for one district,
I think the district benefits.
So I'm also the past director of the Merrimack River Watershed
Council, and the Watershed Council,
and in fact the river and the valley,
have benefited from having two congresspeople advocating
for the river.
We have Congressman Moulton and we have Congresswoman Trahan
who have filed legislation on behalf of the river,
and that's been very effective.
And I think that we can take that to the state level
and have multiple representatives representing
different areas, and that would benefit them.
Excellent.
Thank you, Christina.
So your testimony is the first one from the northern part
of this District.
So that's good.
My wife is from the Merrimack Valley,
so I'm very familiar with some of those areas are up there.
So thank you for your testimony.
Would anybody have any questions for Christina?
Anybody?
Hearing none.
Mr. Chairman, sir?
Senator Gobi, what say you?
Thank you, and I'll be quick.
I just-- I appreciate your comments because obviously
where I am in the western part of the state,
we run into some of these same issues.
And the importance of having multiple people being the voice
for an area, I agree with you.
I think it's extremely important to do that.
So I appreciate the comments that you made today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Senator.
I appreciate that.
Hearing, seeing no other questions,
I'd like to thank you for your testimony,
and enjoy the rest of your night.
And next I would like to call Jared Belliveau.
Jared?
Can you hear me?
I can hear you, Jared.
All right, great.
Sorry about that.
I'm having difficulties.
Give us your best.
Thank you, folks.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify this evening.
My name is Jared Belliveau.
I'm a resident of Reading.
I am not an elected official, but I
have served on town meetings and our Democratic Town Committee.
I do not represent any particular advocacy group,
though I am both a high school history teacher and a Navy
veteran.
So to the extent that history-teaching Navy
veterans are an advocacy group, I'm proud to represent them.
I'm here to testify on behalf of myself, my family
and my fellow neighbors.
Though I do not expect I'll be offering any novel ideas,
I hope that my comments serve to emphasize some points that I
think are important.
As the Committee considers how best to divide our Commonwealth
into nine congressional districts, 40 state
senatorial districts, 160 state representative districts,
I ask that you prioritize what I consider
to be the most important community interest of all--
that being the 300-plus municipalities that make up
our state.
Many of these cities and towns have
existed as political communities since before the Commonwealth
joined 12 other states to establish our nation.
Towns like Reading were incorporated
for the specific purpose of exercising
local political autonomy.
It allows us to get together with our neighbors
so that we might address local issues that
concerns constructively.
Indeed, when illustrating President Roosevelt's
famous speech about the four freedoms,
Norman Rockwell chose a traditional New England town
meeting to represent the freedom of speech.
Reading and most other municipalities
across Massachusetts still rely upon this form
of popular sovereignty.
Nevertheless, and despite popular misconceptions,
there are significant and pervasive
constraints placed around the home rule
autonomy of municipalities.
As you know, state government exercises the bulk
of governmental authority.
And for this reason, representation
in the state house holds significant consequence.
Every effort, I believe, should be
made to preserve the integrity of municipalities like Reading
so that we have both an opportunity to elect someone
from our town, and the ability to hold that person responsible
when our interests are not sufficiently represented.
While I would not attempt to do the work of the Committee,
a quick population tally indicates
that combining Reading and North Reading
into a single representative district, for example,
is one of several options to keep Reading whole
during this redistricting process.
I believe there are a few others out there.
I don't envy the work you have to do.
Math was never my strong suit.
And while I do love maps and the like,
I know you have a lot of work cut out for you.
So I appreciate whatever you can do to try
to keep municipalities whole--
in Reading, in particular, who I can't remember how many decades
it's been since we elected somebody for the State House.
So thank you for your time, I appreciate it.
And good luck to you.
Over.
Thank you, Jared, very much.
I appreciate you taking the time to give us
a little bit of a history lesson there with your comments.
The tough part around this part of the map,
to be honest with you, from the House perspective,
is you have a bunch of cities and towns
that aren't big enough to be their own district,
but are large enough to be a significant part
of another district.
You have Lynnfield, you have North Reading,
you have Wakefield all surrounding you there.
Stoneham, I believe, is out there, Wilmington.
And it's tough to get to that 43,000 on a House district
without splitting cities and towns.
We try our very best to make sure that doesn't happen,
and we use some principles that I
think are widely acknowledged as being good and solid.
So we do our very best to try and not do that.
And it's challenging.
Like I said, there's 351 cities and towns,
and there's 160 rep districts.
And the smallest town is Gosnold and the largest city
is the city of Boston, and everyone else
lies somewhere in between there.
But we do try our very best to do that.
So I appreciate your testimony.
I thank you for bringing up some interesting historical facts
there.
The town meeting is a very interesting--
I represent a little bit of the city of Brookline,
so I know exactly what town meetings are like.
But I will ask my colleagues, do they
have any questions for Jared at this moment?
Hearing none, I would thank Jared again for his testimony.
I appreciate it very much.
And next, I would--
enjoy the rest of your night, Jared-- next I
would call Michelle Guzman.
She is the New Lynn Coalition.
Michelle, would you like to join us to give us some testimony?
Yes, hi, how are you?
I'm actually giving my testimony just as myself.
I work for that organization, but I'm doing on my own.
OK, we'll take it any way you can give it to us.
Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.
Well, thank you.
Thank you for putting this together
and give the public a chance to testify
for this important matter.
As I said, my name is Michelle Guzman.
I live in the city of Lynn.
And my testimony is basically sharing with you my experience,
what I went through.
I was one of the coordinators for the census,
and through my experience in the middle of the pandemic,
I was faced with the reality of--
in Lynn, there are very diverse of nationalities,
and Lynn used to be and is still is a refugee city.
So we had people that spoke very, very diverse
and unique languages and dialects,
and I think that when we talk about communities of interest,
we also need to integrate these newcomers for our country.
And specifically in the area of Lynn and the North Shore,
we try to-- me as a community organizer--
we try to educate them in what democracy is
and the representation.
So in this case, I would like to give a voice
to those people that don't necessarily have
that voice for whatever reason.
Sometimes it's a language, sometimes it's a background,
sometimes it's the education.
Trying to learn the American democracy, a little bit
difficult, and sometimes it's hard to understand,
trying to think about all these layers.
So it's talking about the community
and bringing the towns together.
And I know that sometimes within the map,
it is very difficult to represent that.
But in my case, I really want to give voice to refugees,
to people that are immigrating and trying
to integrate in our community.
And so understanding the diversity of languages and--
I think the census got, in Lynn, very close to 100,000.
So you were very, very close when you said 90,000 for that.
And so I don't have precisely an idea,
but I wanted to just share this information with you.
And I'm sorry, I didn't realize that my bird was really
making a lot of noise.
So sorry.
It sounded topical, so we're good.
Some sort of Caribbean.
So again, thank you so much for having the time to give me
the opportunity to share my experience as a community
organizer, but also being able to live in
that experience through the census really taught me a lot
and opened my mind that there's a lot to do.
And when we talk about community,
they are also part of the community.
Here in Lynn, and another coworker
mentioned-- another person mentioned Nahant,
and the surrounding towns are very
important to be represented.
Thank you.
Thank you, Michelle.
I think it was with the Drawing Democracy Coalition,
I think two years ago it was, we put $2.5 million
in the budget that was administered
by the secretary of state for an accurate count committee.
And our hope is that maybe organizations like the New Lynn
Coalition would receive grant money so that hard
to count populations, which are quite oftentimes
immigrants because maybe they just
don't want to be recognized or seen
or whatever the case may be--
and we put some money into a fund
to make sure that your organizations like
that would get that money.
And I'm glad to hear that people like you were out there making
sure that they were counted, and I'm
hoping that the over 7 million that we got in our count
from Massachusetts includes a lot of those people that
were afraid to come out and be counted.
And that would be, I think, for all of us on this committee,
would be a good thing.
So I appreciate the work you did,
and hopefully the city of Lynn is
one of those cities that were overcounted.
Because sometimes-- well, we'll just leave it at that.
Hopefully the city of Lynn was one of those cities.
So I won't say any more.
I would just ask my colleagues on the Committee,
if they have any questions, feel free to do so at this time
and step up.
And if not, that's OK, too.
Thank you, Michelle, and thank you for all your work
that you did during the census recount.
It's very important that people like you stepped up,
and we appreciate it.
Thank you.
So right now--
Thank you.
Have a good night.
So right now, I'm going to call some names because there's
nobody next in line, but there are a few more people
that had agreed to testify, or signed up to testify,
I should say.
So I wanted to go to the list, starting at the top again.
Christopher Campbell, is he here?
If Christopher is here, he could make himself known.
Also on the list is John Taylor.
John Taylor, if you are there, make yourself known.
Paul Combs, also on the list, make
yourself known if you could.
And the last would be Stephanie Bartlett.
If any of those people can hear my voice,
please make yourself known so we can have you come in
and testify.
All right, I'm going to say them one more time,
and then we're going to--
if we don't hear one of them check in,
we are going to close out this hearing.
Again, Christopher Campbell, John Taylor, Paul Combs,
and Stephanie Bartlett.
Going once, going twice.
OK, haven't heard from any of them.
That is all of the people that have signed up
to testify this evening.
I want to thank all those that did testify, and some of whom
actually came very prepared and had
some very accurate and descriptive ways of how
we could change some of the districts.
So I'd like to thank them all for taking time out
of their schedule.
I'd like to thank my colleagues for joining us,
as well as our federal colleague, Congressman Moulton,
for taking some time out of his schedule.
At this point in time, hearing no one else wanting to testify,
I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this hearing,
and would accept a second.
Second.
Hearing a second.
Motion to adjourn.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Nice job, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, good night.
Good night, all.
Good night.