Again, Congressman Auchincloss.
So do we have closed captioning working?
Is that working?
Looks like it.
Yes.
OK.
Great.
So this is a hearing of the Joint Committee
on Redistricting in Massachusetts.
The scope of this hearing is the 4th congressional district.
When we say the fourth congressional district,
we're referring to the district itself,
but also to all the legislative districts that
might be in the neighborhood of that district.
So we will start with testimony from Congressman Auchincloss,
but let me make sure I've introduced myself,
Will Brownsberger, State Senator Senate co-chair, and my house
co-chair, Representative Mike Moran,
who is visible virtually here.
When Representative Moran is present in person on the Zoom,
we'll do some personal introductions from his side.
But for now, let me introduce my Vice Chair, Senator Anne
Gobi, who is with us, and we'll recognize house members later.
So without further ado, representative Auchincloss,
we look forward to your thoughts about redistricting
in fourth congressional district.
Good afternoon.
Thanks for having me.
Chair Brownsberger, Chair Moran, and members
of the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting,
I appreciate you hosting this event.
The task in front of this committee
is by no stretch of the imagination an easy one,
and you've made it a goal to have an open, inclusive,
and transparent process.
And I'm happy to support these efforts as Massachusetts
draws a new map.
I also want to thank the elected officials and the community
members who are joining today.
Your participation will ensure that the committee hears
from a breadth of views, as we all
think about the future of the Massachusetts 4th.
And I'll take a few minutes just to address this district
and its unique attributes.
The 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts
is a powerhouse of talent and innervation.
From the Industrial Revolution to today,
the district has been a hub for advanced manufacturing, energy,
health care, life sciences, information technology
and education, not to mention a nerve center for civil society
and workforce development.
Our district's status as a political and economic hub
rests upon its wide range of thought and economics.
Our 34 cities and towns are urban, suburban, and farmland.
They vote blue and red.
They commute to Boston and Providence,
and they are increasingly internally diverse.
Representing Fall River, Attleboro, and Taunton
in southeastern Massachusetts through Boston's inner suburbs
means that when I go to Washington,
I go there with a multi-threaded handle on policy that
affects the district, the state, and the country.
As we think about the future of our district
and what that might look like, I think
we need to prioritize protecting the ideological, geographic,
and economic diversity that allows this district
to be a unique voice in the halls of Congress.
I'm confident that the views expressed today
are going to help solidify for the committee
why our current makeup is so special,
and why our collective voices are
such an important part of our Democratic representation.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge
that this process comes after a turbulent few months
in Washington.
My first few weeks in Congress were
marked by an insurrection, an impeachment, an inauguration,
and then massive legislation, the American Rescue Plan.
Now an issue dominating the news is the right to vote
and the integrity of our elections, how precious it
is, how fragile it can be, and how much work
we have to do to protect the franchise
and to protect the integrity of our elections.
That's why exercises like this are so important, including
citizens in our Democratic processes
and encouraging more participation, not less.
I'm excited to hear from members of our community this afternoon
for as long as I'm able to be here before my flight down
to Washington.
And with that, I'll turn back things to the committee for you
to proceed with your agenda.
Thank you so much for your testimony, Congressman.
Let's see.
I believe that representative Moran
is in a position at this point to make some comments,
and perhaps introduce some folks.
I am, yes.
Thank you, Senator.
For the record, this is Representative Mike Moran.
I am the house co-chair of the redistricting committee.
Welcome to everybody as we figure out
this district, which is the 4th congressional district.
And as the Congressman said, this district
is a very storied district, with leadership that has always
been knowledgeable about what happens in Washington
and effective about bringing things back to our state.
I would just like to, at this point in time,
point out to everybody that this is our, I believe,
ninth hearing.
There are many to go.
This process is trying to reach out to as many people
as we can to make sure that if you want to be heard,
you will be heard.
And that's what the process thus far has been, and will
remain until the very end.
I would like, at this point in time,
to introduce some of my colleagues
that are here, and first and foremost the gentleman from--
my Vice Chair, the gentleman from Lawrence,
gentleman Marcos Devers.
This is his second time doing redistricting.
He was on this committee 10 years ago.
Thank you, Marcos, for being here.
Representative Kip Diggs from Barnstable, Cape Cod,
thank you, Representative Diggs, for being here.
Representative Straus from Mattapoisett,
the great city of Mattapoisett, thank you for being here,
representative Straus, and thank you for the work
that you did last week on that transportation bill.
Nice job.
All the way from Pittsfield, representative Farley-Bouvier
is here.
Thank you for being here.
The gentleman from Auburn who was the ranking minority
member of the committee, Representative Paul Frost
is here.
Thank you.
And the gentlelady from Holden, representative Kim Ferguson
is here.
Next, I'd like to introduce a gentlelady from Fall River.
She has been in the house, and she's in house leadership,
and she's on this committee.
She chairs the Committee on Tourism and Arts and Culture
and Development.
She is a member of leadership.
She serves on this committee, and we've
asked her to say a few words and bring greetings
from the 4th congressional district,
as she is a resident of that district, representative Carole
Fiola.
Thank you, Chairman, leader Moran, Chairman Brownsberger.
Great to be here with all of you and those
who are going to testify today, and who
will send also written testimony to my committee members,
fellow committee members.
It's an honor to serve on this committee.
I am in the district today.
Actually, I'm the chair and the president
of a foundation that is hosting a golf tournament today.
So I'm doing what all of us do at times, is multitask, what
we all do.
But nothing is more important today
than to hear from the residents of the 4th Congressional
District.
Redistricting, as we've known since census began,
is one of the most vital efforts that we will take on.
And while COVID certainly put us a little bit in a tailspin,
and the numbers are not fully in yet,
we are starting to have an indication,
and we will not know for a little bit longer.
But how important it is to hear from the voices.
I know I shared in my district to invite anyone
who wanted to testify to do so.
So I will look forward to the follow-up
of this hearing and hearing what you have to say.
As Leader Moran said, this has been a storied district.
We all know Barney Frank held this district
for many, many years, and things change.
And I will tell you that as we stand here today,
while the conversation over one district continues to happen,
I will have to admit, I have never
felt more confident in the leadership
that we have here in the 4th Congressional
District with Jake Auchincloss.
It's no surprise I have been working closely
with him, because it's important to do that,
to make sure that our voices are heard in the federal level.
And I can only say that Congressman Auchincloss
has been most responsive.
So I will look forward to hearing from everyone today.
I'll always be available to those in my district
who want to share their thoughts and ideas.
And I want to once again thank Leader Moran, Chairman
Brownsberger, and the entire committee
for paying such careful detailed attention,
and for your leadership, chairman,
for continuing this redistricting effort.
You've led it 10 years ago.
We're glad that you're back at the seat again, Chair Moran.
And I know that we will make sure we have fair, balanced,
and well-represented districts.
So with that, I'll turn it back to you.
And have a great day everyone.
Thank you, Carole.
And thank you to all my colleagues
that are on this call.
I look forward to hearing more testimony.
Thank you, Congressman Auchincloss.
At this point in time, I'll turn it back
to the Senator, my co-chair, Senator Brownsberger.
Thank you so much.
So we'll turn to the witnesses, starting first
with representative Patricia Haddad
from Somerset, if she's online.
I don't believe so.
OK.
Let's turn to KC Kato from Wellesley,
if he or she is online.
I see the town clerk of Wellesley arriving.
You're, at this point, on mute still.
There you go.
Can you hear me?
I have to check video.
OK, great.
There you go.
Good afternoon.
My name is KC Kato.
I am the town clerk in Wellesley.
And thank you very much for the opportunity
to speak regarding the drawing of the new precinct lines.
And actually, I'm speaking on behalf of a reprecincting
working group that we're working internally
with our executive director who reports
to the select board, our GS manager, and a select board
member, as well.
So anyway, thank you again for your time.
I'll make this quick.
So we as a reprecincting group are
asking in creating legislative districts based
on the new local precincts.
And I know that there is different discussions going
on regarding the initiation of the process.
But by basing it on the new local precincts,
we allow municipalities the appropriate time
to participate in the creation of the new local precincts.
We recognize that the reprecincting process
is challenging all of us.
The additional complicating factor
is that the data is considerably late in what
would be considered a normal cycle,
as well as, we need to get this done
before the end of the year.
And our regular business includes
exceptionally busy fall town meetings and special elections.
Wellesley is a midsize town.
We're home to approximately 28,000 residents
and 18,000 voters.
We are a representative town meeting community
with eight precincts split into two state senatorial districts.
And based on the preliminary census data,
we will stay at eight precincts.
However, six out of eight precincts
have changed to warrant reprecincting.
And given the data, we will likely
be adjusting all eight precincts.
In addition, our preliminary review of the data
has caused us to pause, as a few of the more significant changes
were not what we expected, based on what
we see in our own community.
One precinct increased by 21% from 2010,
while others have decreased by over 10%.
And of course, they aren't always adjacent to each other.
So the reprecincting process is challenging.
We know our community, the natural boundaries,
the new polling locations, and other local nuances.
So if you begin with the old precincts,
we know that they are not the right size,
and can result in individual precincts being split
across two legislative districts, which
would create elections operations issues and voter
confusion.
If the legislative districts are drawn before towns have created
their own new precinct lines, what options and/or flexibility
do cities and towns have when drawing local precincts
or districts?
While we would like the process to begin at the local level,
might this be a collaborative and iterative process?
And so thinking about what flexibility
and other iterations go on after the lines are drawn.
We would welcome the opportunity to work with you in developing
the new precincts.
Thank you for your time and service.
OK, thank you.
Let me just respond to that a little bit.
I appreciate it.
The primary focus here is on the drawing
of the Congressional districts and legislative districts.
But you've brought up the reprecinct issue,
and so let me just underline a couple of things
about that for you.
Number one, we are very committed to working--
we have a deadline to meet, at the legislative level.
We have to complete our redistricting process
by October, or the end of October,
and that includes a period of public comment and our voting
process.
So there is no feasible way for the legislature
to wait for the local reprecincting process
this year.
We are going to have to move forward.
We will be moving forward at the same time
as the local reprecincting process,
but we are going to do so in the most transparent way possible.
We're going to put out the results of our work
so that you can comment on them, and we can perhaps
make some adjustments in the final process,
and/or we're also giving you additional time
at the end of the process so that you can make adjustments
based on what we've done, if that seems like something
that you would want to do.
The key thing to underline is that we are not,
and will not, tie the hands of municipalities
in how they choose to do their reprecincting,
so that the worst case is that there will be some voter
headaches and some clerical headaches in some towns,
where, yes, a precinct might be split
into two legislative districts.
That could happen.
But we'll be working with you.
We'll be working with all the clerks,
and hopefully, as you say, a little bit
of iteration, a little bit of back and forth, and we
can avoid as many problems as possible.
Thank you.
Thanks for being here.
And to underline again, our doors
are open when you have any concerns at all, if you wanted
to check in as the process goes forward, as the data comes in,
things start to crystallize.
You know where to reach us.
Am I allowed to ask a question?
Go ahead.
OK.
And you had said you will be putting out your work soon.
When is that?
Well, we'll get the data the same time
as everybody else will get it, which will be mid-August.
So then we'll be trying to move forward as quickly as possible.
OK, thank you.
Senator, can I add something to that?
Please.
I would just say also that I don't
know what data that you are referring to when you say
certain precincts have gained by X,
and certain precincts have lost by X.
And quite frankly, it doesn't matter much to us,
because we are, by the Constitution,
required to use census data.
And since that census data hasn't come in,
I'm not sure if your numbers are accurate.
Well, I know your numbers can't be accurate,
because the census hasn't given us the numbers yet.
And they're saying they're not going
to give us the official numbers until the 30th of September,
and they're going to give us some files in August,
I believe.
We're not sure if those are going to be--
or at least I can speak on the House side--
we're not sure that those numbers, those files we get
are going to be the ones that we're going to use,
as we want to make sure that we're
in compliance with the Constitution, which says
we have to use census data.
So I would be careful, and I would
be sort of cautious about anybody
referring to any actual numbers, because we
don't know the numbers.
It's impossible to know the numbers,
because the census hasn't released them yet.
OK.
Our doors remain open, KC.
We look forward to staying in touch
as the process moves forward.
Going now to Diana Marie Painter of Fairhaven, if she's here.
I don't believe so.
But it does look like Mayor Coogan has his hand raised.
So I wasn't sure.
Oh, if we've got, yeah, let's recognize the mayor.
Thank you, Mayor Coogan.
Mayor Coogan, we're glad to have you with us.
You need to unmute.
There you go.
We welcome your testimony.
Can you hear me now?
Sure can.
I just want to make a couple of points here.
Fall River, obviously, is a city that gets--
first of all, I want to thank the chairman,
both chairmen for letting me have an opportunity
to speak today.
It's very important that Fall River is well represented.
Because as the rest of the states know,
as the rest of the state knows, Fall River
is in need of a bunch of help.
And we believe having two congressional people to help us
in Washington is not a negative thing.
Both Congressman Keating and Congressman Auchincloss,
who I have struck up a great relationship with--
I got to meet him before the election--
he comes to Fall River.
He takes an interest in our city.
He's helping us with some of our development on the waterfront,
and I can't say enough things about him.
He and I have no problem having a conversation on Friday night
at 7 o'clock about something that will help the city.
So I don't want to lose them.
I do appreciate all that Congressman Keating does, too,
in the south end of the city.
But when I got to meet Jake during the campaign,
I ended up endorsing him, because I thought
he was a quality person.
He's a straight shooter, and we just don't want to lose him.
If we can stay with the district as configured now,
that would help us immensely.
But I respect whatever you guys decide to do,
because you're the ones that are doing it.
I actually used to work at the state house a long time ago.
So I know this is a very difficult time for you.
But Congressman Auchencloss is someone who
has a keen eye in Fall River.
And he opened an office in the government center here,
and he works with us closely on a myriad of city issues.
And I just wanted to be clear, I don't
want to lose him at this time.
Thank you for weighing in, mayor.
Appreciate it.
Any comments questions from members of the committee?
Thank you so much, mayor.
We hear you.
Thank you very much.
Maeve, who's the next person on the list
who appears to be present?
Looks like we've got Sophie Kripp.
OK I'm just going to call the names of the others,
so they hear them, and they have the opportunity
to indicate if we've missed them.
Eileen Pinkus, [? Palovy ?] Mandy, Sandra Correiro,
we don't see you, and we're going to move forward
to Sophie Kripp.
Sophie, you're online.
Yes, hello.
Like you said, my name is Sophie Kripp.
I am with the Coalition for Social Justice in Southeastern
Massachusetts.
My colleague, Jaden [? Appel, ?] will also
be presenting at this meeting, and we
plan to do our testimony together
while not exceeding the total time limit for one person.
Would it be possible for her to be moved [INAUDIBLE]
at this time as well?
Jaden [? Appel? ?]
Mhm.
Sure.
Thank you.
Go ahead, Maeve.
Great.
You're both here.
Look forward to your testimony.
So we would like to start by first thanking
Chairs Brownsberger and Moran, as well
as the rest of the committee, for hosting this hearing.
We, as members of the public, really
appreciate the opportunity to engage with the committee
and outline the solution we feel is best for our community.
So today, we would like to propose
that in this redistricting cycle, the entirety of the city
of Fall River, which is currently
split between congressional districts 4 and 9,
be moved into congressional district 9.
Not only have we found a way to balance this change
by a numerical population standpoint,
but this solution also has a multitude of other benefits
as well.
First, Fall River is one of the most racially
and socioeconomically diverse cities in Massachusetts,
and keeping its population together in one
cohesive voting bloc is vital to ensuring
that the voices of our state's marginalized and
underrepresented residents are listened to.
Because Fall River is currently split
between congressional districts 4 and 9,
this already marginalized community
has even less power to make their voices heard.
Currently, wards 4, 5, and 6 of the city
are split along the 195 between congressional districts
4 and 9, and the population in these wards
has approximately 32% people of color,
which is twice as high as the populations of people of color
in non-split wards, which is a clear example
of racial cracking.
Next, the splitting of Fall River
between congressional districts 4 and 9
means that one city is left with two representatives,
just like the mayor had said.
But our conversations with citizens of Fall River
tell us that this divide creates confusion,
not only on the part of voters, but also
a diffusion of responsibility for representatives.
This works often against accountability, something
that is so important in democracy,
especially for a large population
of marginalized communities so present in Fall River.
Yeah.
So our conversations with residents in Fall River
have also revealed a lack of alignment to the rest of CD4,
specifically some of the wealthier
northern cities, like Wellesley, Newton, Needham, and Brookline.
And instead, Fall Rivers population
feels more aligned to the nearby city of New Bedford, which is
currently represented in CD 9.
And since New Bedford and Fall River
both have large populations of people of color, working class
citizens, and immigrants, separating these two cities
only is intensifying the current intercity
cracking of Fall River.
So as you know, CD4 is currently underpopulated
by approximately 3,000 people, and CD 9
is currently underpopulated by approximately 20,000 residents.
And a key aspect of redistricting
is solving this population imbalance.
And so by moving Fall River into CD 9
and moving Raynham, Middleboro, and Walpole into CD4,
this will put both congressional districts
within a 0.2% deviation from the target population.
And this, again, would also empower the currently cracked
voices of people of color and working class populations
in Fall River.
It would also remove the current diffusion of responsibility,
and would remove Fall River from a district in which residents
feel it does not belong, as you'll hear later today.
And so adopting this plan would bring
approximately another 7,700 people of color into CD 9.
It would also bring the entire, heavily working class
city of Fall River into the district.
And we estimate that the Fall River working class population
coming into CD 9 is about 25,000 workers and their families,
which is putting CD 9 on the path
towards becoming another minority-majority working class
district in the future.
So we would once again like to thank
the members of this committee on redistricting.
And all of the ideas that we've presented today
are organized and further explained
in a letter that currently has 90 signatures from South Coast
residents and grassroots organization leaders
who understand the importance of making this plan a reality.
Thank you guys.
Thank you very much for weighing in.
We do appreciate your testimony.
Are there questions from any members of the committee?
I would like to, if I would, Senator.
Yes.
I just want to be very clear in the terminology that
was just used.
The CD district is not a majority-minority district,
or even close to being a minority-majority district.
And the word "cracking" is a dangerous word to use,
because cracking is when you are taking, massing a population,
deliberately splitting it in half so that they cannot elect
the person of their choice.
There may be an instance of cracking
in a smaller district, a state rep district, perhaps,
or even a state Senate district.
But in a congressional district, which
has upwards of 700,000 people in it,
there is no instance, in this district,
that cracking can appear, let alone is appearing.
I'd also say that when cracking appears,
it has to be a protected class under Section 2
of the Voting Rights Act.
And there is no instance of Section 2
of the Voting Rights happening in this congressional district.
While I appreciate the sentiments of the last person
who testified, the argument I think that they're making
is more of a community of interest argument, one
which is trying to tie Fall River and New Bedford together.
That is a legitimate argument to make,
as is the mayors argument that they'd
like two congressional seats in Fall River.
But those are community of interest ideas.
Those are far different than Section 2 of the Voting Rights
Act in cracking, or in the opposite of that, packing
a certain minority interest to diffuse their ability to elect
the person of their choice.
I just feel I need to correct that, because those issues,
and those words can be very volatile,
and I felt the need to just correct that last testimony.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr Chair.
I would concur in the legal statement that you made there.
But we do appreciate your testimony,
and take your points in the spirit of community
of interest arguments, and they're well taken.
So any other questions, comments,
from members of the committee?
Ms. Kripp, Ms. Appel, any other comments you wanted to add?
I definitely do.
I wanted to say thank you, Moran, for your feedback.
And when we do talk about communities of interest,
it's definitely what we are talking
about when we think about putting Fall River and New
Bedford together.
I think when we think about cracking, you're right,
that can't necessarily happen in such
a large congressional district.
We're really focusing in and zooming in on those small wards
in Fall River in where we kind of felt as
though we saw that happening.
But I also understand, again, the power of those words
like "cracking" and "packing."
So again, I thank you for your feedback.
Thank you.
And just for the numbers-- and I'll leave it at this--
this district CD4 is almost 85% people
of white, how it's described by the Census.
It is 7% Asian, and 3% Black.
So I just want to be clear on the actual numbers,
as it pertains to CD4.
Thanks.
Great.
OK, thank you both so much for your testimony,
and look forward to staying in touch.
Thank you.
Whose next, Maeve?
I see we have Rep Haddad joined.
Oh, great.
Let's go back to Rep Haddad.
Let's recognize Rep Pat Haddad.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Chairman.
I really don't have any prepared remarks.
I just wanted to comment that I'm
grateful that the two of you are chairs of this committee.
10 years ago, when I had the opportunity
to be part of the committee, it was very obvious how difficult
it is to make sure that you are being responsive to everyone,
such as the people who just spoke before me,
and try to be fair and understand that this
is a big deal to many people.
I have been very grateful to be part
of the 4th congressional district.
Our current Congressman has just been doing a great job.
And I know sometimes people talk about,
there should be a South Coast, directly in the South Coast
congressperson.
But I want to point out that the South Coast had an opportunity
to have someone run from the South
Coast in this last election.
And while I personally thought about it,
there weren't other people who were really
serious about doing that.
So I think if people are serious about having
a different way of doing things, then they need to come forward,
and they need to be part of the conversation and the process.
So I just want to thank you once more
and the members of the commission.
I don't envy you your job, but I will just
say that if there is anything that I can do to be helpful,
I would really like to provide that help for you.
So thanks once again for having this event.
Appreciate your comments.
Appreciate your engagement.
Appreciate your support.
Are there other questions or comments
from members of the panel?
Well, thank you so much, Representative Haddad.
I really appreciate having you.
My pleasure.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm going to go back to Shane Burgo, who
we called on previously, but has now arrived.
Welcome.
Hi, thank you.
Can you hear me OK?
Yes, you're on.
OK, thank you.
Good afternoon and thank you to the Committee Chair Senator
Brownsberger and Representative Moran,
as well as other members of the committee,
for hosting this public hearing.
My name is Shane Burgo and I'm a lifelong resident
of New Bedford, which is within Massachusetts'
9th congressional district.
I'm the affirmative action officer of the New Bedford
Democratic City Committee, the Education Chair
of the New Bedford branch of the NAACP,
a leader from United Interfaith Action of Southeastern
Massachusetts, a member of the Coalition for Social Justice,
and many other community groups.
During this past presidential election cycle,
I had the privilege of serving our 9th congressional district
as one of Joe Biden's National delegates
at the Democratic National Convention.
This was not an easy task.
Not only was it my first time campaigning,
but it was in the middle of a pandemic,
and I was unable to meet new people
and build relationships outside of my usual network.
I relied heavily on relational phone banking and video chats
with other community groups that fell
within our congressional district.
One of the communities I did not expect to struggle in
was Fall River.
Although it is not a bordering city to New Bedford,
it shares similar demographics.
I have spent a lot of time in Fall River
and have many friends and family that both work and live
in Fall River.
When I reached out to them, they were more than
excited to request their mail-in ballots
and help me get elected on the National level
to bring a voice to not only the youth of our area,
but to our Black indigenous people of color
that are usually not center stage.
The top contenders in the race had always
been elected to the DNC.
They had the infrastructure and money to campaign
throughout the district for votes,
especially from areas within our district
that are predominantly white.
We knew we had to get a lot of our support
from New Bedford and Fall River if we wanted to be successful.
However, due to the current divide in Fall River,
some of my supporters fell just over the line
into the 4th Congressional District
and could not vote for me.
That is why I'm here today, to share my testimony
for those residents of Fall River that
feel they are underrepresented on the national level
because of how the districts are drawn up.
It does not make sense for a city
to be divided into two separate districts.
It hurts the communities within Fall River
and diminishes the voting power of minority groups.
I urge this committee to stop the dilution
of our political power and help ease
one of the many causes of voter apathy.
If voters, specifically voters of color,
and even youth and working class voters
are in a predominantly white district, where their vote will
not make as much of an impact, these voters
are likely to not turn out to vote at all.
Do not miss this opportunity to place all of Fall River
into the 9th Congressional District, which
will help solve the current divide of our communities.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Thank you so much for your testimony.
We appreciate it.
Questions from members of the panel?
OK, thank you, sir, for weighing in.
Much appreciated.
Maeve, who do you have next?
We actually have Sandra Carreiro, just
in a different name.
OK, let's go back to Sandra.
Hello?
So I'm seeing Andrea Sheppard.
Welcome.
Yes, sorry.
We'll take your testimony.
Are you, or how do you relate to Sandra?
I am Sandra.
Sorry, it's a work account for the Zoom.
So when I log in, I couldn't see what name I was logged into.
OK, all right.
Sandra, glad to have you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
So everybody can hear me well?
Perfect.
So good afternoon.
My name is Sandra Carreiro.
I live in Fall River on Ward 8, close to I-195.
I was born in the city, and my son was also born in this city.
Most of my family has been living here for over 50 years.
We all came from the Azores in Portugal.
My dad moved here when he was a teenager in 1968,
my mother in 1972.
When my parents and other relatives just moved here,
they started working in farms and manufacturing industries.
As time went on, my family moved out
from working in farms and factories.
Today, a lot of my relatives own small businesses
in the area of carpentry, construction, landscaping,
and real estate.
We are a working class family, and Fall River
is a working class community.
Tens of thousands of people in Fall River
are Portuguese, like I am.
They live in the north of Fall River and the south area,
and also in the Flint neighborhood,
close to the I-195.
You see what I'm trying to do here?
All of Fall River is one community,
whether we live in the highlands, on Columbia Street,
or on the north, on the four corners of the globe.
You will find Portuguese bakeries, restaurants,
[INAUDIBLE],, and Portuguese churches all over these places
that I just mentioned.
Yet my community has been split to accommodate
political boundaries.
Or to use the right term, my community has been cracked.
We can't vote for the same representative.
Our political power is diluted, even though the needs
of our community are the same.
Regardless of where we live, we can't speak with one voice
to make sure we get what we need.
I live in CD 4, but my son goes to school about a mile
away at a Catholic school that happens to be in CD 9,
in a Fall River neighborhood.
My relatives, close to 100 of them,
live in both districts, CD4 and CD9 neighborhoods.
At any given time of the day, I shop at stores
and go for walks in both CD4 and CD9,
yet I don't understand why we're separated,
and I would like this to stop.
Why is my community separated?
I am here asking you to end splitting of my community.
We have more in common with the New Bedford community, who also
has a very large working class, Portuguese community,
then we are connected to the Wellesley or Brookline
community.
Members of the community, do what is right.
Let Fall River speak with one voice
and be part of a unified South Coast.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate your testimony.
Do we have comments or questions from members of the committee?
All right, thank you very much for weighing in.
Appreciate it.
Who's up next, Maeve?
Well, I see we have Rep Doherty has joined.
I think she wanted to make a few comments.
Oh, thank you very much, Rep Doherty.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Can you hear me?
Hang on a second.
Somebody is listening online, and it's feeding back.
Members of the community, do what is right.
Let Fall River speak with one voice
and be part of a unified South Coast.
Representative Doherty, are you sure
you might not have something going on in the background
there?
Going to unmute Representative Doherty and see how it goes.
Yeah, no.
Somehow you got some feedback going on there, Rep Doherty.
I'm getting two tracks here.
(PLAYBACK) Well, I see we have Rep Doherty has joined.
I think she wanted to make a few comments.
Oh, thank you very much.
Rep Doherty.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Rep Doherty, you're going to have to figure out how to--
that's not going to work.
You're going to have to--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Mute yourself for now, and maybe come
back in without that feedback.
So we'll come back to you.
We'll give Rep Doherty a chance to maybe log
in a little different way.
I'm not sure what the best way is
going to be for her to solve that problem, because we do
want to hear her testimony.
Why don't you log out and come back in, Rep Doherty.
If you've been watching online, turn it off online,
and then log out and come back in.
And we will be looking for you, and we'll get you back in.
Meanwhile, other than Rep Doherty, who would be next?
It looks like we've got Benjamin Cohen.
Benjamin Cohen.
Let me just say the names of other people
in between who we are not recognizing,
because we don't see them.
We don't see Lucas Johnson, Nancy Wagman, Jane Frantz,
Henry Hahn.
We don't see Sony Fernandez.
And so we're down to Benjamin Scott Cohen.
If we called your name but we didn't recognize you,
just make sure we know.
Put something in the chat.
We will come back to you.
Let's let Benjamin Cohen go, and we'll try again
with Rep Doherty after that.
Hi.
Thank you.
Yeah, please.
I would like to extend my thanks to the Special Joint Committee
on Redistricting for allowing me to speak before you all today,
with special thanks extended to Representative
Moran and Senator Brownsberger for chairing
this all-important committee.
And before I begin, I want to point out
that attempting this exercise without the 2020 census
data being released to the public is about as close
to an exercise in futility as possible.
But we have to work with what we have, so I digress.
The 4th Congressional District has a compactness problem.
It's one of the least compact congressional districts
in the Commonwealth, and it directly
affects other districts with compactness problems,
such as the 5th, 8th, and 9th congressional districts that
border it.
For those who don't know what compactness is,
compactness is the idea that districts
should be drawn to be as small as possible,
so that the people who live in the district
are those who live closest to each other.
I favor circular shapes and the REOC test
for evaluating this, which calculates compactness
by dividing the district's total square footage
by the minimum bounding circle that could be drawn around it.
So the South and parts of the middle of the district
are fairly compact, with most of Bristol County
and a solid block of towns on Norfolk County stretching
from Franklin to Sharon making a lot of sense
being grouped together, making a fairly compact shape by itself.
Problems start to arise when we consider the two
arm-like shapes of the district, with one arm being
the towns of Hopkinton, [INAUDIBLE] and Bellingham,
and the other arm having the towns of Dover, Needham,
Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline.
These arms end up making the district significantly less
compact, spreading it out geographically,
and I believe this is the primary way that we should
address the issue in this district,
by making those arms no longer arms.
In my mind, the best way to solve this problem
is by cutting out some of the towns
in the south of the district to increase the compactness
of the district overall.
I've heard people argue in favor of this solution
in a different way, arguing that a city like Fall River
should not be in the same district
as a town like Brookline on cultural arguments.
And in my previous work in the 4th congressional district
on a congressional campaign, Ben Siegel's campaign,
I have to disagree with this cultural argument.
I go to school in the south of the district,
and I often visit friends and work and live in the north,
as well.
I believe that differences between the parts
of the district are overstated, with all parts of the district
simply containing people trying to do what they believe
is best for their communities.
With projects like South Coast Rail
underway to expand transit access across the district,
I think this perceived district is dramatically overstated.
So all in all, I disagree with this cultural argument.
However, I do recognize that it's really hard,
if not impossible, to draw a compact district with Fall
River and Brookline in the same district.
So with this being said, I think removing the precincts
from Fall River, Lakeville, and Freetown that are currently
in the district and replacing them
with precincts from the towns of Sherburne,
and Holliston from the 5th Congressional District,
Walpole from the 8th congressional district, as well
as the missing precincts from Raynham and Bellingham
that are currently split up between other congressional
districts in the Commonwealth, would constitute
a relatively equal exchange of population, while drastically
increasing the compactness of the district overall.
However, I'd like to, once again,
mention that engaging in this process
before the 2020 census data has been available to the public
is somewhat silly, and I hope that another hearing would
be scheduled soon for 4th congressional district
residents following the release of the data.
So in conclusion, I would like to reiterate my emphasis
to the legislators involved in this process,
that they consider compactness.
And my belief that the best way to solve this problem
is removing some towns and cities in the southern part
of the district.
Thank you.
So we think your comments are serious, and we respect them,
and we don't think what we're doing is silly.
We think that the data is available
sufficient to make serious comments like the one you're
making, and we are moving forward, taking those comments
across the state and getting the input.
Because we do have a pretty good idea
of where things stand, with or without the final numbers.
So we appreciate your serious testimony.
And are there any questions or comments
from members of the committee?
Senator, I would like to just, if I could.
Senator?
Yes, please, Mr. Chairman.
I would just like to remind people of a few things.
One is, 10 years ago, to get rid of some of those fingers
that Benjamin was referring to, we
created an incumbent free district
which includes Cape Cod, Provincetown,
all the way to Marshfield and Norwell on the north.
That was an incumbent free district.
And then Congressman Keating, who was, at the time,
living in Quincy, moved to Bourne and won that seat,
thereby creating less oddly-shaped districts
in that region.
I would also want to remind you that to the north
of these districts are our Congressional District
7, which is currently being represented by Ayanna Pressley.
That is the only majority-minority congressional
district that we have.
So as you look at the districts that are south of that,
there are two, and one of them is the 4th,
and the other one is the 9th.
So you need to be very careful about how you add to one
and take away from the other.
Because on the top of the district that
is represented by Congressman Lynch,
you have the entirety of the 7th Congressional
District, which is our majority-minority district.
So it gets a little hairy when you're trying to figure out,
how do you add what they're suggesting, maybe
as much as 20,000 people, to the 9th CD,
which is Congressman Keatings.
How do you add 20,000 to that while not harming
the percentage of majority-minority people that
are in our 7th CD, which is Congressman Pressley's.
So these are tricky things that we have to figure out,
and they do all connect like a giant puzzle.
And Fall River is certainly a community
that shares a working class past, and still a working class
community.
But as far as we're concerned with redistricting,
it's 87% white.
So that is one of the things we have
to take into consideration as we draw these,
and as how that relates to or could affect
the 7th Congressional District, which
is our only majority-minority district, which we also
drew 10 years ago, first time ever
drawing a strong majority-minority district,
which eventually gave us Congressman Pressley.
So that's some of the complexities
and some of the issues we're dealing with,
and I just wanted to put them out there
so people can understand the difference between a Section 2
voting rights issue, and a community of interest issue.
And what I'm hearing here mostly is community
of interest arguments.
On the congressional level, as I said before,
as it whittles down to House seats,
you may, in fact, have a Section 2 issue
around packing or cracking.
But it just doesn't exist in this congressional district,
as it currently is conformed.
Thank you, Chairman Brownsberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Did you have a further comment, Mr. Cohen.
Yeah, I did.
I just wanted to be entirely clear,
I'm not making a Section 2 argument.
And also, I've been playing around
with drawing some of the districts myself.
It is entirely possible to fix the compactness problems
of the 4th congressional district without impacting
the status of the 9th, or of the 7th congressional district
as a majority-minority district.
Thank you.
So we appreciate your serious testimony,
and we'd welcome any, if you wanted
to share any specific suggestions on that,
we'd definitely give those a look.
And you can see on the website where to send those,
and we'll definitely take a close look at what you offer.
Thank you.
Are there no other questions for members of the committee?
We'll take another try at Representative Doherty.
So let's see if you can turn on without hearing our echoes.
You were absolutely right.
I had my online live version going,
and there's always a delay there.
So thank you very much for indulging me.
I appreciate it.
Glad to have your testimony.
Look forward to it.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
Carol Doherty, representative of the 3rd, Bristol.
I represent most of the city of Taunton,
share that along with Rep Orrall and Rep Haddad,
and also a little piece of Easton, which I
share Easton with Leader Cronin.
So thank you very much, and thank
you Rep Moran and Senator Brownsberger
for this opportunity.
In my comment, when Rep Moran was
going around talking to the legislators
about redistricting, I appreciated the complexity
and the difficulty that was placed
before the committee in regard to the late coming
of the census data.
So I think that the effort that's being made, and we here
having the opportunity to testify
is really, really important.
As has been pointed out, the 4th congressional district
is a long, funny-shaped, snaking district
with vast socioeconomic differences
from the south end in Fall River, to the other end north,
with Newton and Wellesley and other like communities.
And I have to say that our Congressmen Auchencloss has
made a huge and significant effort
to address those differences across the district.
He has spent a lot of time here in the district
talking with us, being connected with our community,
and meeting our needs.
So whatever it is that you do at the end of the day,
we would very much like to keep his hometown in our district,
so that he can have the opportunity
to continue to represent us.
I will say that the 3rd Bristol town clerks in both Easton
and Taunton were very much concerned when
the legislature moved to adopt the reprecincting which
is vastly different than the precincting that happened
along the last 10 years.
They're very concerned about that,
the change, the difficulty that they
were going to have being last on the list,
rather than first on the list, in terms
of drawing the district.
So I'm sure that you are addressing those concerns as
well.
But my primary and prevailing concern
has to do with the notion of equity,
understanding what Rep Moran has said about 87% of our district
being primarily white, and that is still true here
in our community.
We just want to be sure that the rule of thumb
in finally drawing the lines around the district
really provides an opportunity across the 4th for equity
in terms of numbers, in terms of community profile,
and in terms of opportunity for people to run for office,
and also to vote for those people who
are running for office.
And lastly, a story, a personal story,
one of my proudest moments as an educator
has been in the very distant past
to teach citizenship to those who were immigrants pursuing
their citizenship.
And when asked the question about why
they wanted to become citizens of the United States,
the response, without any kind of difference
between and among them, is the right to vote.
And we want to make sure that every single individual is
in a place where they have an opportunity to cast that vote,
as they so dearly wish.
So thank you very much, Senator Brownsberger,
for the opportunity to say just a few words.
And I have confidence in your ability
to draw this district in a way that's
going to support the constituents in the district,
as well.
So thank you.
We appreciate your kind testimony.
Are there any comments, questions
from members of the committee?
Representative Doherty, thank you so much for being with us.
Chairman Moran, did you--
Yeah, if I could at this point in time--
thank you, Chairman Brownsberger--
to just call on a couple of my colleagues who I know
were on a leadership meeting earlier
and couldn't sign in until later on this one,
but that have joined us.
Sarah Peake, the gentlelady from Provincetown is here.
Thank you, Sarah.
She has perfect attendance on these hearings.
We appreciate that.
The gentleman from Lawrence, same last name but not related,
Frank Moran, thank you, Frank, for joining us.
And lastly, but by no means least,
the gentlelady from Boston, Representative Chynah Tyler.
Chynah, thank you for taking time out of your schedule.
I know you're dealing with a lot of stuff.
So thank you for joining us.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And again, representative Tyler, thank you for being with us.
I know, as the chairman said, we appreciate
what you're going through, and we're here to support you.
Is Prana [? Jagadeesh ?] here?
Is he not hearing that?
No, but Dax Crocker is.
Very good.
Dax Crocker, please.
Can you hear me?
Yes, you're on.
OK, great.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you for coming.
My name is Dax Crocker, and I am here
representing Coalition for Social Justice, an organization
working hard to improve the lives of working
Class folks, people of color, new citizen
immigrants, and young voters.
Let me start by asking you, the committee and everyone here,
how many of you remember the movie
Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts?
The small town in Mystic, Connecticut,
with Portuguese immigrants who worked cleaning seafood
in the lobster warehouses.
The family are immigrants, who had their daughters
work in someone else's pizza place
in order to make ends meet.
The family in the movie came to this country
pursuing their American dream.
In Fall River, those Portuguese immigrants
depicted in the movie came decades ago, and also worked
in the lowest paying jobs.
They then moved on from the fish houses and the factories
and entered the working class, owning
their own small businesses.
Mystic Pizza Part 2, filmed in Fall River,
would show that reality.
But it would also show that the new entering immigrant class
of US citizens in Fall River are from Brazil, from Cape Verde,
from Guatemala, from Honduras, from El Salvador,
from Cambodia.
You name it.
These new communities are here, too,
to achieve their American dream, just like the Portuguese that
came five decades ago and the Scandinavians who
came when the Mills were being built.
They all are here knitting their new community one piece
at a time, one part-time job at a time.
This is not a town of rich people.
This is a town of working class folks.
In fact, when I was speaking with my friend
from Fall River, Chris Nielsen, a descendant
of Swedish immigrants who came to Fall River,
about a mother from Salvador who is
working a factory job in Fall River today to make meats.
And she also cooks lunches and then brings
those lunches to be sold to her co-workers in the factory.
Chris told me, my grandmother from Sweden
did the same thing when she came to Fall River.
Members of the committee, I'm here
to ask you to keep Fall River together, to unify Fall river.
This is a working class town.
In fact, two, three days ago, I was at a press conference
with the mayor.
And we were talking to the press and to the community about all
the people that, in Fall River, are
about to lose their home because of the Moratorium
provision being removed, that the mayor and other agencies
and other organizations are working hard
to make sure that people from Fall River, Portuguese--
I have visited many of them, many, many white, working class
people who are about to lose their homes,
Brazilians, et cetera, don't lose their homes.
A lot of people here are working to make sure that happens.
That is not the story of Wellesley.
That is not the story of Brookline.
That is the story of Fall River.
That is the story of New Bedford.
And the Chair explained a few minutes ago
that perhaps this argument is not about cracking.
Perhaps you're right.
This is about a class argument.
Working class white folks in Fall River
have more in common with working class
white folks in New Bedford than they
have with white people who have a lot of money,
with million-dollar homes in the north of CD4.
Members of the committee, in the name
of the people of Fall River and all the working class
folks that I'm working with to make
sure they don't lose their homes,
I'm asking you, unify Fall River.
Give us one voice.
Thank you.
Appreciate your testimony.
Appreciate you being with us today.
Do we have questions or comments from members of the committee?
I want to thank you, sir.
We have Mr. Chairman.
Dax, so just out of curiosity, if, say,
we were able to make Fall River whole and keep it in CD4,
and we were to make it more compact by potentially
dropping some parts of the top part of,
at Wellesley or Brookline, or parts of Newton,
is that something that you would find appealing?
If you were able to keep CD4, all of Fall River into CD4?
Yes, and you were able to take away some of the more--
I'm going to use terms you used, but you're correct--
some of the more affluent white votes
that are people that are in Wellesley, Brookline,
or Newton, would that satisfy your organization,
or your position?
I think that if you were able to find other towns in CD4 that
were class working towns, yes.
We're not arguing against representative Auchincloss,
or that we don't want to be--
this is not a political statement.
This is a district statement.
The reason why we're asking for New Bedford
is just because logically, New Bedford
is 15 minutes from Fall River, and the demographics
are about the same, 70% white, 60% white or so.
It's about 40%, 30% people of color.
It matches.
If you were able to find towns like that, other towns in CD4,
that wouldn't be a bad idea.
But to give Fall River a unified voice,
all of Fall River keeping one representative accountable
when things are not delivered, is what we're asking for.
OK.
I just wanted to be clear.
I mean, I see some of those towns that
are in the northern part of this district that are clearly,
both economically and socially, not in line with some
of the towns on the lower part.
When I think of towns like Attleboro and Taunton
and Rehoboth, those towns are pretty working-class towns,
and would probably be more in line
with Fall River than some of those towns on the most
northern part.
Yeah, that's true.
Like Wellesley, and Needham, and Newton, and Brookline.
And I just wanted to, just was curious,
just from that perspective, if that was a possibility,
would that be something that people would be happy to see?
That's all.
I think it would be something that people here
would love to consider.
And obviously, the numbers, even though we
don't have the census numbers yet, right, but the numbers
that we can work with right now, 20,000 people lost in CD9.
It's an easy move to move all of Fall River
and make up that loss.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Thank you for your testimony.
And appreciate your questions, Mr. Chairman, and your answers
to those questions, Mr. Crocker.
So that's very good.
I guess we do have Eileen Sheehan available next.
There you go.
Welcome.
So I would, just a second.
You sound good.
We see you.
OK.
I had the wrong background on here.
I'm sorry.
I am very new to this process and just learned about it,
so please forgive the, perhaps, not very
articulate presentation.
I was born and brought up in Westport, Massachusetts,
and have had a business in Fall River for 30-plus years.
And the business, Able Associates, the primary job
is to get people to work.
And we struggle for a lot of the reasons
that I'm sure people know very well.
And there was a mention made that this may
be a majority white district.
But my experience with getting people to work
is that it is not a wealthy community in Fall River, New
Bedford, Taunton.
Yes, there's a lot of similar stuff there.
But I think we have a very, very different set of problems
from the northern end of CD4.
And I'm going to concentrate on the getting-to-work side of it.
I joined the Southeast Regional Council on Transportation
for a number of years to try to see how we could get
transportation, because it's one of the major reasons that
people cannot get to work, is that they don't have cars,
and there is very little public transportation of the sort
necessary to get people to work.
The reason that this is important to this conversation,
I believe, is that there is a logical area for people
to go to work in this area between New Bedford and Fall
River.
We're going to have a wonderful new opportunity on the New
Bedford waterfront, and we're going
to have the problem of people to the west of that,
that the transportation is not good.
There is a reason for that.
We are sort of the stepchild of some of the more
affluent communities.
And although people are certainly very caring,
and the representatives are high-quality,
I think that we would be far better served
if we were a more compact area and could
look at things like the ability for people
to use public transportation to get to the jobs.
I understand that we might be talking
about congressional districts before we
talk about other districts, and it seems to me
that that might be a mistake.
Not an expert, but because I'd really
love to see a more cohesive and mutually supportive
area down here.
I would very much appreciate if you
could develop the congressional districts in line
with what is developed for the municipal and legislative
districts.
And one other comment, just from what I've heard so far,
is I think it would be a terrible shame
to design a district because of where
the current representative lives or a future representative
might live.
I hope that any of those comments, even if they're
made to flatter somebody or to support somebody,
that we do not look at where the current representative lives,
but rather look at the welfare of the citizens
within those districts.
Thank you very much for listening to me.
Appreciate your testimony very much.
Any comments or questions from members of the committee?
I want to thank you for weighing in.
We hear you.
Is DJ online, Maeve, Desire James?
Yes.
Great.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
We see you.
We hear you.
Awesome.
Good afternoon.
My name is Desire James Arsene Versailles.
I was born and raised and a resident in Boston.
I am a constituent of the 7th congressional district,
and I want to take this opportunity
to thank Ms. Representative Pressley, who invited me
on July 9, 2021, to participate and testify
in this Special Joint Committee on Redistricting.
I also want to take this opportunity
to thank Mr. Senator and Chairman Brownsberger, Mr.
Representative and chairman Moran,
for organizing and facilitating this,
and all who are present for your time and listening to me
testify under Special Joint Committee on Redistricting.
I am one of the millions of people
whose life has been fundamentally, dramatically
changed due to the pandemic.
My mother, Florcie Yves Chavannes Versailles,
was born on April 6, 1942 in Cape Haiti, the second largest
city in Haiti.
She visited Boston for a week's vacation that started in 1978
and ended in 2020.
On Saturday, May 30th, 2020, my beloved mother
passed away at the age of 78 to COVID.
My mother fell in love with Boston.
She adopted and raised me from birth
in the heart of the Back Bay of Boston,
where I currently reside.
She had a huge heart to not only bring me into this world,
but bring a lot of her family to the United States
from Haiti, because she loved this country
and believed that it is a land of opportunity.
My mother was tested for COVID-19 twice.
The first test came back negative,
but the nursing home refused to release
the results of the second tests to my family.
Nursing homes were very hard hit with COVID,
and the nursing home wouldn't confirm or deny
when my mother was ill, or what the ultimate cause of her death
was, but it was allegedly COVID.
And to make matters worse, I wasn't able to visit my mother,
including her birthday on April 6,
2020, in the last few months of her life, due to coronavirus.
My mother had a lot of complex medical issues
throughout her life.
And as a result of her medical needs
and her being a strong woman of color standing up
for her rights, she experienced a lot of adversity
during the course of her life, especially in the last decade.
And following this, she spent a lot of years
in and out of hospitals, rehabilitation centers,
and nursing homes.
And it is difficult to not wonder
and fathom if my mother would still be here today
if she was taken seriously from medical professionals,
government officials, and law enforcement.
And I felt there was a lot of racial injustice,
medical malpractice, negligence, criminal justice
malfunction, to name a few, that led up to my mother's passing.
And I felt that she had to face this because
of the color of her skin, as a woman of color,
but not the content of her phenomenal personality
and colorful character, and the fact
that the government knew how deadly the coronavirus was
going to be, and nothing was done
to warn us and save millions, including my beloved mother.
My mother was also a powerful activist.
She was instrumental in protests for the Tent City Apartment
housing complex, the complex named for protests that
began on the site 20 years before being built.
She volunteered at [? Wolsey's ?] Place
and Woman's Lunch Place for over 20 years,
also brought me along in many capacities,
helping women who were in dire circumstances.
Now her activism lives through me in my work with Marked
By COVID, a non-profit organization where a lot of us
were marked by COVID, where our families and loved ones
were lost to COVID.
And I wanted to focus on our five-part policy
plan that we have, response, recovery, restitution,
resiliency, and recognition.
Response is immediately implementing actions
to continue to control the spread of the virus,
develop and equitably deploy safe and scientifically sound
treatments and vaccines to mitigate
the immediate financial hardship caused by the pandemic,
support global public health efforts to stop
the spread of COVID-19, including access to vaccines,
rapid tests, treatment options, especially for those most
impacted, vulnerable populations.
Launch an effective national public health education
campaign, including focus on most-impacted populations,
pass policies to provide immediate economic relief
for small businesses and workers,
like emergency monthly stimulus payments
to allow workers to stay home until they're
able to get vaccinated, and it's available in their community.
Emergency relief for state, local, and tribal governments,
expanded unemployment insurance, increased SNAP benefit levels,
a permanent moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.
Recovery, rebuild the economy in an equitable, inclusive way
that ensures financial security and an adequate standard
of living for all people in the US,
and rebuild trust in our scientific institutions.
The programs must ensure that the most impacted don't
fall further behind due to the disproportionate impact
of the pandemic, along existing inequalities.
Establish a 1 billion person public health job corps
to generate permanent jobs, contact tracing
and tackle systematic health inequalities,
cancel and eliminate all medical debt
to facilitate access to medical care and healthy communities,
establish a child's savings account based upon need.
Invest in a universal care infrastructure,
which includes universal child care,
paid leave for all, universal long-term services and supports
that support family caregivers, cancel federally-held student
loan debt and have the federal government pay down
the principal on private loans while canceling
borrower obligations.
Restitution, provide reparations to victims and families
of victims of COVID-19 for the willful negligence
of our elected officials, and repay essential workers
for their service and sacrifice during the pandemic.
Fund a compensation program for survivors and families
of victims and survivors of COVID-19,
similar to the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund and the Crime
Victims Fund.
Financial compensation should cover
out-of-pocket medical costs, mental health counseling,
funerals, burials, pain and suffering,
and loss of earnings.
Create a GI Bill for front line health care providers that
includes student loan forgiveness and future tuition
benefits.
Resiliency, prevent and build capacity
to fight future pandemics, address
health and economic inequalities,
and ensure universal access to high-quality, affordable health
care.
Create a federal jobs guarantee to build workforces
that address needs related to pandemic response,
infrastructure, and transition to a clean energy economy.
Pass an essential worker bill of rights
to ensure health and safety protections,
living wage compensation, paid sick leave,
and other protections for essential workers.
Make universal broadband accessible
as an essential utility for thriving economies
and healthy communities, and importation of products
or raw materials that are linked to deforestation and impose
strict fitness on companies complicit in deforestation
to decrease the likelihood of future pandemics.
Institute the US government's Pandemic Playbook
to improve data collection and maintain adequate stockpiles
of medical devices and PPE.
Develop a suite of policies to combat disinformation
and build media literacy.
Secure quality universal health care coverage
that is affordable for all.
Lastly, recognition, create space and forms
for mourning and remembrance.
Impart to future generations the unvarnished truth
about what happened, and who was accountable,
and to prevent this from happening again.
Pass COVID-19 Memorial Day resolutions
at local, state, and federal levels,
create a national memorial on the National Mall
and memorials in every state to provide permanent public space
for mourning and remembrance.
Fund oral history projects to capture
the stories of essential workers, victims,
and survivors, and public health experts.
Lastly, charter a national commission
modeled after 9/11 Commission to prepare a complete account
of the federal government's preparedness
for and response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
but also local government and their response,
especially the nursing homes, including my mother, who
was vulnerable, and just make sure that a tragedy like this
never happens again.
And just want to thank you for your time and letting me
speak and share this vital issue.
And it's a pleasure being part of Boston
and the 7th Congressional District.
And I just want to say to you all, for you and your families,
continue to be healthy and safe.
Thank you so much for that you do, and God bless
you all and your families.
Thank you so much for that very broad set of thoughts.
Do we have any questions for the witness pertaining
to redistricting from members of the panel?
Sir, I want to thank you for being with us.
We give you our condolences for your mother's loss,
for the loss of your mother, and your family members,
and thank you again.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
Is Sawyer Cohen with us?
Sawyer Cohen, the floor is yours.
We see you.
We hear you.
Hello.
I'm Sawyer Cohen, and I'm here volunteering on behalf
of Lawyers for Civil Rights.
I'd like to thank the committee chairs and the rest
of the committee for holding this hearing,
and allowing me to speak on behalf of the city I live in.
I'm a rising senior at Newton South High School,
and I've been a resident of Newton for the past 13 years.
I'm here to talk about the districts
I live in at the state level and the city that I live in.
I would like the committee to keep
the boundaries of my district the same, of my districts
in the state legislators the same, legislatures.
Newton is a patchwork of smaller villages
based around town centers.
I live in Newton Highlands, one of those smaller villages.
Some significant landmarks in my community
are Crystal Lake and Heartbreak Hill,
where people gather each year to watch the Boston Marathon.
And important gathering place for my community
is Newton Center, another one of those town centers,
which has a variety of shops and restaurants
and is an important gathering place for many people.
Important events for my community
are yearly block parties and Taiwan Day,
which is an annual celebration of Taiwanese culture
at a local park.
In the House of Representatives, I
live in the 12th Middlesex district, which in the north,
follows a similar line to Commonwealth Avenue, which
cuts across the city of Newton.
In the south, my district is bordered
by the towns of Wellesley, Eden, Brookline, and Boston.
In the senate, I live in the first Middlesex and Norfolk
district, which includes all of Newton,
and Brookline, and the northern parts of Wellesley.
My city is predominantly white and wealthy,
with most people owning single-family homes
and commuting to work in Boston.
Around 90,000 people live in Newton, making it
one of the most populous municipalities
in the Commonwealth.
And although I do feel a connection to my neighborhood
specifically, I don't really feel
that it is that different from the city of Newton overall.
But one important thing to the town of Newton,
including my community and myself, is public education.
Many people, my parents included,
moved to Newton so that their children could
get a good public education.
Newton has two high schools, and although the House
of Representatives district line does not match the high school
districts exactly, it is close enough
that I don't feel Newton is unfairly divided
by these district lines.
Because the importance of education is a value
shared throughout the whole city.
In the Senate, Newton shares a district
with the town of Brookline and parts of Wellesley, which
I think is fair and does not dilute the voting power
of people in any of the three towns,
as they're all very similar, having
similar racial and economic demographics.
I feel that the current district lines keep
my community and my town intact, and that we
have a voice in state politics.
Although I can't vote yet, I feel
that I am fairly represented, as is the rest of Newton.
For these reasons, I would like the district lines of Newton
to be kept similar as possible.
That said, I would like to thank the committee for their time
and for hearing my testimony.
I want to thank you for engaging with the process
and for your testimony.
Are there members of the committee who have questions?
Thank you, sir.
Is Sabrina Davis online?
Welcome, Sabrina.
It doesn't look like-- we can't quite hear you yet.
You want to say a couple of words,
and see if we can hear you?
Can you hear me now?
We can hear you, and we see a picture of you.
Hold on.
There we go.
Well, my name is Sabrina Davis.
I am an organizer with the Coalition for Social Justice,
and I also am a resident of Fall River.
I grew up here, and as part of my work,
I canvassed all over Fall River.
I've also canvassed in some of the districts in CD4.
Right now, what I'm here to talk about today is,
I'm really here to ask that you reunite my community.
We have a lot more in common with New Bedford,
on a social and economic standpoint,
than we do with cities of CD4.
And that's a problem, because how can someone
really represent that part of Fall River,
when being combined with these other cities who
are so much more wealthier than us, who are
of a different culture than us.
We're a strong working class background,
and our issues are not the same.
It's just not.
If you take a look at our statistics, our income,
our average income is about the same with New Bedford.
The poverty ratings are about the same as New Bedford, which
we consider our sister city, so to speak, but not
so much with a lot of the other communities that are in CD4.
And so as somebody who's worked in Fall River for five
years now, canvasing, and as a resident,
I'm asking you that you reunite my community.
And it just makes good sense that we are put wholly in CD9,
rather than CD4.
OK, thank you very much for weighing in
with that clear testimony.
Much appreciated.
Members of the committee, any questions?
OK, thank you so much for being with us today, for weighing in.
Whose next, Maeve?
We've got Renee Ledbetter.
OK, so I'm going to call it the name of Kevin
[? Tagliaferri. ?] I take it he's not here.
That's OK.
But if you do arrive, give us a shout.
And the witness that you are going to promote,
Maeve, didn't quite get the name.
Renee Ledbetter.
Thank you.
Renee, please.
We can see you.
Now we can see you and hear you.
OK, so I was not planning on speaking,
so I'm kind of thrown off by that.
But I agree with what everyone said
about merging Fall River and New Bedford
in one congressional district, because it makes sense.
Because both of our cities are the same.
So I had not prepared anything for testimony.
I didn't know I was on the panel to speak, so sorry.
OK, that's quite all right.
Anything you'd like to say is fine.
If not, you're all good.
So I just agree that, like I said,
both Fall River and New Bedford cities are similar in size,
and as well as economic standing.
I think that those congressional districts
need to reflect that and make sure
that we do not have a division among the cities, when it comes
to the congressional district.
We have enough division within the city.
We don't need it on the state level, as well.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Great.
OK, thank you so much.
Now, is there anybody else who signed up to testify,
or wishes to testify?
We're going to give people just a second
to answer that question, if anybody else wants to weigh in.
Meanwhile, as I do that, I think it
would be helpful to just tell people
a little bit about what's coming up.
We have a set of hearings in specific languages coming up
soon.
Those are going to start next week.
Actually, sorry, this week, we've
got a hearing in Mandarin at 4:00
PM tomorrow, Cantonese at 6:00 PM tomorrow.
We are trying to reach out to every language
community in the Commonwealth.
Next week, we've got on Monday at 2:00 PM
a hearing in Portuguese, at 5:00 PM
a hearing in Cape Verdean Creole.
At noon on Tuesday, we have a hearing in Vietnamese, at 2:00
a hearing in Haitian Creole, and at 4:00 a hearing in Khmer.
And our last congressional district hearing,
the 9th Congressional District hearing,
is scheduled for the 29th at 5:00 PM.
So we still have a strong schedule of upcoming hearings.
We have hearings in every language coming up,
so that if you're online, and you're
aware of people who might be interested in testifying
in those hearings, please pass that on.
Are there any other people who wish to testify today?
We are under the impression that there are none,
and so I then obtain a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
OK, so we're adjourned.
I want to thank all of our witnesses, want to thank
all of our members.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
Take care.
Thank you.