1
1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S
2 --ooOoo--
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: I call to order the hearing
4 this afternoon of the Senate Committee on Elections and
5 Reapportionment.
6 I'd like to welcome all of you here. My name is
7 Don Perata. I chair this committee. I'm from a little place
8 up north called Oakland, where we're going to keep our football
9 team for another six or seven years.
10 I used to be teacher, so starting on time in
11 deference to those who are here on time is very important to me.
12 I want to thank you for joining us today. This
13 is the first of five hearings that the Senate committee will
14 hold throughout the state on reapportionment, which we are in
15 the process of undertaking right now.
16 The purpose of these hearings is to give local
17 elected officials and members of the public an opportunity to
18 offer their comments and suggestions regarding new legislative
19 Congressional and Board of Equalization districts that we will
20 be developing this year.
21 I hasten to add, because it has come up at other
22 times, we have nothing to do with drawing the lines of local
23 districts, Mosquito Abatement right on through Board of
24 Supervisors. You'll have to pick on somebody else if you're
25 concerned about that. We have nothing by law to do with that.
26 We have a significant number of people who have
27 already asked to address the committee. I'm sure there'll be
28 others who will come in and would like to do that.
2
1 If you have not yet formally contacted the
2 committee, and your name would be, therefore, on the agenda, in
3 the back, waving, you can just fill out a form, and then we will
4 be happy to receive you in turn.
5 We will have a number of Senators here joining us
6 today. Already is Senator Deborah Ortiz, who represents the
7 Sacramento area. Chuck Poochigian will be here, who represents
8 Fresno. Richard Polanco from Southern California. And Ross
9 Johnson from Orange County will also be joining us at some
10 point.
11 SENATOR ORTIZ: Let me briefly say that I am
12 happy to be here. This is my first opportunity to be on this
13 side of the reapportionment plan. We're having a number of
14 these hearings up and down the state. This is actually the
15 first of those hearings, and it'll be interesting to listen to
16 the testimony. Our hope is to take that back and have that be a
17 part of our deliberation process as we're designing new
18 districts.
19 I'm glad to be here, Mr. Chair.
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
21 We have a court reporter here who will take down
22 every word that's being said. And in exchange for that, we will
23 break every 90 minutes to give her a chance to catch her breath
24 and get the circulation working in her hands.
25 The procedure is relatively simple. In deference
26 to the some 40 speakers that we anticipate addressing us, we're
27 going to have a three-minute limit to speakers. If you have
28 extended remarks you, may submit those in writing to the
3
1 committee.
2 If you have an interest in submitting a plan to
3 the committee, you may speak with the committee consultant. If
4 you would like to access the data base through the University of
5 California at Berkeley, that information may provided to you
6 from the committee consultants as well.
7 I would ask everyone to be as concise and direct
8 as possible. If you are speaking about a similar subject, you
9 may just say you share that point of view and go on to the point
10 of your testimony that would be different from others.
11 We're now being joined by Senator Chuck
12 Poochigian, who has the home turf advantage here, and Senator
13 Richard Polanco.
14 Senator Poochigian.
15 SENATOR POOCHIGIAN: Thank you, Senator Perata.
16 And thanks to all of you who have taken time out
17 of your day to be with us. This is a very important first step
18 in what is a long process of redrawing district lines. To many
19 people, the process seems purely political, and certainly,
20 there are political aspects to it, dimensions to it. That goes
21 without saying.
22 However, it's most important to note that what we
23 do in terms of redrawing lines has a direct impact on public
24 policy. That's especially true for those of us, since this is
25 my home court, especially true for those of us who represent the
26 Central Valley of California, with the myriad problems that we
27 have.
28 I assume that there'll be lots of testimony that
4
1 we'll hear during the course of the day; I would anticipate that
2 to be the case, testimony that will describe the unique
3 qualities of this part of the state that are framed in,
4 unfortunately, by a lot of data that's not very positive in
5 terms of issues involving health care and the fact that we have
6 such a high ratio of patients to physicians, for example. We
7 have issues involving crimes, the methamphetamine problem, which
8 is rampant. Issues involving public education, where we often
9 find ourselves not receiving the level of funding that other
10 parts of the state do in terms of just a fair allocation of
11 resources. Issues involving the construction industry,
12 agriculture, and so forth.
13 So, the purpose of these hearings -- and I'm
14 sorry, Chairman Perata. I know you probably covered some of
15 this ground already -- but the purpose of these hearings is to
16 travel the state, to talk to various communities, presumably
17 communities that represent unique and special qualities that
18 deserve an opportunity to be heard so that they can make the
19 best case they can for whatever interests they think need to be
20 supported in terms of the way district lines are drawn.
21 I'm very, very pleased that this committee has
22 chosen Fresno, and Chairman Perata has chosen Fresno, in the
23 center of California, as the first stopping point. I'd just
24 like to mention lastly to my colleagues that we are now in the
25 number one agricultural county in the country. I happen to
26 represent number one, number two, and argueably number three
27 agricultural counties in the country, which, by the very nature
28 of the rural communities that we serve, have very special needs.
5
1 With that, again, I thank the committee and look
2 forward to hearing the testimony today.
3 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Senator.
4 Senator Polanco.
5 SENATOR POLANCO: Mr. Chairman, thank you very
6 much for your leadership in this subject area. Under your
7 leadership, we know that this process is going to be an open
8 process.
9 Hearings will be conducted such as these
10 throughout the state. Data as it relates to the issue of how
11 and where we construct these lines is going to be different from
12 the past. That is to say, technology today is going to allow
13 for this process to be much more open than ever before. At the
14 click of the portable laptop, we will be able, and you will be
15 able to, in the very public view, able to manipulate the lines
16 and see the consequences, and insure that we adhere to the
17 principles of community of interest.
18 We look to the notion and to the concept of one
19 person, one vote as we move forward in developing what will be
20 for the next ten years the manner in which these districts are
21 laid out.
22 And I just want to thank Senator Poochigian for
23 his hospitality in this 102-degree weather. I know you brought
24 it down a few degrees when we arrived.
25 And to the Chairman and to the Members that are
26 here, and to the audience, and to the participants, we thank you
27 very much for taking an interest and participating in this very
28 important process.
6
1 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
2 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
3 For those who just arrived, we will be going in
4 the order we received requests prior to today. We are giving
5 deference to elected officials first, for obvious reasons.
6 Don't anybody ask what the obvious reason is, but we will be
7 doing that.
8 And the final point I want to make to everyone is
9 that this is a very dynamic process, and that Senator Polanco
10 has pointed out that we do have a lot of new technology that for
11 some would practically make this a video game.
12 I would just hasten to add that there are many
13 decisions of court that we must abide by in the process in order
14 to make certain that what we do is contemporary to the law. And
15 the fact that we are able to be here and discuss openly what the
16 concerns are of the community, of interest groups, reflects the
17 nature, the dynamism, of this kind of a process.
18 So, with that, I would like to ask the Honorable
19 Mayor Fresno, Alan Autry, to come forward.
20 Welcome. It's your place. Thanks for having us.
21 MAYOR AUTRY: Welcome. We're happy to have you
22 in Fresno on this nice hot day. Of course, we still wear our
23 coats in 102. We don't break out the tank tops until about 110.
24 But on this very important issue, welcome to
25 Fresno. We appreciate you being here. I want to thank you
26 again for the opportunity to testify before you this morning for
27 the record.
28 I'm here today to call on the State Legislature
7
1 to follow good government principles in the redistricting
2 process by keeping similar communities of interest together.
3 Specifically, I would like the Central Valley to be treated as
4 its own region, and the state take whatever steps necessary to
5 keep the Central Valley's legislative and Congressional
6 districts intact.
7 As Mayor, so far the first six months, and it's a
8 commitment that's going to be forever, actually, is for the
9 Central Valley to develop a regional plan. This piecemeal thing
10 in the valley has just killed us. We've not taken or had a
11 chance, really, to get on that economic train. We have our own
12 unique challenges here because of our agricultural based
13 economy.
14 We do feed the world. We are the hands that feed
15 the world. We gladly do that, and we will not forsake that as
16 not only part, but the heart and soul of our economic base.
17 But that in itself is the challenge. As we feed
18 the world, agriculture historically has not been the breeding
19 ground for high paying jobs to keep up with the rest of the
20 state and the country. We are diversifying. We realize we must
21 diversify. We have the retirement of many thousands of acres of
22 farmland due to water drainage problems and other exacerbating
23 factors that have forced that to happen.
24 With that comes unique and very challenging
25 economic challenges. And we feel that representation, that
26 represents the Valley as a whole, is just critical to us being
27 able to play catch-up.
28 I think in California, as we promote our state,
8
1 we have to think also as a state together, which we do, in
2 partners with Southern California and Northern California and
3 the Valley. As we promote our state for tourism, we promote the
4 lush beaches of Southern California, the movie industry of which
5 I came from. And Northern California, the culture, the Bay,
6 beautiful scenic things.
7 I think in the San Joaquin Valley -- and I hate
8 to say this, but I must say it -- has basically been
9 California's dirty little secret. We have not had the
10 representation and the attention that I think is critical for
11 the health of the entire state.
12 And we feel in order to play catch-up like we're
13 going to have to, in order to diversify as the other regions
14 have, our neighboring regions, we need that representation that
15 is specific to our area. So, in the redistricting process, we
16 hope that in the totality of California, we're seen as equal
17 partners in there.
18 And it's like the lady that had 14 kids that
19 said, who do you love the most? And she says, the one that
20 needs me the most at the time.
21 And we have our -- and Central California is
22 very much in need of that representation at the state and
23 federal level.
24 We hope and we put forth to the Legislature that
25 they will take that into consideration, that a healthy San
26 Joaquin Valley is truly integral to the health of California.
27 And we feel that this redistricting process is absolutely
28 critical to getting the things done on a regional basis.
9
1 There was a time when, you know, there was a
2 district representing -- I think Ken Maddy represented a
3 district that was really a tough burden on a representative,
4 because of the divergent interests, to give full attention, the
5 needed attention to all of those districts that were being
6 represented.
7 Again, when you're in game of catch-up, where,
8 you know, you're feeding the world, that's a big obligation. I
9 mean, we provide two-thirds of the country's vegetables here.
10 High tech industry, yes, we're bringing it into
11 farming. But is it a challenge? Yes. You still have to pick
12 the fruit by hand. You still have to pick the vegetables by
13 hand. There's only so -- and probably will stay that way for
14 the foreseeable future. Machinery's not going to do that job.
15 We don't know, maybe it shouldn't.
16 But we don't lend itself to the traditional high
17 tech industries. We're trying our best, and we're committed to
18 bringing those in.
19 But I hope that the Legislature understands that
20 we here in the San Joaquin Valley face problems that the other
21 regions don't. And representation that encompasses this valley,
22 as a focus of that representation, is just absolutely critical
23 for us to diversify, to catch up.
24 And in closing, I would say that without this
25 representation, I think we're in real deep trouble. I can't
26 sugar-coat it. I'm not really a politician. I don't know any
27 other way to gracefully say it.
28 We got to get our kids educated. We're dropping
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1 out of school at a rate here that is just unacceptable. Almost
2 39 percent Hispanic drop-out rate and going up. The highest in
3 the state total over all. I think almost 29 percent.
4 And here's the problem. They're not dropping out
5 and moving some place else. They're not dropping out and moving
6 to San Diego. They're not dropping out and moving to San
7 Francisco. Costs too much to live there. They're dropping out
8 and staying here.
9 Also we're a magnet, probably because it's low
10 cost labor, low cost housing. We have to attack these problems
11 now, and we're going to need help.
12 In closing, I'd like to say, we fully understand
13 that our future is in our hands ultimately, that we're the
14 determinant of our own fate by our policies, how much -- the
15 people we elect, the galvanization of our citizens. That's up
16 to us to believe in ourselves.
17 But we do -- we will not be able to get it done
18 without representation at the state and the federal level that
19 focuses on these egregious problems that we have here. So, I
20 hope you take that in consideration in redrawing of the
21 redistricting of these lines and representation.
22 Thank you, and God bless you.
23 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you
24 for making that compelling argument on behalf of your community.
25 As one that really enjoys eating, we'll take really good care of
26 you.
27 MAYOR AUTRY: Thank you very much.
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: I'd like to introduce Senator
11
1 Ross Johnson who has just joined us, Senator from Orange County.
2 Welcome.
3 Our next scheduled speaker is the Honorable
4 Marcelyn Burford, the Mayor of Hanford.
5 MAYOR BUFORD: Good afternoon. Thank you very
6 much for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you concerning
7 the redistricting issues.
8 I will say that I agree in some instances with
9 Mayor Autry that we need to be looked at in a regional manner.
10 We're a rural area. And actually, the area from Stanislaus
11 County to Kern Country is the rural area bread basket of the
12 United States. We have similar economies, lifestyles, and
13 issues.
14 As much as possible, we work together to solve
15 our problems and to improve the conditions for the entire
16 Central Valley.
17 Kings County is surrounded by five counties. We
18 have much more in common with our Central Valley neighbors --
19 Fresno, Kern, and Tulare -- than our coastal neighbors of
20 Monterey or San Luis Obispo.
21 Once the state has been divided into such regions
22 of interest, then I would hope that you could look to the
23 details of those regions. And I would personally like to
24 recommend that you keep Kings County as one of those communities
25 of interest. Kings is a very rural county. Even Hanford, which
26 is the largest city in the county, has just made it over 40,000
27 people. Our needs and problems are very rural in nature and
28 different from the larger urban centers up and down the Valley,
12
1 such as Fresno or Bakersfield or even Visalia.
2 The San Joaquin Valley is very unique in its
3 position in the economy of California. Agriculture is our
4 cornerstone. Roughly a quarter of Kings County's workforce is
5 in agriculture, with others in manufacturing and government.
6 Most of our industry is closely related to the
7 agriculture. We look at ourselves as the bread basket of the
8 U.S., and I think that's true for the entire valley here. As
9 such, we're blessed with our hot summers, as you've seen today,
10 and that makes us susceptible to a need for power to keep us
11 producing and to keep our farms producing, as well as to keep us
12 cool.
13 Our population is subject to highly seasonal
14 employment, and those swings which we have give us double-digit
15 unemployment numbers. The problem faces the entire Central
16 Valley, but unfortunately, Kings County's rate is the highest.
17 In the past, Kings County has been combined with
18 pieces of urban areas, and they have overwhelmed us by their
19 numbers and drown our voices with different needs because the
20 urban needs are different from the rural needs.
21 We truly need to have representation which
22 recognizes our importance to the California economy. I'd like
23 to see the Legislature look at the Central Valley as its own
24 region, and find ways to keep legislative districts
25 self-contained within the Central Valley.
26 It's very important to us in Kings County that we
27 be considered as part of that region, and not mixed with
28 something else.
13
1 And it's equally important to us to see if you
2 can possibly find a way to combine rural districts so that
3 they're all rural, or urban so that they're primarily urban.
4 I would certainly request that you give us some
5 very serious thought, and this will allow us, perhaps, to be
6 able to speak more clearly with one voice so that you'll be
7 aware of our concerns and able to act.
8 If you have time as you're traveling up and down
9 the Valley, I would invite you to come to Hanford. Most folks
10 who do don't want to leave, and I think it's a wonderful
11 community.
12 I thank you very much for your consideration.
13 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Mayor.
14 Our next scheduled speaker, the Mayor of the City
15 of Visalia, the Honorable Don Landers.
16 MAYOR LANDERS: Mr. Chairman, Members of the
17 committee, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to
18 speak today.
19 I would first like to call your attention to the
20 fact that Visalia has now had their population re-evaluated by
21 the California Department of Finance. It's now estimated to be
22 94,300. Tulare County is our home as the County seat in the
23 City of Visalia. We are the sixth largest city between Redding
24 and Bakersfield.
25 We are also the number two ag. county in the
26 State of California. As Senator Poochigian so poignantly
27 pointed out, Fresno is number one; we're number two. We're also
28 the number one milk producing county.
14
1 Which lends itself to the question of our roads.
2 Obviously, Senator Poochigian has recognized that with his
3 request for an additional $10 million to supplement the county's
4 budget to try and address our issues with roads, some of which
5 are being converted back to gravel.
6 But I think more than anything, I'd like to
7 preface my comments with the fact my comments today in no way
8 reflect on our current representation. Senator Poochigian,
9 Senator Costa, Assembly Members Reyes, Briggs, and Ashburn have
10 been excellent representatives for our community. They've been
11 available to us. They've been responsive to us. And my issue
12 and my plea is not with our representation.
13 My plea is for a community of interest, one of
14 which we feel Tulare County, with a population estimated about
15 370,000, is not quite the number that we're looking for an
16 Assembly district, but with some of the surrounding communities
17 of interest, such as Reedley, or Selma, or Corcoran, those
18 communities might make up the total population required to be a
19 Senatorial or an Assembly district of about 419,000 or 420,000
20 people.
21 You know, as I look at local government and state
22 government, I'm reminded of a partnership not dissimilar to
23 maybe a marriage. And when I think of marriage, I've been
24 married for almost 28 years, I think of the first step in that
25 is to ask my future wife to get married. Along with that
26 request was an engagement ring. With the accompanying yes, in a
27 future time I gave her the wedding ring. And the third ring in
28 the marriage is the suffering.
15
1 I feel like right now the relationship between
2 state and local government is kind of at a suffering stage. And
3 we've all at the local level been suffering. And Mayor Autry
4 and the Mayor from Hanford have characterized some of those
5 issues. Tulare County is not unlike some of those problems. We
6 also have some issues with education. We also have some issues
7 with being the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the State of
8 California. Nothing we're proud of, but certainly it reflects
9 an issue with which we must deal.
10 We have a very diverse population, almost
11 reaching the 50 percent level Hispanic. We have double-digit
12 unemployment in our community.
13 I might point out, if I can kind of trade over
14 into Kings County's population a little bit, Tulare and Kings
15 County together have about a half a million people: 370,000 and
16 about 125,000 people in Kings County. That half a million
17 population is just about the same size as the State of Wyoming,
18 which has three universities. Tulare and Kings Counties are not
19 served by any four-year facility. We do have a very nice
20 two-year college in Porterville and Visalia, and we have some
21 extension classes. There's the equivalent of 425 full-time
22 equivalents that are taking Fresno State four-year degree
23 programs. And those are nice. I'm told that there's some 500
24 full-time equivalents required to start considering a Cal State
25 University for a particular area.
26 I think that it's somewhat of a shame, with eight
27 years of a presidency with surplus budgets and a mantra of being
28 the education president, we still find ourselves without the
16
1 service of a four-year college in our two-county area.
2 These are just some of the issues. Again, I
3 don't want my comments to reflect negatively on any of our
4 representatives. We've had excellent representation, and we
5 continue to, and I fully expect we will in the future.
6 Our cry and plea, if you will, is, our city is
7 split up with three different Assembly districts in one city.
8 And we would like to feel part of one Assembly district for the
9 County of Tulare.
10 I've also started a Mayors' Round Table in the
11 County of Tulare that consists of all eight incorporated cities
12 who have joined me in the same plea for a single district for
13 Tulare County. It's not a single concept which I represent
14 individually; it's an unanimous concept which all the other
15 seven cities have embraced.
16 So, I would urge you as you review this, this is
17 not going to be easy for you or for anybody else. I don't
18 expect anybody to be able to wave a magic wand and make
19 everybody happy, but certainly I think the time has come where
20 Tulare County is a community of interest which is deserving of
21 its own district, and would ask you to give serious
22 consideration of that.
23 Thank you very much.
24 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
25 MAYOR LANDERS: I might add, in Tulare County
26 today it's only 97 degrees.
27 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Cooler. We should have had the
28 hearing there.
17
1 [Laughter.]
2 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Next, Ed Jagels, the District
3 Attorney from Kern County.
4 MR. JAGELS: Mr. Chairman, Honorable Members.
5 First, Mr. Chairman, as an embittered former L.A.
6 Raiders fan, I want to urge you to keep that football team that
7 you previously referred to, and please keep its owner as well.
8 [Laughter.]
9 MR. JAGELS: Mr. Chairman and Honorable Members,
10 the Central Valley is poor, rural, undereducated,
11 underemployed. And despite the best efforts of some excellent
12 Legislators, sadly lacking in political influence. Let me give
13 you an example.
14 It is well known that the Central Valley is the
15 methamphetamine laboratory capital of the United States. Huge
16 amounts of meth are clandestinely cooked in abandoned houses and
17 barns, farm houses and foothills, fields, and orchards. Yet for
18 years, the Central Valley was not designated as a high intensity
19 drug trafficking area, and therefore ineligible to receive the
20 large federal anti-narcotics grants that come with such a
21 designation. Although the Valley manifestly had the worst
22 problem, and nobody in law enforcement disagrees with that
23 assessment, it didn't have the political influence to get the
24 designation. And, at the same time, other counties, including
25 some in the Bay Area that had virtually no meth labs, did get
26 the designation and the funds that were needed to combat this
27 terrible problem.
28 If the Central Valley is used as the easy answer
18
1 to evening out population numbers within districts, without
2 regard to the geographical integrity of those districts, the
3 Valley's influence will diminish even further, to the great
4 detriment of our citizens, citizens who already get less per
5 capita from government than any others in California.
6 If, for example, and as once happened in my
7 county, Legislators representing Kern County also end up
8 representing parts of Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino,
9 Santa Barbara, or San Luis Obispo, they will necessarily, no
10 matter how hard they work, spend less time on Valley issues.
11 I'm here because I'd like to ask you, among
12 other things, to keep my county, Kern County, with communities
13 of similar interest, our neighbors in the Central Valley. I
14 know it'd be very easy, particularly since we're the southern
15 most, to clip off little pieces and put them elsewhere.
16 We have much in common with Kings, Tulare and
17 Fresno, and very little in common with Los Angeles, Ventura, or
18 Santa Barbara. Kern, Kings, Tulare, and Fresno Counties'
19 economy and way of life are based on agriculture. Because of
20 our agricultural heritage, issues such as water, air quality,
21 education, and peculiar sub-issues with regard to crime are
22 vastly different in the Central Valley than in other regions.
23 Since many of these problems are unique to the
24 Central Valley, I urge you to create legislative and
25 congressional districts that are Valley districts, and that Kern
26 County be linked with other Central Valley communities.
27 Such a course would, of course, comply with past
28 rulings that have kept the Central Valley together in
19
1 redistricting. As I know you probably are more aware than you
2 want to be, since you've been assigned to this committee, the
3 Supreme Court in Wilson versus Eu indicated that the integrity
4 of California's basic geographical regions -- coastal,
5 mountain, desert, Central Valley, and intermediate valley
6 regions -- should be preserved insofar as practical.
7 I hope the Senate will keep this direction in
8 mind when considering reapportionment in the Central
9 Valley.
10 Thank you very much.
11 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
12 Our next scheduled speaker, Pete Mehas, the
13 Superintendent of Fresno County Schools.
14 MR. MEHAS: Mr. Chairman, distinguished Senators,
15 Senator Poochigian, it's always nice to see you again back home
16 as always.
17 Welcome to the land of William Saroyan and Jerry
18 Tarkanian. We're very, very proud of this area.
19 Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to
20 testify today on this most important issue. Having been
21 involved in federal, state, and Fresno County government for
22 over 38 years, I've seen first-hand how past redistricting
23 efforts have dramatically influenced the Central Valley.
24 Whether you're a new Fresnan or somebody who has
25 lived here all their life like I have, the fact is that the
26 Central Valley offers us the best of both worlds. We have the
27 amenities of a large city, yet with the comfort and life style
28 of small town America.
20
1 We take great pride and we enjoy our life style,
2 our ethic diversity, Fresno State Bulldogs, and our theater arts
3 program ala Audrey McDonald.
4 Certainly we face enormous challenges, as you've
5 heard. Unemployment rates are too high. We constantly must
6 balance our agricultural heritage with our urban growth and our
7 air quality.
8 In the field of education, which I'm more
9 familiar with, clearly we do not play on a level playing field
10 with the rest of the state as it relates to equalization of
11 funding. I'm not prone to sniveling, but that's the reality.
12 Other larger cities -- San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego --
13 receive greater per capita education dollars than we do. For
14 years, our special ed. students and juvenile students have been
15 short-changed by the state's funding formula.
16 With a large increase in student population,
17 school facilities are a critical issue to our local schools, and
18 particularly with the class-size reduction. Although we have
19 passed, and we're very proud that this county has passed many
20 local bond measures, reaffirming the people's belief in their
21 public education system, the matching funds from our state are
22 slow in coming, and sometimes they're eaten up before we get a
23 bite of the apple.
24 Not having a University of California campus in
25 the Central Valley to complement our excellent Fresno State
26 University has been a detriment, clearly been a detriment to our
27 students and our teaching staff. Although we all know of the UC
28 Merced plans, thus far we have not seen any dirt fly, thanks to
21
1 the fairy shrimp.
2 Currently, we do have an outstanding group of
3 Legislators from the Valley. You know this well with Senator
4 Poochigian or Senator Costa and our other Legislators. Because
5 they are our neighbors, and their children attend our schools,
6 they worship in our churches, they shop where we shop, they
7 travel the same roads we travel, they see, they understand the
8 same problems we face on a daily basis.
9 However, you know with the simple flick of a pen,
10 the Legislature simply could redistrict, redraw the districts
11 that put part of the central coast or even the South Bay Area in
12 the same district as Fresno. While it may meet, and you know
13 this, the legal requirements of the Voting Rights Act, it would
14 fundamentally hurt our community. The other regions do not have
15 our life styles, our problems, our agricultural traditions.
16 We are, clearly, two completely different
17 communities of interest. That is why I'm respectfully asking
18 the State Senate to keep Fresno in the Central Valley as a
19 community of interest and ensure that we are represented by
20 members of our community. It is the logical and ethical thing
21 to do.
22 Thank you.
23 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
24 Dolores Gallegos.
25 MS. GALLEGOS: Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and
26 Honorable Senators.
27 I, too, am here on behalf of our valley to ask of
28 you to please not split our valley. Especially, do not split
22
1 our county.
2 I am from Kings County, and Kings County is
3 probably the center of the whole valley in the State of
4 California.
5 And I'm here to ask and to request you please not
6 split our valley.
7 And our valley is one of the most ignored areas
8 in the State of California. And our valley is also one of the
9 poorest areas. And as a result of being the poorest areas, we
10 have a large diversity in our areas.
11 We're very unique in that our farmers are married
12 to our farmworkers and work hand-in-hand. So, we have a
13 diversity in our valley.
14 As a result of being one of the poorest areas in
15 the valley, we have, between Tulare County and ourselves, we vie
16 for titles that we're not very proud of. That is, we do have, I
17 believe Tulare County this year is one number in the highest
18 teen pregnancy; we're number two. As a result, Kings County
19 also is the third from the bottom least educated, college
20 graduates, students coming out of our county in the nation. We
21 are the third from the bottom in the nation with the least
22 education in Kings County.
23 And we are also in the double digits in
24 unemployment rate. We just had a Pirelli Tire Company that
25 closed and unemployed 800 people. So, we felt that; we felt
26 that.
27 I'm also here to remind you that Kings County is
28 one of the four counties that is protected under Section 5 of
23
1 the Voting Rights Act. And a result of that protection, I hope
2 you keep that in mind.
3 And again, I'm asking that our valley be kept
4 together. Our valley is very unique, and we are certainly
5 underrepresented because we need people in our valley or from
6 our valley to understand the uniqueness in our valley.
7 As a result, I just want to mention that I am the
8 first Hispanic female elected in the County of Kings. I am a
9 product of Section 5, and I'm very proud to say that.
10 So again, thank you very much. I'm here to ask
11 you --
12 CHAIRMAN PERATA: I'm sorry, what office are you
13 holding?
14 MS. GALLEGOS: Council Member for the City of
15 Hanford.
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Congratulations.
17 MS. GALLEGOS: Thank you very much.
18 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thanks for coming.
19 MS. GALLEGOS: Thank you very much for listening.
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Our next scheduled speaker,
21 Kevin Jenkins, who's a member of the Hanford School Board.
22 MR. JENKINS: Mr. Chairman, Honorable Members of
23 the committee, and my fellow Senator Chuck Poochigian, nice to
24 see you back in the district, sir.
25 I'm an elected school board member. I've been
26 that for 18 years. I currently serve representing Fresno,
27 Madera, and Kings Counties on the State Board of Directors for
28 all the school boards, public school boards, in this region.
24
1 Done that for the last eight years.
2 I've seen a clear -- in my travels, been in the
3 White House three times, and currently am on a state task force
4 for school facilities.
5 I speak ditto to many of the issues that
6 Dr. Mehas brought forward, so there's no need for wasting that
7 time.
8 But I will tell you, we have extremely unique
9 characteristics to a San Francisco or a Los Angeles, one of
10 which is transportation. Our school districts, at least in
11 Kings County, we have 14 school districts in Kings County, two
12 unified school districts, seven feeder schools, those are public
13 schools, plus two private feeder schools into my high school
14 district alone.
15 I want to tell you the amount of miles that our
16 buses put on daily, versus an L.A. Unified or a San Francisco
17 Unified, or a large urban district. Very unique.
18 The characteristics of our school districts range
19 from 65 ADA to 5,000 ADA. We have seven articulation committees
20 in place at my high school alone. A lot of work is done in the
21 rural nature. The migrant farmworkers and the population that
22 goes in and out of our high schools and our elementary schools
23 is unique to our district.
24 The service of that type of education is very
25 unique and very difficult to manage. When you have child leave
26 you in the fall to go down south to harvest lettuce, and then
27 come back to you in the spring to plant another crop, it's very
28 tough on the child, but it's awful hard on the district and the
25
1 needs of that district for staffing, for facilities.
2 I just want to ditto, being a member of that
3 committee, our facility funding. When we pass a bond, and we
4 see the amount of schools that receive money in our districts
5 versus an L.A. or a San Francisco, we need Legislators such as
6 we currently have with our Senators in the area, we want to
7 maintain that status and that argument at the state level, to
8 fight for our children. Because, you know, our children don't
9 come to us with Rs and Ds. They come to us as an unique
10 representative of our future labor pool.
11 With that statement, I'll tell you, 46 percent of
12 our kids last year did not go on to a higher education facility.
13 I'm appalled as a board member at that number. I'm appalled so
14 much that we joined hands with our city and with our community
15 college three years ago to start the effort of a kind of
16 unique -- we call it a learning center, in which we're going to
17 have an education facility from 9-12, side by side with a high
18 school district and a community college on the same 125 to 300
19 acres, whatever we end up with, and the City of Hanford
20 partnering with us to put a facility on there for weekends. So,
21 we will be saving some of our ag. land.
22 Instead of spending three dollars to get one
23 dollar's worth of services, we're going to spend one dollar and
24 get three dollars' worth of services.
25 Along with our current Senators, they've been
26 fighting on our behalf, that's just a small representative issue
27 that pertains to a small community trying to do something to
28 make a better facility for our children.
26
1 Is that unique to the valley? No, it could be
2 done anywhere. But we as small community are trying to make
3 that a reality. And as elected officials in our community, are
4 working with our local elected officials, which we can see on a
5 weekly or daily or monthly visit.
6 If it's moved, as it's outlined to another area,
7 we've lost that touch with our elected officials. And we would
8 definitely feel that immediately, I feel.
9 In order to advocate for appropriate educational
10 funding for Kings County's school and students, we need our
11 Legislators to come from our region. That's why I'm here,
12 calling on the Senate to respect the citizenry of my community,
13 Kings County, to make sure that they will truly have a
14 representation that represents our needs in the valley.
15 I thank you for taking Fresno as a stopping point
16 to listen to us today. Thank you for your efforts.
17 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
18 Our next scheduled speaker, Debbie Tom.
19 MS. TOM: Good afternoon. I'd like to invite my
20 colleagues, as part of the Asian American and Pacific Islander
21 Network, to join me up here as well.
22 There will be a number of us speaking about the
23 Asian American and Pacific Islander community here in the
24 Central Valley.
25 My name is Debbie Tom, and I am a consultant
26 working with nonprofit organizations, and currently I'm doing
27 some consulting for the California Endowment.
28 I graduated from Fresno State University, and I
27
1 lived in Clovis during the mid-'70s to the late '80s. Then,
2 after a decade of living on the east coast, I recently moved
3 back to Fresno last year.
4 My work has been with the immigrant and refugee
5 communities on both coasts. I have been a member of the Central
6 California Asian Pacific Women's Organization, the Japanese
7 American Citizens League, and most recently, facilitating the
8 development of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Network
9 in the Central Valley.
10 My comments today will be an overview of the
11 diversity and complexity of Central California's Asian American
12 and Pacific Islander communities. The formation of this network
13 is a direct result of town hall meetings organized by the White
14 House Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
15 The Commission released its report on Asian
16 Americans and Pacific Islanders earlier this year. This report
17 to the nation is entitled, "Asian Americans and Pacific
18 Islanders: A People Looking Forward." It carries the theme of
19 action for access and partnerships in the 21st Century.
20 I want to highlight three of the Commission's
21 findings.
22 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders remain the
23 fastest growing racial-ethic population in the United States.
24 Thirty-five percent of us live in linguistically isolated
25 households, where no one aged 14 or older speaks English very
26 well: 61 percent of Hmong American households; 56 percent of
27 Cambodian American households; 52 percent of Laotian American
28 households; 44 percent of Vietnamese American households; 41
28
1 percent of Korean Americans; and 40 percent of Chinese American
2 households are linguistically isolated.
3 1.4 million Asian Americans and Pacific
4 Islanders, or 13 percent of our population were or at below the
5 federal poverty level in 1998. The 1989 poverty rates for
6 Hmong Americans was 66 percent; 43 percent for Cambodian
7 Americans; and 35 percent for Laotian Americans.
8 The 2000 Census data show that our Asian American
9 and Pacific Islander population growth occurred in Central
10 Valley counties as well. The Census counted approximately
11 280,000 of us in Fresno, Kern, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus,
12 and Tulare Counties. This figure is low because it only counted
13 single-race individuals, and does not include the multi-race
14 individuals. All of these counties, except Merced, are within
15 the top 20 counties with high Asian American and Pacific
16 Islander populations.
17 The impact of our population growth is evident in
18 the changing dynamics of our neighborhoods. In cities such as
19 Fresno, Visalia, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, we see storefronts
20 in various Asian languages, such as Hmong, Khmer, Lao,
21 Vietnamese, Chinese, and Indian. We have mini-malls like the
22 Asian Village here in Fresno, operated and owned by Asian
23 Americans and Pacific Islanders.
24 The most visible entrepreneurial enterprises are
25 our food establishments, the Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, and
26 Chinese restaurants, and Seven-Eleven stores operated by Sikhs
27 and East Indians. Hmong, and Lao, and Cambodian have
28 established auto shops and dealerships. Many of these
29
1 businesses are in the urban areas of Central Valley cities and
2 towns.
3 In addition to these small business
4 establishments, many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
5 contribute to the Valley's agricultural economy. They work in
6 the fields, lease land for farming, and others are farm owners.
7 Our representative from the Hmong American community will
8 describe the challenges faced by small farmers.
9 Other visible establishments are churches and
10 places of worship, and community-based health and human service
11 organizations. We are active in various Christian and
12 non-Christian faith-based organizations. Fresno is home to the
13 newest and second largest Cambodian Temple in the United States.
14 It is located at the corner of Valentine and Clinton. The first
15 largest is in Washington, D.C. Fresno is home to the Muslim
16 Mosque across from Fresno State University. And located in
17 Fresno's Chinatown is the Japanese Buddhist Temple, which is
18 designated a historic landmark.
19 This network that we have formed with the Asian
20 American and Pacific Islanders living in Fresno, Merced, San
21 Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare Counties have reached peoples
22 from Cambodian backgrounds, Chinese, East Indians, Hawaiians,
23 Hmong, Japanese, Koreans, Lahu, Laotians, Mien, Filipinos,
24 Samoans, Sikhs, Thais, and Vietnamese, and many other U.S.
25 Census categories for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
26 These individuals are affiliates of over --
27 represent organizations of over 50 community-based
28 organizations. These community-based organizations host a
30
1 number of social service activities, as well as organized events
2 that enrich our life in the valley, particularly in this month
3 of May, which is Asian American Pacific Heritage Month, and also
4 Refugee Awareness Month.
5 Events that we have scheduled here in Fresno are,
6 this past Saturday, May 19th, our E Street Fair in Chinatown.
7 Refugee Awareness Day will happen this Friday at the Asian
8 Village. This weekend, we will have the Southeast Asian Water
9 Festival here in Kearney Park. And on May 26th at Fresno State,
10 this Saturday, we will hold an all Asian American and Pacific
11 Islander Graduation for our Fresno State graduates.
12 These events show that our communities are
13 located in all quadrants of many of our urban cities,
14 particularly in Fresno. We request that you consider metro
15 Fresno as an important community of interest to hold intact,
16 instead of cutting it into several districts, as it currently
17 is.
18 We and members in our network are energized and
19 enthusiastic about our numbers and our ability to strengthen a
20 Valley Asian American and Pacific Islander voice, utilizing the
21 White House Commission's findings and recommendations. Our
22 capacity to engage in efforts like this, the redistricting
23 process, is strengthened by our linkage with other statewide
24 Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations.
25 Approximately 25 of us from the Central Valley
26 participated in the Asian American and Pacific Islander
27 Legislative Conference in March in Sacramento. At this
28 conference, we met with many of our elected officials, and we
31
1 also made visits to Senator Poochigian's and, I think, a number
2 of other Assembly district offices.
3 During this redistricting -- during this
4 conference, we learned about the redistricting process, and we
5 organized and prepared some testimonies for you today. While we
6 are not prepared to present actual proposals for districts at
7 this time, we want to share with you information about our
8 communities and about our network, and we want to be able to
9 help you in making intact our communities, and making meaningful
10 representation for our community.
11 In conclusion, our communities contribute to the
12 Central California economic, spiritual, cultural, and political
13 life. The Asian American and Pacific Islander Network of
14 Central California will continue to convene to address our
15 common concerns and strengthen our voice.
16 Our network is committed to fostering a
17 cooperative spirit as we move forward in this process, and we
18 urge you to enforce the Voting Rights Act and to keep our
19 diverse communities whole so that our voices are represented.
20 We view our communities' participation in the
21 redistricting process as the next step to ensuring our
22 communities count. Participating in our discussions have been
23 representatives from a broad array of groups. Today, the voices
24 that you will hear are from the Organization of Chinese
25 Americans, Japanese Americans Citizens League, the Fresno Center
26 for New Americans, the Hmong American Community, and our Asian
27 American Coalition that is based in Visalia, as well as the
28 Chinatown Revitalization, Inc. Of Fresno.
32
1 We also want to thank you for holding this
2 hearing in Fresno, and we thank you for the opportunity to
3 speak.
4 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
5 MS. OMACHI: Good afternoon. My name is Kathleen
6 Satomi Omachi, and I live in Reedley, which the southern part of
7 Fresno County.
8 I'm a third generation Californian. My family
9 has lived and worked in the Central Valley for over 100 years.
10 I'm speaking today for redistricting needs of the
11 Central Valley Asian Pacific Islander communities in a
12 historical context regarding our economic impact in the area,
13 legislative discrimination and its effects on our communities
14 and our voting rights.
15 I was informed that it would be helpful very
16 briefly to share some information about myself to explain my
17 desire to present testimony before you today.
18 I have spent over 30 years in the area of
19 community organizing, community planning, and assessment. Within
20 the last 9 years of returning to Fresno from Sacramento, I have
21 been able to aid in organizing the Downtown Revitalization
22 Organization of Fresno, the Central California Organization of
23 Chinese Americans, the Asian Pacific Heritage Coalition.
24 I currently serve as a board member and/or past
25 officer of: The Fresno Revitalization Corporation for
26 revitalization of the downtown area, the Majorie Mason Center,
27 one of the largest services in the Valley for battered women and
28 their children, the Fresno Planned Growth Coalition, which is
33
1 looking at the issue of sprawl and quality of life in our
2 community, and the Alvino Reyes Trust, which is the only
3 preservation organization that has been developed for the future
4 planning and saving of the Kings River.
5 In the last three years, I've been able to help
6 develop community organizations and services through local,
7 state, federal, and private funds. Those services range from
8 traditional -- from a nontraditional union employment for teen
9 mothers, multi-cultural senior centers, multi-lingual mental
10 health services, refugee services, preservation of inner-city
11 neighborhoods and ag. land, and the development of
12 multi-cultural bilingual educational curriculum for schools, K
13 through high school.
14 I was honored after being able to graduate out of
15 UC Berkeley with my Master's in social work to be inducted into
16 the Order of The Golden Bear of the University of California for
17 service to the university.
18 In 1996, I was honored to be one of the top ten
19 women in the Valley, and in 1999 then-Assemblyman Cruz
20 Bustamante honored me by selecting me as the 31st Assembly
21 District's Woman of the Year. And in 2000, the City of Fresno
22 surprised and honored me also by selecting November 4th Kathy
23 Omachi Day, which is kind of embarrassing, but these things I
24 treasure greatly, yet I find unbelievable in light of my
25 family's history and the history of the Asian Pacific
26 communities in California.
27 Growing up here within the last hundred years, we
28 went through the school system in California. In the 1950s --
34
1 now you can calculate how old I am -- any of the kids that came
2 into school, including myself, when I started school, I spoke
3 Armenian, Japanese, and very little English. By the time I
4 finished kindergarten, I could only speak English and responded
5 to our neighbor who was our landlord, the Armenian family, the
6 Serimians, Mrs. Serimian and my grandmother, when they spoke to
7 me in Armenian or Japanese, only in English. That carries on
8 through today.
9 Going again through the school system, I clearly
10 remember many of my Hispanic friends that would start school
11 speaking only English were put in the MR classes, of which most
12 of you remember as being the mentally retarded classes. They
13 were considered to be uneducatable.
14 I still remember going through school in high
15 school and college and telling -- the instructors telling me
16 that I would need to learn how to type because that would be the
17 only other job besides farm work that I would be able to
18 qualify. And they might be right. I still haven't learned to
19 type very well, either.
20 Those were issues as far as my family
21 economically. When we take a look at -- people have been in
22 Fresno -- let me just put -- within a mile from here, you have
23 Fresno's historic Chinatown. That was the home of nine
24 different ethic community groups who lived and worked together,
25 but were not allowed to live past the railroad tracks. We're
26 talking about the Armenians, the Basques, the Chinese, the
27 Japanese, the Mexican American, African American, Italian. That
28 they were told, if they wanted to be able to live and establish
35
1 businesses, it had to be across the railroad track.
2 Many of you who are familiar with some of the
3 discrimination also faced by communities very close to where you
4 are up in Sacramento, Isleton and Walnut Grove. Up until the
5 '70s, you have the individuals, the Chinese members of Walnut
6 Grove -- I'm sorry, in Isleton, who owned their houses but could
7 not own the land. And up and through the '70s and until the
8 early '80s, it took action by the Legislature for them not to be
9 removed from their homes that they had occupied for over a
10 hundred years.
11 In Walnut Grove, there are few individuals left
12 of the Manong community. Those are the individuals that are the
13 isolated, single Filipino men who came as young men to work in
14 the fields in California. At that time, legislation had taken
15 place that was anti-miscegenation laws, which many people don't
16 even believe took place. And that was stated where any man of
17 color was not allowed legally to marry a woman who was
18 Caucasian.
19 All of these actions, which culminated in World
20 War II, with the forceful removal of the Japanese American
21 community are all examples of fear of individuals who are
22 different than you, but also of economic success. Many of the
23 individuals early on from the Chinese workers who came were
24 barred from owning any farm land or to be able to continue their
25 gold claims.
26 Another community that is very close to you up in
27 Sacramento is Placerville. Many of you know Placerville's other
28 name, which is Hang Town. Hang Town had a ritual on the
36
1 weekends that any of the "loose", quote-unquote, Chinese that
2 were available as part of a sport would end up in the downtown
3 square.
4 What happened with this type of background and
5 this sort of history of not only local, county, state, federal
6 government action, legal action that was taken, had a chilling
7 effect on the communities and our exercise of our voting rights.
8 One does not really want to be able to vote nor run for office
9 when one is very afraid of their own survival.
10 One other community that we do want to let you
11 know that is very interesting here is about five miles away
12 here, and it's called El Dorado Park. It happens to be, for
13 those of you who remember, was called Sin City. It was an
14 apartment complex next to Fresno State, or the University of
15 Fresno. Up in the 1990 Census -- or up until the 1990 Census,
16 it was identified as a pocket community. It was also identified
17 as being the highest poverty rate for a pocket community in the
18 State of California, and it was less than several blocks from
19 the University.
20 That area has changed somewhat. We have gone
21 through many, many changes. Most of you would be shock and
22 appalled now to take a look at any legislation that you would
23 think that would chill anyone's right to exercise their right as
24 a U.S. citizen to vote or participate --
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Ms. Omachi, I'm going to have
26 to ask you to summarize. We have lots of people who want to
27 speak. Thank you.
28 MS. OMACHI: No problem.
37
1 One thing as far as historically taking a look at
2 Fresno is that we are currently divided by four Assembly
3 districts. We also do not have one individual who is on the
4 Fresno County City Council, no board, that is of Asian Pacific
5 Islander ethnicity, and there actually has not been one.
6 But there are changes that are being made, and
7 those changes we can continue with you, taking a look at the
8 Assembly districts, all of districts that you'll be looking at
9 in a fair and equitable manner in the community. Asian Pacific
10 community has been not only compacted, fractured, impacted, but
11 chopped, diced and served up, basically, in many, many areas.
12 We are asking you to stand by the Voting Rights
13 Act and also the issue of one person one vote.
14 Thank you very much.
15 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
16 MR. XIONG: Good afternoon, Committee members.
17 Thank you for this opportunity, and I hope I will keep it
18 within that time span.
19 CHAIRMAN PERATA: What's your name,
20 please.
21 MR. XIONG: My name is Blong Xiong. I'm the
22 Program Manager for Fresno Center for New Americans, FCNA for
23 short.
24 I am a Hmong American. I've been in the United
25 States for 25 years; ten of those years I've been here in
26 Fresno. I currently sit on KSEE 24 Community Advisory Board,
27 and also with the Fresno County Office of Education After School
28 Network. I am here on behalf of FCNA, the AAPI community in the
38
1 Central Valley, and specifically, the Southeast Asian Coalition
2 of the Central Valley.
3 This has been truly an opportunity for me to
4 really learn about the Voting Rights Act, the idea of one person
5 one vote, the strength of community, and the need for the
6 participation of the Central Valley AAPI community in this
7 redistricting effort.
8 We support our Latino, African American, and the
9 rest of our AAPI communities throughout California in their
10 efforts to have an impact in the redistricting process.
11 I would like to take this opportunity give the
12 Committee information on what FCNA does, and how this
13 information can assist in part to the redistricting issue in the
14 Central Valley and here in Fresno.
15 Our organization was established about 10 years
16 ago. We're located on the southeast side of the city of
17 Fresno. There is a high population of refugees and new
18 Americans that reside in this area.
19 In addition, FCNA's located near Asian Village, a
20 predominantly Southeast Asian shopping center. Asian Village
21 shopping center is located on an intersection of Kings Canyon
22 Road and Winery. Our organization addresses issues that effect
23 this community, from health education, employment and
24 assistance, and placement, acculturation services, increasing
25 awareness and access through advocacy. Our vision is to be a
26 resource to refugees and New Americans, and to also contribute
27 to their quality of life.
28 Our recent clients have included Serbs,
39
1 Armenians, Russians, Ethiopians, Latinos, and other ethic
2 communities. We also continue to provide services to Southeast
3 Asian communities. The majority of our services has been
4 targeted to this particular community, and this is where I will
5 try to inform the Committee.
6 A stereotype would be that the second wave of
7 Asian refugees after the Vietnam War is assumed comparable and
8 as successful as the first wave of Asian Americans, the
9 Japanese, Chinese, and the Koreans. The fact is, that is not
10 true.
11 The second wave of Southeast Asian immigrants
12 include the Hmong, the Lao, Cambodians, the Miens, and a second
13 wave of Vietnamese refugees. These groups come from a society
14 either with little or no formal education, from poor or low
15 socio-economic background, or running from political
16 retribution. The barriers of education, language,
17 transportation, economic opportunities, and culture have
18 negatively effected their ability to access the services that
19 can assist these groups to acculturate.
20 One of FCNA's priorities is to ensure that
21 Southeast Asian families have access to cultural and
22 linguistically appropriate services to adapt to their new home
23 country, and yet maintain core Southeast Asian family values.
24 Southeast Asian parents are not able teach their children how to
25 survive in this country. They cannot communicate well in
26 English, and do not understand the American culture. They do
27 not know how to communicate with their children. The economy of
28 the community does not support the Southeast Asian workforce.
40
1 Many of the Southeast Asian graduates are unable to find jobs in
2 this community and are forced to leave. This separation weakens
3 the family unit.
4 Another factor that impedes the Southeast Asian
5 growth is economic development. In the last 30 years, the
6 Southeast Asian businesses have survived by trial and error.
7 Economic growth has come from nonstandard financing, where money
8 is derived from relatives and friends. Many businesses include
9 mom-and-pop shops, auto dealerships, insurance agencies,
10 laundromats, small farms, and many small other businesses that
11 impact this community and the Central Valley.
12 For continued and sustained economic growth, the
13 Southeast Asian business must be reached by the many services
14 that are available federally, at the state level, and locally.
15 Obtaining financing from traditional banking institutions has
16 been difficult. Technical assistance has not presently reached
17 the members of this community. A lack of business education
18 within the community has limited their growth. Without the
19 financing, technical assistance, and sincere commitment to reach
20 the Southeast Asian community, the Southeast Asian economic base
21 will have difficulty in sustaining growth.
22 All we want is to be able to use the services
23 that are already available to assist the Southeast Asian
24 businesses.
25 And the 1990 Census states that 63 percent of
26 Hmongs, 51 percent of Laotians, and 47 percent of Cambodians
27 live in poverty. Approximately 37 percent of AAPI households
28 with income below poverty level with no health insurance, as
41
1 compared to approximate 28 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 27
2 percent of African Americans.
3 According to the Interim Report to the President
4 and the Nation by the AAPI, the 1990 poverty rate for Americans
5 was 10 percent; for Hmong Americans it was 66 percent; 47
6 percent for Cambodian Americans; and 67 percent for Laotian
7 Americans; and 34 percent for Vietnamese Americans.
8 Especially here in Fresno, where it is divided
9 into three Senate districts, we want this Committee to consider
10 the similar economic situations, similar cultures of the
11 Southeast Asian population. To divide us would weaken our voice
12 and ability to unite and advocate for services that would
13 sustain our economic growth. We must have an opportunity to
14 elect and rely on elected officials that will seriously consider
15 our Southeast Asian voices, and the voices of the AAPI community
16 throughout the Central Valley.
17 Although there are many differences between our
18 AAPI communities, we share similar values, interests,
19 principles, and economic conditions in the City of Fresno.
20 I want to conclude by thanking the Committee for
21 this opportunity. I hope they keep the City of Fresno and
22 Fresno County as a whole.
23 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
24 For those of you who have spoken, we will not be
25 offended if you have to leave. We'll completely understand
26 that.
27 Yes, sir.
28 MR. LEE: Good afternoon. Thank you very much
42
1 for letting me have this opportunity to speak and express our
2 needs and concern.
3 My name is Houston Lee. I'm here on behalf of
4 Chukou Thao. He's the Director for the Hmong American
5 communities in Fresno, California. These are registered voters
6 and live in Fresno County for more than 19 years, as myself.
7 And we represent more than 600 Hmong and Southeast Asian farmers
8 in the Central Valley. We are a community of interest.
9 The Hmong are a refugee group from Southeast
10 Asia, and they fight beside the American friends during the
11 Vietnam War. In the past 25 years, the Hmong decided to settle
12 in Fresno and the Central Valley. And due to language barriers,
13 job skill, education, the Hmong refugee decide to farm as a way
14 of making a living in Fresno here.
15 Farming is in our blood and heritage, and life is
16 very hard, and it's not easy, especially for small farmers. The
17 average Hmong farmers can only farm one to three acres because
18 they lack a lot of technical support and resources, and no
19 incentive to increase their lands.
20 They have been in the Central Valley, especially
21 in Fresno here for more than 25 years, and less than 5 percent
22 of the population have their own homes and have their own land
23 to farm. The annual income is less than 14,000 a year.
24 The Hmong American community is working to assist
25 the Hmong farmers in Fresno, Merced, Tulare and Butte Counties.
26 Our mission is economic development. Our organization provide
27 training in pesticide health and safety, record keeping, tractor
28 driving courses, soil preparation and management, crop
43
1 management, labor law, marketing, and others.
2 To further assist the Hmong farmer, HAC has
3 developed smaller farm resource training centers, and these are
4 located in southwestern Fresno here. This training facility is
5 currently located on 20 acres in southwest Fresno, and the site
6 will be incubator of farming plots of three to five farmers on
7 site, and four to five farmers off site.
8 The participant farmers will enroll in training
9 programs for about two to three years. And the minority or
10 small farmer will seek technical assistance, classroom and
11 hands-on training on soil management, pesticide health and
12 safety training, pesticide label reading, record keeping,
13 tractor driving, marketing, as well as other topics related to
14 farming. And of course, it will be taught in English, Spanish,
15 and Hmong.
16 Other economic efforts, Hmong American Community
17 is involved in the development of a Hmong American cooperative.
18 The cooperative established to help the Hmong farmers market
19 sell their Asian specialty crops for a fair market price. And
20 some of their specialty crops include bitter melon, Chinese
21 eggplant, Gailon, lemon grass, Chinese long beans, Moqua and
22 others.
23 Currently now there are a total of 40 members
24 with more members interested in it, the program. The
25 cooperative has established a web page where a purchase can be
26 made over the internet and developing a committee support
27 agriculture, and getting a six-month contract to grow Daikon for
28 a packing house in the L.A. area.
44
1 The Hmong American Community has been involved in
2 active economic development of the Hmong community in Fresno,
3 but there are many areas that need marketing, finance. Language
4 barriers, access to service, land ownership, limit the Hmong
5 farmers from becoming successful farmers.
6 And in a conclusion here, we ask that in the
7 process of redistricting, this Committee help us to, and the
8 Asian American Pacific Islander inform how and where the new
9 lines will be drawn, we request that as you can see the new
10 lines, that our farming community be kept as a whole. We offer
11 our assistance to identify where Hmong farmers and other
12 minority farmers are living or farming. We are part of the
13 community of interest as well as a community of Asian American
14 Pacific Islanders community.
15 Thank you for this opportunity.
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
17 MS. TOM: We have two statements from two other
18 representatives that couldn't make it today. Could we read it
19 into the record?
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: You could just submit it, and
21 we'll put it into the record. Thank you.
22 CHAIRMAN PERATA: The next is Bruce Allbright.
23 Once again, I'd like to remind everybody, if
24 possible, to limit your remarks to the three minutes. We will
25 not be able to get through everyone. And to be, as much as
26 possible, if you're going to restate the interest point on
27 redistricting, do that as succinctly as you can.
28 Thank you, sir.
45
1 MR. ALLBRIGHT: Sounds like he's heard me talk
2 before. I think we can make the three minutes.
3 Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Senators.
4 Welcome to Fresno. Always glad to have you here on a balmy
5 spring day.
6 Thank you for the opportunity to testify before
7 the Committee today. My name is Bruce Allbright. I'm a
8 resident of Fresno County. I'm an agri-business owner. I'm a
9 father of three children.
10 I've the honor of being a community volunteer,
11 and I've served on various boards and committees dedicated to
12 improving the quality of life in this Valley.
13 I testify today primarily as a parent in the
14 Central Valley in California. Currently I serve on the Board of
15 Valley Children's Hospital, their Board of Trustees. It's
16 located on the Fresno-Madera border.
17 Valley Children's is a safety net provider of
18 comprehensive health care for all the children of the Central
19 Valley of California, regardless of race, religion, ability to
20 pay, with over 70 percent of our patients on Medi-Cal
21 reimbursement.
22 Valley Children's is the only children's hospital
23 that serves the vast ten-county, 60,000 square mile region
24 between L.A. and San Francisco. And in fact, it's the only
25 free-standing children's hospital in the United States that's
26 situated in a rural area.
27 Valley Children's is a great success story,
28 insides what some call the other California. We employ over
46
1 2,000 individuals in an area of chronic unemployment, and we
2 have a presence in clinics and partnerships from Modesto to
3 Bakersfield.
4 However, there are many barriers to health care
5 access in our region, including: inadequate transportation,
6 you've heard something about this already; shortage of health
7 care professionals; chronically high poverty and unemployment,
8 you've heard about this before as well today; and lack of health
9 insurance. We have 93 different languages and dialects spoken
10 here, and we have many other challenges that I won't list today.
11 Each of the 10 counties that Valley Children's
12 serves is federally designated as medically underserved. Every
13 week we hear about new challenges regarding health care coverage
14 or nursing shortages in our area. The media is full of such
15 coverage.
16 We depend very much on our representatives in
17 Sacramento for help in addressing these challenges. To assure
18 that our needs are recognized, the Central Valley needs
19 representatives in Sacramento and Washington who understand the
20 issues of the Central Valley. We need representatives from our
21 region.
22 The only way to guarantee such representatives is
23 to have legislative districts that keep Fresno, Madera, and
24 other Central Valley communities together.
25 I'm here today to ask you to please not lump
26 Fresno, Madera, and the Central Valley into other regions when
27 drawing the new districts, as there are many other issues
28 regarding health care, water, agriculture, education, economic
47
1 development, for which the Valley has a very unique
2 perspective.
3 Thank you very much.
4 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
5 I think I jumped over Manuel Cunha. Not here.
6 Paul Betancourt.
7 And after Mr. Betancourt, we're going to take a
8 break so our court reporter can resuscitate.
9 MR. BETANCOURT: The hardest one working here
10 today.
11 My name is Paul Betancourt, and I'm an almond
12 farmer as well as a school board member for Kerman Unified. And
13 I thank you for coming down to Fresno and offering the time to
14 talk about redistricting.
15 Senator Poochigian is my representative and a
16 friend, and also knows I'm kind of an idealist. Ben Franklin
17 said that the American Revolution was not fought for freedom but
18 for self government, and I appreciate the opportunity you are
19 giving us to participate in that self government.
20 I grew up in San Diego, and I've lived here
21 almost 20 years, and I know personally how different the various
22 areas of California are. As we mentioned earlier, ag.'s already
23 been mentioned. And it may be a big deal here, but with 35
24 million people in the State of California, and less than 2
25 percent of them involved in farming, you know, there is a real
26 sense in which we're a minority community and minority interest.
27 And we hate to see that get washed away in any redistricting
28 that takes place.
48
1 As was mentioned in education, rural busing is a
2 huge issue for Kerman Unified, and Senator Costa's helped us
3 fund rural busing. And if we are lumped in with larger urban
4 areas, that will get watered down also.
5 Dr. Mehas mentioned the equalization funding. I
6 would love better funding for our schools. And we need that
7 kind of representation that we get from our local
8 representatives on these issues.
9 Other issues that are specific concerns for us,
10 for example, would be sales tax on propane. Rural residential
11 owners with propane tanks are the only ones paying sales tax on
12 energy. It's our rural representatives are the ones that are
13 making this an issue in the Legislature. That would get lost if
14 we got watered down with the urban areas.
15 The PUC regional baseline areas is a great idea.
16 I appreciate that, but it doesn't take into account, for
17 example, that rural home owners with wells who are not served by
18 municipal water districts are going to have to fit their water
19 pumping costs for their homes under that baseline. That would
20 never be taken into account if we got lumped in with the urban
21 areas.
22 I know there's been a whole bunch of people
23 trying to tell you what to do, and I won't join that list. But
24 I'll ask you a question: Why can't we create districts that
25 reflect the unique geography and concerns of all of the Central
26 Valley residents?
27 Thank you for coming to Fresno, and thank you for
28 giving me the time to speak to you.
49
1 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thanks for being here.
2 We will take a 15-minute break. Thank you.
3 [Thereupon a brief recess
4 was taken.]
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: We are going to reconvene.
6 Our next speaker is Terry Bradley.
7 MR. BRADLEY: Chairperson Perata, members of the
8 State Senate, my name is Terry Bradley. I'm Deputy
9 Superintendent of Schools for the Clovis Unified School
10 District, and we appreciate the opportunity to speak to you
11 today on behalf of not just our school district and community,
12 but all Central Valley school districts.
13 Clovis Unified is a school district that covers
14 approximately 200 square miles and includes approximately 99
15 percent of the City of Clovis, and portions of the City and
16 County of Fresno. Our district has grown from a student
17 population of approximately 14,000 students in 1980, to more
18 than 33,000 students today. We're projected to grow to more
19 than 43,000 students by the year 2009, with a majority of our
20 school districts still being undeveloped.
21 Since the unification of our school district in
22 1960, it has enjoyed tremendous community support. District
23 residents take a great deal of pride in their community
24 schools. Parents as well as senior citizens devote thousands
25 of hours volunteering in our schools.
26 Citizens of our district have passed four bond
27 measures since 1986, totaling more than $300 million. All 37
28 campuses operated in the district are true community centers,
50
1 where both students and adults utilize the campuses from early
2 morning until well into the evening.
3 Unfortunately, because of the L.A. lawsuit, which
4 I'm sure all of you are aware of, and the subsequent action by
5 the State Allocation Board that have resulted in Valley school
6 districts not being able to participate in the $9.2 billion
7 state bond measure passed in 1998, we are no longer eligible
8 because the rules of the game were changed in the middle of the
9 game.
10 As my dear friend, Dr. Mehas mentioned before,
11 you know, Jerry Tarkanian certainly would not want to coach a
12 basketball game when the rules were changed in the middle of the
13 game. Nor would some of the famous cultures from my alma mater,
14 including Knute Rockne, Frank Layhe, Ara Parsegian, Lew Holtz.
15 You don't want to coach a football game --
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: You went to USC?
17 [Laughter.]
18 MR. BRADLEY: No, I went to a little small
19 Catholic school in the Midwest that just tries to compete on
20 Saturdays during the fall of the year.
21 But anyway, you know, that was real unfortunate
22 because our areas did overwhelmingly support that proposition in
23 1998, and with the exception of just a very few school districts
24 in Central California, who we thought -- who thought that they
25 were going to be eligible for state bond measures, and passed
26 local bonds, we're now not eligible to play in that game.
27 Approximately 40 percent of our student
28 population is minority, with 9 of our campuses having a majority
51
1 of minority students. Our revenue per student is approximately
2 $350 less than the statewide average for unified school
3 districts. When compared to other districts our size, the
4 difference is even greater. Clovis Unified lags behind
5 statewide averages both in unrestricted and restricted revenue.
6 That's why equalization funding, which all of our
7 representatives support, is so important to not just our school
8 district, but all districts in our area.
9 Even with our high minority population, coupled
10 with our lower average resources per students, our schools do
11 perform very well both in the academic and core curricular area.
12 None of our schools are in the, quote, "underperforming"
13 category that is so important to all of us in the state in
14 today's world.
15 In 1999-2000, all of our schools received a
16 ranking of 7 or above on the All Performance Academic
17 Performance Index.
18 The Central Valley, and in particular Fresno
19 County and Clovis Unified have always had outstanding
20 Legislators representing our interests in Sacramento. Assembly
21 Member Briggs and Senator Poochigian understand the educational
22 issues of Fresno County, as does Senator Costa, as did many of
23 our former representatives of Sacramento, including Senator
24 Maddy, now Secretary of State Jones, former Congressman Lehman,
25 and now Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. These individuals
26 know our issues because they are members of our community. In
27 fact, Assembly Member Briggs has several children attending
28 schools in our district at the current time, and we appreciate
52
1 all that ADA that's generated from his household.
2 They are our neighbors, are involved in our
3 schools, and understand our issues and the problems we face.
4 Unfortunately, all this could change when the
5 Legislature redraws districts this year through the upcoming
6 reapportionment process. Central Coast and South Bay areas
7 could be placed in the same district as Fresno and our school
8 district.
9 These other areas do not have our lifestyle, our
10 problems, and our agriculture traditions. We are completely
11 different communities with different interests and different
12 values.
13 On behalf of our governing board, residents, our
14 district, and most important, the 33,000 students we serve, we
15 are requesting that the State Senate protect what we have been
16 able achieve during the past by ensuring that members of our
17 community represent us.
18 Thank you for the opportunity to address you
19 today.
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
21 Next scheduled speaker who has signed in, Mert
22 Scholten.
23 MR. SCHOLTEN: Good afternoon. I'm pleased and
24 appreciative of the opportunity to be here to share our views
25 and your appreciation for the fact that you're here to receive
26 comments from the citizens on the sole issue of redistricting.
27 I'm what's called the Executive Director of the
28 Fresno-Madera Medical Society. I mention that fact not to draw
53
1 attention to my position, but to explain that I come to you with
2 some 30 years, nearly 30 years' experience dealing in the
3 medical arena.
4 Having lived in five other states, both large and
5 small, rich and poor, and having moved here from a modest sized
6 Midwestern city called Chicago, I have a real appreciation for
7 the Fresno community and all that it has to offer. And I
8 believe it's imperative to preserve, insofar as possible, the
9 best of what this community offers.
10 My experience of nearly 30 years in the medical
11 association business has permitted me exposure to communities,
12 hospitals, and medical schools, literally from one coast to the
13 other, as well as the opportunity to meet and work with more
14 than 2,000 physicians, both in their personal and professional
15 settings.
16 From that exposure, I can unequivocally state
17 that the medical care and expertise available here in Fresno,
18 California is second to none. We have excellent hospital,
19 facilities superbly trained physicians, dedicated nurses, and
20 the ability to offer 99 percent of the medical services needed
21 by the vast majority of citizens in this area.
22 I make this point because I'm concerned that the
23 continuation of this high level of expertise and care may not
24 continue long into the future. Our Valley has its own problems,
25 as we deal with everything from high unemployment to economic
26 growth, from poverty to wealth, from sickness to health. We are
27 an agricultural Mecca. We are a multi-cultural city and
28 region. All of this unique mixture of people, problems, and
54
1 environment make for some unique problems.
2 We have more lung problems, such as asthma,
3 allergies, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and higher
4 diabetes rates than almost anywhere in the nation. We have high
5 instances of hypertension, cancer, and other debilitating
6 illnesses. We also have high rates of teenage pregnancy and a
7 host of other related health problems, including work-related
8 trauma, traffic accident injuries and burns, often requiring
9 expensive life-saving but prolonged and expensive medical care.
10 Aggravating all these issues is our experiencing
11 the impacts of a California-managed health care system run amok.
12 We are witnessing the drain of our physician pool with
13 increasingly difficult challenges. We are replacing our doctors
14 who are retiring. Our government health program payment levels
15 are so inadequate that they often don't even meet the cost of
16 delivering some of the minimal services needed by our citizens
17 who depend upon them.
18 This combination is producing more and more
19 access problems to health care. People often cannot find a
20 specific specialty physician to care for them, either because
21 existing specialists are already solidly booked, or are unable
22 to accept new patients without impacting the care delivered to
23 existing patients. The result is that more and more people turn
24 to the emergency room as their primary source of health care.
25 Such care is not only the most expensive, but is episodic and
26 surely not the most appropriate answer for meeting general
27 health care needs.
28 I point to all these issues because I fear that
55
1 they will only get worse if, somehow in the redistricting
2 process, those ultimately responsible for determining the
3 boundaries do so only with an eye to political considerations
4 aimed at producing political victory.
5 Any process which would redrew the lines to begin
6 permitting some way of intermixing of either Bay Area or Los
7 Angeles spheres of influence into the Central Valley could prove
8 devastating to our area's needs and concerns. Those who know
9 nothing but their large cities and concentrated political power
10 basis understand little or nothing of our problems and life in
11 our agricultural valley. A redistricting process which would
12 somehow permit the urban infiltration of our rural area's life
13 style, character, and uniqueness would be most counter-
14 productive. The last thing this Valley needs, to paraphrase the
15 recent Fresno Bee editorial, is to reduce the clout of our
16 area's representatives by somehow gerrymandering our districts
17 to permit outside powers to take over.
18 I ask you consider these thoughts as you go about
19 your business of developing the boundaries required by our
20 Constitution to provide equal representation to our citizens.
21 Please, don't disenfrancise the Central Valley.
22 Thank you for hearing and receiving my comments.
23 I wish you well in your efforts.
24 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
25 Would the representative from the Visalia Chamber
26 come forward?
27 Mr. OPLINGER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name
28 is Ken Oplinger, O-p-l-i-n-g-e-r. I'm the President and Chief
56
1 Executive Officer of the Visalia Chamber.
2 California's often been described as several
3 states in one. Our state has more diversity in just about
4 every category, from geography to ethnicity, than any other
5 state in the Union. It is a diversity that we constantly
6 portray, especially in our economic development efforts in the
7 business community, as a strength. And I think we do so
8 accurately.
9 Yet for some reason, when it comes to
10 redistricting, there's generally only one thing that dictates
11 where we draw the final lines, and that's our political parties.
12 We seem to overlook the different points of view that are
13 generated from all those other diverse constituencies in the
14 state, assuming that just two political parties can accurately
15 speak to all of these opinions and ensure that they present the
16 future of our state is being decided in the Assembly and the
17 Senate.
18 I disagree with this premise. I believe that we
19 set about creating our representative districts in this
20 representative democracy. We intended to ensure that
21 everyone's opinion was heard, not just the opinions of the two
22 political parties.
23 I'm here to tell you about three constituencies
24 within the Valley, groups that, just like everyone else here
25 today, are not defined by the political parties by their care
26 for their community and their need to have their voices heard.
27 The first is the San Joaquin Valley. While I am
28 not a native of the San Joaquin Valley, having moved here
57
1 three-and-a-half years ago from the Bay Area, my short time here
2 has given me a great appreciation for the needs of this
3 wonderful place. While the community I came from, Fremont, has
4 low unemployment, a diverse economy, easy access to
5 transportation, high wages and high home values, the Valley has
6 few or none of these things.
7 In fact, while seemingly all of California has
8 been basking in the glory of 3 percent unemployment and a
9 wonderful economy, Tulare County, where Visalia is, has gotten
10 just a bit below 12 percent at one point, and we're now back up
11 to over 15 percent unemployment.
12 We have an economy in the Central Valley that for
13 150 years has been based on agriculture. And today, we have
14 among the most productive agricultural lands in the entire
15 world.
16 These and many other issues make the Valley the
17 unique place, a community of interest that needs to have its
18 voice heard in Sacramento.
19 Now, I'm very pleased to tell you that up to this
20 point, we've had wonderful spokespeople from the Valley
21 representing our issues. Senator Poochigian certainly is one of
22 the best spokespeople that we've had. Our current delegation,
23 whether they're Democrats or Republicans, have all provided us
24 excellent service in ensuring that the unique needs of our
25 communities, both agriculture, ethnicity, the diversity of the
26 problems that we have here, that all these issues are discussed
27 in Sacramento, and that unique ways that specifically address
28 our needs are brought back to us to try and solve those
58
1 problems.
2 Since 1992, especially, that group has worked
3 very well. Of course, in 1992, that's when the new districts
4 were put into place that we're currently under, that were set
5 into place by the Special Master.
6 On behalf of the constituency here in the Valley,
7 I would ask that the Legislature keep in mind our special
8 communities of interest, and that it not create districts which
9 water down the ability of the Valley to have its voices heard.
10 Drawing districts that place large portions of the Valley within
11 population centers outside of the Valley will harm the excellent
12 work that has been accomplished by our current Valley
13 delegation, especially over the past decade.
14 The second and third constituencies are Tulare
15 County and the City of Visalia. Tulare County has a population
16 of almost 400,000 people. Together with Kings County to our
17 west, which was carved out of Tulare County just after the turn
18 of the century, we have a half million people in the two-county
19 area. Visalia, with 100,000 people, is the population and
20 commercial center into the oldest city in California between
21 Stockton and Los Angeles, a community that will celebrate its
22 sequescentennial next year.
23 In area is currently carved up between Fresno to
24 the north and Bakersfield to the south, giving us three Assembly
25 districts within the City of Visalia alone. Because we are not
26 a population center in any of these districts, we do not have an
27 elected Member of the Legislature from our area, and have not
28 for sometime.
59
1 While our primary concern is that the San Joaquin
2 Valley maintain its representation, and I emphasize that, I
3 would also like to ask that you take the case of Visalia and
4 ancillary counties to heart as you're looking at redistricting.
5 Where else in the country is there a city of 100,000, and a
6 county of 400,000 that doesn't have representation from its area
7 within the State Legislature?
8 With some of the highest unemployment in the
9 Valley and in the nation, it is important that we have someone
10 based in our community with a full understanding of our
11 community, who can speak on behalf of our community in
12 Sacramento.
13 I started my comments today by telling you about
14 the diverse communities of interest that we have in California.
15 I'm a prime example of this. I'm a native of Arizona. I'm a
16 pro-business Democrat who votes for people based on their
17 ability to represent my interests, and not on the letter after
18 their name. More and more people in this country and in
19 California are doing the same thing. In fact, the membership of
20 political parties continues to decrease, while the population
21 continues to increase. We are no longer interested in your
22 political persuasion, but rather in your ability to represent
23 our interests.
24 I would encourage you to take these issues into
25 account as you work to build the districts for the future. The
26 number of people in a given area who are registered within a
27 party is no longer relevant as you undertake this task. In
28 fact, the winds of change have come so quickly that other parts
60
1 of the country have already looked at other ways of doing what
2 you're doing today.
3 Of course, we recently had an effort -- it was
4 unconstitutional we found out later -- but we recently had an
5 effort through our initiative process to make some changes in
6 this. Our neighbor to the southeast, the State of Arizona,
7 passed an initiative in its November ballot, Proposition 106,
8 which brings together an independent panel to draw districts,
9 taking the parties out of the mix.
10 I would hope it doesn't come to that here, and
11 that the Legislature will prove that after three decades of
12 rather contentious redistricting efforts, they can put together
13 a package that everyone can live with, especially those of us in
14 the Valley.
15 Thank you.
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
17 We have a representative from the Fresno Chamber.
18 MR. BESSELIEVRE: Didn't want to try that name.
19 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Go ahead, tell me how it is.
20 MR. BESSELIEVRE: It's easy, Paul.
21 [Laughter.]
22 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Paul Besselievre. Just as easy
23 to say as "Poochigian".
24 MR. BESSELIEVRE: I'm very glad to be here. I
25 was afraid I was going to be late, but fortunately, preceding
26 speakers paced themselves.
27 [Laughter.]
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: That's one way to look at it.
61
1 MR. BESSELIEVRE: So, I turn out to be at least
2 an hour early.
3 I do appreciate this opportunity. I serve on the
4 Board of the Workforce Investment Board, the United Way,
5 Community Food Bank, the Economic Development Corporation,
6 Convention and Visitors Bureau, and others, I chair the Greater
7 Fresno Area Chamber of Commerce.
8 So, I am here representing business, but I'm also
9 representing a very diverse group, as you can see. The one
10 thing you had to have gleaned from the testimony you've heard is
11 what a unique community we are. Our area has 700,000 people,
12 which is a big city type of situation, but we have a small town
13 atmosphere.
14 We are unique. We have high unemployment, and we
15 have great success. We have a greater -- we have great
16 ethnicity, great diversity, and yet we don't have great
17 diversity in our economy, but we're working real hard on it.
18 We are unique, and we have unique needs. So, all
19 I can say to you is, we need -- we believe in representative
20 government. We need good, strong representative government, and
21 that means we need people from our Valley to represent us.
22 And I can do nothing but ditto my friends who've
23 talked before, and don't care to take any more of your time,
24 except to thank you for hearing me.
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
26 Is Brian Todd here.
27 MR. TODD: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members
28 of the committee, Senator Poochigian.
62
1 My name is Brian Todd. I represent the Building
2 Industry Association of Kern County. We're the southern-most
3 valley chapter of the California Building Industry Association
4 and National Association of Home Builders. We represent builder
5 members in Kern County that build an average currently of 2,000
6 single-family homes per year.
7 I appreciate the opportunity to comment briefly
8 today on why we believe that Kern County should be treated as a
9 separate community of interest from Los Angeles. First of all,
10 the obvious boundary is the Grape Vine, which geographically
11 divides us from the Los Angeles region.
12 Second is Kern's delicate balance economically
13 between construction, agriculture, natural resources and energy,
14 manufacturing and distribution of goods. We grow many, many
15 important agricultural products in Kern County. We also have
16 oil and natural gas deposits which are invaluable, particularly
17 now during the energy crisis.
18 Additionally, Kern is ideally situated between
19 the Bay Area and Southern California, making it a great
20 distribution center for some of the world's largest companies.
21 While many of these goods are used by Southern California, these
22 businesses are not the hub of the Los Angeles business
23 community.
24 While Kern County continues to grow, we remain
25 affordable for the average family. Kern County ranks fourth
26 among 47 western cities in housing affordability. There's a
27 high awareness in our county of the critical link between
28 affordable housing and economic development. These types of
63
1 options are simply not the same as they are in Southern
2 California, because land is scarce, and the high cost of
3 acquiring and developing that land.
4 The differences between Los Angeles and Kern
5 County are clear to us. We are separated by geography. We are
6 separated by lifestyles, culture, and the issues that effect our
7 communities.
8 Unfortunately in the past, we have been lumped
9 together in Congressional districts and legislative districts,
10 causing Kern County to have less say in the legislative process,
11 because our legislators had to serve two diverse communities
12 within their districts.
13 So, I respectfully call upon your Committee to
14 recognize and keep Kern County as a community of its own.
15 Should we be combined with other regions, we ask that it be
16 here, with our neighbors to the north with whom we have much in
17 common.
18 Thank you.
19 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
20 Scott Hunter.
21 MR. HUNTER: Thank you for the opportunity to
22 come here. I will mirror many of the same issues which were
23 spoken earlier and done so very eloquently.
24 I represent the Merced County Farm Bureau as the
25 Vice President. I'm also a member of the California Almond
26 Board of Directors. I come here today to talk a little bit
27 about agriculture and agricultural needs of Merced County.
28 I just want to make it clear first that
64
1 agriculture just isn't about agriculture. Many times we think
2 that we just need to worry about our farming practices. But we
3 are very aware of the fact that in Merced County, we are a very
4 diverse county. We also are faced with very many economic
5 problems in our area.
6 Merced County is one of the poorest counties not
7 only in California but the United States. Merced County is a
8 covered district, like Kings, Monterey, and Yuba, and according
9 to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, changing the demographics
10 of a specific district is prohibited in a way that would
11 minimize the voting strength of any racial group.
12 We, as agriculturalists, are very aware of the
13 plight of many of the minority groups in our area. We rely on
14 them for labor, and they rely on us for economic support.
15 Merced County is also very unique in that we are
16 facing a land-use crisis. With the loss of Castle Air Force
17 Base, a new prison, U.C. Merced, and a community which follows
18 agriculture, Merced is faced with many land-use issues which are
19 going to put very many hardships on farmers in the area.
20 It is our hope that we will have representation
21 which can balance both growth and agriculture, understanding
22 that extreme needs for social services, prisons, as well as
23 education. Because the U.C. Merced campus itself is going to
24 serve children and students of the Valley, we feel that we
25 should be represented by people from the Valley.
26 Agriculture hopes that policy will dictate and
27 not politics. We have heard many different things that, because
28 of the current makeup of the Assembly and Senate, that the
65
1 Valley districts will be divided up in such a way that will
2 reflect politics and not policy.
3 We hope that we can keep Valley representation to
4 ensure the sustainability of agriculture, the need of diversity
5 of our district, and mix that with the economic growth which we
6 need in Merced County.
7 Thank you.
8 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
9 Is Jerry Martin here?
10 There were a number of representatives from
11 MALDEF who are here. Rather than deciding what order you might
12 want to come in, why don't you decide among yourselves, if you
13 would, and just come on up in any order that you'd like. Come
14 to the table, if you like, at least four or five of you.
15 Who'd like to be first? You're standing there,
16 so you get to go first.
17 MR. BENAVIDEZ: Mr. Chair, Richard, how you
18 been? That's not Debra, is it? Yes. She's changed.
19 SENATOR ORTIZ: What does that mean?
20 [Laughter.]
21 CHAIRMAN PERATA: She's a Senator now.
22 MR. BENAVIDEZ: Ben Benavidez, past National
23 President of the Mexican American Political Association.
24 I had a stroke two years ago, and I wish I had my
25 strong voice. When I talk to politicians, I wish I had a
26 stronger voice, because you guys are the ones that make us or
27 break us in the Valley.
28 I'm glad Chuck's up there. I'm definitely real
66
1 glad that Sarah Reyes and Dean are up there. Now, it took a lot
2 to get Dean and Sarah Reyes there. Before them, there was no
3 Latino north of the Tehachapis, no one whatsoever. Now, they're
4 there, now you're hearing our plea.
5 Our plea is, towns like Porterville should be
6 attached to Latino districts in the Senate and the Assembly.
7 They're sitting there by themselves.
8 But what's more important, I hope that you
9 understand when Ms. Reyes and Mr. Florez speak, we still have
10 major, major problems in this Valley, and that has to do with
11 our representation at city, county, and the state and federal
12 level. When you see our negative statistics, we're not at 5
13 percent; we're at 25, in some towns 35 percent across the board.
14 And what representative do we have to allow all
15 those prisons to be built in this Valley? That to me is
16 something that has to be looked at, and those politicians should
17 be hung.
18 Number two, Sarah Reyes just said something two
19 weeks ago at the Vallejo Health Forum which the politicians --
20 she said, we're the western Appalachia. We are the heartland of
21 oppression. We're very oppressed in this Valley in education,
22 in agriculture, and economics.
23 All four of you, if you want to, you could drive
24 with me tomorrow and not talk to a Farm Bureau, but go to my
25 town and my carronia. That's what we need.
26 Latinos have grown, but that they've grown
27 doesn't mean anything unless we have representation. We do have
28 several states. A man mentioned we had several states. We've
67
1 got L.A., we've got Frisco, and the forgotten land of the
2 Central Valley.
3 What I mean by that, Chuck, is this. I know
4 you're a Senate Republican and your interest, but Latinos truly
5 have not been, and African American, and of course the Hmongs
6 have not been represented for that long, maybe the last two
7 years. But that's why we're so behind.
8 If you separate our Valley from the state, we're
9 the 24th largest state in the Union. There are states in the
10 Union that have U.S. Senators. We don't have a U.S. Senator.
11 Yet, we're the 21st largest state in the United States, the
12 richest agriculture.
13 And us Latinos have grown, and we're going to
14 tell you now, I used to boycott anybody that wouldn't give us
15 our fair share or a piece of the pie. We made our districts by
16 that way because nobody ever listened to us.
17 But what's important now is this. Latinos, sir,
18 built the infrastructure of this Valley. They built the
19 infrastructure. My grandmother, Sarah Chavez, and you know
20 that. So, I know you know that. Give it back to us, our piece
21 of the pie, the American dream that my grandmother fought for,
22 Chavez fought for, and other people in the past have fought for.
23 And no need to play politics with districts. You
24 have a lot of Latinos, especially 40 percent of the kids in
25 poverty. If you don't look at that, then there is something
26 wrong with you.
27 Thank you.
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
68
1 Next speaker.
2 MR. MURILLO: Mr. Chairperson, distinguished and
3 honorable Senators, as the architects of the political structure
4 of California --
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Please identify yourself for
6 the record.
7 MR. MURILLO: I'm Joel Murillo.
8 As the architects of the political structure of
9 California, you are charged with an awesome duty of drawing up
10 the plans for the generations to come.
11 I brought my children here today so that you can
12 see whom you will affect. Of course, you know this, but nothing
13 is better than to have a visual aid.
14 I have had great mentors, people who took to
15 heart my upbringing: Ted Baxter, Pete Mehas, Bondanyos
16 Montanez. Many great people were there to help me.
17 Germane to my testimony today are several facts.
18 I'm on the Board of Directors of numerous charities, including
19 the Pavorelo House, which was designated one of the 1,000 points
20 of light by President George Bush. We serve over a thousand
21 meals a day, have clinics for medical and dental, give out
22 clothing. Without questions asked, we support people's lives.
23 I sit on the Board of Directors of Catholic
24 Charities of the Roman Diocese of Fresno.
25 We have the largest prison population in the
26 world, and I'm here to tell you, Three Strikes and You're Out
27 worked. People were taken off of the streets who were evil,
28 were destroying our society. But at the same time, other people
69
1 who were not doing so were dragged into that net. Most of them
2 were people of color.
3 We have the largest prison population in the
4 world who will soon be exiting those walls and coming into
5 California, where your children and my children, my family, your
6 family, reside.
7 What are we going to do about them? Do we have
8 people in the Legislatures who are even interested about that?
9 I don't see that we're doing as much as we ought to, but I know
10 you are struggling very hard with very complex issues. That one
11 is a very important one.
12 I sit on the Board of Directors of the Community
13 Science Foundations from the National Science Foundation. We
14 provide science to students who are so poor they cannot afford
15 shoes, whose parents cannot afford daycare for them. But yet,
16 they come to us, and we teach them how to use electronic
17 devices, how to make inventions, how to look at mathematics in a
18 practical way.
19 These charities are taking up the slack of our
20 government. This is important. We ought to do that.
21 Forty-two percent of the population in this
22 great San Joaquin Valley is of a very poor but very beautiful
23 people, Latinos. And yet, it was only because of the efforts
24 that we made in '90, '91 and '92 that we finally had our own
25 representation in your bodies. Our bodies, the government of
26 California. Cruz Bustamante served very well, and we are very
27 happy for his success and for what he has done for all of
28 California.
70
1 It's been mentioned, Sarah Reyes and Dean Florez
2 have followed that a trailblazer.
3 But we need more people there. Just like the
4 mentors that I had, those people are mentors for others. I have
5 mentored 16 students who've come through my law offices and gone
6 on to law schools: U.C.L.A., U.C. Davis, U.C. Berkeley, Boalt
7 Hall, U.S.C., Loyola, Stanford, University of Michigan, Duke,
8 Harvard, and many other law schools. It has taken people from
9 the streets, put them in schools of higher learning.
10 Mentors are important. You are mentors, whether
11 you know it or not. You represent the highest level of
12 mentorship. I see your Senate fellowships. I give them to
13 kids. It's a dream for them, for only the best and the
14 brightest get to see you all, get to rub elbows with you.
15 As the Sergeant of Arms of the California State
16 Bar Association, I look at the Sergeant at Arms that you have
17 here to protect you, and I only see one Hispanic. But it is
18 good that we have these people here to bring order to our
19 society, as you do, too.
20 What we need in California, what we want in
21 California, is for all people to be represented justly. I would
22 like to see an additional Senatorial district and two Assembly;
23 districts where Latinos have not only an important voice, but a
24 fair chance of electing other Latinos.
25 What a hard and difficult task you have.
26 Architecture is not easy. You must draw those lines, been
27 effective.
28 May God be with you.
71
1 This is my speech, what my daughter drew for me
2 today. This represents California. My daughter, Christina, my
3 son, Michael. I adopted them. This man helped me. He's their
4 mentor.
5 How many mentors are there up there? All you.
6 Do your job well.
7 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
8 MR. GUTIERREZ: [Speaking in Spanish, and then
9 translating into English.] Good afternoon, everyone. I am
10 Guadalupe Gutierrez, MAPA Regional Director, Mexican American
11 Political Association.
12 I'm here with you this evening to speak to you
13 about the representation of our Chicano youth of the community
14 and the area that we are here in.
15 It is important that you understand that the
16 decisions that you make affect each and every one of us. You
17 can either pull things together, or you can destroy things. It
18 is important that you represent everybody in the community, make
19 sure that everybody's represented; it's not only one culture.
20 There's been times when we come and speak, and we're not able to
21 say what has to be said.
22 Today in this hearing we're able to say what
23 needs to be said. Whenever there's problems throughout the
24 communities, it has a lot to do with you. That's why I ask you
25 to back up every culture, every community, and everyone and
26 every area: the Willie Velasquez Institute, Mexican American
27 Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF.
28 I'm in favor with what's going on with the Willie
72
1 C. Velasquez Institute, the Mexican American Legal Defense
2 Educational Fund, MALDEF, and we are here to back it up as
3 strong as we can and as much as we can.
4 Thank you.
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
6 MR. MUHAMMAD: Greetings. My name is Larry
7 Rasheed Muhammad. I am President of the African American
8 Political Association.
9 I am a general engineering and building
10 contractor, and I'm currently owner of Credit World Mortgage
11 Company. I am the Chair of Concerned Citizens for Quality
12 Education.
13 As I came here today to speak on the
14 redistricting, which is very, very, very important, I was
15 listening to the testimony of those from the Chamber of
16 Commerce, and those from the Building Industry, in comparison to
17 those from the Hispanic community for those who came before me.
18 And I listened to the different testimony.
19 One group came and thanked you for the good work
20 that you have done, and the others pleaded for mercy, pleaded
21 for understanding of the conditions that's affecting them
22 drastically.
23 One thing that I can say is, we talked about
24 education. Let's start with grade school, with an open mind as
25 to what education is, in comparison to what it really is in the
26 communities by which the Hispanic people actually stood up here
27 and spoke. Keep in mind that the only thing that separates man
28 from beast is knowledge. So, when you see a young child who
73
1 takes a gun and shoots his mother through the eyes with it,
2 there's something there that we have to take a look at, because
3 a beast is a predator that preys on something that is weaker
4 than they are.
5 Knowledge feeds the development of human beings
6 so that person can grow into bioscience, become an engineer,
7 become a doctor of science, heart and organ transplantor.
8 Education is the tool that properly cultivates the gifts and
9 talent that God has deposited in all of us.
10 When a person or a community is neglected by
11 accident or deprived by purpose of education, you have actually
12 taken the tool that qualifies him, that actually civilizes him.
13 So, that person or that community now becomes a savage, and it
14 justifies in the minds of the community to put their money in
15 law enforcement.
16 And law enforcement doesn't do anything except
17 suppress the reality. So then, you end up with these jail
18 houses and prisons, and you start housing many people to get
19 them out of your way.
20 I can feel the hurt of the Hispanic community
21 because many of them don't speak the English language the way we
22 do. And I can see that, because I remember how we migrated into
23 southwest Fresno in the early '60s, when the German Americans
24 and the Italian Americans abandoned that area and moved further
25 north. We felt that we had accomplished something, because we
26 began to see us coming together.
27 What we did not know is, there was lines drawn,
28 the invisible lines, that made us seem inclusive in numbers, but
74
1 actually exclude us in benefits. So, we were never benefactors,
2 so our community began to suffer. And our communities are
3 continuing to suffer. Now they're on their death bed in dying
4 need of new guidance and new direction.
5 This is because people, like yourselves, who make
6 decisions in the dark. You don't listen to the people who
7 actually live with the decisions that you make. We end up
8 listening to those in relationship to us, which could be the
9 bankers, the building industries, the organized unions or
10 organized labor.
11 The fact is, no state is better than a deprived
12 and neglected, the disadvantaged or the disenfranchised people
13 that live in that state. Eventually, you'll have to deal with
14 the people that live in the state, in the communities.
15 Our schools, Edison, produced stars in the '60s
16 and the '50s. But today, it's producing jailbirds. There's a
17 reason because there's no proper representation for African
18 Americans, there is no representation for the Hmong Americans,
19 there's no representation for Hispanic Americans.
20 Hispanics sometimes believe that if they put a
21 Hispanic person on the board, that got it made. Not necessarily
22 true, because sometimes the Hispanic that's sitting on the board
23 works so hard against them, trying to prove that they are
24 righteous and balanced and among their peers. So, they suffer
25 again, and we suffer again.
26 So, I ask you, as you make the decision, take a
27 look at inclusive. Today I'm here because of the Mexican
28 American Legal Defense Fund. They included us, so we
75
1 benefitted.
2 When we came into southwest Fresno, we felt
3 inclusive. We felt like we were going to benefit. The reason
4 that the African American Political Association exists today is
5 on the footnote and on the back skirts of MAPA, the Mexican
6 American Political Association, and Ben Benavidez. By including
7 us, we benefit.
8 And when a person benefits, not taking something
9 from the person that includes, everyone benefits.
10 So please, take a good look at your
11 redistricting.
12 Thank you.
13 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
14 Next speaker.
15 MS. REYES: Hello. My name is Margarita K.
16 Reyes.
17 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is with
18 honor that I take part in today's hearing.
19 I'm currently employed with a local agency as a
20 mental health case manager for homeless, mentally ill
21 individuals in Fresno, and I'm an administrator of the Central
22 California School of Law, as well as our political liaison.
23 I am a proud member of various organizations. To
24 name a few, I am the representative for Central California
25 College School of Law for the 28-member Independent Law School
26 Association. I'm a member of the Mexican American Political
27 Association, and the Tonia Middle School Parent-Teacher
28 Association.
76
1 I was born in Fresno; however, I spent a lot of
2 time of my youth on the east coast and traveling throughout the
3 United States, as my father is one of the initial members of the
4 United Farm Workers Union, and was selected to -- I was the
5 organizer selected to take the first nationwide -- the first
6 boycott on a nationwide level.
7 I'm here today as part of the MALDEF and the
8 Willie Velasquez Institute contingency.
9 I would like to take the opportunity today to
10 urge our elected officials to not overlook the often forgotten,
11 to validate those often ignored, and to do right by those so
12 often who have been done wrong, and to make up our population --
13 and to make up our population as defined for redistricting
14 purposes as defined by the United States Constitution.
15 Allow me to remind you that our population is not
16 made up of merely those with money or who ask to vote. We are a
17 population made up of many needs, but with equal number of
18 talents, and hopes, and dreams awaiting to emerge.
19 For those who are not understanding me, allow me
20 to elaborate. We're talking about the poor, the rural farm
21 workers, the elderly without health care, for those who wish to
22 have an education, and to be able to have their tummies full
23 when they get to school and have an education.
24 As elected officials, we are to entrust to you
25 our representation and our voice in politics. However, through
26 experience and education, we have learned that we must take a
27 hands-on approach along side you to ensure that we are being
28 represented accurately, and that our voice is being heard loud
77
1 and clear.
2 Today we put you on notice that we will not
3 tolerate any less, that we are prepared to work in a cooperative
4 effort with you. In the near future, you will be presented with
5 an array of redistricting plans and recommendations. We ask
6 that the redistricting process and the ultimate plan adhere to
7 the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We ask that no blatant or not so
8 blatant maneuvers be allowed to infiltrate the process and
9 manipulate the true purpose of redistricting.
10 I cannot imagine anyone here today ignorant to
11 the fact that each member of the population is a person, as
12 recognized by the Constitution, but more importantly, is a
13 person by their birth right, and therefore is entitled to proper
14 political representation.
15 To not acknowledge an individual's needs,
16 contributions, and more importantly, their potential, merely for
17 self-gain is a ludicrous gamble, because I do believe, as I once
18 read in the Good Book, we are not among those who draw back and
19 perish, but among those who have faith.
20 By excluding any segment of the population by
21 failing to ensure an effective vote, or by failing to remain
22 faithful to the cause of drawing district lines honestly, and
23 thus ensuring all individuals access to needed resources, such
24 as proper health care, safe neighborhoods, adequate housing,
25 good schools and the like, then you are more importantly
26 failing to ensure what this nation professes to be made of,
27 individuals who embrace diversity and are dedicated to helping
28 others.
78
1 We ask that you keep districts with same
2 interests intact and build towards same. We urge you to work
3 hard, to keep an open mind, and to be honest during the
4 redistricting process.
5 We also wish you well in your efforts, and remind
6 you that we are here.
7 Thank you.
8 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
9 MS. VASQUEZ-CAMACHO: Good afternoon, honorable
10 members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you
11 today.
12 My name Is Eva Vasquez-Camacho. I'm a Kern
13 County resident. I reside in Bakersfield, grew up in Delano.
14 I wanted to come here today to share with you a
15 little bit of my experience. I currently work for a county
16 supervisor, but I've been involved in a number of different
17 campaigns, the most important of which was the Census Campaign.
18 I directed the Census Campaign in Kern County.
19 So, I'm a firm believer that every person counts,
20 and so I think this is just a natural next step, that every
21 person's vote should also count.
22 I also worked on a number of different, you know,
23 propositional campaigns. I'm a very active member of the
24 community cultural organizations, such as the Kern County Youth
25 Mariachi Foundation, which raises money for an after-school
26 program to teach kids music, keep them in school.
27 I'm a board member of the National Farm Worker
28 Service Center, which is a housing, economic development
79
1 organization. I serve on a state task force to ensure that
2 there's adequate health care in underserved areas that are
3 culturally and linguistically sensitive.
4 I'm on the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I ran a
5 law firm for about five years. So, I mean, I want to give you
6 an idea of who I am, because I know I come from a diverse
7 community.
8 You've heard today that Kern County is diverse,
9 and it is. Kern County's a great place to live. It's ag.
10 based. You've heard today that farmers married farm workers in
11 this community, and that both have contributed to making Kern
12 County what it is today, which is one of the wealthiest and most
13 influential ag. communities in the United States.
14 We share in this legacy, but I think I would be
15 remiss not to point out that some of us show a little bit more
16 than others. I've been out there a lot, and I want to be your
17 eyes and ears in the community of Kern County to help in
18 whatever decision you need to make to ensure that everybody in
19 Kern County and the Central Valley has adequate representation
20 in the Senate and in the Assembly.
21 To ensure that all who participate receive
22 adequate representation and opportunity to elect people who will
23 hear their voice and address their needs, I'd like to urge you
24 to keep communities of interest together, to look at economic
25 indicators.
26 In my experience, I've found that it's been those
27 things that are most telling of what people's needs are: income
28 levels; education levels; housing situation, whether they rent
80
1 or they own. During the Census as well as my other experiences,
2 that's the one thing that struck out to me, that whether it be
3 in Oilvale, which is a primarily white community, or in
4 Lamont-Arvin, Delano, or MacFarland, it was generally --
5 people's economic needs, you know, the need for employment, the
6 need for adequate housing, the need for adequate child care,
7 that brought them together.
8 When you consider -- when you consider
9 communities of interest, look at those things, as well as the
10 cultural, ethnic, and economic profiles of the communities. And
11 I urge you keep them, you know, together. It's only by being
12 kept together that we will, as a community, be able to move
13 forward together, to have a voice and represent people that are
14 going to be able to meet our needs.
15 Thank you for your time today.
16 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
17 MR. VELASQUEZ: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman,
18 members of the Committee, my good friend Richard, good friend
19 Chuck, been around for a while. His hair's not getting as gray
20 as mine as quickly.
21 In any event, my name is Ernest Velasquez.
22 CHAIRMAN PERATA: But you have more.
23 MR. VELASQUEZ: My name is Ernest Velasquez.
24 That's V-e-l-a-s-q-u-e-z. I am the Diocesan Director of Catholic
25 Charities for the Diocese of Fresno, which includes the Counties
26 of Mariposa, Fresno, Merced, Madera, Kings, Tulare, Kern and
27 Inyo, the whole Central Valley.
28 Last year, this agency provided multiple
81
1 services, social services, to over 150,000 individuals
2 throughout our region. Of course, we provided without regard to
3 religious affiliation or identification.
4 I have lived in Fresno now for 25 years and was
5 appointed the Director of Catholic Charities two-and-a-half
6 years ago. Before this job, I served as Director of Social
7 Services for Fresno County for over 8 years, and I started my
8 career in East Los Angeles, Memorial Heights to be exact, back
9 in 1967.
10 In short, I'm a career social worker turned
11 administrator, for better or for worse.
12 I am a member of the Catholic Charities Board of
13 Directors, Catholic Charities of California Board of Directors,
14 member of Catholic Charities U.S.A., an active member National
15 Council of La Raza, National Association of Social Workers and
16 Administrators, member of MAPA, Ambassador to -- for Higher
17 Education from the CSU system. And of course, a former member,
18 board member of the County Welfare Directors Association of
19 California.
20 Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, my
21 testimony here today is not to present specific recommendations
22 on reshaping the districts, but rather on the general and
23 broader set of principles governing the shifting of boundaries,
24 and the impact of these changes upon our communities.
25 One of these principles is clearly is the
26 application of social justice. And while I'm speaking on behalf
27 of Catholic Charities, let me just state that justice really
28 differs from charity. Justice flows not from benevolence but
82
1 from what is due to a person because of his or her moral worth
2 as a human. Many in our society define justice as mere social
3 contracts, as embodied in legal agreements or fair wages for a
4 day's work. But it is much more than just mere communitive
5 justice, though, to be sure, Catholic Charities embraces this
6 notion.
7 Catholic social teaching subordinates the
8 communitive justice to a much larger sense of the common good,
9 and competent, distributive justice, social justice, and justice
10 as participation.
11 Distributive justice refers to fair allocation of
12 public goods. Generally we think of public goods as shared
13 goods: the environment, political participation, legal justice,
14 access to cultural education resources. All public goods share
15 two criteria. Society cannot flourish unless the good is widely
16 distributed, and human dignity cannot be achieved without
17 minimal access to the good.
18 But the primary problem with restricting the
19 definition of justice to communitive justice is that it
20 privatizes public goods. While work and marriage are legitimate
21 criteria for the Catholic principle distributive justice, they
22 are not the only criteria. Need is equally legitimate.
23 Otherwise, what claims would those who cannot work have on any
24 portion of our national wealth?
25 Distributive justice looks to fair distribution
26 of all goods necessary for a flourishing society. In that
27 sense, Catholic social teaching says it believes in private
28 property, but only when it's widely distributed.
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1 Social justice in the Catholic meaning accepts
2 that social institutions and social policies are needed to
3 ensure the fair distribution of certain public goods, such as
4 affordable housing, transportation, health, and education.
5 Catholic Charities encourages institutions to
6 promote acces to the political process and to the information
7 needed for informed consent.
8 Advocacy, a critical component of Catholic social
9 justice, appeals to reform of institutions so that they may be
10 more just and supportive of basic needs for those who are less
11 advantaged.
12 Finally, Catholic social teaching holds that
13 there is a radical democratic potential in the notion of justice
14 in participation. In its Encyclical on Human Worth, Pope John
15 Paul the Second stated that work was a way of participating in
16 the project of society. To be deprived of work is an injustice.
17 Even if an institution provides basic food and shelter,
18 ultimately so human dignity can flourish in society demand both
19 subsistence and an active contribution to public discussion.
20 Justice is many sided and analogous. There are
21 individuals and privatized elements to it, but these are
22 subordinate to a more public and institutional reality. Justice
23 refers to the necessary prerequisites for human dignity, both
24 subsistence and in personal dignity.
25 My point here, Mr. Chairman and members of the
26 Committee, is that the Legislature must keep social justice and
27 its application paramount in your thoughts as you deliberate
28 these required changes.
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1 In conclusion, we urge that the Committee enforce
2 the Voting Rights Act. Consider our testimony when you reshape
3 the boundaries, and respect our input. Also respect our
4 communities and the communities of interest that exist within
5 our region, and do not split them into multiple, and what would
6 appear to some of us, illogical districts.
7 Thank you for allowing me to participate in an
8 extremely important democratic process. I appreciate you coming
9 and visiting us, and look forward to further --
10 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Excuse me, Senator Poochigian
11 has a question for you.
12 SENATOR POOCHIGIAN: Ernie, thank you very much
13 for your remarks. It's very helpful.
14 Could you just spend a moment, or just respond to
15 this question, because you've talked about it. You talked about
16 justice, and you also closed with reference to the communities
17 of interest.
18 Can you tell us if your remarks go to the issues
19 of the roughly geographic boundaries of the Central Valley, San
20 Joaquin Valley? Is that what you're saying?
21 MR. VELASQUEZ: Clearly, my remarks address that,
22 I think.
23 It also addresses the issue of communities that
24 must be, somehow, kept together because of the common interest.
25 But yeah, clearly that's an issue that's part of
26 my remarks.
27 SENATOR POOCHIGIAN: Thank you.
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
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1 MR. VELASQUEZ: You're welcome.
2 MS. TORRES-MEDINA: Mr. Chairman, members of the
3 Committee, thank you for having me and allowing me to speak
4 today. My name is Gloria Torres-Medina, and I'm from the Madera
5 -- I live in the Madera community.
6 I would like to state my support for the broader
7 principles that have been articulated. Do not divide our
8 community or dilute our votes. Respect the communities of
9 interest that exist in Madera and consider it when you redraw
10 the district lines.
11 My background is, I'm an accountant in Madera and
12 a member of the California Society of CPAs. I have been a past
13 board member of CDOC, representing the Madera area, and past
14 board member of the Madera Coalition.
15 I also am a part-time teacher at the Madera
16 Center College, and I live in Madera. Older members of my
17 family used to work in the Madera lumber mill when it was
18 running, way back when.
19 My children went to school in Madera, and now my
20 grandchild will soon be attending.
21 I also am a community advocate and was involved
22 with housing and transportation issues, which, by the way, was
23 instrumental in bringing the Madera Bus Max into town. I was
24 involved in the '80s with the farm labor camp ministry from St.
25 Joachim's Church. Presently, I'm a CCD Sunday School teacher
26 with St. Joachim's Church. I volunteer because I saw the need
27 for the Sunday School child care center at the church during the
28 noon Hispanic mass, especially during the summer harvest season,
86
1 and others also that have become involved in volunteering their
2 time.
3 In regarding due respect, our Madera community,
4 the Madera downtown city community is very different from the
5 eastern area of Madera. The town folks, the people, are 70
6 percent minority, or maybe even higher. Many are farm workers,
7 low income. Many are also single head of household. Many of
8 the city residents live in town because they lack their own
9 transportation and need to be near the church and store
10 locations, government facilities, and medical clinics. To work,
11 we have the Ridero Program, which takes them to work.
12 This area has no commonality with District 25.
13 No part of the City of Madera should be included with District
14 25. The difference is as night and day. Madera City would
15 have more commonality with Sarah Reyes' district or the Dean
16 Florez district.
17 In restating, I ask that you not divide our
18 community. Respect our communities that exist, and consider it
19 when you redraw the district lines.
20 Thank you.
21 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
22 SENATOR ORTIZ: Quick question.
23 Where is District 25? Is that Assembly District
24 25?
25 MS. TORRES-MEDINA: That's the Madera.
26 SENATOR ORTIZ: Who is the Assemblyperson?
27 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Dave Cogdill.
28 SENATOR ORTIZ: A new one, okay. Thank you.
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1 SENATOR POOCHIGIAN: It's the former George House
2 district.
3 MS. TORRES-MEDINA: I have to read the newspaper
4 every time I want to know.
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: That's okay. With term limits,
6 we don't know who's there. It's fine. You're not alone.
7 Thank you very much.
8 MR. MOY: Mr. Chairman, honorable members of the
9 Committee, my name is Baldwin Moy. I'm here as a concerned
10 citizen of Madera.
11 I'm also involved with a grassroots organization
12 that Ms. Medina referred to, the Madera Coalition for Community
13 Justice. It's a grassroots organization that works with
14 low-income families, and works with farm workers. Over the past
15 three years, it has worked on the Citizenship Campaign, the
16 Census Campaign. Most recently, the Voter Registration Campaign
17 in Madera, and presently is working with MALDEF and the William
18 Velasquez Institute on redistricting.
19 In my other life, I'm also employed as an
20 attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance. Most of you are
21 aware that CRLA is the statewide farm workers' legal services.
22 In that capacity, I have worked with -- I've worked in Madera
23 for the past 11 years, generally with low-income families, but
24 more specifically with farm worker families.
25 In 11 years that I have been in Madera, the town
26 has grown from 26,000 to 46,000. Approximately 67 percent of
27 the town are Hispanics, and 30 percent -- over 30 percent of the
28 population falls below the federal poverty level.
88
1 I won't go through the statistics regarding
2 Madera that we are painfully aware of, but we all know that
3 Madera is one of the fastest growing towns in the Central
4 Valley. It also ranks at the bottom economically, and it has
5 one of the highest unemployment levels, even by Central Valley
6 standards.
7 In that regard, Madera really enjoys a community
8 of interest with Merced to the north, and Fresno to the south,
9 as it relates to issues of housing, education, labor, crime and
10 social issues.
11 Madera's one of those insular communities that
12 keeps cropping up in the Central Valley. It's one of the
13 communities that are very poor, that's comprised overwhelmingly
14 of minorities. And it's one of those communities that are
15 constantly ignored in the Central Valley.
16 There's no rhyme or reason to include Madera in
17 District 25. It shares no commonalities with any part of
18 District 25. The only reason to include Madera in District 25,
19 any part of the metropolitan area of Madera in District 25 is if
20 you consider Madera as a throw-away community, as a community
21 that this Committee doesn't have to account for.
22 Madera would argue differently. We would argue
23 that certainly we have a place and we have a role to play in the
24 political process. There's a power vacuum in Madera County.
25 This Committee can implement inclusion by keeping it intact, by
26 keeping all of Madara intact, first and foremost, but also by
27 ensuring that no part of Madera be included in District 25.
28 Let me close by indicating that I wholeheartedly
89
1 endorse the overarching principles that have been put forth by
2 both MALDEF and the William Velasquez Institute.
3 Thank you.
4 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
5 SENATOR POLANCO: Would you clarify the county
6 and the city that you were referencing?
7 MR. MOY: I live in the City of Madera. We're
8 talking about the County of Madera.
9 Madera, as you probably know, the lines are drawn
10 kind of funny. It kind of weaves in and out of the City and
11 County of Madera.
12 But I'm referring to, first and foremost, the
13 City of Madera, but also the metropolitan area of Madera.
14 SENATOR ORTIZ: But it is Madera County?
15 MR. MOY: It is Madera County.
16 SENATOR ORTIZ: What's the population of Madera
17 County?
18 MR. MOY: Madera County at this point, I believe,
19 is approximately 130,000. The City of Madera is 46,000.
20 SENATOR ORTIZ: 130 and 46, okay. Thanks.
21 MR. MOY: Thank you.
22 MS. DIAZ: Good afternoon. My name is Monica
23 Diaz, D-i-a-z. And I am the Controller of Finances for Catholic
24 Charities.
25 And I would like to thank the William Velasquez
26 Institute and MALDEF for including me. As of last night, I
27 didn't think I was going to be able to really stand here and say
28 much of anything. Of course, some event of last night changed
90
1 my mind. That's when I was sitting at the table, discussing
2 this event with my children.
3 And I'm also on behalf of my children I am here.
4 I would like to read something to you that they put together for
5 me. And it says, "The political structure of California was
6 enhanced by inclusion of Latinos in our governance during the
7 last decade and today. This was a direct result of familiar
8 efforts in which we are today involved. Forty-two percent of
9 our population is Latino. Therefore, representation in
10 California must reflect this fact. To do less is an injustice.
11 To do so is injustice."
12 I would like for you to think back, please, and
13 take a moment. I would like to tell you a little bit of who I
14 am.
15 I could tell you many organizations that I belong
16 to, and perhaps I will be serving on some of their boards. But
17 the most important one, I think, is the fact that I am my kids'
18 mom. I was a very young single mom. I have -- my oldest son is
19 at Fresno State. The other one just got accepted to UC
20 Berkeley. The other one will be graduating perhaps in a year.
21 And the other one is still in elementary.
22 I would like to let you know how important it is
23 for you guys that are out there representing some of us in the
24 community, how much more role models we need out there. You
25 guys are the people that I'm hoping that my children will look
26 up to and will want to be there, where you are.
27 Thank you.
28 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you. Lucky kids.
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1 MS. DE SOTO: I'm sorry I'm late, thank you.
2 My name is Carolina De Soto. I had to come in
3 today. I've lived here in the community of Fresno for over
4 seven years now. I am a very involved member of this community
5 and have become a very strong advocate for health issues, but
6 especially the interest in improving affordable and accessible
7 health care to all, for every child and every adult.
8 My professional background is in business
9 administration and international relations, and I have worked
10 for Spain, Mexico, Russia, Argentina, and other countries. I
11 have a very broad knowledge base in understanding the economic
12 development and the impact it has on communities and families.
13 Since my arrival to the Central Valley in 1993, I
14 have not only become a United States citizen, but have served on
15 a number of boards, committees, and councils. Of course, I've
16 connected myself with such associations as Desjuvi International
17 Trade, a co-founder of California Latina Leaders in Action, and
18 especially on the Central California Breast Cancer Partnership
19 at the state level, at the national, and locally.
20 I came to be the state -- the former State
21 Director of the National Women's Political Caucus in California,
22 and also on the Board of the national.
23 My women issues in particular is breast cancer.
24 Well, you see, I am a breast cancer survivor, and I know that
25 lack of services existed to women in California, and especially
26 in the Central Valley. It's been surprising for me to see the
27 needs have barriers that so many our families face on a daily
28 basis in just trying to stay healthy. This I have seen in other
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1 countries considered like Third World countries.
2 I have put together this manuscript for you that
3 will be given and to all the board, but I also have some access
4 of the quality health that I am trying to speak to you on the
5 rural clinics accessibility, like meaning transportation.
6 Affordable and comprehensive, affordable health care provided to
7 all.
8 I could sum up and dare say the language barrier,
9 communicating to the health provider, the school administrators,
10 and most of all, to voice our needs to our elected officials who
11 represent us. Fresno County has the largest rate versus the
12 State of California as follows: Children living in poverty,
13 Fresno County 32 percent, the state, 18 percent; unemployment,
14 14 percent, the state, 7 percent, and a lot of other data that I
15 put in here.
16 The point with all of this medical statistics for
17 the Fresno County is that we have a lot of problems that need to
18 be addressed, and therefore, we need representation from the
19 elected officials who are connected enough with the community to
20 help make the right decision to improve the health conditions in
21 our county.
22 Then I put in my closing statement, because I
23 have little time, is that I would like to state my support for
24 the broader principles of MALDEF's representatives as they have
25 stated today is, we urge the Committee to enforce the Voting
26 Rights Act. Do not divide our community or dilute our vote.
27 Respect our communities and the communities of interest that
28 exist in this region. Do not split them into multiple Assembly
93
1 districts.
2 Please ensure that our testimony is meaningful by
3 truly considering it when redrawing the district lines.
4 I would like to thank you once again for being
5 here in the Central Valley, my beautiful valley. And today
6 we're having these hearings, and I beg you, I really beg you,
7 please take care of this critical issue and the impact that it
8 will have on tens of thousands of citizens, of your
9 constituents, in this next decade.
10 God bless you.
11 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you very much.
12 Next, Jacqueline Hodge, please.
13 MS. HODGE: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and
14 members of the Committee. I thank you for allowing me to speak.
15 I am Dr. Jacqueline Hodge. I'm a retired
16 educator, farmer, public citizen, and I have the honor of being
17 the founder -- legislative advocate of the Black Political
18 Council, which is 27 years old, in Fresno County.
19 Most of the elected officials at some time have
20 been interviewed and endorsed by the Black Political Council.
21 I'm here and happy to represent them.
22 We're honored to have you and your Committee in
23 Fresno, and we look forward to the positive results of your work
24 that will help African Americans achieve some representation in
25 the elective office in this area. We have some suggestions for
26 the remaining hearings that shall be conducted regarding
27 redistricting.
28 You might know, I did not receive, although I've
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1 been working either as President or legislative advocate of the
2 Black Political Council for those 27 years, I did not receive
3 anything in writing regarding this. I did receive a telephone
4 call from a legislator's office before the first meeting, but it
5 was like a day before and I couldn't be there.
6 I do think that the organized organizations that
7 are in existence and have been here awhile should receive
8 something in writing.
9 Here are some suggestions.
10 Please make every effort to reach the various
11 organized ethic communities of Fresno County by mail as well as
12 through the news.
13 Do hold several preliminary informative meetings,
14 describing the origin, purposes, and methods of redistricting.
15 Build the citizens' knowledge so that citizens can knowledgeably
16 make workable suggestions to you, to your Committee.
17 Involve all the ethnic communities in workshops
18 and input regarding districting before beginning the actual
19 process of redistricting.
20 Keep in mind, please, that in the redistricting
21 process, that redistricting is for the purpose of better serving
22 the needs of the people, and can only be successful if it does
23 indeed help all the Fresno ethnic communities and socio-economic
24 communities, because it is together that we will be together.
25 And we should be together profitably.
26 So, it needs to help all of the ethnic
27 communities and the socio-economic communities in order to meet
28 Fresno's needs.
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1 We have to interact supportively and respectfully
2 with all other ethic and financial communities.
3 We would request communication and meaningful
4 involvement so that we can have the kind of redistricting that
5 is beneficial to all of our people, and particularly at this
6 time to the African American.
7 I would remind you that our people have been here
8 in this country since 1609, and before that, they were here in
9 the West Indies before Columbus. But we still are begging and
10 pleading for representation.
11 I hope that you will be able to find a way to
12 involve us in such a way that our people will be represented.
13 Thank you so much.
14 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, Doctor.
15 Our final speaker is Stephen Rico.
16 MR. RICO: Apparently the speaker, actually I was
17 going to take his place, because that's representing the Madera
18 Central Committee, Democrat Central Committee.
19 Let me just, I didn't have any notes, because I
20 didn't think I was going to take his place, but let me just use
21 the ones I did use in the testimony at the Assembly Committee
22 back on May 11th.
23 That's Stephen, S-t-e-p-h-e-n, F. Rico, R-i-c-o.
24 I'm still currently the candidate of the 25th
25 State Assembly, up to November 2001. I'm also part of the E
26 Board 25th Assembly for -- which is the 25th Assembly, for
27 Senator Ortiz's information, is part of Stanislaus, part of
28 Tuolumne, most or all of Mariposa County, most of all of
96
1 Madera, and a little part of Fresno.
2 I'm also on the Madera Democratic Central
3 Committee as a board member. I'm also on the Madera and Fresno
4 Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I also belong to the Golden
5 Valley Chamber of Commerce. I'm also affiliated with the CYA,
6 California Youth Authority, as a substance abuse counselor. I
7 belong to the San Joaquin River Parkway Board Member here, and
8 I'm also on the Madera Economic Commission. And of course, I'm
9 also in support and an affiliation with U.C.L.A., University of
10 California at Los Angeles, new Cancer Clinic in Fresno.
11 Now, what we are doing here, obviously, you saw
12 some of my colleagues here from Madera, and they were stressing
13 the point, which is very important, which is part of what this
14 election was, the last one, is that the representation that
15 we've got in Madera, it was very crucial and imperative that the
16 Capitol note that we definitely need that representation here.
17 The lady before Mr. Moy, I didn't catch her name,
18 I think she said more specifically than Mr. Moy himself said it,
19 that the City of Madera, not the County but the City, is so in
20 despair that they were actually, as you heard, wanting you to
21 purge them into the other districts, which is the 31st, I
22 believe she mentioned, and also Mr. Florez's district, which I
23 believe is the 27th -- 30th, yes. So therefore, you can see
24 that.
25 Now, I live in the county, not in the city, but
26 in the County of Madera. I'm more close to Golden Valley
27 Chamber of Commerce, which is, if you know the 41, Senator
28 Poochigian, he probably knows that really clear, going up 41,
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1 which goes to Yosemite, you have Valley Children's Hospital, and
2 you have a development that's going on there.
3 Of course, obviously, the population growth there
4 is going to be very big.
5 Now I'll get straight to the point, then
6 Mr. Fjellbo can get to his as well, too.
7 What we are, of course, actually assembling in
8 our testimonies that we're recommending, are recommendations on
9 the e-mail, and which would be the consolidation and also a
10 splitting of community interest, is what we're going to
11 recommend to this Committee, too, as well. Because apparently,
12 the only way it seems to solve the problem would be -- is
13 consolidation, or splitting of interest. Or, as my
14 constituents -- or actually, excuse me, my colleagues from
15 Madera had noted, is actually desperately purging into another
16 district so they can get better representation. There is no way
17 around that, and that's just bold and faced fact, because
18 whoever draws the lines are the ones who are going to fund these
19 elections, and that's how we'll get the better representation.
20 And obviously from my part and my party, that's
21 what it's going to be, because in 10 years, the Republicans have
22 had a stronghold in the 25th for the last 12 years. So now,
23 we're here at a point that another more 10 years before the next
24 census, and the next reapportionment will come, we won't have
25 that representation.
26 That is why it's imperative for this Committee to
27 look that over. And that is why in our recommendations to this
28 committee, as we have done to the Assembly, we are recommending
98
1 those.
2 And I see Ms. Ortiz nodding. What is that again?
3 It's going to be consolidation, and it's going to be splitting
4 the community of interest. Those are the two words which will
5 be repeatedly recommended within our -- into our proposal.
6 As you can see to my left and to your right, it's
7 probably not facing you, but you can look at the district
8 itself, and see and note, it was difficult for me to represent
9 and give good representation to these constituents in the Madera
10 area while I was concentrating my campaign in Modesto. Modesto
11 is where the stronger population of voters are in that area.
12 Therefore, money and time is concentrated in those areas. It's
13 impossible to give it to the Madera area, and this is what came
14 about.
15 You see these people? They are desperate. They
16 want the representation. And it's not just the Hispanics.
17 We're talking also the Portuguese population, the Native
18 American population, the Black population, the Asian Hmong
19 population which live in that area, and that includes Democrats
20 and Republicans. Yes, we are bipartisan in this area.
21 I think I've said that clearly enough, and just
22 one last point, just to show you that proof that it is possible.
23 You can look at the results of the election. You
24 will note that in the general election, usually in that area,
25 you'll get about 35,000 votes.
26 We were able to get 55,000 with a minimal amount
27 of money that we had, and that is what exactly we are talking
28 about as far as Madera and the county and the city.
99
1 And I also wanted to emphasize the Counties of
2 Mariposa as well and Tuolumne, which did help in getting this
3 election crossed, and getting the representation that they
4 wanted.
5 But it is definitely, the bottom line, is that
6 those lines are obtuse. Therefore, it needs to be changed to
7 balance out and have a fair election.
8 Thank you.
9 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you.
10 Dr. Richard Arndt.
11 DR. ARNDT: Thank you for this opportunity. My
12 name is Dr. Richard Arndt. I just want to tell you a little bit
13 about myself first and why I'm here.
14 I'm not representing any group. I'm a third
15 generation Californian. I've lived in Fresno, it'll be 30 years
16 coming July. And I've been an administrator at Fresno State for
17 26 years, and finally retired last July.
18 I served 23 months in the military, in the Army,
19 during the Berlin Crisis. I'm honorably discharged.
20 I'm a registered Republican, and yet I don't vote
21 a straight party ticket. I try to vote for the person I think
22 is the -- will do the best job, and unfortunately in some cases,
23 will do the least damage.
24 I'm here because I read the Bee article. I
25 thought the article well stated. If you haven't read it, I'll
26 leave it for you.
27 Basically, I'm here to ask the party in power to,
28 instead of doing business as usual, to stick it to the party not
100
1 in power, so that when the party not in power becomes in power
2 some day down the road, they'll do in turn, which seems to be
3 business as usual. Whoever's got the power, exercise the power
4 against those that are not in power.
5 I would like to ask you, actually to implore you,
6 to behave responsibly. You meaning the party in power. And my
7 definition of responsibility would be to behave in this
8 situation equitably, that you really do act in a -- set up a
9 commission that is truly bipartisan, that you set reasonable
10 boundaries for apportionment, as opposed to just gerrymandering
11 to keep yourselves in power.
12 Frankly, even though I said I'm a registered
13 Republican, I'm cynical enough to --
14 CHAIRMAN PERATA: To be a Democrat.
15 DR. ARNDT: No, to be bipartisan, to register
16 Independent, sir. I have voted for Democrats in the past. I
17 voted for Republicans in the past.
18 But I think this is an area that is a good
19 example of why one would be cynical, is that business as usual
20 is to stick it to the people that are not in power.
21 So, I ask you, implore you, to behave
22 responsibly. Set an example so that if and when the next party,
23 the other party, comes into power, comes back into power, that
24 that party will do the same thing.
25 Thank you very much.
26 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thanks for taking your time to
27 come. We appreciate it.
28 DR. ARNDT: Yes, I did take -- part of it is, I
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1 was working, and I almost decided not to come. But then, that
2 would be inconsistent with myself. If I want you to behave
3 responsibly, then I agree with the Bee to come down here and let
4 you know how I feel and think.
5 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, sir.
6 Are you going to decide he didn't do a good
7 enough job, and you're going to have to speak, Mr. Fjellbo? Do
8 you want to take a shot?
9 Bill Fjellbo, right?
10 MR. FJELLBO: Bill Fjellbo, right.
11 I am a resident of Madera County. I'm an
12 attorney there. I'm also the Chapter Chair for the Tehipite
13 Chapter of the Sierra Club for this area, and I'm also the Chair
14 of the Democratic Central Committee in Madera County, and
15 numerous other things.
16 I unfortunately arrived here a little late, so I
17 didn't hear the testimony of all the people who came before.
18 But there's one thing that may or may not have
19 been covered. Being a resident of Madera County, 99 percent of
20 the County is presently in the 12th Senate District, represented
21 by Senator Monteith, a very small part is represented by Senator
22 Costa.
23 Senator Monteith's District runs all the way from
24 Madera County, up through Mariposa and Merced, Stanislaus
25 County, and quite a bit north of Modesto.
26 Madera County is almost wholly oriented towards
27 Fresno. We have very little in common with Modesto or Stockton,
28 with whatever is happening there.
102
1 So, I would encourage you, when you are drawing
2 the district lines, to take into account the fact that there are
3 some communities, such as Madera, we are very much oriented
4 towards Fresno, and it would make a lot more sense economically
5 to include Madera, or at least a large portion of it, in a
6 district that's in Fresno County, because that's where all --
7 nine governmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, where I
8 belong to, the Tehipite Chapter includes Fresno, Madera and
9 Mariposa Counties. We don't carry anything north of here,
10 because those people aren't oriented towards down here.
11 Labor groups, you know, there's the Fresno-Madera
12 Central Labor Council. All the groups are Fresno and Madera.
13 Nobody is oriented towards really north of here,
14 so it'd make more sense to have a Senate district that includes
15 Madera and Fresno than Madera and north of here.
16 Thank you.
17 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Thank you, appreciate it.
18 We have one more elected official that just
19 arrived, Councilmember Gurrola, Virginia Gurrola from
20 Porterville.
21 Maybe you didn't just arrive. Maybe I just saw
22 you.
23 MS. GURROLA: Good afternoon. Thank you for
24 giving me this opportunity.
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: You got here just at the wire,
26 congratulations.
27 MS. GURROLA: Thank you. Drove down 65 -- or 99.
28 My name is Virginia Gurrola. I reside in the
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1 City of Porterville. I am the current City Councilwoman, former
2 Mayor of the City of Porterville. I am the Director of the
3 Extended Opportunity Program and Services and Financial Aid of
4 Porterville College. I have served in various positions, both
5 on the campus, serve as a MECHA advisor and board member for the
6 Tulare County Association of Governments. Past member of the
7 Integrated Waste Management Joint Powers.
8 I wanted to give you a little of my background so
9 you would have an understanding of what I understand of our
10 district, the 32nd District.
11 Challenges in the 32nd District are numerous.
12 Geographically, the area encompasses the greater Kern and Tulare
13 Counties, has a precinct of 292 precincts. Tulare County is a
14 more rural setting, and the combined population exceeds over
15 300,000. There are four Assembly districts representing Tulare
16 County currently.
17 Transportation, our transportations in Tulare
18 County are challenging because its rural setting, as opposed to
19 that of Kern.
20 Economic development in our area, Tulare County
21 is lower than that of Kern County due to the various indicators,
22 such as educational attainment is lower, lack of skilled labor
23 force. Our household income in Tulare County is below that of
24 Kern County, and the lack of access to major highways.
25 Tulare County depends largely on its agricultural
26 based employment. The population in the last census of
27 individuals living in the poverty are at 39 percent for children
28 for Tulare County, as opposed to 30 percent in Kern County.
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1 Median income for Tulare County is at 27,000 as opposed to
2 32,000 for Kern.
3 Our population is rural in setting, as I said
4 earlier.
5 Educational, our Tulare County test scores are
6 generally lower than that of the greater Kern, and high school
7 completion rates are lower. Students attending the community
8 colleges are generally first generation college students.
9 I'm here, to summarize, I'm here as a Tulare
10 County resident, as a resident of the 32nd District. Tulare
11 County consistently ranks in the top two to three counties in
12 the state and the nation in welfare dependency, teenage
13 pregnancy, and unemployment.
14 The issues within the 32nd District are similar,
15 yet Tulare County's needs exceed that of Kern. Yet the areas of
16 the 32nd District and Tulare County do not receive what I
17 believe is their fair representation at the state level.
18 So, I would urge you to look at the 32nd District
19 in terms of redistricting. Hopefully, I followed the format.
20 CHAIRMAN PERATA: You did, perfectly. Thank you
21 very much.
22 MS. GURROLA: Thank you very much for your
23 time.
24 I have these, information to leave for you.
25 CHAIRMAN PERATA: Yes, thank you.
26 That concludes our public portion of the agenda.
27 I'd like to thank Senator Poochigian for his
28 hospitality and for the candy, your staff. They're very
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1 sustaining.
2 I do want to say, and I should have said this
3 earlier, but I think Senator Poochigian did an excellent job of
4 making the community aware of this hearing. The turnout
5 represents that. Also, that he made sure that we were going to
6 be here as one of the five hearings held.
7 For those who are worried that we may do
8 something that would be unfair or partisan, Mr. Poochigian will
9 make sure that does not happen. You're in very good hands with
10 his leadership.
11 Thank you all. If you didn't get enough today,
12 we'll be in L.A., and then in San Diego, and then San Jose in
13 the month of July. So, I would welcome you all to come down
14 there and see the rest of the state with us.
15 Thank you again. This meeting is adjourned.
16 [Thereupon this hearing of the
17 Senate Committee on Elections
18 and Reapportionment was terminated
19 at approximately 4:10 P.M.]
20 --ooOoo--
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1 CERTIFICATE OF SHORTHAND REPORTER
2
3 I, EVELYN J. MIZAK, a Shorthand Reporter of the State
4 of California, do hereby certify:
5 That I am a disinterested person herein; that the
6 foregoing transcript of the hearing of the Senate Committee on
7 Elections and Reapportionment, held in Fresno, California on
8 May 22, 2001 was reported verbatim in shorthand by me, Evelyn J.
9 Mizak, and thereafter transcribed into typewriting.
10 I further certify that I am not of counsel or
11 attorney for any of the parties to said hearing, nor in any way
12 interested in the outcome of said hearing.
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
14 ______ day of __________________, 2001.
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_______________________
19
EVELYN J. MIZAK
20 Shorthand Reporter
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