I. Call To Order

Mayor Rogers calls the meeting at 6:11PM.

II. Salute To The Flag

III. Public Hearing

A. The ARCBridge Presentation to the City of East Providence-Redistricting Services for Ward Boundaries

Presentation by: Priti Mathur

A power point presentation is provided and a paper copy is submitted for the record.

Mayor Rogers asks what ward the United Methodist Elder Care is located in.

The answer is Ward 1 but it will be part of Ward 2.

The Mayor asks will they go to Ward 1 to vote or will we change their precinct? The answer is that has not been determined yet.

Canvassing Board member Tom Riley comes to podium and asks if the Mayor is asking where the vote will count and the answer is in Ward 2, if you are asking where will they actually physically go to vote we don't know that yet because that hasn't been determined. The second part of this answer is that voters can now use a mail ballot without having to provide any reason.

The Mayor asks if a ward would be split at the same polling place?

Dot O'Gara a Canvassing Board Member states you can't.

Mayor Rogers asks so United Methodist will not vote at City View? And Tom Riley responds that would be a fair assumption.

A discussion ensues regarding changes so that City View Goldsmith is in Ward 2 and United Methodist remains in Ward 1. Also the Mayor adds that the end of South Broadway it is divided one side is Ward 1 and one side is Ward 2.

Dot O'Gara states that there are only so many places in the City to use as polling places and the Board of Elections wants cities and towns to use schools whenever possible because they are closed on election day and there is good parking and a good facility which the city and town own. While Rumford Towers, the Senior Center, Riverside Library, Weaver Library and City Hall are all good we don't have 23 polling places.

Mayor Rogers asks about Bliss St stating its half Ward 3 and half Ward 1 and he feels these type of examples are not contiguous as Priti stated earlier.

Tom Riley suggests that as a board member he is willing to entertain using United Methodist as a polling place adding that mail ballots can be used from anywhere to enable people to vote.

Mayor Rogers states that if we go down South Broadway all should be in Ward 2 and Bliss Street is the same split up situation.

Tom Riley stated it's the beauty of the way the folks have switched around the numbers and he regrets the jockeying that took place, once you start moving all around everything gets messed up.

Mayor Rogers states that Bliss St doesn't even make sense.

Tom Riley responds that they can't get away from that in this session if we use streets to split districts it’s going to keep happening. This is where the Democratic City Committee jockeyed this around to knock people out of districts and it’s a disgrace and he hopes that we may have straightened that out as best as we can. Mayor Rogers states it’s a linear city where there are neighborhoods and we are splitting neighborhoods.

Tom Riley asks, what is it you would like to suggest to rebalance?

Mayor Rogers stated we should square off the districts as much as possible we have the opportunity to straighten things out that were done for political reasons but if it’s outrageous to do that then I won't fight it.

Tom Riley asked, if this was amenable to fellow Council members?

Councilwoman Kleyla stated that she has to agree with the Mayor just looking at the overall map, while she didn't have any of these issues in Ward 1, just looking at the shapes of the district the others are all over the place. Ward 1 is somewhat defined if we can use the senior high-rises as voting locations we should. They want to participate also not just fill out mail ballots.

Tom Riley stated he agreed with Mayor Rogers on getting rid of a couple of those keyholes because it’s an insult to the City to cut people out of the process just because they can.

Dot O'Gara stated she was hoping when the new lines were complete the little section near Martin Middle School who used to vote at the Teamsters Hall which is 328 voters are now voting out of district in Ward 3 when they are in Ward 2. The Board of Elections doesn't want us to do that anymore and I thought we would fix this.

Mayor Rogers suggested coming down Brightridge and Bliss and this would be contiguous.

Dot O'Gara agreed that would solve that problem. Now we would be able to combine precinct 17 with 18 and so we would be eliminating one whole precinct.

A discussion ensues regarding South Broadway but it is controversial and Mayor Rogers states that he will not support the change because there is a sitting representative there. Mayor Rogers states he would like to see the City View Goldsmith Manor squared off but this cannot be done because of the state drawn lines.

Discussion ensues regarding Central or Sutton to be cut straight across.

Councilwoman Kleyla states if you do that you may be skewing the demographics.

Councilman DiGioia states there are no issues with Ward 4.

Councilman Conley states he doesn't share these concerns, it was a good presentation and if you start tinkering it you can create a domino effect and the numbers are really good.

Priti explains how the demographics switch and Councilwoman Kleyla states that it is not necessary if it’s going to make that much of a change.

Priti states the maximum deviation allowed is 5.32. Ward 1 now has only 14 more, Ward 2 has gained 169, Ward 3 is 153 short and Ward 4 is fine.

Priti stated the deviation now with the changes is 2.74 but it’s still good.

Dot O'Gara states the problem with the Senior Center was the issues with representative and senate districts and with those now being reorganized that issue should be fixed.

Discussion regarding additional polling places ensues and it's the Council's feeling to leave it the way it is as they will address an additional polling place instead of the use of Silver Spring for Ward 4 residents which is far. Other sites are briefly discussed.

Peter Barilla, Canvassing Board member states that the only thing they are supposed to talk about at this meeting is the ward lines, not precincts and not polling locations.

Tom Riley asks a question regarding looking at the Martin Middle School as a polling location and Mayor Rogers states Peter Barilla is right and to save that question for the other meeting.

A motion to approve the ward lines as adjusted with a 2.26 deviation is made with Councilman Conley requesting Priti go from top to bottom so all can see what was done, Ward 1 is 11,773, Ward 2 is 11,900 141 over target, Ward 3 is 11,634, Ward 4 is 11,730 which is 29 people short motion by Councilman Conley to accept, seconded by Councilwoman Kleyla and on a roll call vote it is unanimous.

IV. Adjournment

1. Motion to adjourn is made by Councilman Conley, seconded by Councilwoman Kleyla and on a roll call vote it is unanimous.

Approved By Council: May 1, 2012

Attest: _____________

City Clerk