I.          CALL TO ORDER

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 Mathor (Vendor) and Karen Lanoue, (City Engineering Department)

The map from the April 18, 2012 meeting is shown with 21 precincts.

Priti Mathor states that on May 3, 2012 they worked with Leslie Shattuck-Moore and Karen Lanoue to come up with the current boundaries. 

Mayor Rogers asks what happens at this point if this map is approved?

Priti Mathor states that the map then gets approved by the Board of Elections. The State provides them with the precinct numbers and if they have any questions the map comes back to the City with possible changes.  This does happens sometimes such as when precincts are combined.  It then would get forwarded to the State again.

Councilman Conley asks to see the specific changes from the April map to today.

Priti Mathor shows the map with yellow showing the previous map and the blue showing the current map. She notes that one change had to be done as it was a mistake made concerning a State line which was accidentally was overlooked.

Councilman Conley asks to see the map without the changes and wanted to know if they go back to the original map as originally suggested were the ratios better?

Priti Mathor states the problem would still be there.

Tom Riley states this is true because they created another precinct by accident.

Karen Lanoue states the little pocket had to be its own precinct. Putting it in Ward 2 as originally presented threw off the precincts. You reduce the precincts and it saves the city money but throws the numbers off. This current little piece of movement made the balance.

Councilman Conley states that he is concerned because even in the little adjustments we make it has ripple effects. If we go with the original presentation without the changes in April where would we be?

Priti Mathor states that the problem was they didn't take it all the way to the precincts because that was the second step of the process and problems arose at that step which is why they are back here now with a new version. The ratios went from 2.8 (original) to 7.61 (now).

Tom Riley states we also have to have a legitimate place to vote and abide by the senatorial and representative lines.

Dot O'Gara states that with the original ward lines the little pocket would have been a precinct under 500 without a place to vote.

Councilman Conley states that the precinct analysis on the original was not even done.

Karen Lanoue responds that there were issues with the way the original presentation was done and we changed these based on issues some council members had but that we very well could have had the same issues anyway.

Mayor Rogers announces that this is a public hearing and asks if anyone present wants to be heard.  No one requests to be heard. 

Councilman Conley states he is disappointed with the changes in the ratios as we have tripled them from the original ratios and we had such a good starting point prior to council tinkering. A third model has been looked at and he does not feel this is ready and instead feels that they should look at the original model again.

Dot O'Gara states the Board of Elections has set a deadline and the last day is May 24th and the Board has spent hours going over these maps already and in her opinion it's the best solution for the City.

Councilman Conley thanked Dot for her time and efforts but stated he was disappointed that the analysis wasn't done on the original model and he is disappointed with the ratios.

Dot O'Gara stated she appreciated the opinion but that they all did the best they could and she strongly suggests the Council pass this because she is not sure how else this could work. The previous map wasn't completely analyzed but they did look at the pockets.

Mayor Rogers states it does stray and we were told the precincts were not originally looked at but asks are we still under the guidelines for passage by Board of Elections?

Priti Mathor responds we are still under 10% but the State still reserves the right to come back and change the map.  

Mayor Rogers asks if before any changes were drafted were there wards over 10%?

Priti Mathor responds no it was a low maximum.

Dot O'Gara states there was one little pocket of 36 voters in the original ward lines. The Board of Elections should go along with this map.  They understand that we spent a lot of time working on this and they are more interested in the polling places, whether they are handicap accessible, ample parking and not too many voters assigned at each polling location. 

A motion to approve the map with the changes as presented by Priti is made by Councilwoman Kleyla, seconded by Assistant Mayor Rose and on a roll call vote the motion passes 3-2 with Councilman Conley and DiGioia voting Nay. 

IV.       ADJOURNMENT

A motion to adjourn is made by Councilwoman Kleyla, seconded by Assistant Mayor Rose and on a roll call it is unanimous. 

Approved By Council:  June 5, 2012

Attest:  ______________

                  City Clerk