Thread by @jeremyduda

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is about to begin today's meeting. You can watch here:

Here's today's agenda. We'll hear a discussion of the 3 mapping consultants and a possible decision on which firm they'll hire. publicmeetings.az.gov/sites/default/…

While the commissioners were shooting the breeze before the start of the meeting, we learned that Commissioner Mehl's father was a basketball star at the University of Cincinnati.

Commissioner Watchman is having technical problems, so the commission approved the minutes of last week's meeting 4-0

The public comments submitted to the commission are available online. You can check them out here: irc.az.gov/public-meetings

Mehl says he's disappointed that last week's interviews of the 3 mapping firms couldn't be done in public, says they all interviewed very well and the presentations were very detailed. State procurement laws mandated that those interviews be done in executive session.

The IRC has gone into executive session to receive a briefing from legal counsel

The commission has returned from executive session

Chairwoman Neuberg says one thing they discussed is the value of hiring expert witnesses on things like the Voting Rights Act, statisticians and historians, and the need to do so quickly, “given that unique specialties are in high demand.”

They also discussed the value of getting training for the commissioners on things like open meeting law

Commissioners and Exec Director Schmitt are discussing what additional staff the IRC needs to hire. They want a deputy director, PIO, community outreach staffer and IT person.

Last week they hired Valerie Neumann as their executive assistant

After seeing Schmitt's org chart, Lerner says she would support moving forward immediately on hiring process for IT person and deputy director who would serve as public records manager

Here's the org chart that Schmitt presented to the IRC

The IRC has voted 5-0 for Schmitt to post job openings for IT person and deputy director/public records manager

Here comes today's main event: the discussion and possible decision on a mapping consultant

We're going back into executive session to get guidance from legal counsel and ADOA on procurement for mapping consultant

This is the frustrating part about the state procurement process. So much of the work must be done behind closed doors. Unlike the last IRC, they didn't use procurement for legal counsel, so that was a much more open process. Not so for the mapping consultant.

We're back from executive session

Neuberg says they have two options: proceed with scoring of the 3 mapping firms based on last week's presentations and interviews, or give the applicants extra time to respond to the public comments they've received about the consultants

Neuberg: “It sounds like the best sweet spot for us may be to provide these firms with an opportunity to respond to the complaints.”

Dems have submitted a lot of comments against Timmons Group/NDC and Taylor English Decisions

Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be any public comments submitted by Republicans against HaystaqDNA, which includes the consultants from Strategic Telemetry, the Dem firm that worked for the last IRC.

I've seen GOP lawmakers like @WendyRogersAZ and @AZKellyT urging people to oppose HaystaqDNA, but surprisingly no comments submitted to the IRC. The hiring of Strategic Telemetry was highly controversial 10 years ago due to the firm's Dem ties.

Once again, the IRC has gone into executive session, this time to discuss training on open meeting laws

No technical difficulties as this time. Last time they went into executive session someone left the the livestream going, so legal counsel Roy Herrera got caught on a hot mic saying something about problems with the procurement officer.

Before going into executive session, the IRC voted to give the 3 mapping consultant applicants access to public comments so they can respond at next week's meeting.

The public comment period was also extended to Thursday

Once again, the IRC is back from executive session, where they received training on open meeting laws from their legal counsel

Neuberg tells tells the IRC there was a third open meeting law complaint that has been filed and dismissed. The complaint questioned why Schmitt was hired as ED, alleged violation of open meeting law and equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

The complaint has been dismissed because it didn't actually state a legal claim regarding open meeting laws, mostly just expressing frustration with Schmitt's hiring, Neuberg says

Neuberg suggests that the IRC start posting any open meeting law complaints on the commission's website

After Commissioner York raises an issue with posting active complaints, Neuberg clarifies that open meeting law complaints would only be posted once they've been dismissed.

IRC votes unanimously to post open dismissed meeting law complaints and responses online

The IRC has adjourned for the day. See you all next week.

A quick addendum my previous tweet about the lack of public comments opposing HaystaqDNA. There have been a lot of comments against them (and many for and against all 3 applicants) that were submitted through other channels besides the IRC's official public comment period.

The official public comments are posted online, so they're readily available to the press and public, but the others haven't been posted anywhere yet. I'm waiting to get copies of all of them.