Recently, the 12th Annual Minority Enterprise Development awards honored Lydia Aranda, Director of Small Business Services for the Arizona Department of Commerce, for her work as an advocate for minority businesses. Aranda sits down with José Cárdenas to talk about Small Business Initiatives and minority and women-owned businesses in Arizona.
José Cárdenas:
Tonight on "Horizonte", Proposition 200 and new voting changes. What to expect the next time you cast your vote. Also, Maricopa County wants to hear from you! We'll talk about an important survey that will impact future funding for the city or town you live in. And we'll talk to a woman honored as an advocate for her small business efforts. These stories coming up next on "Horizonte".
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>>José Cárdenas:
I'm José Cárdenas. Welcome to "Horizonte". Secretary of State Jan Brewer has released a new plan to carry out the voting provisions of Proposition 200, asking voters to show identification at the polls. Joining us to explain the new voting procedure is Joe Kanefield, elections director from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. Joe, welcome to "Horizonte."
>>Joe Kanefield:
Thank you.
>>José Cárdenas:
Let's talk a little bit about what your office is and what it does, its role in the Secretary of State's office.
>> Joe Kanefield:
Well, the Secretary of State is the chief election officer under state law. We oversee statewide elections, that includes campaign finance filings, candidates for the offices file the nomination petitions and paperwork with our office. In addition, we have other responsibilities. We oversee the lobbyist filings and financial disclosures by public offices, to name a few of the things we do.
>>José Cárdenas:
The implementation of voting changes was mandated by Proposition 200. Tell us what the requirements were in the Proposition 200.
>> Joe Kanefield:
It has a couple of voting changes put into effect. One was it requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The second is, when voting at the polls, voters show identification before receiving their ballot.
>>José Cárdenas:
It's been almost a year since Proposition 200 was approved, yet we have only now come to agreement on the procedures. Can you explain what's been going on in the interim?
>> Joe Kanefield :
First with respect to the proof of citizenship, that was put into effect shortly after Proposition 200 became law. The way that was done was through the voter registration form to reflect new citizenship requirements. That has been in effect for awhile.
>>José Cárdenas:
Proof of citizenship to register to vote, not necessarily to vote?
>> Joe Kanefield:
Correct. The second part of Proposition 200 is the identification at the polls provision, which is before voting at the polling place Proposition 200 requires voters produce one form of photo identification with name and address or two forms of non-photo identification with name and address. Recently approved by the attorney general and governor submitted to the Department of Justice for pre-clearance.
>>José Cárdenas:
These were rules prepared by the Secretary of State?
>> Joe Kanefield:
Yes.
>>José Cárdenas:
There's a lot of discussion about difference of opinion between the attorney general and secretary of state. Can you tell us about that?
>> Joe Kanefield:
A little background, shortly after proposition 200 became law, around late January when it was pre-cleared by the Department of Justice, which made it effective, the Secretary of State, Jan Brewer, drafted rules, as she is required to do by statute, like I mentioned the governor and attorney general have to approve the rules. She submitted them to the attorney general. He had some issues with the rules, and he came back and told the Secretary of State that she needed to go to the
legislature, that there needed to be legislation to put the law in effect. The next few months were spent at the legislature drafting and pushing a couple of bills through the process. Two bills were passed by the legislature, vetoed by the governor. At that point the session ended. We didn't have legislation to implement it. The attorney general came back to the secretary of state and said well, he now believed the procedure could be done administratively, not necessarily needing legislation to do so. That puts us at about 10 weeks ago. That's what the Secretary of State has been doing. She drafted the rules, in coordination with the attorney general. An agreement was reached between the attorney general and secretary of state and legislative leadership. The rules were finalized, submitted to the attorney general and the governor for approval. Less than two weeks ago, that approval was forthcoming. A day or so later, and now that procedure has been sent to the United States of department of justice where it will have to be pre-cleared before it can become in effect.
>> José Cárdenas:
When do you expect the new rules to go into effect?
>> Joe Kanefield:
The Department of justice has up to 60 days to pre-clear our voting procedure or not. Having said that, we have asked for expedited review so we can get them into effect for the November jurisdictional elections. We don't have statewide elections until next year, but the hope is that expedited pre-clearance will be forthcoming and that these procedures can be used for the November election.
>>José Cárdenas:
Let's talk about what the procedures are.
>> Joe Kanefield:
When the voters passed Proposition 200 they mandated there would be ID at the polls and said it would be photo ID with name and address or non-photo ID with name and address. They didn't say what kind of identification specifically, what would qualify to get a voter a ballot. That's what the Secretary of State had to do in this procedure. Doing so, the first thing I would mention, the procedure requires a voter to have identification, a photo ID or two forms of non-photo ID with name and address in order to receive a ballot.
>> José Cárdenas:
That's in the statute?
>> Joe Kanefield:
Correct, that's in the statute and reflected in the procedure. Voters will need to know that, when this becomes effective, that they will have to have that identification.
>>José Cárdenas:
Wasn't this one of
the points whether this should be issued or not?
>> Joe Kanefield:
Early on, that was a point of debate whether voters would be allowed to vote a provisional ballot if they didn't have the identification. Since then, the attorney general, secretary of state and the governor have all agreed by approval of this policy that to honor the will of the voters; in this case, you must show identification before receiving a ballot. There are some opportunities within the procedure to get a provisional ballot. For example, your identification, the address doesn't match, a lot of people move, you move and reregister but don't change the address on your license. If you have your driver's license, which is a valid form of identification under this procedure, if your address doesn't match the address on the polling roster, at that point you would get a provisional ballot and the county would update your voter registration records.
>> José Cárdenas:
There was a lot of concern about how this would be implemented on the reservation. What can you tell us about that?
>> Joe Kanefield:
We heard that. As required by statute, the Secretary of State forwarded a draft to the county election officials for comment, and the input was incredibly helpful.
One of the issues raised during that process by some of our county election directors who work with large native American populations was that some of these individuals would not necessarily have the kind of identification proposed in this procedure. Recognizing the native Americans' unique status under federal law, the procedure builds in an option for those folks to present a form of tribal identification that if they just have one form of tribal identification. If they have one form of tribal identification, that will get them a provisional ballot. If they otherwise have the forms of identification required, they will get a regular ballot.
>> José Cárdenas:
For the rest of us, what kinds of IDs will work?
>> Joe Kanefield:
I went through my filing cabinet, I've got all my bills and utility statements and everything else. The way it was drafted, it was done so that the maximum number of identification would be available to voters so that to minimize the chance that no one would have identification. Driver's license would be the number one form of ID we would expect. Two forms of non-photo ID with name and address would qualify. Every voter by definition gets one of those, this is my voter registration card the county sent me.
Utility bills, water, electric, power, sewer, banks, credit union statements -- any one of those would qualify. There is a time restriction for some of these identifications. They need to be dated within 90 days.
>>José Cárdenas:
We have about a minute left. We have made several references to federal pre-clearance. Tell us what that's all about and why Arizona is subject to it.
>> Joe Kanefield:
That is a result of the voting rights act of 1965 which put into effect a national policy that voters, no voter will be discriminated on the basis of race, religion, etc. In Arizona, the voting rights act requires certain states to be covered under -
>>José Cárdenas:
It's the southern states and Arizona, but that's not quite an accurate perception.
>> Joe Kanefield:
We are lumped in the southern states, that are subject to statewide pre-clearance. Any voting procedure, practice, law rules have to be pre-cleared by the United States Department of Justice.
>> José Cárdenas:
We expect that soon?
>> Joe Kanefield:
We do.
>> José Cárdenas:
We have to end this, but thank you for being on "Horizonte". We'll have you back.
>> Joe Kanefield:
Thank you.
>>José Cárdenas:
Starting next week,
if you live in Maricopa County, you may receive a short survey in the mail. That's because valley cities and Maricopa County will be doing a mid-decade census count. And with the valley growing fast, it's important to get these updated numbers because the amount of state and federal funding each city and town receives is based on population. So, in order to make people aware of the upcoming census count, you'll see some public service announcements to get the message out.
>> Announcer:
Leslie Nielson explains why the 2005 census survey is so important.
>> Leslie Nielson:
Hi. I'm Leslie Nielson. When I'm behind the plate, I often think of Shakespeare, May West movies. Another thing that counts is the 2005 census. Some residents in Maricopa County will get a short survey in the mail beginning on September 1. Fill it out and mail it back. If you don't, you and your community will lose money. In other words, you will be counting yourself out. Out! That's not right. Out! That is right, isn't it?
>> Announcer:
Count yourself in. Complete the census survey and help your city get the money it deserves for parks, public safety and other services. Everybody counts.
>>José Cárdenas:
With us to talk more about the census is Jay Occhiogrosso from the census bureau. Thank you for joining us on our show today.
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Thank you.
>> José Cárdenas:
Explain the mid decade census and how it differs from the one we do every ten years.
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
This in particular has several differences. It's only being conducted in Maricopa County. It's a census survey as opposed to a full head count. We are only sampling one out of every 13 house old holds in Maricopa County.
>> José Cárdenas:
How do you decide what households to sample?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We have a list of housing units and we randomly select them.
>> José Cárdenas:
The survey gets mailed out, Spanish, English, both?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
on one side Spanish, English on the other.
>> José Cárdenas:
Every household will get one of those?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Every household selected will.
>> José Cárdenas:
Then what happened happens?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Hopefully, everybody will know to mail it back. If we have them mailed back, nobody will be seen at the door or you won't be getting phone calls. Hopefully, we'll get quite a mail response.
>> José Cárdenas:
What kinds of questions does the survey ask?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
The survey asks basic questions: Did you live here during September 1. If you lived here, how many people live here? Please list them.
>> José Cárdenas:
When will these go out?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
The surveys will be at people's door about September 1st.
>> José Cárdenas:
They have how much time to respond?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
They have one month to respond before we start making phone calls or before we start sending people door to door.
>> José Cárdenas:
What does that consist of? You will call these people, say, where is your survey and then give them a new deadline to get it in or what?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
The first mailing will be delivered on September 1, then a reminder post card for those people who haven't responded.
>>José Cárdenas:
How much time?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Two weeks. Then another two weeks will pass, they get a second questionnaire saying, you are selected, we haven't received your questionnaire, please take this second questionnaire and mail it back.
>>José Cárdenas:
When do people start knocking on doors?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We will start knocking on doors early October.
>> José Cárdenas:
In past mid decade census, what kind of response did you have in?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
The last, we had about 50% mail return.
>>José Cárdenas:
A lot of controversy over the 10 year census, some of it concerned that people would be fearful that you don't have legal status here, these might be INS agents, now ICE, people come to your door. In similar issues with the mid decade census?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We don't differentiate, we ask how many people live here, and that's it. We don't ask how many citizens or non-citizens are there. The census bureau has never had and never will share information with any other federal, state or local agency, including the INS, the IRS FBI. Nobody like that will ever have the data that we collect.
>>José Cárdenas:
How do you explain that to people? Is there some kind of public outreach that goes on?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We have different media subcommittees and minority outreach committees which hopefully reach the Hispanic and Latino communities, as well as other minority committees.
>>José Cárdenas:
What's the state share?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
A billion dollars is the state share of revenue that will be divided up between the different jurisdictions in Maricopa County.
>> José Cárdenas:
Is that over the next five years or what are we talking about?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
A billion dollars over the next five years.
>>José Cárdenas:
That's a billion dollars that would come to Maricopa County and it's a question of which jurisdiction gets that or is
that nationwide?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
This is unique to Arizona as far as the way the money is distributed, but that money is right now, it is distributed based on 2000 data. Most of the communities in this metropolitan area felt that there has been significant growth and that they would like a recount. The Arizona constitution says they are allowed to have a recount.
>> José Cárdenas:
A lot of discussion last time about an undercount of minorities.
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
There is no demographic information other than sex.
>> José Cárdenas:
Basically, how many people were living there and that's it?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We just verify somebody was living there September 1 and that was their usual residence. We ask for the names, the sex and the count of total number of people.
>> José Cárdenas:
How much does this cost?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Estimates are $7 million for the county.
>> José Cárdenas:
Who pays for that?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
It's being funded by local municipalities, as well as some federal sources.
>>José Cárdenas:
How many households will you survey?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We'll be mailing surveys out to about 100,000 households.
>>José Cárdenas:
In terms of the people power that you put into this, what are we talking about?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We're talking about 400 staff to get this done.
>>José Cárdenas:
They're all on board right now?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
We have about three-quarters on board right now.
>>José Cárdenas:
What kind of training do they go through?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
They go through a regular classroom style training, one to five days.
>>José Cárdenas:
Mostly college students or --
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
It's a significant retired community. They find this job rewarding, it fits in their schedule.
>>José Cárdenas:
What about bilingual staff?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Bilingual staff, we are making a special effort to hire bilingual staff, recruit bilingual staff.
>>José Cárdenas:
How do you measure their proficiency?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Their proficiency in English?
>>José Cárdenas:
Their proficiency in Spanish and English.
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
When somebody takes a test, they have a choice to take and English or a Spanish test. If they take a Spanish test, they take a test in English proficiency to make sure they have at least limited English skills.
>>José Cárdenas:
Anything else you want to emphasize?
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
If anybody receives a blue form like this, if we can have it mailed back, it will save the county a lot of money.
>>José Cárdenas:
And get the county a lot of money. Thanks for being on our show tonight.
>> Jay Occhiogrosso:
Thank you.
>>José Cárdenas :
The 12th Annual Minority Enterprise Development Week awards breakfast was held earlier this month. The theme this year was "Minority Business Enterprise: The National Priority". Companies and minority business advocates were honored for their accomplishments in small business. Joining us tonight is Lydia Aranda. Lydia is one of the individual award recipients. She is also director of small business services for the Arizona Department of Commerce. Lydia, I understand that's not the only hat you wear. Why don't you tell us about the other two that I understand you're responsible for.
>> Lydia Aranda:
Certainly. In addition to being director of small business services, I have the pleasure as serving as the governor's small business advocate and the governor's council of small business in the state of Arizona.
>>José Cárdenas:
Why don't you give us a little bit of background.
>> Lydia Aranda:
I grew up in Arizona. My parents are natives from Tucson and Nogales, and my brother and I grew up in Tempe, and a graduate of Arizona State University and have had a varied career in business, both private sector and now public sector.
>>José Cárdenas:
Explain minority business development recognition.
>> Lydia Aranda:
Minority business development is recognition of those efforts that do support and build minority small businesses throughout the U.S. and in Arizona in particular. There are programs throughout the states and recognizes efforts throughout states and regionally, and at a national level, so it's service organizations, corporations and business owners.
>> José Cárdenas:
Let's talk about the award you received. Why was it given to you?
>> Lydia Aranda:
I was very honored and pleased at the state's efforts really for their attention to and support of minority business here in Arizona, really reflective of this award and for the roles and responsibilities that have been given to me with these positions to interact with all of the different government agencies and service organizations that help support minority business effort is really what led to this recognition.
>>José Cárdenas:
I'm sure it was well deserved, but the title of this year's event was Minority Business, A National Priority. Is that an accurate description?
>> Lydia Aranda:
I would say so. We have seen so much commitment in the state and with this administration,
continuing with a lot of momentum from the past, on a national level, a lot of programs continue to grow, prosper and look at regional and collaborative efforts that will continue to build the minority business success throughout the country.
>>José Cárdenas:
Are we seeing a lot more money devoted to these programs?
>> Lydia Aranda:
We are seeing a lot more endeavors to bring these together which are from a financial and human resources type of effort from a collaborative nature. There are programs that exist on a federal level, but really what we see going on are more of the attention to and making sure that the services and initiatives and issues are being brought to the table so that we can continue to see how we can improve on those.
>> José Cárdenas:
The scope of your responsibilities is not limited to minority owned or women owned businesses, but small business.
>>José Cárdenas:
How significant are they to the Arizona economy?
>> Lydia Aranda:
Very, very significant. By all accounts we are seeing close to 98% of all businesses in Arizona are considered small business, by definition; whether that be by number of employees -
>> José Cárdenas:
Which would be what?
>> Lydia Aranda:
Which is up to 100 employees. Small business on a national level follows some of those suits and Arizona is right there with those numbers.
A significant portion, of course 98% of what is well over 660,000 businesses according to statistics and surveys and census from a few years ago, from 2001, so we're estimating and growth spurts that have continued that were much higher than that.
>> José Cárdenas:
How significant is minority business in the State of Arizona?
>> Lydia Aranda:
A very good portion. Minority owned business and women owned business really make up nearly half of the small businesses in the state and according to -- in fact, this week some studies that have been released have shown that half of the small businesses in the state and according to some studies released this week are showing that 51% of all business in Arizona are women owned. And in looking at the minority owned businesses, Latina owned, or female Hispanic owned, businesses make up the majority and show some of the fastest growing segments that we continue see not only on a national level but also here in Arizona.
>> José Cárdenas:
I understand with the percentage of women owned businesses, Arizona is among the leaders, right?
>> Lydia Aranda:
Yes, and has been for quite some time. We see that we rank between the top five states in the nation for women owned businesses taking on different levels, depending on which year and which
survey.
>>José Cárdenas:
Is there any particular reason for that?
>> Lydia Aranda:
One of the recognitions Arizona has been given lately is it continues to be seen as a good state in which to do business. The commitment that we see from the state level on continuing to focus on small business development and making sure that the services and support and initiatives continue to be on top of the dialogue, on the top of mind, if you will, looking for ways to improve that, to make it easier to do business and get on with the business of doing business, if you will.
>>José Cárdenas:
You talked about Latina owned businesses. We know that the Hispanic women's conference is coming up. What role will your department play?
>> Lydia Aranda:
The department of commerce has been involved with the expo and participating for several years, this year including, putting on seminars, speaking as panel member, presenting information on the services and programs available through the state, meeting with other community and business leaders that will be there from Arizona and nationwide.
>>José Cárdenas:
You talk about providing information to people. What are the kinds of questions that the typical small business wants answered?
>> Lydia Aranda:
Some of the common issues are, first of all, how to get started. They come to us, say what do we do to get started? How do we muddle through knowing we need X license or Y license. We serve as a resource to get the business owners to the correct agencies, to the correct departments and then to find ongoing resources for them. What I mean by that is to help identify if they are looking for assistance, monetary assistance, that is not something that comes out of the commerce per se, but we help them find the programs or the grants or let them know about some of the availability of grants, other programs designed to help their business prosper. Some of those include work force development area. The Arizona job training program.
>>José Cárdenas:
I think we have a website. We have to leave it to that, thank you for joining us.
>> Lydia Aranda: Thank you.
>>José Cárdenas:
For more information on the 2005 census and small and minority businesses, just go to our website at www.az.pbs.org and click on "Horizonte". That's "Horizonte" for tonight. Thank you for watching. I'm José Cárdenas. Have a good evening.
Lydia Aranda: Recipient of Annual Minority Enterprise Development awards, Director of Small Business Services for the Arizona Department of Commerce, and Executive Director of Governor's Council on Small Business ;
