http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0319reader0319.html

Senate reader gets word out - and into record fast

Casey Newton The Arizona Republic Mar. 19, 2006 12:00 AM

David Kerr read this sentence faster than you did.

If he were at his job in the Legislature, he would have read it even faster.

As the official reader for the Senate this session, it's Kerr's job to blaze through huge chunks of official text each day.

Announcing a steady stream of bills, proclamations and committee reports, the 24-year-old page's baritone has become a defining feature of each floor session.

"His skill level is just incredible," said Charmion Billington, the Senate secretary, whose office feeds Kerr a stack of documents to read each day.

New readers take their seats at the House and Senate almost every session. And yet despite their skills - or maybe because of them - the actual content of their speech is often indecipherable.

While tradition requires that scores of items be read into the public record each day, the Legislature demands those items be read as quickly as humanly possible.

It's a task so strange it could only have come from government: Read this important document into the record, but not in such a way as that it will be comprehensible.

So why not just ditch the whole speed-reading routine?

"You could only limit the role - you couldn't take the reader out," Kerr said. "On appearances it might seem totally outdated, but I think about half the time it's necessary work that has to be done."

Billington said the reader plays a crucial role in the Senate, helping guide Senate President Ken Bennett and his 29 fellow lawmakers through lengthy lists of bills.

"We need (readers) to be able to annunciate a few things so we can tell where we are," she said. "With David I've especially stressed the bill numbers - let us be able to hear the bill numbers, because then we can find our place on our calendar."

Unlike some readers, Kerr prides himself on reading every word in a bill. Other readers have focused on conveying the gist while skipping over some passages.

"The impression I was given is, say as much as you can as quickly as you can," said Cassie McIver, who was a reader for two sessions prior to Kerr. "Obviously, when you've got a page-and-a-half-long bill and everyone's waiting for you, you're not going to be able to read the whole page and a half. I always tried to get in the words that would emphasize what the bill was really about."

Though they are entrusted with the smooth functioning of government, readers receive intern pay and little instruction beyond, "Go faster."

But Kerr does have the highest profile of this session's 16 Senate pages, a group of mostly college students whose tasks include fetching coffee and working at the second-floor cafeteria, which they call the Penalty Box.

"The pages look up to the reader in a way, because the position is recognized as a step above," said McIver, who is now the Senate's chief page. "You're seated away from the crowd. You do have your little bit of training. So I think the pages tend to recognize it as a bit of a promotion."

If it's a promotion, what's the next step up the career ladder?

Kerr, who earned a history degree from Arizona State University last year, is planning on taking his legislative experience to law school in the fall. And when he does, he said, his experience as the reader will serve him well in one important respect.

"It's certainly a line on the resume, that's for sure," he said. "I can finally take Home Depot off."