Elections Commission
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City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved:___________
Minutes of the Meeting held
April 20, 2005
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Townsend called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm.
2. ROLL CALL. PRESENT: Commissioners, Gerard Gleason, Eric Safire, Arnold Townsend, Richard Matthews, and Michael Mendelson. EXCUSED: Commissioner Sheila Chung.
3. DIRECTOR'S REPORT
ES&S Contract Update - Mr. Arntz reported that the City Attorney’s office has completed its review of the contract and currently ES&S is conducting its review. It is expected that the contract will be finalized before the Elections Commission meets in May.
Voter Services Division – The division is finalizing their procedures manual. The DoE is, for the first time, tracking budget expenditures to specific tasks within the Department. Eventually, the Department will be able, for example, to estimate with real numbers, how much it costs for such tasks as registration data entry. All divisions have either completed or are going through their procedures and are tying the procedures into a budget spreadsheet. This division has just completed approximately 50 large postal bins of returned absentee ballots from last November’s election. This information is used to update registration rolls. Next week over 40,000 Alternative Residency Conformation postcards will be mailed to citizens who have not voted in the last two general elections nor indicated any name, address changes or party changes to the DoE. If there is no response from a voter, their file will be inactivated. The voter can still vote but will not receive a Voter Information Pamphlet.(VIP), and their name will appear in a different section of the roster on election day.
Campaign Services – The division is preparing forms and guides for the upcoming election. Staff is slowly making progress in the filing of the many bins of FPPCs. The candidate workshops begin in May, and the signatures in-lieu process begins June 3rd and continues to July 28th.
Poll Locating/ADA – A new manual for this division has been completed. This manual is for using the software (DIMS) for tracking information relating to locating polling places and the ADA requirements. This will be a very important tool for the temporary staff that will start in September. Site reviews continue, and currently the DoE’s percentage of accessible polling locations is at 70 percent. There are 134 sites which are not totally compliant. Our goal is 100 % by November.
Budget/Personnel – The division has begun creating a DoE Employees’ Handbook which will coincide with The Department of Human Resources’ (DHR) information regarding City employment. For the first time in years, the Department is setting up a personnel evaluation process. The Department plans to initiate the evaluation process next month. The division is developing cost controls and an electronic requisition tracking process that will assist in tracking expenditures and who is making them for the elections. The Department is considering how to monitor temporary staff’s time. Plans are to monitor how much time is being spent by employees who move from one task to another during the election season. This will help us be more accurate in our funding requests.
Poll Worker Division - The division has been researching census data and locating new data targets to assist in better providing polling places with bi-lingual workers where needed. Staff is creating separate web pages for high school, college and community groups for poll worker recruitment. There has been an assessment test created for all poll workers to take after they have completed their training. This test will identify cultural sensitivity, to assure that the workers understand that they must be sensitive to persons with language needs or disabilities and know that they must provide equal services to these voters. The poll worker manual will also specify the importance of providing assistance to voters with language needs or disabilities. There will be a tri-lingual glossary of common terms for voters to use. If there is a problem that is not covered, or if a poll worker has other questions during an election, they can contact the Department.
Technology Division - The staff has completed an upgrade of DIMS and it is now a windows system, and there are two new servers to contain voter information. All servers have been updated to provide greater security. Various data bases are being tested such as the contact information of community organizations with which the DoE has interacted. These organizations’ involvement in the elections process will be tracked and will provide information regarding which organizations can provide assistance as the Department goes into its election cycle. The Elections Calendar has now been moved into the Department’s database and will give divisions a greater ability to monitor not just their own work, but other divisions which may impact their tasks.
Outreach – This division, too, is working on a glossary of terms, in three languages, that will be placed on the DoE’s website in addition to being included in outreach materials. The updated Outreach Plan addresses issues that were discussed at the Outreach Hearing. There will be tools in the plan to measure the effectiveness of the DoE’s outreach efforts and use of its outreach funding. Staff has attended Nationalization ceremonies twice a month to reach new citizens. In mid-May the Department will begin its community groups meetings to discuss the Outreach Plan and ask for their input regarding how to contact and educate voters, including those people needing materials in languages other than English. Outreach brochures are being consolidated into a single more comprehensive brochure. The website and the brochure will explain how to obtain materials in languages other than English. Director Arntz added that the Deputy Director, Linda Tulett, and he met with the Mayor last week. A major part of the discussion was the subject of outreach. The Director and Deputy Director spoke to the Mayor about the reasons the DoE should be funded in a healthy manner.
Request for Proposals (RFPs) - The RFP was posted April 1, 2005. The pre-proposal conference will be held at 9 am on May 2nd. The conference is for interested vendors and members of the public. The Director said that before issuing the RFP, he spoke to most of the Board of Supervisors members, the Controller, members of the Commission and the Purchasing Office. The Director and Deputy Director also met with the Mayor and informed him of the Department’s issuance of the RFP. It became clear that the City cannot currently fund a touch screen system, however, the potential for purchasing such a system is allowed in this RFP should funding become available. All vendors must provide a proposal based on optical scanning technology and if funding becomes available by June 3, 2005 (the submittal deadline for the proposals), then the City may entertain touch screen proposals. Any vendor who does not supply an optical scanning solution in their proposal, will not be considered for the touch screen proposal. The selection committee for the RFP will be composed of people knowledgeable within City government on the elections process and/or the RFP and contracting process. In addition, staff who understand and have worked with elections vendors closely in the past will be on the committee. The Director stated that it is his intention not to be on the selection committee because he has had such continual contact with the vendors that he should remain outside the selection process and continue in the capacity of primary contact for invoicing and contracting matters.
There are one hundred base points, and twenty-five bonus points in the evaluation process for the RFP. There are forty points for technical criteria, system design, software design and development, life cycle and the ancillary service; fifteen points will be given for qualification and financial stability of the proposer, twenty points will be based on pricing, twenty-five points will be for implementation, planning and scheduling. The latter is for a Ranked Choice Voting solution. There will be ten bonus points for any vendor who has federal and state certification and five bonus points for approval only at the federal level. On the advice of the City’s Purchasing Department, there are up to ten more bonus points for any vendor who can demonstrate that it has a joint venture with a disadvantaged business enterprise. There will be a mock election open to the public to test the proposed systems in City Hall. The RFP is clear that the funds to purchase the new system will be from State and Federal sources.
Public Comment – David Pilpel asked if the new ES&S contract was different from the RFP and suggested that the Department look into consolidating more polling sites.
Commissioner Matthews asked if it was known whether an absentee ballot constitutes reasonable accommodation under ADA. Julia Moll replied that, providing an absentee ballot is consistent with federal and state law, and no additional service needs to be provided to absentee voters. Commissioner Matthews asked that if someone had a physical disability that made voting at their polling place troublesome, is the fact that there is an absentee process, in itself, reasonable accommodation? Ms. Moll replied that she did not believe this to be correct. She said that if a disabled voter wants to vote at a polling place, the voter is entitled to do so and the City must accommodate the voter at the polling site. Commissioner Matthews asked if the fact that there is early voting at other locations that are accessible count as a reasonable accommodation? Ms. Moll replied that she has advised the Department to do everything possible to make the voter’s polling place accessible.
Commissioner Mendelson asked when the survey of the various jobs that DoE staff perform be completed. Director Arntz said that it is on going and a draft exists but that the survey should be ready to present to the Commission in approximately one month.
Commissioner Safire asked if the employee handbook will be consistent with the City’s Employee Handbook. Director Arntz stated that it would be, although the challenge will be the areas that will be DoE specific. He said that in the areas of conduct and disciplinary action, the handbook would not go beyond what the City Handbook prescribes.
4. NEW BUSINESS
(a) Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes for the Commission meeting of March 16, 2005.
Richard Matthews MOVED to approve and Eric Safire SECONDED the minutes.
The MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
(b) Discussion and possible action to retain outside counsel to advise the Department of Elections and Elections Commission on matters concerning the City Attorney's election. In November 2001, when the San Francisco voters amended the Charter to create the Elections Commission, the voters authorized the new Commission to use outside counsel under certain circumstances when the City Attorney is standing for election. The outside counsel must meet certain qualifications and comply with specific conflict of interest rules, and the Commission must pay for the outside counsel from the Elections Department budget. On November 8, 2005, the City Attorney will stand for election for the first time since the outside counsel provision was adopted. To ensure that the Department and Commission have qualified outside counsel if and when the need for such counsel arises, the decision concerning retention of outside counsel should be made well in advance of the November 8, 2005 election.
President Townsend asked Deputy City Attorney Julie Moll if he was correct in stating that the City of San Francisco has a reciprocal agreement with the City of Oakland to use one another’s resources when situations like those mentioned in this item occur. Ms. Moll said that the City has these reciprocal agreements with a number of public law offices, including the City of Oakland. She added that county counsels generally have more experience in elections than do City Attorneys.
Commissioner Mendelson MOVED that, in light of the City Attorney standing for election this November, that the Commission authorize and seek retention of outside counsel pursuant to the Charter requirements. Commissioner Matthews SECONDED.
Commissioner Matthews added an AMENDMENT to this MOTION: The Director shall determine when the involvement of the City Attorney’s Office is direct enough, under the definition of the Charter, to give rise to the appearance of a conflict of interest. That the Director shall determine which public law office entity is most suitable for these purposes.
Public Comment – David Pilpel said that he thought that the decision is to be made jointly by the City Attorney and the Director, not the Department’s decision alone.
Commissioner Safire stated that the question now is if the Commission is delegating the responsibility of making the decision to the Director, so that the Commission does not need to convene a special meeting. The Commissioner said that he feels that it is more expeditious to delegate this chore to the Director.
Commissioner Matthews asked the Deputy City Attorney if the DoE needed to contract with a private law firm for a backup, would the Department need to go through the City public contracting process.
Ms. Moll said yes, but that there would not need to be a public solicitation. A sole source contract could be used because there would be a need to find someone with special expertise in elections. They would also need to meet conflict of interests requirements as well.
MOTION to authorize the Director to conclude the agreement with an outside public law entity and to authorize the Director to determine when the potential involvement of the City Attorney is direct enough, under the Charter, to give rise to the appearance of conflict of interest that may trigger the need for an outside counsel. MOTION carried UNANIMOUSLY.
MOTION that the Commission, pursuant to the Charter that requires outside counsel when the City Attorney runs in an election, seek outside counsel. MOTION carried UNANIMOUSLY.
5. Discussion regarding items for future agendas.
Commissioner Matthews asked that an Election Commission Retreat be discussed at a future meeting. Commissioner Safire asked that the Commission be apprised of the effect of a Special Election and what plans the DoE is making should this occur. Director Arntz replied that if there will be a Special Election, it will probably coincide with the November Election, although the Governor can call for it to be held on another date, but the general thinking is that it will be in November.
6. Public Comment. David Pilpel said that the possibility of an election for the Assessor/Recorder was not anticipated before the current budget was submitted and the DoE will incur additional expenses in this regard.
ADJOURNMENT at 7:57 pm.