Budget and Policy Committee
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 Department of Elections
Elections Commission
Approved: 7-17-02
City and County of San Francisco
ELECTIONS COMMISSION
BUDGET AND POLICY COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Meeting Held
Wednesday, April 3, 2002
1. Call to Order and Roll Call. Commissioners Alix Rosenthal, Tom Schulz (ex officio committee member), Brenda Stowers (expected to arrive late), Commissioner Robert Kenealey is on vacation.
2. Public Comment: None.
3. Discussion and possible action regarding the Department of Elections
Annual Budget for fiscal year 2002-2003: It was reported both the Annual Budget for 2002-03 and the supplemental were both partially accepted by the Board of Supervisors during their meetings over the past two weeks. The acceptable amounts were discussed and Director Haygood explained that she has plans for getting funds for those items not approved. Director Haygood estimated that training of staff and community outreach for the implementation of Prop. A would cost $250,000. Commissioner Rosenthal asked how this figure was reached. Ms. Haygood said that the costs for rolling out the Eagle in November of 2000, and the multilingual programming were used as a basis. Commissioner Schulz said that he'd spoken with representatives of ES&S the and equipment costs would be $50,000.
4. Discussion regarding the Department of Elections request for supple-
mental appropriations: Director Haygood reported that the Board of
Supervisors reduced the amount budgeted for temporary salaries by one half. Ms. Haygood said that she has written the Board a letter (March 22, 2002) explaining how these cuts would affect the Department's ability to do its work. She has cut canvas staffing by 50% and made other cuts in staff to the "bare minimum" (2 in voter services, 2 in campaign services, 2 people in election support) to make up the savings amount the Board wants to see.
Ms. Haygood reported that she has met with Supervisor Peskin to re-calendar the remainder of the Department's supplemental in order to move it out of committee. The DOE may have to wait until it's received the invoices. The Communication and Consultant contracts were not in the line items.
Ms. Haygood said that there are things the Department will not be able to do before July 1 with the present staff cuts. One of those things is Proposition A. The Department can't currently update the voter records.
5. Continued logistical problems caused by City Hall space constraints and large multi-paged ballots: Ms. Haygood stated that the DOE should request an enhancement that would allow the Department to get space more appropriate to its needs. Commissioner Rosenthal asked if it was logistically possible to move in time for the November election. The Director said one part was possible - getting all the warehouse storage put into one location. The Real Estate Department will charge $10,000 for use of their services for finding a site.
Director Haygood stated that at least one supervisorial district, without an incumbent, will be on this November's ballot. The DOE is assuming there will be a three-card ballot. The number of measures on the ballot is only a guess at this time. The Eagle will only accept a three-card ballot. Going to a four-card would possibly break the system.
Public Comment: Rob Arnow suggested that the DOE use a hand ballot count for the, at most, five supervisorial districts where there is a run off. This would cost much less than even the postage on the voter information pamphlet. He stated that in his lifetime, this is the way ballots were counted. He said this is not as far fetched as it might seem. Mr. Arnow asked how low will the voter turn out go if we have fewer supervisors seats running.
ADJOURNMENT