Elections Commission

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City and County of San Francisco

Elections Commission

Approved: 4/02/03

Minutes of the Meeting held

March 19, 2003

 

 

1. President Mendelson called the 33^rd meeting of the Elections Commission to

            order at 7:00 pm.

 

2.         COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Commissioner Robert Kenealey,

Commissioner Thomas Schulz, Commissioner Brenda Stowers, Commissioner Richard Shadoian, Vice President Alex Rosenthal and President Michael Mendelson.

 

3.         FLAG SALUTE was led by Commissioner Kenealey.

 

4.         PUBLIC COMMENT.  Lucy Colvin voiced her support for the implementation of ranked choice voting.  Susan Vaughan encouraged the Commission to do everything within its power to see that ranked choice voting is ready by November, and advocated retaining paid ballot arguments.  Naphtali Offen said that he was a supporter of ranked choice voting, and that he felt there were forces in the City that want to see the program fail.  Caleb Kleppner gave a brief history of ranked choice voting contract due dates, asked why the contract hasn’t been signed, spoke in support of keeping paid ballot arguments and maintaining the League of Women Voters on the ballot simplification committee.

 

5.         Closed Session:  President Mendelson MOVED that the Commission go into closed session to discuss with counsel the Tammy Haygood employment termination.  A roll call vote was taken and the vote was unanimous to go into closed session.

 

            Closed Session began at 7:15 pm.

           

President Mendelson called the full session to order at 7:45 pm.  Commissioner Rosenthal MOVED that the discussion from Closed Session not be disclosed.  Motion PASSED unanimously.

 

Recessed – 7:45 pm.

Full Commission resumed – 7:55 pm.

 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­6.         Discussion and possible approval of Elections Commission Minutes for Commission Meeting held on March 5, 2003.  Commissioner Kenealey MOVED to approve the minutes.  Commissioner Rosenthal SECONDED.

 

Public Comment – John Bardis said that he thought the minutes should have reflected his comments about his inability to get data supporting the costs for paid ballot arguments and questioned the Commission’s statement that money would be saved by their elimination.  Item #6 PASSED unanimously.

 

7.         President’s Report – President Mendelson announced that due to the lengthy agenda for tonight’s meeting, he will make this report at the next Commission meeting.

 

8.         Committee Reports:

 

Budget and Policy Committee – Committee Chair Brenda Stowers reported that the Committee decided to recommend to the Commission to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that the Municipal Elections Code be amended to eliminate paid ballot arguments for the City’s Voter Information Pamphlet.  The Committee also recommends that the Commission propose not amending the Municipal Elections Code to eliminate the requirement that the League of Women Voters nominate one appointee to the Ballot Simplification Committee.  She reported that the Committee TABLED the recommendation to authorize the Chancellor of the Community College District to nominate a reading specialist for appointment to the Ballot Simplification Committee.

 

9. Director’s Report – Provisional Director John Arntz reported:  Ranked Choice Voting – All divisions of the department are spending a substantial amount of time working to ensure that ranked choice voting happens.  Last Friday the department turned in its manual process application to the Secretary of State’s Office.  ES&S also turned in its application, however, the Secretary of State considered that application insubstantial.  Next Friday the department will be producing an outreach plan with costs.  The next step will be hiring staff.   Voter Services Division – The division is continuing maintenance of voter records. Budget Update – The DoE is not going forward with a supplemental request at this time.  RFP’s for ballot and Voter’s Information Pamphlet printing have been sent to HRC.  Poll Locating – The site reviews are expected to be completed in three to four weeks. Staff is working only four-day weeks.  Election Support Services Division – Everyone is preparing for ranked choice voting.  Outreach -The ranked choice voting plan continues to be developed.  Technology Division – The division is reviewing ES&S’s contract and manual procedures as well as re-precincting with DTIS.  Personnel – DoE has met its 10% cut back.  All staff are working four days a week and the Director is working five days a week but getting paid for four.  Ballot Distribution – Since the last Commission meeting, the staff has been working on Ranked Choice Voting and the procedures manual.  Campaign Services – The division held its first monthly workshop last week.  That workshop was for Mayoral candidates.  These workshops are very helpful in eliminating the confusion that candidates often have at election time because they don’t know the process.  Other candidates will be covered in future workshops.

 

10:       Unfinished Business –   (A)  Discussion and possible action whether to recommend that the Board of Supervisors amend the Municipal Elections Code to eliminate paid ballot arguments from the City’s Voter Information Pamphlet.

 

Public Comment - John Bardis said that the Paid Ballot Arguments are cost efficient.

 

DISCUSSION:  Commissioner Shadoian said that he felt the recommendation “came from the Mayor’s Office”, would “die” at the Board of Supervisors and that if the Commission passed it, the Commission would later be embarrassed by that action and urged his follow Commissioners to vote “no”.  Commissioner Rosenthal said she was voting in favor of the motion because the Department can’t afford to continue publishing paid ballot arguments in light of the other constraints and budget problems facing the Department and the City as a whole.  Commissioner Rosenthal suggested that if the recommendation passes, that a copy of the report that she and Commissioner Stowers prepared and all the materials the Commission has used to come to its recommendation be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors. 

President Mendelson called for the QUESTION on whether the Commission supports the Committee’s recommendation.  Roll call vote:  Kenealey – Yes;  Schulz – No;  Rosenthal – Yes;  Stowers – Yes;  Shadoian – No;  Mendelson – Yes.  Total: 4-2.  President Mendelson instructed the Commission Secretary to append all the information suggested by Commissioner Rosenthal to the resolution to the Board of Supervisors.

The Resolution is to read:  whereas the City and County faces a budget crisis, whereas the Elections Commission received extensive public comments at its meeting as well as from other sources, whereas the Elections Commission concluded that department funds, staff and resources are insufficient to support paid ballot arguments, therefore be it resolved that paid ballot arguments be eliminated from the Voter Information Pamphlet.  (Motion: 03-19-03-1)

Commissioner Shadoian asked that the vote and which Commissioners voted yes or no be included in the transmittal of the resolution.  President Mendelson replied that under Robert’s Rules of Order, the vote is the majority vote and the measure either passes or fails, the body has spoken, however, the Commission can vote on whether to change this and send the Board of Supervisors a vote tally.  President Mendelson made the MOTION to show the division of votes as 4-2.  The vote was 3 to 3.  The vote to include the vote tally in the transmittal of the Resolution to the Board of Supervisors DID NOT CARRY.

Discussion and possible action to eliminate the requirement that the League of Women Voters nominate one appointee to the Ballot Simplification Committee.  Commissioner Stowers MOVED that the Commission recommend to the Board of Supervisors not to eliminate the League of Women Voters participation on the Ballot Simplification Committee and that the League’s participation be reviewed on an annual basis.  President Mendelson asked Counselor Sylvia if the City Attorney’s office had, as a matter of law, been asked if there was a conflict of interest on behalf of the League of Women Voters.  Ms. Sylvia answered that the City Attorneys office had not been asked this question.  Ms. Sylvia stated that it is a policy decision for the Commission to resolve.  President Mendelson asked to restate the issue and MOVED that the Municipal Elections Code not be amended to eliminate the League of Women Voters as participants on the Ballot Simplification Committee and that their participation be reviewed on an annual basis.  (Motion: 03-19-03-2) PASSED unanimously.

 

(B)     Discussion and possible action to approve the technical amendments to the Municipal Elections Code to:

 

(a)       conform the Code to recent changes in the Charter;

(b)       specify the public examination periods for each category of material submitted for publication in the Voter Information Pamphlet;

(c)        modify the deadlines for delivery of the Voter Information Pamphlet to the post office prior to each general and run-off election;

(d)       specify language for inclusion in the Voter Information Pamphlet concerning ballot measures which concern the same subject matter and which may have conflicting provisions;

(e)       explicitly incorporate the State law that applies to local ballot designations;

(f)         explicitly state the rules concerning ballot printing following the death of a candidate;

(g)       correct outdated code references;

(h)        clarify ambiguous language and codify departmental practice;

(i)         eliminate redundancy; and

(j)        add subheadings for subsections. 

 

Counselor Sylvia asked Commissioner Stowers if she wanted the annual review of the performance of the League of Women Voters on the Ballot Simplification Committee to be included in the proposed amendments or be a Commission policy.  The Commission agreed that the annual review will be a policy and not part of the Elections Code.  PASSED Unanimously. (Motion: 03-19-03-3)

 

(C)        Discussion and possible action whether to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that it amend the Administrative Code to change the deadline for the Board to adopt an ordinance to call a bond election and submit a bond measure to the voters, from 99 to 102 days before an election.  This change would make the Administrative Code consistent with Municipal Elections Code section 300(a) (providing the general rule that the Board must submit bond measures no later than 102 days before an election).  Commissioner Rosenthal MOVED to make this recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. SECONDED by Commissioner Kenealey.  PASSED Unanimously. 

 

11.     Public Comment – John Bardis asked what was the budget for the past  month, for the year-to-date of the Elections Department and how have expenditures occurred.   President Mendelson advised Mr. Bardis that the Commission does not typically answer questions under “Public Comment” and that Mr. Bardis should get that information during regular office hours from the DoE.

 

Next scheduled meeting is Wednesday, April 2, 2003.

Adjourned at 8:55 pm.