Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee
2009 2008 2007 2006 ELECTIONS COMMISSION
BUDGET AND OVERSIGHT
OF PUBLIC ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
City Hall, Room 421
City and County of San Francisco
Minutes of the Meeting Held
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
(Approved: October 7, 2009)
- Chairperson Matthews called the meeting to order at 6:05 pm. PRESENT: Commissioners Richard P. Matthews, Rosabella Safont, Gerard Gleason, Deputy City Attorney Jon Givner and Director John Arntz.
2. Discussion and possible action to approve the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee minutes for May 6, 2009. Commissioner Gleason MOVED and Commissioner Safont SECONDED approval of the minutes. The Roll Call Vote to approve the minutes was UNANIMOUS.
3. Director's Report on the status of the Elections Department Draft Budget for FY 2009-2010 Director Arntz reported that there has been no change in the budget since his last report, and that he is awaiting response from the Budget Analyst.
Chairperson Matthews asked the Director when he would expect the Budget Analyst to respond. Director Arntz said it will probably be within the next week.
4. Reimbursement for election services. Discussion and possible action regarding payments from City College, the San Francisco Unified School District, and other entities for whom the Department of Elections provides election services.
Chairperson Matthews said that this topic was in the newspapers last month and asked the Director to explain the situation. Director Arntz reported that in the past the Department apparently did not seek reimbursement from City College and the SF Unified School District for their elections. The Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee asked the Controller’s Office to audit possible reimbursement from the agencies for past elections. The review went back to the year 2002, and the totals were $4.5M. The Department then began to actively bill the agencies in 2006. The Department billed for $3M, and $2.4M of that has been paid to date. The Controller’s Office will assist in seeking payment from The SF Unified School District and City College.
Commissioner Matthews said that originally he thought the owed money was from agencies that received City money, and therefore it was all part of the same budget or pot of money. However, he then realized that the SFUSD is a state agent, as well as City College. Commissioner Matthews asked the Director if the agencies ever gave a reason for not paying the DOE. Director Arntz said that the Community College District indicated that they had been advised at one time by “the Mayor” (which one was not known) that they did not have to pay for their elections. This had been a standard practice.
Commissioner Gleason asked the Director about other City department’s elections and their payments. Director Arntz listed several departments including BART, Health Service System, Retirement Board and the Business Investment District, who have always paid the DOE for their elections costs.
Commissioner Safont asked if there was any reason the DOE couldn’t tell the non-paying agencies that their elections would not be placed on the ballot until their reimbursements have been paid. Director Arntz answered that this is a possibility but he reminded the committee that these elections are run every two years, and he feels they will pay their bills or some agreement will be reached before that time.
5. Discussion and possible action regarding the May 19, 2009 election, possibly including observation, oversight and evaluation. Chairperson Matthews requested the following information for the Director to provide to the Commission: Provisional Ballot Reports, IRIS Report (once it is formatted), the DRE reports (Excel spreadsheet file sent by email is sufficient; hard copy not necessary), copies of any correspondence from voters, and an evaluation of the consolidation of precincts by the Director.
Chairperson Matthews asked the Director how he felt the May 19th election ran. Director Arntz said it ran smoothly; there was a 28% total turnout of voters for the election and this includes votes by mail. He said he certified the election today.
The Committee members agreed that they would each give their observations of the election at the full Commission.
6. Discussion regarding items for future agendas. Chairperson Matthews asked the Secretary to carry forward all items on this agenda to the next BOPEC agenda with the exception of item number five.
ADJOURNMENT @ 6:15 PM