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Meeting Information



Elections Commission

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 

 City andCounty of San Francisco

Elections Commission

Approved: March 18, 2009

Minutes of the Meeting held

City Hall, Room 408

February 18, 2009

 

 

1.      President Phair called the meeting to order at 6:09 pm.

 

2.      COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:  Commissioners Joseph B. Phair, Richard P. Matthews, Winnie Yu, Arnold Townsend, Rosabella Safont, and Malcolm Yeung (who arrived at 6:15 pm), Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee and Director John Arntz.

        

         Commission Secretary Shirley Rodriques read a short statement regarding.  She reported that the Commissioner has not missed a regular or special meeting since his appointment in March 2004, and he takes his commitment to the Elections Commission seriously and strives to attend every meeting.  He was unable to attend today due to a personal commitment.

 

3.      Announcements

         President Phair explained the new format for meeting agendas and announced that administrative business, such as minutes approvals, will be calendared earlier in the meeting, followed by Commissioner Reports and then the Director’s Report, after which new business will be heard.  Additionally, President Phair announced that all Commissioners who wish to speak on a topic will be heard from before any Commissioners will be permitted to speak on that topic a second time, in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order.

 

         President Phair welcomed Commissioner Rosabella Safont who was recently reappointed by the City Treasurer to serve on the Elections Commission for a full five-year term.   The Board of Supervisors Rules Committee has approved the reappointment of Commissioner Gerard Gleason to a five-year term on the Elections Commission subject to the approval of the full Board on February 24, 2009.

 

4.      Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction.  Brent Turner said that the bill HR 105 has been sponsored and has a strong passage regarding open source code election systems and Mr. Turner invited the Commission to view the entire bill on the internet.

  

5.      APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 

(a) Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the December 17, 2008, Elections Commission Meeting.  This item was held over from the January 21, 2009 Elections Commission Meeting.  Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Phair SECONDED approval of the minutes.  The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the minutes.

 

(b) Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the January 21, 2009, Elections Commission Meeting.   Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Phair SECONDED approval of the minutes. 

 

Public Comment:  Brent Turner said that his comments at meetings have lasted one or two minutes but are afforded only a single sentence in the meeting minutes.

He said that he is thankful that the sentence recorded in the minutes is a good synopsis, but he would like to see more of his comments memorialized.   President Phair asked Mr. Turner to let the Commission know if something substantive is missing from his comments.  Commission Secretary Rodriques reminded Mr. Turner that he can provide her with a fifty word statement that will be included in the minutes.  

 

The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the minutes.

 

6.   Discussion and possible action to approve excusing Commissioner Townsend from attendance at the January 21, 2009 meeting due to a family emergency.  (Commissioner Matthews)  Commissioner Matthews explained that if Commissioner Townsend had the opportunity to let the Commission know of his possible absence, he would have done so, which would have been the only requirement for an excused absence.   Commissioner Townsend said that he appreciated this action to change his absence to an excused absence.  Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Safont SECONDED excusing the absence of Commissioner Townsend from the January 21, 2009 Elections Commission Meeting.

 

      The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve excusing Commissioner Townsend from attending the January 21, 2009 Commission Meeting.

 

7.   Discussion and possible action to approve a resolution of commendation and appreciation of Commissioner Gleason for his service on the San Francisco Elections Commission as the Commission’s President from January 2008 to January 2009.  Commissioner Phair MOVED and Commissioner Matthews SECONDED approval of the resolution.

 

      Public Comment.  Brent Turner said that on behalf of the San Francisco Election  Integrity League he thanked Commissioner Gleason for his service.

 

      The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to commend Commissioner Gleason for his service as President of the Elections Commission.

 

8.   (a)  Discussion and possible action regarding final Commission observations, research or investigations needed for evaluation of the November 4, 2008 Consolidated Presidential Election.    From the November 19, 2008 meeting regarding observations and evaluation of the Election Plan. Commissioners Yu and Safont will report their observations of the IRIS report, looking specifically at pollworker issues.

 

      Commissioner Safont explained that the IRIS report was 107 pages of incidents and she reviewed one half of the report and gave a synopsis of her findings.  The Commissioner’s complete report is attached to these minutes.

 

      Commissioner Yu researched the other half of the report and her complete report is also attached to these minutes.

 

      President Phair commended Commissioners Yu and Safont for their time and efforts in reviewing of the IRIS reports and recommended these reports to the Director for use in his review of the election procedures and actions.                                    

     

      Commissioner Safont suggested to the Director that a short quiz at the end of pollworker training might be a good tool in the training for provisional voting and vote by mail balloting.

 

      Commissioner Yu suggested that a mock opening and closing session (poll opening and closing on Election Day) during pollworker training would be a great benefit to pollworkers. Commissioner Yu also suggesting providing training on the Department’s website so that pollworkers could review the training whenever they wished.  The training could include close ups of areas of the equipment, such as tags and numbers, because these areas aren’t easily seen during the official training classes.

 

      Public Comment.  Brent Turner said that finding the repeat patterns during an election may not be as easily understood as seeing issues over a series of elections.

 

      (b)  Discussion and possible action regarding final evaluation of the Election Plan for the November 4, 2008 Consolidated Presidential Election.  Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Safont SECONDED that the Department of Elections was in substantial compliance with the Election Plan for the November 4, 2008 Consolidated President Election with the exception of the proper employment of the DRE machine, including a lack of training in accordance with the San Francisco Policy as adopted by the Elections Commission on August 20, 2008.  The Roll Call Vote was: Safont – yes; Matthews – yes; Yu – yes; Phair – yes; Townsend – no; Yeung – no.   The MOTION PASSED.

 

      President Phair returned to the bullet points at the beginning of this agenda item and suggested the following items for discussion under long-range planning for the Commission at the next Commission meeting:  Early identification by Commissioners of long-range planning suggestions or areas of study for the next year, the Commission to contact and work with the SoS (Secretary of State) to address possible adoption of statewide voting equipment standards, etc. hardware, that creates a paper ballot that can be used by all voters and does not rely on an electronic record of votes cast; the Commission to work with the DoE, through the Director, to further automate San Francisco’s voting processes to reduce costs, simplify vote processing, and improve reliability including procedures, equipment and software; the Commission to conduct hearings on matters of importance to concerned citizens such as open source software; the Commission to review and possibly re-establish its outreach activities; the Commission to establish criteria for post-election evaluation of Election Plans, and conduct of elections; and the Commission to consult with the Director of Elections regarding updating and simplifying the DoE’s Election Plan document.

 

      (c)  Report of the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee meeting of February 4, 2009.  Chairperson Matthews reported that Director Arntz gave a briefing of the draft budget to the Committee of the then current state of the Department’s budget. Chairperson Matthews said that the briefing was probably the best he has heard in his five years as a Commissioner and complimented the Director on his efforts and presentation. 

 

9.   Director’s Report

      Director Arntz reported that there is a strong possibility that there will be a Special State Election on May 19, 2009 or June 2, 2009.  He will know by Friday of this week.

 

      The Director reported on plans to reduce costs such as reducing the number of polling sites by 100 sites and realizing a 20% savings per election, and reminded the Commission that the Mayor has requested a 12 ½% cost reduction in the Department’s Budget.  The Department will be sending mailers to voters who will be affected by the reduced number of polling sites to invite them to vote by mail.

 

      Other ideas for reducing costs include getting approval from the Board of Supervisors to change the requirement for publishing legal text in the VIP (Voter Information Pamphlet) and publishing it on the website instead and providing hard copies to voters upon request.  This would require a change in the Municipal Election Code.  Additionally the Department is seeking an increase in paid ballot argument fees which are currently $200 to submit and $2 per word.  The Department loses money because of these low fees and the proposed increase would be more in line with the expense.

 

      Commissioner Townsend cautioned the Commission that many voters do not have access to computers because they are poor.  President Phair reminded Commissioner Townsend that citizens can request that a copy of any written materials be mailed to them free of charge.

 

      The Director said that the Information Technology Systems Division will be putting more information on line and money will be needed to make the Department more efficient in that area.  Also, the Director says he has made no cuts in the Outreach Division budget.

 

10.  NEW BUSINESS

      (a)  Discussion and possible action regarding the Department of Elections annual Budget.  Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee Chairperson Matthews reported that the Committee met on February 4, 2009 and reviewed the budget materials presented by the Director at that meeting.  Commissioner Matthews MOVED to accept the Draft Budget that the Director of Elections has presented to the Commission.  Commissioner Safont SECONDED this item.

 

      The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to accept the draft budget.

 

      (b)  Discussion and possible action to authorize certain Commissioners to speak in public and to other bodies on behalf of the Elections Commission regarding matters pertaining to the proposed budget of the Department of Elections.  Commissioner Matthews said that, in the past, members of the Commission have gone before the Board of Supervisors at the request of the Director, or in coordination with the Director and have had to introduce themselves as members of the Commission speaking as private citizens (because they were not authorized by the Commission to advocate for the Department). 

      Commissioner Townsend said that he had concerns with the Commission making this a formal action.

     

      Commissioner Safont said that a Commissioner speaking before the Board, and saying that he or she is authorized to do so by the Commission carries more weight.

     

      Commissioner Matthews MOVED the resolution as follows:  The Elections Commission authorizes the following Commissioners to speak in public and to other bodies on behalf of the Elections Commission regarding matters pertaining to the proposed budget of the DoE:  Safont, Matthews, Gleason and Phair.  Commissioner Yeung SECONDED the resolution.

 

      The Roll Call Vote was: Safont – yes; Matthews – yes; Yeung – yes; Yu – Yes; Phair – yes; Townsend – No.  The MOTION PASSED to approve the resolution.

 

11.  CLOSED SESSION

      Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Safont SECONDED that the Commission move to Closed Session without the presence of counsel, the Director or Commission Secretary at 7:30 pm.  The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to move to Closed Session.  The Director was later called to the Closed Session.

 

      CLOSED SESSION ended at 8:47 pm.

 

12.  Discussion and possible action regarding closed session action and deliberations.  Commissioner Safont MOVED and Commissioner Matthews SECONDED the motion to not disclose the Closed Session deliberations regarding the performance evaluation of the Director of Elections.

 

        The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.

 

        President Phair noted that he has requested that all Commissioners and Director Arntz provide input, including content and comments, to Commissioner Safont regarding the performance review of the Elections Director. 

 

13.  Discussion and possible action to modify criteria for evaluating the Director of Elections.  It was decided to take no action on this item.

 

14.  Discussion regarding items for future agendas.

        President Phair advised that he would like to have Long Range Planning and Studies for the upcoming year on the agenda for the next Commission Meeting.

 

ADJOURNMENT at 9:00 pm

 

        

        Commissioners' Iris Reports of November 2008 Election