Elections Commission
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City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: April 20, 2005
Minutes of the Meeting held
March 16, 2005
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Townsend called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm.
2. ROLL CALL. PRESENT: Commissioners, Gerard Gleason, Sheila Chung, Richard Matthews, and Michael Mendelson. EXCUSED: Vice President Safire.
Public Comment – Steven Hill said that there had been a hearing the previous week regarding Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) outreach. One of the main topics was the need for more funding. He urged Commissioners to schedule meetings with members of the Board of Supervisors to seek increased outreach funding
3. DIRECTOR'S REPORT
ES&S Contract Update - Mr. Arntz reported that he was in discussions with the City Attorney’s office and the vendor. He had nothing further to report.
Voter Services Division – The division is continuing with its updates of changes to the voter rolls and plans are to complete this work before major purges are to be done.
Campaign Services – One staff member had to take an early maternity leave yesterday. This has put a hold on division activities. Currently staff are only able to handle walk-ins and telephone inquiries.
Poll Locating/ADA - The division continues its work to increase ADA accessible polling sites to 100% by this fall’s election. Staff have been using GIS software to increase the DoE’s ability to pinpoint how to direct resources within the City. The GIS program will also aide the Department in its survey of language accessibility.
Budget/Personnel – The Director said that he was still in discussions with the Mayor’s office and has nothing new or substantive to report.
Poll Worker Division - The division is preparing for poll worker training for the upcoming fall election. This division’s personnel have been moved into the Outreach Division because of under staffing in the Outreach Division and is taking care of much of the outreach needs for the DoE, including planning.
Technology Division - The staff is developing data bases and the division’s manager has been working to secure the DoE’s servers.
Outreach – There was a hearing last Thursday called by Supervisor Ma at the Budget and Finance Committee. Director Arntz appeared before the Committee to speak about the effectiveness of RCV Outreach, and in particular, the Community Grant Program. The Director fielded many questions from this Committee regarding how the DoE measured the effectiveness of its previous Grant Program, and the development of criteria for the future. Supervisor Ma wants to see a complete Outreach Plan before allowing any approval of funds for outreach. Director Arntz said his primary concern was that there be personnel for the outreach.
Commissioner Matthews asked the Director to inform the Commission when Election Department matters are being considered by the Board of Supervisors so that Commissioners may attend and offer support. Commissioner Chung asked the Director how many Campaign Services staff members there were. The Director replied that there is one and that he has needed to transfer staff from other Divisions to help out at the front counter. He said that he was concerned about mandated deadlines and other legal activities that must be met. Commissioner Townsend stated that he would like the Director’s plan to include permanent year round outreach staff. Director Arntz said that there will most likely be opposition to funding new positions in light of the City’s budget constraints, however, he suggested that if members of the Commission speak to Supervisors on this subject, members might want to suggest
¾-time positions for Outreach. Commissioner Chung asked if the Board had other concerns. Director Arntz replied that the Budget Analyst’s office wanted to determine the effectiveness of each grantee by putting a dollar amount on the grantee’s ability to reach voters. This would be done by comparing the money granted with the number of voters reached. The Director said that this would not be an effective way to measure outreach because grantees were not only speaking to audiences in meetings, but they were handing out brochures to people on the streets, going door-to-door to talk to voters, making phone calls, getting articles in neighborhood newspapers, and attending meetings put together by other groups at which the grantees made presentations.
4. NEW BUSINESS
(a) Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes for the Commission meeting of February 16, 2005.
Richard Matthews MOVED to approve and Sheila Chung SECONDED the minutes.
Public Comment - David Pilpel asked that a correction be made on page 8 to include the names of the Commissioners and how they voted regarding the reactivation of the Voter Outreach and Participation Committee. (Commissioners had no objection to this correction).
The MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
(b) Discussion and possible action to approve the Elections Commission Annual Report for 2004.
President Townsend asked to move this item to the call-of-the-chair. He stated that he was in receipt of suggestions to be included in the report, and asked Commissioners to let him know before the next meeting of any information that needs to be added to the Annual Report.
This item is CARRIED OVER to the next meeting.
Public Comment - David Pilpel suggested that the Commission consider alternative language when characterizing the litigation with the former Director of Elections.
- OLD BUSINESS
Discussion and possible action to approve the revised Election Plan Template. The San Francisco Charter section 13103.5 requires that the Elections Commission approve an Election Plan in advance of each election.
Commissioner Mendelson stated that he had heard from Commissioner Safire that he would like to be present for the vote on this item and asks that it be held over until the next meeting at which he will attend.
ACTION: President Townsend asked that this item be taken up at the next Commission Meeting.
6. Discussion regarding items for future agendas.
Commissioner Chung asked that the date for the Election Commission’s Retreat be discussed at a future meeting.
7. Public Comment. Steven Hill said the hearing, to which he referred to earlier in this meeting, was requested by the Chinese-American Voter Education Committee, and this organization was critical of one of the organizations that won a grant.
ADJOURNMENT at 7:32 pm.