Elections Commission
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Department of Elections
Elections Commission
APPROVED: 7-17-02
City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Minutes of the Meeting Held
Wednesday, April 3, 2002
I. President Schulz called the meeting to order at 7:23 pm.
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Thomas Schulz, Alix Rosenthal, Michael Mendelson, Richard Shadoian, David Serrano-Sewell.
COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT WERE: Brenda Stowers, Robert Kenealey.
Flag Salute
2. Approval of Minutes: Minutes for 2/19/02, 2/20/02 and 2/22/02 were approved.
3. President’s Report: President Schulz reported that the Mission Statement
and the Commission’s Goals and Objectives will be part of the proposed By Laws. On Tuesday, March 26th the Sunshine Task Force determined that the complaints against the Elections Commission did not allege violations of law, and the Task Force dismissed the complaints. The CACE now has a quorum and will begin soon. As a future agenda item, the Commission will discuss the relationship between the CACE and the Commission.
Item # 7 from the Sheriff’s department, their After Action Report, will be moved to a future agenda at their request.
Director Haygood and the President made statements before the Rules Committee indicating that we will work with ES&S to implement Prop. A as soon as possible.
Public Comment: Peter Fries – asked if Robert’s Rules of Order will be followed by the Commission.
3. Director’s Report: Director Haygood presented Steve Kava, the Mayor’s
Deputy Chief of Staff, who gave a brief history of supplemental
appropriation requests of the Board of Supervisors.
4. Report by the Director on the status of the budget: Mr. Kava reminded the
Commission that the 2003 budget must take into account that the Sheriff’s
Department will not be able to provide security because the office of Sheriff
will be on the ballot. He said that the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor
were aware of this concern and that everyone knows that Proposition E will
be expensive to implement.
Commissioner Rosenthal asked Mr. Kava, that considering the Mayor’s request to cut expenses by 10%, should the Commission budget for a runoff after November or ask for a supplemental when it’s known for certain that there will be a runoff. Mr. Kava said he understood that this was a difficult decision and it’s easy to “Monday morning quarterback” after something has occurred; he said that the Mayor’s office was available to help in any way the Commission needed. President Schulz asked if Mr. Kava would be available to attend future Budget and Policy Committee meetings. Mr. Kava said that he would make members of his office available.
The Director asked that the request to ask the Board to release funds for the Elections Task Force on Redistricting be postponed. She explained some difficulties in bi-lingual ballots. She will be making a status report detailing the RFP for the Secretary of State to be signed off by the Commission, the City Attorney and herself well before the deadline (April 16, 2002). Director Haygood provided a list of goals and objectives for the Director of Elections’ position. Commissioner Shadoian expressed his concern that these were not delivered to the Commissioners by the Director until today. He stated that they were due two weeks ago. Today’s closed session is to review these and the Commissioners haven’t had an opportunity to see them before today. Ms. Haygood said that the minutes of the previous meeting said that these materials were to be provided at the next Commission Meeting and that this was the next Commission Meeting. Commissioner Shadoian reminded the Director that the next meeting had been cancelled and that if the materials were available for that meeting, they should have been given to the members earlier than at this current meeting. He asked the President to again remind the Director that Commissioners need to get her materials early enough to read and digest the information, not at 8:00 pm the evening of the meeting.
The Director reviewed the handout of her prepared Goals and Objectives .
5. Commissioner Mendelson reported on the progress of the searches for
Commission Secretary and the Director of Elections, as mandated. He said
he hopes to report on the Secretary position at the next meeting or the one
after. Regarding the Director search, the process continues.
CLOSED SESSION: It was reported that the Commission would continue these discussions at a closed session next week.
6. Report of the Logic and Accuracy Panel: Carolyn Burke stated that she had
been assigned to the committee and after research, 5 – 6 sessions, training, observations, and signing off on a necessary document, she’s determined that she was not qualified to be on the committee. Commissioner Mendelson asked Ms. Burke if she had to sign off on the document under penalty of perjury? Ms. Burke answered that if did not have that statement but that the statement, which she couldn’t now recall, made her very nervous. She was not provided a copy and was not told what would be the disposition of the document.
Joseph McGuire, of the CACE, presented two pages of a typed report which he asked the Commission to give to the Board of Supervisors when the Commission made its report on March 16. Pres. Schulz said the report would be considered for presentation.
Report from the Budget and Policy Committee: Commissioner Rosenthal reported that the Committee discussed both the Annual Budget for 2002-03 and the supplemental which were both partially accepted by the Board of Supervisors over the past two weeks. The acceptable amounts were discussed with the Director as well as plans for getting funds for those items not approved. Discussions about the annual budget were begun. No action was taken. There is another meeting to discuss these items in more detail not week.
Commission Matters: President Schulz stated that the Commission has received many letters and complaints from the public and the Commission needs to discuss what is within its control to resolve.
President Schulz asked the acting secretary, to schedule several “Special Meetings” to help the Commission cover all the items it needs to cover.
Commissioner Shadoian stated that he wanted to establish some “special blue ribbon panels” to assist the Commission.
The request that the Budget Analyst of the Board of Supervisors conduct an audit and report on the expenditures made by the Department of Elections in fiscal year 2001-2002 (Item # 9.) was postponed.
Public Comment: Roger Wedemeyer spoke regarding “a drift away from Proposition A”; Chris Bowman mentioned that the number of ballots stuck in the voting machines in November were far greater than those in the recent March election.
ADJOURNED