Draft Minutes
Wednesday February 2, 2011
At 6:00 pm
City Hall, Room 421
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
Order of Business:
1. Call to Order and Roll Call 6:03
Chairman Gerard Gleason, Commissioner Richard Matthews, Commissioner Rosabella Safont
2. Director’s briefing on the budget for year 2011-2012:
Director John Arntz began meeting inquiring if anyone would like to start with questions regarding the budget. The Director preceded saying that this is the same budget previously forwarded to the Mayor’s Office. The budget consist of charts and graphs and not all are applicable to the Elections Department, such as Bart and Child Support however these items are a part of the budget however the department is not required to respond. The Budget is much the same as previous budgets it is based on three elections the November Election, February’s Presidential primary and June’s State primary. Since the department began gathering information there has been a bill introduced in the Assembly to have the Presidential and State Primary’s consolidated and to be held in June 2011, this bill has not gone to committee however we will still have to absorb the cost in regards to poll workers, polling places, staffing and overtime, the same kinds of cost that we have experienced in the past. There could possibly be an extra election no major cuts have been put forward at this time. The director will retrieve this information and have it available prior to next meeting. The only difference currently is that we are seeking to purchase the Vote by Mail scanner/sorter this machine is $175,000 and a stacker $11,000 this will allow a better means of quickly sorting by precincts. There are no layoffs scheduled at this time for this department. The Elections Department spoke with the Mayor’s Office regarding possible cuts however there is nothing being discussed like 10% or 15% at this time. The figures are 19 million when we take out the February Presidential primary, this will go down to 16 million, which is basically doubled from the last physical year, the Board Budget analysis will probably have the budget at 16m, for the Presidential primary if not passed by the Assembly, we still have to come forward with 3.4 million if the Presidential Primary is not consolidated with the June Primary. Paid arguments that are most likely with a big election for an example with the November’s race for Mayor, the District Attorney and possibly the Sheriff’s even though we have these major elections not many
measures will be added. We are scheduled to have one Health Service Election and a one Retirement Board Election, this coming physical year with a drop of approximately 82,000 in revenue. President Matthews asked if there is a June Elections does he anticipate any trouble getting funded. Director Arntz replies no, says that the Board will introduce a resolution next week to consolidate two local Measure (1) School Board members that received a Bought and Paid for $500 or $50,000 per year (2) Charter Amendment that will allow you to leave office as Interm Air, which means you are able to go back to the same position. Since there is a local interest in this election I don’t feel that there will be an issue, they will get a supplemental appropriation and submit and explain why the cost is what it is, I feel the city will fund its own election. Commissioner Gleason asked what types of directives, did the Mayor’s Office specify in reference to numbers or percentages. Director Arntz what they want to see is what we put together for the physical year, one of the challenging things is they want to see cost cut, but when you go from a one election year to a two election year the cost will rise, they will review and determine if they see where they can cut or scale back on. Temporary workers salary and overtime associated with Prop J, the move from having City Employees assemble ballots, to change to an outside vendor, made a huge savings. The Agelius Machine VBM scanner, when this machine was actually in operation we invited them down to view this machine in operation, to see just how it operated and to get a better idea of the impact and savings for the department. This department has not been asked to cut back, because they realize that in the past few years we have cut back and are running a very lean operation. The Bell & Howell and Pitney Bowes machines are at a cost of 500,000- 600,000 and runs off of 220 volts, while this machine uses a 110 volt and at a cost of $175,000 and does all of the same functions. Mayor Lee has made few changes he has kept the same budget office and no sudden shifts. Commissioner Safont asked information regarding the Controller’s Office and Director replied that the Controller’s Office has made at least three changes within recent years. Commissioner Matthews ask for comment from the Director, says that a couple years ago that it was introduced that we have two Deputy Directors budgeted. Director Arntz replied we have had it in the budget since prior to him taking office and it continues to be a part of the budget. In the past what he had done was TX taking funding to use in other positions. The department was unable to fill the position of Director, did allow him to hire a new Payroll clerk, now we have two Deputy Directors (1) working with budget personnel and (1) working with operations covering some of the other divisions. Director says for an example he was out of the office for a couple days, working on a project with vendor K&H Printing, trying to resolve some issues and it has become impossible for one person to handle all the responsibilities having this support allows me to do more administrative duties. Commissioner Matthews asked has there ever in the past been anything adverse that you were not able to TX, Director Arntz replied no and goes on the say that the payroll clerk is a 12/20 position and she comes with more that 1 years experience with payroll.
Public Speaker David Pilpel says that the budget is heavy with numbers and charts, with are good things however he asked the commission to have narratives that give an overview of information on what happens in a current year budget verses the next years proposed budget. Mr. Pilpel referring to the budget saying the final total is 18 million verse 9 million, says he assumes this was a single election verse a multiple. Asked that information regarding the ballot sorting/stacker needs more of an explanation says charts showing 1.9 million wants an narrative, saying this warrants an explanation.
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3. Discussion and possible action regarding the Department’s budget for year 2011-2012
Commissioner Gleason ask that this be moved to the full commission meeting
4. Discussion and possible action regarding Saturday voting for November 2011 election
Commissioner Gleason ask what will the deadline for Saturday Voting Budget, since this is privately funded? Ask will Saturday Voting be an exact reflection of Tuesday Voting? What is going be impacted, satellite voting operations? Vote by Mail (VBM)? Arntz says that when people come into the precinct they expect their vote to be counted the same day. Certain aspects of the study, like who will be responsible to pay? Director Arntz some of these issues are already being worked on. Director Arntz spoke with Secretary of State’s Office and was told we can not replicate Tuesday voting on Saturday we can not used inside machines on Saturday per election code 301.8 Satellite voting only VBM or with electronic devices. The only way we can have Rank Choice Voting is when we hear from Secretary of State, is VBN with DRE available on Saturday and Tuesday. The conditions that are placed on voting systems are by Secretary of State, must have jurisdiction being run be staff and staff must be responsible. The Secretary of State is not sure at this point how this should be run. It would be necessary to deputize approximately some 400 people and we are unable, we don’t have the man power. I would like to have the proponents (Alex) so we can explain to him the difficulties as well as the Controller’s Office (Rosenfield) Commissioner Matthews want to express the magnitude of what is being asked, do we have deadline? Director Arntz he is not sure at this time, we must post results and provide and explanation of how we plan to post, polls we would have to have two machines and post Tuesday as well as Saturday. Commissioner Matthews ask that on Tuesday would you be installing the same memory pack. Director Arntz we may be able to borrow from Riverside, we have borrowed from them in the past and they have a big supply. A survey of the polling places showed that 25% responded that they only wanted one day and poll workers were sent a survey.
Commissioner Matthews said both he and Gleason, feel that polling places may be difficult to find for Saturday.
5. Discussion and possible action regarding redistricting based on the 2010 decennial census, possibly including issues pertaining to redistricting task force
Chairman Gerard Gleason ask for information from the director regarding dates and requirements of reporting of the Census.
6. Discussion and possible action to approve December 2010 minutes for Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee meeting
Vote was unanimous to approve December 2010 Minutes
Adjournment: 7:18