City and County of San Francisco : October 19, 2011

Elections Commission Meeting

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 6:00 pm

City Hall Room 408

Order of Business

1. Call to Order & Roll Call

2. Announcements

3. Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction not included in any other item on this agenda.

4. Director’s Report

The Director will update the Commission on matters pertaining to elections and the Department of Elections, including updates on activities of the divisions, plans and activities for upcoming elections or election-related functions, and budgetary matters.

5. Commissioners’ Reports
Commissioners will report on any meetings with public officials, or oversight and observation activities since the last meeting.

New Business

6. Discussion and possible action regarding the Mayor’s request for quarterly attendance reports from commissions (Attachment: E-mail from the Office of the Mayor, dated 10/13/11)

7. Discussion and possible action regarding commissioner observation and oversight of the November 8, 2011 Consolidated General Election.

8. Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the September 21, 2011 Commission Meeting. (Attachment: Draft Minutes of September 21, 2011.)

9. Discussion regarding items for future agendas.

Adjournment

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There will be an opportunity for public comment on each agenda item.

Materials contained in the Commission packets for meetings are available for inspection and copying during regular office hours at the Department of Elections, City Hall Room 48. Materials are placed in the Elections Commission's Public Binder no later than 72 hours prior to meetings. Any materials distributed to members of the Elections Commission within 72 of the meeting or after the agenda packet has been delivered to the members are available for inspection at the Department of Elections, City Hall Room 48, in the Commission's Public Binder, during normal office hours.

Cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices: The ringing of and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. The Chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices.

Disability Access: The Elections Commission meeting will be held in Room 408, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA. The Commission meeting room is wheelchair accessible. The closest accessible BART station is the Civic Center Station at United Nations Plaza and Market Street. Accessible MUNI lines serving this location are: #42 Downtown Loop, and #71 Haight/Noriega and the F Line to Market and Van Ness and the Metro Stations at Van Ness and Market and at Civic Center. For information about MUNI accessible services call (415) 923-6142. There is accessible curbside parking adjacent to City Hall on Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue and in the vicinity of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue adjacent to Davies Hall and the War Memorial Complex.

To obtain a disability-related modification or accommodation, including auxiliary aids or services, to participate in a meeting, please contact the Department of Elections at least 48 hours before the meeting, except for Monday meetings, for which the deadline is 4:00 p.m. the previous Friday. Late requests will be honored, if possible. Services available on request include the following: American sign language interpreters or the use of a reader during a meeting, a sound enhancement system, and/or alternative formats of the agenda and minutes. Please contact the Department of Elections at (415) 554- 4375 or our TDD at (415) 554-4386 to make arrangements for a disability-related modification or accommodation.

Chemical-Based Products: In order to assist the City's efforts to accommodate persons with severe allergies, environmental illnesses, multiple chemical sensitivity or related disabilities, attendees at public meetings are reminded that other attendees may be sensitive to various chemical-based products. Please help the City accommodate these individuals.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE SUNSHINE ORDINANCE (Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code): Government's duty is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public. Commissions, boards, councils, and other agencies of the City and County exist to conduct the people's business. This ordinance assures that deliberations are conducted before the people and that City operations are open to the people's review. For more information on your rights under the Sunshine Ordinance or to report a violation of the ordinance, contact the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, CITY HALL, ROOM 244, 1 DR. CARLTON B. GOODLETT PLACE, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94102-4689; PHONE: (415) 554-7724; FAX: (415) 554-7854; E-MAIL: [email protected]

Copies of the Sunshine Ordinance can be obtained from the Clerk of the Sunshine Task Force, at the San Francisco Public Library, and on the City's website at http://www.sfgov.org.

Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Requirements: Individuals that influence or attempt to influence local policy or administrative action may be required by the San Francisco Lobbyist Ordinance (San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code sections 2.100 – 2.160) to register and report lobbying activity. For more information about the Lobbyist Ordinance, please contact the Ethics Commission at 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 220, San Francisco, CA 94102; telephone (415) 252-3100, fax (415) 252-3112; and website: http://www.sfethics.org/.

Commission and Board Secretaries,

Please pass the following email on to your respective Board Chair or Commission President.

Thank you.

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Good afternoon Board Chairs and Commission Presidents,

As you are all aware, the Mayor recently requested a full review of the FY10-11 attendance of all mayoral appointees.

It is the Mayor's opinion, and I am sure an opinion you all share, that commissioner attendance is necessary for each commission to function well and effectively advance departmental goals. The Mayor often makes appointments to commissions that allow diverse viewpoints to be represented, and each individual commissioner's experiences and skills are highly valued. Therefore, each commissioner's consistent attendance allows for the full potential of each commission to be utilized. Also, meeting attendance is one of the many factors that the Mayor uses to consider future appointments of individuals currently serving on commissions.

In a continuing effort to increase governmental efficiency and performance, the Mayor's Office will be implementing a new method of tracking mayoral appointee attendance. Beginning this fiscal year, the Mayor will be tracking attendance for mayoral appointees on a quarterly basis and then posting those records on the Mayor's website for the public's review.

The Mayor is requesting that you, as Board Chairs and Commission Presidents, inform your Commissioners of this request. Also, to be very clear, we are only tracking mayoral appointee attendance, however, we are also encouraging appointees with other appointing authorities to participate in this act of transparency.

The Mayor has requesting the following information be collected and transmitted to the Mayor's Office:

1. Total number of full commission meetings held since the beginning of FY11-12 (Since July 1, 2011).

2. Total number of meetings attended by each Commissioner (since July 1, 2011)

3. Total number of unexcused absences since July 1, 2011. (The Mayor's Office considers absences “excused” if commission secretaries are notified in advance of the meeting about the absence.)

Note: The Mayor will not be posting Commissioner's Committee attendance and tardiness at both Committee and full Commission meetings, however, I will be informally tracking these. If, for whatever reason, a lack of attendance or tardiness begins to impede the Commissions ability to hear and act on items, I will notify the Mayor.

We are requesting Commissions to report attendance for the following time periods:

Q1: July 1, 2011 – September 30, 2011

Q2: October 1, 2011 – December 31, 2011

Q3: January 1, 2012 – March 31, 2012

Q4: April 1, 2012 – June 30, 2012

Finally, the Mayor did have some concerns related to attendance records for FY10-11. On behalf of the Mayor, I would like to request that you ask your Commission/Board Secretary for a copy of the final version of the FY10-11 Attendance Report that was sent to the Mayor's Office. Mayor Lee is requesting that Chairs/Presidents take this opportunity to speak to those Commissioners that have unexcused absences resulting in an attendance rate of less than 75% for FY10-11, so that you can confirm the importance of consistent attendance.

If anyone has questions or concerns related to the Mayor's request, please contact me directly at 554-7940.

Thank you in advance for ensuring that our city's commitment to transparency and accountability is met.

Best,

Nicole

Nicole Wheaton

Commissions & Appointments

Office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee
P: (415) 554-7940
FAX: (415) 554-6671

Email: Nicole.Wheaton@sfgov.org

DRAFT

Elections Commission Meeting

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 6:00 pm

City Hall Room 408

Order of Business

1. Call to Order & Roll Call – 6:00 p.m.

Present: President Richard Matthews, Vice President Winnie Yu, Commissioner Gerard Gleason, Commissioner Arnold Townsend, Commissioner Rosabella Safont, and Commissioner Jill Rowe. Commissioner Catalina Ruiz Healy arrived at 6:05 p.m.

Also Present: Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee and Director of Elections John Arntz

2. Announcements: None

3. Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction not included in any other item on this agenda:

Public Speaker Jim Soper of the Voters Right Task of the Eastbay and San Francisco chapters. Commended Director Arntz on a job well done with the Departments posting data he encourages any resolution which will get information data out sooner. He said that by anyway that is feasible to have detailed precinct data reported not just Rank Choice Voting (RCV) but all candidates’ votes by precinct. Mr. Soper stated he has been in contact with the Secretary of State and that a pilot project has been started to get all detailed reports on the candidates available to the public as soon as possible that allows the public to be able to have information on the website.

4. Director’s Report

Voter’s Guide - Director Arntz said the Voter’s Guide is now online.

Overseas ballots are currently in the mail.

Vote by Mail (VBM) ballots have been printed and are scheduled to be mailed by October 11, 2011 as required.

Polling places have nearly all been located and the poll workers assigned.

Preventative maintenance on the equipment has been completed and testing should begin in October.

The department is still waiting on the auto touch screens to be completed so that we can install. The upgraded Agilis Ballot Processing Machine which verifies the bar codes will be available next week and the department will begin training.

The Department has already begun its transition to the new management system’s new registration database.

Rank Choice Voting pamphlets have been mailed to every household which explains the method using the smiley face as its mascot. The mascot will be appearing on billboards, polling places, buses and other places.

Outreach: the department has scheduled approximately 134 events, with no plans for any additional events at this time.

The department is in the process recruiting for the elections review panels as it has for previous elections.

Observers guide is nearly complete.

Open house is scheduled for September 27, 2011 between the hours of 3-5pm.

Community Benefits District election for West Portal was held September 27, 2011.

Fillmore Community District election has been extended to October 18 2011.

5. Commissioners’ Reports
Commissioners will report on any meetings with public officials, or oversight and observation activities since the last meeting.

Commissioner Gleason asked for data about where the ballots would be coming from in addition to precincts, early voting, and VBM; for example, hospital voting.

Public speaker David Curry commends Director Arntz on a job well done regarding preparations on risk audits and improvements made.

Old Business

6. Discussion and possible action to adopt policy related to the release of voting data in ranked-choice voting contests after elections, including the timing of releases and format of data. This topic was referred to the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee and discussed at the Commission’s August 17, 2011 meeting. (Commissioner Gleason) (Attachment: Draft Policy on Release of Results in Ranked-Choice Voting Contests)

Vote taken and was unanimous to adopt the new policy as amended. See attached for formal policy on release of data for RCV contests.

New Business

7. Discussion and possible action to request a Waiver Allowing City Employees to Assist the Department of Elections with the November 8, 2011 Consolidated General Election, per San Francisco Charter Section 13.104.5. (Attachment: Memorandum from Director to Commission dated September 7, 2011)

Vote taken and was unanimous to approve the request for the waiver.

8. Discussion and possible action to approve the Election Plan for the November 8, 2011

Consolidated General Election, per San Francisco Charter Section 13.103.5.

Vote taken and was unanimous to approve Elections Plan.

9. Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the August 17, 2011 Commission

Meeting.

Votes taken and was unanimous to approve Minutes

10. Discussion regarding items for future agendas.

None

Adjournment 6:30

Last updated: 10/14/2011 12:18:17 PM