Elections Commission Meeting
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
6:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 408
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, California 94102
Order of Business
- Call to Order & Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 6:04 pm.
Present: President Gerard Gleason, Vice President Jill Rowe, and Commissioners Arnold Townsend, Rosabella Safont, Catalina Ruiz-Healy and Richard Matthews.
Absent: Commissioner Yu (excused).
President Gleason announced that Commissioner Yu had been reappointed to the Commission by the District Attorney.
2. Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction.
None.
3. Approval of Minutes
Vote was taken and was unanimous to approve the Minutes of February 15, 2012.
4. Director’s Report
Director Arntz made the following report:
Administrative Division: Staff are working on a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) project that would track ballot bags and other materials during an election. The Department will have a pilot project for the June election. The Department has some RFID vendors lined up.
Budget: The Department has been setting up a budget database. After November, budget personnel will begin to plug in detailed historical data. The Department has completed an electronic timesheet project, which gives it a better means of tracking procedures for time management and planning purposes.
Voter Services: The Department has been taking a close look at how much time it takes to process Vote By Mail envelopes, including machine sorting, signature verification, and removing ballots from envelopes. This will help determine the appropriate staffing levels for Mail Ballot processing.
The Secretary of State will have new Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) voter registration system starting in August. DMV and the Secretary of State will compare license numbers to Social Security numbers as a cross-reference.
The Secretary of State has a program to identify the longest-serving pollworker in California. A San Francisco pollworker named Elise Kennedy is the winner. She has been a Pollworker for 74 years she is now age 96. The Secretary of State will present her with Association Medallion of Honor, and the Department plans to get this story out to the media.
Ballot Distribution: This division has been working on a parking plan.
Campaign Services: For the June election, the deadline has passed for submitting ballot arguments and there are 29 paid arguments. For the November election, 23 potential candidates have filed a Declaration of Intent, and 18 or 19 of these are for the Board of Supervisors.
Outreach: The Department has mailed 2100 availability letters to recruit pollworkers. It also reviewed census data to determine whether it needed to increase the number of bilingual pollworkers at any polling place or assign bilingual pollworkers where they had not been assigned in the past.
Community Outreach: The Department has scheduled two outreach meetings during the first part of April. The topic of the first meeting will be bilingual assistance at polling places. The second meeting is to discuss notices sent to agencies that the Department is trying to partner with. The Department already mailed notices to these are agencies regarding services to voters provided by the Elections Department.
Redistricting Task Force: The Task Force has a deadline of April 15, 2012 to complete the redistricting process. At that point it will submit final supervisorial district boundary lines. On April 16th, the Department will begin to draw new precinct lines for the November election.
Precinct Services: The Department has received 80 cancellations for polling place locations for the June election, this has to be addressed.
Voter Services: Staff are working on verifying petition signatures. They have also mailed cards informing nonpartisan voters that they may crossover and vote Democratic or Independent for the June Primary Election.
5. Commissioners’ Reports:
None.
6. Litigation Report
Discussion regarding All of Us or None et al. v. Bowen et al., California Court of Appeal, first appellate district, case number A134775 (filed March 7, 2012).
Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee gave a brief description of this lawsuit.
7. CLOSED SESSION. Started 6:37
Closed Session was held pursuant to Brown Act section 54957(b) and Sunshine Ordinance section 67.10(b) to discuss annual performance evaluation of a public employee, discussion and possible action.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Director of Elections John Arntz
CLOSED SESSION. Ended 7:58
8. Discussion and possible action regarding closed session action and deliberations. Discussion and vote pursuant to Brown Act section 54957.1 and Sunshine Ordinance section 67.12 on whether to disclose any action taken or discussions held in closed session.
Vote was taken and was unanimous to adopt the following motion: The Elections Commission finds that it is in the best interest of the public not to disclose its closed session deliberations regarding the performance evaluation of the Director of Elections.
9. Discussion and possible action to determine procedures and criteria for the annual performance review of the Acting Commission Secretary.
Commissioner Rowe presented a performance review template for use in evaluating the Acting Commission Secretary. Commissioners were asked to submit individual reviews, if any, to President Gleason by March 30, 2012. The Commission will conduct the review at its April 18, 2012 meeting.
10. Announcements
None.
11. Discussion and possible action regarding items for future agendas.
Commissioner Townsend requested that the Commission hold a special meeting to discuss the voting rights issues raised by the All of Us or None case.
A Commissioner noted that the April meeting agenda should include review of the Election Plan for the June 5, 2012 election and an item to request a waiver permitting City employees to assist with the June 5, 2012 election.
A Commissioner noted that the April meeting agenda should also include items for the performance reviews of the Director and the Commission Secretary.
Adjourn 8:08