Elections Commission Meeting
Wednesday, May 16, 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
- Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction unless otherwise included in an item on this agenda.
- Approval of Minutes from previous meetings.
Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the March 21, 2012 Elections Commission Meeting. (attachment: March 21, 2012 draft minutes)
Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the April 18, 2012 Elections Commission Meeting. (attachment: April 18, 2012 draft minutes)
- Director’s Report
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Budget/Personnel
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Technology Division
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Campaign Services
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Voter Services
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Outreach
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Publications
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Poll Worker Division
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6. Commissioners’ Reports
- Meetings with public officials
- Oversight and Observation activities
- Long-range planning for Commission activities and areas of study
- Proposed legislation which impacts elections
NEW BUSINESS
7. Discussion and possible action regarding individual Commissioner observation activities for the upcoming June 5, 2012 Consolidated Primary Election.
CONTINUED BUSINESS
- CLOSED SESSION.
Closed Session is 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
Commission Acting Secretary Gail Hilliard
[ Return from Closed Session]
- 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.
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 Commission Acting Secretary.
10. Discussion and possible action regarding process for filling post of permanent Secretary for the Election Commission. (attachment: current job posting for Commission Secretary.)
11. Discussion and possible action regarding items for future agendas.
Adjournment
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/.
Draft Minutes
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.
- 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
Draft Minutes
Elections Commission Meeting
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 408
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, California 94102
1. The meeting was called to order by President Gleason at 6:10 p.m.
PRESENT: President Gleason, Vice President Rowe, and Commissioners Matthews, Ruiz-Healy, Safont, and Yu.
ABSENT: Commissioner Townsend (excused)
ALSO ATTENDING: Director John Arntz and Dep. City Attorney Mollie Lee
2. Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction.
None.
3. Approval of Minutes of the March 21, 2012 Elections Commission Meeting.
Tabled at the order of President Gleason
4. Director’s Report
The Director met with its analyst from the Mayor’s budget office about the Department’s new time-tracking system the Department has implemented. The system will gather data which will then help with budget and administration. Few other department appears to be using such detailed staffing and budget systems similar to the Department’s. This system is, among other things, expected to help show the Mayor’s Office what the Department does.
RFID tags will soon be installed in many devices and documents, such as voting machines and even rosters, as well as other piece parts. The use of this technology will be analyzed after the election to see what it does tell us and what it could tell us if used differently in the future.
Administration: Currently, lots of planning for the June and the November elections, making sure that the work flow and the budget will last through this election.
Ballot distribution: readying for canvass after the election as well as working with the Sheriff Department and Department of Parking & Traffic regarding gathering the various voting equipment pieces from the polling places on election night.
The write-in period for the June election is open and ends May 22. Currently, there are no registered write-in candidates.
April 25th is the deadline for applications to the Election Observation Panel. There are several applications so far.
Phone Bank: right now focusing on Chinese and other non-English languages. It looks like it will be staffed appropriately for June, but concerned about November.
Outreach: The new person in charge is getting her feet wet. The slogan “Be a Voter” has been used in a new poster in several languages, based on research from Stanford and the JFK School of Government. It will be used in posters in public places, sides of buses, and community centers. The posters will also direct people to the Department website for an explanation of California’s new open primary system (in which the top two vote-getters will run against each other in the general election in November, regardless of party). They have about 100 presentations currently scheduled in all major languages used in San Francisco.
Precinct Services: Only needs about 4 more polling places for the June election. They have started re-precincting the city based on the final map from the Redistricting Task Force. The Department will not print the big maps with precinct lines on them until after the June election. Those maps, as before, will incorporate the state legislative boundaries as well. The precinct numbers will change, as they will continue to contain information about supervisorial district as well as state assembly district.
Voter Services: Sent approximately 75,000 – 80,000 postcards to registered Democrats informing them of their option to “crossover” vote in the primary elections for either the Peace & Freedom or American Independent parties. (The Republican party does not permit primary voters who are not registered with that party.) Approximately 10,000 voters responded, wishing to participate in either of those two party primaries.
The Voter Information Pamphlets in English are due to go in the mail the week of April 22, with the Spanish and Chinese versions to be finished in early May. As always, the versions are posted online as soon as they are finished.
Public comment: David Pilpel asked where the Department is on staffing, whether on track for recruiting and retention. He also asked how election planning is affected by estimates of lower voter turnout.
5. Commissioners’ Reports
Commissioner Matthews complimented Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee on the brief she drafted for the Department in the current litigation of All of Us or None et al. v. The Secretary of State of California and the San Francisco Department of Elections. He said it was well written, well argued, and a nice piece of lawyering.
NEW BUSINESS
6. the June 5,Commissioner Matthews moved to request a Waiver Allowing City Employees to Assist the Department of Elections with 2012 Consolidated Primary Election, per San Francisco Charter Section 13.104.5.
Seconded by Commissioner Ruiz-Healy. Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.
7. Commissioner Matthews moved to approve the Election Plan for the June 5, 2012 Consolidated Primary Election, per San Francisco Charter Section 13.103.5.
Seconded by Commissioner Rowe.
Commissioner Rowe as chair of the Budget and Oversight of Public Affairs Committee reported that BOPEC heard the Director’s report about the election plan at its April 4 meeting, asked questions of the Director, and voted unanimously to forward the election plan to the full Commission with a recommendation to approve.
Public comment: David Pilpel said the election plan continues to be an excellent document serving the purpose of explaining all the various election processes. He said he heard the US Postal Service has been late delivering mail all over, and hopes the Department of Elections is redoubling efforts with the USPS to ensure election materials and ballots will not get stuck in the system.
Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.
8. President Gleason moved that the Commission send its three appointees to the Redistricting Task Force letters of commendation and appreciation for their service; the President will draft and send the letters.
Seconded by Commissioner Matthews.
Public Comment: David Pilpel, one of the Commission’s appointees to the RTF, announced that the final map had been recently sent to Director Arntz with copies to the Elections Commission. He thanked the Commission for the opportunity to serve on the RTF, which he found challenging and yet ultimately collaborative. He expressed concern about the disparity of the number of registered voters between supervisorial districts 3 and 8, a difference of some 19,000 voters. He said the RTF made some effort toward reducing the number of ballot types necessary, but perhaps not as successfully as he had hoped. He finally said that he didn’t think the RTF splintered into factions along political lines as its predecessor did in 2002, but stayed rational and respectful.
9. CLOSED SESSION. 6:48 p.m.
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.
Public Comment Prior to Closed Session: David Pilpel stated that John Arntz is doing a fine job as Director and he hopes that will be reflected in the Commission’s review. He also stated that it is important for the Commission to evaluate its employees and he encouraged the Commission to conduct performance reviews on a regular basis.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS
Director of Elections John Arntz
Commission Acting Secretary Gail Hilliard
Returned from Closed Session at 8:02 p.m.
10. Moved by Commissioner Matthews: The Elections Commission finds that it is in the best interest of the public not to disclose its closed session deliberations regarding the performance evaluations of the Director of Elections and the Acting Commission Secretary.
Seconded by Commissioner Ruiz-Healy.
No public comment.
Vote was UNANIMOUS to adopt.
Adjourned at 8:08 p.m.
1444 Secretary I
(Commission Secretary)
Recruitment #PEX-1444-058904
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| Department: |
Department of Elections |
| Analyst: |
Lillian Chow |
| Date Opened: |
4/18/2012 12:00:00 PM |
| Filing Deadline: |
Continuous |
| Salary: |
$20.82 - $25.29/hour |
| Job Type: |
Permanent Exempt |
| Employment Type: |
Part-Time
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