Elections Commission Meeting
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
6:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 408
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, California 94102
DRAFT MINUTES
1. Call to Order & Roll Call
Commissioner Jill Rowe called the meeting to order at 6:04pm. PRESENT: Commissioners Rosabella Safont, Jill Rowe, Winnie Yu, Gerard Gleason, Catalina Ruiz-Healy, and Charles Jung. ALSO PRESENT: Director of Elections John Arntz, Deputy City Attorney Joshua White, and Commission Secretary Tachina Alexander. Commissioner Richard Matthews arrived at 6:10pm.
2. Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction unless otherwise included in an item on this agenda.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT
3. Approval of Minutes from previous meetings.
Commissioner Ruiz-Healy moved to approve the Minutes of the November 20, 2013 Elections Commission Meeting and it was seconded by Commissioner Safont.
PUBLIC COMMENT: David Pilpel made several language suggestions that he felt needed to be clarified.
The roll call vote was UNANIMOUS to APPROVE the minutes.
4. Discussion and possible action to review the November 5, 2013 Municipal Election for substantial compliance with the Election Plan approved by the Elections Commission.
Commissioner Matthews reported that BOPEC met two weeks ago and voted
unanimously that it be forwarded to the full commission with a recommendation that the full commission make a finding that the Department of Elections substantially complied with its election plan for the November 5, 2013 Municipal Election. Commissioner Matthews moved that the full commission make a finding that the Department of Elections substantially complied with its election plan for the November 5, 2013 Municipal Election. It was seconded by Commissioner Ruiz-Healy.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT
The roll call vote was UNANIMOUS to APPROVE.
5. Director’s Report.
Director Arntz certified the election last Friday.
Division Reports
A. Administrative (Budget/Personnel) – Director Arntz attended the Mayor’s budget instruction meeting and 1.5% will need to be cut from the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, then 1% in additional cuts for the next fiscal year.
B. Ballot Distribution - Debriefing on RFID and going through the process with the city.
C. Campaign Services – Looking at the online payment process for filing fees. For the November election, June 10, 2014 is the deadline to file nomination forms for Supervisor.
D. Outreach – Primary work is debriefing and writing reports on activities. Outreach managers attended an elections conference last week
E. Poll Workers – Training newsletters are out; a raffle was held and chose a group that properly put all of the materials in the correct bags on election night and that information will be in the newsletter.
F. Precinct Services – Gathering information from polling sites and inputting into the database; receiving surveys back from hosts, and determining which sites will continue to be hosts for the next election.
G. Publications – Ballot shells for June are complete.
H. Technology – Migrating from one email program to another which is taking up a lot of their time. Currently they’re working on an online application that would allow one to reserve an outreach event. They’re also working on another application so that polling place locators can do all of their work on tablets.
I. Voter Services – A lot of debriefing and figuring out how to further automate processes so there is less manual handling of the information.
J. Warehouse – They are going through the inventory to see what items are salvageable vs. recyclable or garbage. Commissioner Yu asked how long must certain things be kept and where are they stored? Director Arntz stated that the election code determines the amount of time.
PUBLIC COMMENT
David Pilpel is interested in a budget narrative of how the department is going to deal with the lack of a November 2015 election and how that saves the city money, on the one hand, but makes it more difficult to retain staff with election procedures experience, on the other.
6. Discussion and possible action regarding proposed revisions to Municipal
Elections Code section 530.
A proposed revision to Municipal Elections Code section 530 was circulated prior to the meeting and discussed at the meeting. Commissioner Rowe questioned whether the proposed requirement that an individual author be a San Francisco registered voter may be too narrow. She proposed a requirement that an individual author be a San Francisco resident rather than a San Francisco registered voter. Commissioner Rowe also questioned whether the requirement that entity authors must have a San Francisco registered voter as a “principle officer” or a member may be too narrow. She proposed deleting the latter requirement with respect to entity authors.
Commissioner Jung questioned the proposed definition of “principle officer” as ambiguous.
Commissioner Gleason stated that the State of California produces a book that we should research and utilize as a benchmark for this issue.
Commissioner Matthews agreed that “entity” is a vague term and said he joins everyone in not being comfortable with it. However he is unsure how an author’s requirement to be a SF registered voter makes Commissioner Rowe uncomfortable.
Commissioner Rowe stated that she can imagine a ballot initiative that
could impact San Francisco residents who are not registered voters because they don’t meet eligibility requirements, but who would be tremendously impacted by the ballot initiative. She felt that voters might like to read their viewpoints, and does not think they should be precluded from paying for a ballot argument in
support of or opposition to the initiative that would affect them.
Commissioner Yu inquired if the Department had address verification software.
Director Arntz stated that the Department's database is set up to recognize whether or not an address is a business or a resident. They do drive out and canvass the city to verify an address if need be.
Commissioner Rowe agreed to work with Deputy City Attorney White to make
another round of revisions to the statute, and to bring it back at a future meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT: David Pilpel stated that he liked the language as proposed, which clarifies existing law. He also felt that the term “entity” as defined in the current proposal makes sense.
7. Discussion and possible action regarding proposed revisions to the San Francisco Municipal Elections Code regarding vote-by-mail ballot processing
Commissioner Matthews stated that BOPEC met two weeks ago and had a robust discussion with Chandra Friese and what remains of the draft is what you have before you. (12/18/2013 Meeting of the Elections Commission SF 2nd Draft Revision Municipal Elections Code Vote-By-Mail Practices; 12/18/2013 Meeting of the Elections Commission SF from Commissioner Gleason Vote-By-Mail Practices)
Commissioner Gleason stated that he wanted to focus on five items regarding vote by mail ballot handling practices: 1) Chain of custody 2) Bar code explanation 3) Webcams 4) Department of Elections Voter Voting File 5) Access to the list of who voted.
Commissioner Matthews stated that this didn’t come from BOPEC with a recommendation to adopt because some are not ready to be codified. For instance, everything pertaining to the webcam is developmental as the signal cuts out from time to time and no one has control over that.
Commissioner Rowe expressed concern over proposing statutory codification of very detailed technical procedures that are evolving, and for which the Commissioners do not have practical expertise.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Chandra Friese (Vote-By-Mail Pipeline document) stated that she hopes that the Commission takes Commissioner Gleason’s points of codification of certain of those items seriously. She further hopes the Commission will agree to continue this project.
Sasha Omerie stated her support for continued study of this issue.
Allyson Washburn stated her support for continued study of this issue.
Ryder Dawson stated his support for continued study of this issue
Beverly Eden stated her support for continued study of this issue
Lee Hudson stated his support for continued study of this issue
Donna Peguissepe stated his support for continued study of this issue
8. Commissioners’ Reports.
Commissioner Rowe stated that she sent Supervisor Chiu the Commission's letter urging proposed revisions to California Elections Code section 12223 (with respect to 1,000 registered voter per precinct issue), and has received a response from him via email that he was looking into it and that his aide will get back to her. She also reminded Supervisor Chiu that he had committed to the Commission last year to work towards repealing the measure that the Board of Supervisors had passed relating to the page limits in the voter information pamphlet and again he said that his aide would get back to her.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT
9. Public Employee Performance Evaluation for Director of Elections John Arntz.
(a) Public comment on all matters pertaining to this agenda item.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT
Commissioner Matthews motioned that the Commission go into closed session. It was seconded by Commissioner Safont. The roll call vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.
(b) CLOSED SESSION. Closed Session was held pursuant to Brown Act section 54957(b) and Sunshine Ordinance section 67.10(b) to discuss the performance evaluation of a public employee.
(c) Discussion and vote pursuant to Sunshine Ordinance section 67.12(a) on whether to disclose any portion of the closed session discussion regarding the public employee performance evaluation. Commissioner Matthews moved that items discussed in closed session not be disclosed to the public. Commissioner Ruiz-Healy seconded.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT.
The roll call vote was unanimous to approve NOT to disclose the discussion.
10. Public Employee Performance Evaluation for Commission Secretary Tachina Alexander.
a) Public comment on all matters pertaining to this agenda item.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT
Commissioner Matthews motioned that the Commission go into closed session. It was seconded by Commissioner Safont. The roll call vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.
(b) CLOSED SESSION. Closed Session was held pursuant to Brown Act section 54957(b) and Sunshine Ordinance section 67.10(b) to discuss the performance evaluation of a public employee. (c) Discussion and vote pursuant to Sunshine Ordinance section 67.12(a) on whether to disclose any portion of the closed session discussion regarding the public employee performance evaluation. Commissioner Matthews moved that items discussed in closed session not be
disclosed to the public. Commissioner Safont seconded.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT.
The roll call vote was unanimous to approve NOT to disclose the discussion.
11. Announcements
Commissioner Rowe stated that this was Commissioner Gleason’s last meeting.
She thanked him for his invaluable service and expertise over the last ten years, and noted that during that time, he attended 128/130 Elections Commission meetings and worked 14/16 elections as a poll worker.
Commissioner Matthews also commended and thanked Commissioner Gleason, and presented him with a 1912 Reprint of the 1st Municipal
Election in SF, Commissioners Safont and Yu also commended and thanked Commissioner Gleason.
President Rowe reminded all Commissioners that their harassment prevention training must be completed by December 31st.
12. Discussion and possible action regarding items for future agendas
New officer elections will be on the agenda for the January meeting.
NO PUBLIC COMMENT
13. Adjournment 8:49 pm