April 16, 2014 - Minutes

1. Meeting called to order by President Matthews at 6:01 p.m. PRESENT: Commissioners Jerdonek, Jung, Rowe, Safont, and Yu. EXCUSED ABSENCE: Vice President Ruiz-Healy. Also present: Director of Elections John Arntz, Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen.

2. Public comment: None. 

3. Approval of Minutes from previous meeting.
Moved by Commissioner Rowe to approve the Minutes of the February 19, 2014 Elections Commission Meeting; seconded by Commissioner Jung. No discussion nor public comment. Vote UNANIMOUS to approve.

4. President Matthews announced that the Board of Supervisors had appointed Chris Jerdonek to the Elections Commission and welcomed him to the Commission. Commissioner Jerdonek said that he had been a Pollworker approximately 12 times, and has a long-standing interest in election issues. He brings a mathematics and technological background to the Commission. 

4. Director’s Report
Currently, the Department is doing a lot of hiring in advance of the June 3 election.

There is no change in the draft budget for FY 2015-17 since the Commission reviewed it in February.
Tagalog will be the fourth language printed on ballot materials beginning in December 2015; however, it is expected that Tagalog will be incorporated in 2015 elections. It will cost $17,000 to translate current forms, with other costs to follow.

Ballot Distribution: The June 3 election will use two cards instead of the previously estimated three or four. There are fewer ballot measures on the June ballot than is usual for San Francisco.

The Voter Information Pamphlet for June is written and was sent to the printer. On April 17, the polling place information as currently known will be sent to the printer. 

Outreach: There have been 45 presentations so far about what is on the June ballot. 

The Department will send out mailers to every known San Francisco address, some 354,000. Previous mailers went only to registered voters, but this time they will be sent to approximately 60,000 more addresses in hopes of reaching everyone who might be interested in obtaining the materials and who might be encouraged to register.

A 30-second public service announcement has been completed and is available online and the Department hopes to place it with Comcast and any other platforms. It is planned that this will become a collection of PSA’s. The Director is proud of the finished product and encourages all to see the PSA.

Pollworker Division: 70% are recruited for the June election as of this meeting, compared to 50% at the same time in 2012. San Francisco is legally required to provide certain numbers of bilingual pollworkers based on population and language usage, and now that list includes Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. At the moment, the Department does not have enough Korean speaking bilingual pollworkers, and would appreciate any help or referrals to secure enough.

Precinct Services: Has met with people from the disability access community for their feedback and advice.

As of this meeting, the Department is still short 18 polling places for the June election. Voters in those precincts will therefore not receive their polling place location printed on their Voter Information Pamphlet, and will instead receive postcards when their polling place is secured. 

Publications: As mentioned above, the publications are finished and will be printed this week. The Department has met with the U.S. Postal Service and mailhouse vendors to expedite the handling of VIPs, ballots, etc.

The Department is improving its website e-data page, to give more statistics and data, more Pollworker recruiting and poll locating information, and more FED data tracking.

5. Commissioners’ Reports: None. 

6. Moved by Commissioner Safont to adopt the Election Plan for the June 3, 2014 election; seconded by Commissioner Jung. No discussion nor public comment. Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.

7. Moved by Commissioner Jung to approve the City employee waiver for the June 3, 2014 election; seconded by Commissioner Safont. No discussion nor public comment. Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.

8. President Matthews reported to the Commission regarding process for filling post of Commission Secretary. He reported that he and Commissioner Safont had interviewed applicants earlier in the day and were ready to recommend five finalists for the full Commission to meet and interview. It was decided that President Matthews will try to organize this full commission meeting for finalists on Monday, April 21 at 6 p.m. in Room 34, and that he will forward the applications of the finalists to commissioners by email. The interviews will be held in closed session.

9. Items for future agendas. Commissioner Jung raised the issue of the United States Supreme Court McCutcheon opinion and its impact on San Francisco’s campaign finance laws. Commissioner Jerdonek raised the issue of receiving and reviewing the ballot security and transportation plan of the San Francisco Sheriff Department per S.F. Charter sec. 13.104.5.

Adjourned at 6:31 p.m.