5-21-14 Minutes ADOPTED on 6-18-21

1. Meeting called to order by President Matthews at 6:00 p.m. PRESENT: Commissioners Safont; Yu; Jung; and Jerdonek. EXCUSED ABSENCE: Commissioner Rowe.
Also present: Director of Elections John Arntz; and Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen.

2. President’s Announcements
President Matthews announced that Vice-President Catalina Ruiz-Healy has resigned after 3 years and will be missed. Under the Commission Bylaws there will be an election for the vacant office. This also leaves an opening on BOPEC which President Matthews asked the commissioners to consider.
New commission secretary, Debra Hayes, was introduced and welcomed on board.

Historically, the July Elections Commission has not met in July but will meet in June for evaluation of the Department’s compliance of the Election Plan. Director Arntz said the IRIS report and other usually requested documents would be available for the June meeting.

BOPEC will not meet in June given that it is the day after the election, nor will it likely meet in July, though that is not certain.

3. Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction unless otherwise included in an item on this agenda.
No public in attendance.

4. Approval of Minutes from previous meetings of April 16, 2014 & April 21, 2014.
Moved by Commissioner Safont to approve the Minutes of the April 16, 2014 & April 21, 2014 Elections Commission meetings; seconded by Commissioner Jung. No discussion nor public comment. UNANIMOUS vote to approve.

5. Director’s Report
To date, there have been 30,000 votes by mail but the phone calls have been less and hard to say where things stand now. The department continues to add administrative resources to assist during elections.
The budget remains the same as the one approved by the Elections Commission in February 2014.
Tagalog will be added to the 2015 ballot on a rolling basis.
Early voting will be available for the next 2 weekends from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and ballot drop off sites at the Polk and Grove sides of City Hall beginning May 31, 2014 – June 1, 2014. The hours on voting day will run from 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. and the deadline for mailing ballots is May 27, 2014.

Campaign Services: Right now, busier for the November election than the June 3 one. November promises to be a busy election.

Publicity: Comcast Spotlight has saved 370 spots for the Department’s PSA, and will run it on their website.
Busses: 1000 interior signs; 33 exterior signs; 30 station ads; 25 shelter ads.
Media: Local newspapers and Spanish and Chinese radio.

Pollworker Division: Have trained 2,000 pollworkers as of May 21. The equipment labs will be open the week of May 26. Inspector classes start week of May 26.
The 61 Field Election Deputies (FEDs) and five back-up FEDs have been trained.

Precinct Services: There will be 576 polling places, all of which have been secured. Materials will start arriving at them May 29.

Voter Services: There are many petitions for the November election, so Voter Services is working now on verifying signatures. It is also the same crew who runs early voting in City Hall.

Warehouse: Testing is finished for the voting machines for the June 3 election and will start delivering those to the polling places.

Commissioner Jerdonek asked whether the Tagalog ballot was going to be tri-lingual and Director Arntz said that they were not at the decision point yet. It might be difficult to have four languages on one ballot. Commissioner Jerdonek asked whether the Board of Supervisors had approved the employee waiver request that Director Arntz requested at a prior Commission meeting. Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen replied that he would look into it. Commissioner Jerdonek asked if the department evaluates inspectors. Director Arntz said that information about Inspectors comes in various ways, including the correct completion of election day forms, feedback from Field Election Deputies, etc.

Commissioner Jerdonek prepared a document listing reports he would like the Elections Commission to receive from the Department of Elections (see attached). President Matthews asked Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen if the document could be considered under Item 8 of the agenda. Given that the subject matter of the document did not fall under an agenda item allowing possible action, the document could be used as an informal handout but not formally adopted. Currently the Commission receives four reports (IRIS; Provisional; Vote-by-Mail; and Edge). This will be further reviewed at a later date.

6. Commissioners’ Reports
Commissioner Jerdonek will be training as an inspector for this election. He’s been collecting PDF memos from City Attorney’s that he receives on paper as useful information for onboarding Commissioners. He thanked Andrew Chen for assisting in gathering the information and will forward to Secretary Hayes and President Matthews. Commissioner Jerdonek noticed that when browsing the department’s page he was receiving error messages every 4th or 5th hit. After contacting Director Arntz, it appeared the error message was due to a bug in the last version of the Chrome browser for Macs. It has been updated and remedied. Commissioner Jerdonek reported that he requested and received from Director Arntz a copy of San Francisco’s Election Observer Panel Plan and a sample of a translated facsimile ballot. Secretary Hayes will make them available for viewing in the public view file.

Commissioner Safont thanked the Department for attending a function at the non-profit she is involved with.

Commissioner Jung suggested the Commission Secretary check in with the City Attorney’s office to confirm the PDF’s Commissioner Jerdonek gathered are the latest version.


7. Discussion and possible action regarding the Sheriff Department’s plan for ballot transportation and security, per San Francisco Charter sec. 13.104.5.
President Matthews thanked Lt. James Shannon for attending and for forwarding the documents included in the agenda. Lt. Shannon was open for questions of the Sheriff’s Department’s plan for transportation and security.

Commissioner Jerdonek asked what percentage of the department made up the 168 deputies participating. Lt. Shannon said it was a quarter. Commissioner Jerdonek referred to Page 2 of the Sheriff’s Department Election Staffing Plan (May 15, 2014, from Chief Deputy Al Waters) and asked what determined a high risk area where more deputies were deployed. Lt. Shannon said that the high risk areas are determined by the Department of Elections and request two deputies at those sites. Commissioner Jerdonek referred to Page 3 of Summary of June 3, 2014 Elections Operation Order (May 15, 2014,to President Matthews from Chief Deputy L. Waters). In the document under staffing he asked what days off per EWW meant. Lt. Shannon said EWW is an acronym for extended work week. This means that during times like elections the deputies cannot ask for time off when additional staffing might be needed. Commissioner Jerdonek asked about the plan for 24 hour security at Pier 48. Lt. Shannon said the 24 hour security has been reduced and amended to 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m. during elections, with two deputies for up to 20 days. Commssioner Jerdonek asked about the security at Pier 48. Lt. Shannon indicated there are 2 deputies that oversee the security of the 2 warehouses at Pier 48. Commissioner Jerdonek asked Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen if the Sheriff Department’s plan is considered part of the overall Election Plan for the purposes of the Charter and if it requires approval from the Commission for that reason. Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen replied that the Sheriff Department’s plan is considered separate and that the Charter says only that the Commission hsall send a copy to the Board of Supervisors.

MOVED by Commissioner Safont that the three documents provided by the Sheriff Department (Summary of Elections Operation Order, Election Staffing Plan, and spreadsheet entitled “San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Projected Elections Costs, June 3, 2014”) be forwarded by the Commission to the Board of Supervisors per S.F. Charter sec. 13.104.5. Seconded by Commissioner Jerdonek No public comment. Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve.

8. Discussion and possible action regarding observation activities of Elections Commissioners for the June 3, 2014 election.

Commissioners Jerdonek, Jung, and Matthews will serve as Election Inspectors at polling places. Commissioners Safont and Yu will continue their observation activities at various polling places on Election Day.

9. Discussion and possible action regarding items for future agendas.
June meeting will have the election for Vice-President of the Commission.
Review of the June 3rd election.
Additional discussion of Commissioner Jerdonek’s request for more post-election information will be discussed at the June or August Commission meeting.

Commissioner Yu suggested to the Department that using sites like Survey Monkey might make surveying easier with reference to Commissioner Jerdonek’s question about how election workers are evaluated.

Adjournment at 6:48 p.m.