Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Chicago met December 5.
Here is the minutes provided by the Board:
Board Members:
Marisel A. Hernandez, Chairwoman
William J. Kresse, Commissioner/Secretary
Jonathan T. Swain, Commissioner
Staff:
Lance Gough, Executive Director
Charles Holiday, Assistant Executive Director
Adam W. Lasker, General Counsel
James P. Allen, Communications Director [absent]
Peter Peso, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer
Lore! Blameuser, Manager-Purchasing
Bill Perez, Coordinator Hispanic Outreach
Gary Rycyzyn, Consultant
Sarita Villarreal, Consultant
Geneva Morris, Videographer
Irish Sheehy
Guests:
Helene Gabelnick, League of Women Voters of Chicago
Judd Ryan, ES&S
Leila Raab, CCCC Clean Count Cook County
Lora Chamberlain, Clean Count Cook County
C. Betty Magness, Rainbow Push
I. Call to Order: The Chairwoman called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m.
II. Roll Call: All members were present
III. Consideration of Agenda
IV. Approval of Minutes: No Minutes were presented for approval at this meeting.
V. Executive Director's Report
• Mr. Gough has a meeting scheduled on Wednesday 3 p.m. to discuss voting procedures for pretrial detainees at 26^^ and California [Cook County Jail/Detention Center] and their other locations around the state. The City and County also wish to talk about voting and issuing IDs to those released from incarceration. There will be about 10 groups that will have representatives at Wednesday's meeting Including; Cook County Jail, County Clerk's office, the Shriver Center and the League of Women Voters.
• Mr. Gough, General Counsel Adam Lasker, Chris Turner, Valerie irons and Equip for Equality met regarding the polling place accessibility project. We are hoping to meet with the City agencies about making their locations accessible. We will have all the data ready by the end of this week. We hope to meet with all of these agencies before the first of the year. After the first of the year we are to meet with the Justice Department (DoJ) to devise the next step.
• Two weeks ago Mr. Gough reached out to Mikva Challenge, but as of this meeting he has not heard back from anyone at Mikva Challenge. Mr. Gough had previously received a letter from them offering their services, and Mr. Gough requests permission from the Board to start to negotiate with this organization. They have been a great help in the past for recruiting young people, including high school students. This office has been involved with them for the last several years and it has worked out very well. The Chairwoman concurred that Mr. Gough should negotiate with Mikva. Commissioner Kresse agreed and added that Mikva has provided us with a great service in the past.
A. Assistant Executive Director
• Assistant Executive Director Holiday reported that yesterday was last day to file nominating petitions and the 1®^ day to file objections. As such, the Board will have extended hours for records review: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. We already have many requests from different groups to work on objections. We are utilizing our public viewing area and we have 50 laptops set up in our lower level conference room. Any overflow will move into our registration division, along with 10 computers to be set up in this conference room.
• On November 14th we conducted a test mock election at the warehouse. We tested 52 e-poll books in 25 precincts in 12 different wards. The tests were successful. Post-election exports were also tested. There were a few minor changes made and upon retesting, found to be successful.
The Chairwoman called upon Election Systems and Software (ES&S) representative, Judd Ryan who echoed Mr. Holiday's remarks regarding the testing at the warehouse. Mr. Ryan noted that the "smart updates" were very quick, most completed within 30 seconds.
B. Communications Director
Communications Director Allen gave this status update on the request for proposal (RFP) to the Board:
Last week top managers and staff viewed presentations by three vendors of voting equipment; Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Dominion and Hart intercivlc. Each presentation took a full day.
• On an invitation for proposal (IFP) - we will have the bid opening today for forms, envelopes, signage and other printing aspects for judge of election handbook. We have been working with staff coordinating ail of the updates on the various documents to make sure that we are ready to go.
• We are at the 2"^^ stage of canvass mailing now., We hope to have that process completed by the end of this week. That mailing should include approximately 163,000 items.
VI. Old Business
A. infrastructure Projects and Changes in Election Administration – Nothing additional that has not already been discussed
B. Electronic Poll Books - already discussed.
C. Voting Equipment - already discussed.
D. Legislation: General Counsel Lasker reported that there is not much happening as the legislature is not in session. There are some news reports that a bill may be introduced to remove Illinois from the Crosscheck database. Mr. Gough and Mr. Lasker had previously attended a State Board of Elections' meeting on that issue, and the State Board voted 4:4, meaning that the situation did not change Mr. Lasker will track this and keep the Board informed.
VII. New Business
A. Approval of Agreement between the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and Equilibrium IT Solutions, inc.
The Chairwoman summarized: this agreement is for an information Security Assessment Report that includes an assessment of the controls, recommendations for remediation, and scoring of risk and security maturity level; among other things and this would take approximately 10 weeks (Mr. Gough clarified, maximum of 10 weeks) for $19,860.
The Chairwoman entertained a motion for the Board to authorize its Executive Director to execute a contract with Equilibrium IT Solutions in the amount of $19,860 for an internal audit and assessment of the Board's IT systems and security, with a contract term beginning on December 5,2017, and concluding upon completion of the project within an estimated period of six to 10 weeks. Commissioner Kresse so moved. Commissioner Swain seconded and the motion was approved by unanimous vote.
B. Approval of Professional Services Agreement for artistic services with Jane Ignacio
Mr. Lasker stated that Ms. Ignacio provides design, artistic services to the Board and has been for several years now. This agreement would renew her contract.
The Chairwoman entertained a motion to approve a contract with Jane Ignacio for graphic artist services for the term of December 5' 2017 through December 31,2018 at a rate of $85.00/ hours not to exceed $85,000/year without prior written authorization by the Board's Executive Director. Commissioner Kresse made the motion. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion and the agreement was approved by a vote of 3:0.
C. Approval of Option to renew Lease with SOE corporation/SCYTL
This is a contract for online poll worker training. Mr. Lasker reported that the Board is currently using this program and it appears to be going quite nicely, and we would like to continue using it.
Commissioner Kresse moved to authorize our Executive Director to execute a 12 month contract renewal with SOE Software Corporation d/b/a SCYTLfor continued online poll worker training software and services in the amount of $30,720. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion and the motion was passed by unanimous vote of the Board.
D. Approval of Attorney Contractor Agreements with the following attorneys as electoral board hearing officers:
Mr. Lasker reported that the Board is preparing for the next round of electoral board hearings. The Board has approached 29 attorneys, and all have expressed an interest in serving as Hearing Officers, many of whom have served previously. Mr. Lasker is grateful that so many attorneys are returning. Mr. Lasker gave the Board a list of 29 names, 1 of whom the Board has already approved a contract, Ms. Barbara Goodman. Ms. Goodman has been assisting Mr. Lasker get ready for the electoral board hearings.
All of these proposed hearing officers have the same agreement with the Board of Elections. The term being December 1,2017 through October 31, 2018, and for a rate of S200/hour for services. Mr. Lasker pointed out that our system tracks the Circuit Court's Generai Order regarding pubiic members of the Eiectoral Board, so we pay the Hearing Officers the same as the Circuit Court requires for pubiic members. Mr. Lasker also emphasized that, depending on the number of objections filed, we may not be able to assign cases to ail of these attorneys, but we would like to have them ail attend the training and briefing program scheduled for this afternoon.
Commissioner Swain stated that while he has discussed this previously with Mr. Lasker, he wanted to state on the record that as we prepare for 2019 and with the possible increase in the number of cases we may see, he wants to make sure that we look at, and continue to exam and push for, diversity among the hearing officers, making sure we have proper representation of African-American, Latino, women, etc. Commissioner Swain asked that Mr. Lasker provide, at his convenience a breakdown of the hearing officers as this would be helpful so that we can work out a roadmap to making sure we have proper diversity going into 2019.
Mr. Lasker responded, that he wiii provide the information to the Board.
Commissioner Swain moved to approve the attorney contractor agreements for the term of December 1,2017 through October 31,2018 at the rate of $200/hour for their services for the following attorneys (list begins on the next page):
1. Mr. Christopher Agrella
2. Mr. John Ashenden
3. Ms. June Brown
4. Mr. Demetrius Carney
5. Mr. Christopher Cohen
6. Mr. Yamil Coion
7. Mr. Mario Correa
8. Ms. Linda Crane
9. Ms. Nina Fain
10. Mr. Terence Flynn
11. Ms. Barbara Goodman (alroady aprovod at prior cboc meeting)
12. Mr. Martin Greene
13. Hon. Anthony iosco
14. Mr. Jamal Jackson
15. Mr. Samuei Jones
16. Mr. Wiiliam Jones
17. Mr. David Kadzai
18. Ms. Mary Celeste Meehan
19. Mr. Joseph Morris
20. Ms. Lynne Ostfeld
21. Mr. Joe Ponsetto
22. Hon. Thomas Quinn
23. Mr. James Rosas
24. Ms. Jeanette Samuels
25. Ms. Yoianda Sayre
26. Mr. Maurice Sone
27. Mr. Frank Tedesso
28. Hon. Edna Turkington
29. Mr. Richard Zulkey
Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion and the motion was passed by unanimous vote of the Board.
VIII. Legal Report
General Counsel Lasker pointed out that much of the Legal Report items have already been addressed throughout this meeting, such as:
• working on ADA compliance.
• getting ready for electoral board sessions,
• Hearing officer training this afternoon. (Mr. Lasker expects the Board to receive 46-72 objections this cycle.)
• The first Electoral Board hearing will be on December 18*^ in the morning and the individual case hearings will begin that afternoon. The first hearing in the morning of December will be to convene the Board and adopt its rules.
IX. Financial Report
A. Commissioner Swain moved to approve the Balance Sheet and Voucher Listings for the City of Chicago - 2017 Appropriation -17-10 dated December 5,2017 in the amount of $348,923.48. the motion was seconded by Commissioner Kresse and passed by unanimous vote of the Board.
B. Commissioner Kresse made a motion to approve the Balance Sheet and Voucher Listings for the County of Cook - 2017 Appropriation -17-05 dated December 5, 2017 in the amount of $42,545.00. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion and was passed by 3:0 vote of the Board.
X. Public Comment
Lora Chamberlain, Clean Count Cook County
Commented on election related topics.
• Ballot on Demand
• Audit for March
Xi. Executive Session: None
Xii. Adjournment: Commissioner Swain made a motion to adjourn until the next Regular Board meeting scheduled for December 12th at 9:00 a.m. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The motion was approved by unanimous vote of the Board. The Board adjourned at 9:41 a.m.
https://app.chicagoelections.com/documents/general/BoardMeetingMinutes-2017-12-05.pdf
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