City of Chicago Board of Election Commissioners met January 9.
Here is the minutes provided by the Board:
Board Members:
Staff:
Marisel A. Hernandez, Chairwoman
William J. Kresse, Commissioner/Secretary
Jonathan T. Swain, Commissioner
Lance Gough, Executive Director
Charles Holiday, Assistant Executive Director
Adam W. Lasker, General Counsel
James P. Allen, Communications Director
Peter Peso, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer
Lorel Biameuser, Manager- Purchasing
Bill Perez, Coordinator Hispanic Outreach
Sarita Villarreal, Consultant
Geneva Morris, Videographer
Trish Sheehy
Guests:
Cheryl Jansen, Equip for Equality
Tracy Hartlieb, Equip for Equality
Waldeep Singh, Dominion
Helene Gabelnick, League of Women Voters of Chicago
Judd Ryan, ES&S
C. Betty Magness, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Michael Dorf, Adducci, Dorf
Camille Trok, Veritext Court Reporters
I.Call to Order: The Chairwoman called the meeting to order at 9:32 a.m.
II.Roll Call: All Board members were present.
III.Consideration of Agenda: General Counsel requested that the Board not take action on Item VII (A), the approval of a contract for furniture rentals with Hall's Rental Service for tables and chairs to be used at the Board's training locations; without objection, this item was removed from the agenda. Otherwise, no change to the agenda.
IV.Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of December 5; 2017. Commissioner Swain moved to approve the Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of December 5,2017. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The motion was approved by unanimous vote of the Board.
V.Executive Director's Report
• Looking into space for the Chicago Board Annex location. The space used in 2016 at 15 W. Washington will not be available. There is a space available at 16 W. Adams, which is another former Walgreens.
o Mr. Gough wants to use this new space for 2018, but doesn't believe that we will need it in 2019 because that election will have a much smaller ballot and we should be able to use our space on the lower level of 69 W. Washington for Early Voting, The 2019 ballot will only be for 4 offices, whereas the 2018 ballot will be a full ballot. Estimated time to vote in 2018 will be 10-15 minutes, whereas a 2019 ballot will be about 2-3 minutes.
o The 16 W Adams lease will have the same conditions as the 2016 lease for 15 W. Washington. Mr. Gough requests permission of the Board for him to go ahead with negotiations with Walgreens. Walgreens normally leases such space for $80,000 per month, but they will lease it to the Board for $25,000/month.
o We need to redo some of the electrical at the new locations and have talked to the City, and they are ready to go.
o Dean Ftikas is working on obtaining the necessary permits.
o Based on the 2016 experience, Mr. Gough believes that 120-125 voting units will be used at the new location.
o Mr. Gough would like to have it fully ready by mid-February.
oJim Allen will work on publicizing the change of location.
• Tomorrow staff will be meeting at the ACLU's office to discuss the pamphlet being prepared to inform people who have completed a criminal sentence of their voting rights. Other organizations at the meeting will be the ACLU, the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Rainbow PUSH, and Chicago Votes.
• Because the Federal Government named elections as Critical Infrastructure in 2016, we have a meeting scheduled with the FBI on January 25 to talk about the upcoming elections.
A. Assistant Executive Director (Charles Holiday)
• The Registration Department has begun processing changes of address from the ERIC system.
• We have received staffing from A-Pro to assist the Registration Department.
• We completed the last records exams from the Chicago Board of Elections cases on Monday; still working on cases from Cook County.
• Tomorrow we will resume our weekly meetings on electronic poll books.
B. Communications Director (James P. Allen)
• Recently we have been working on the necessary signage, forms, envelopes, and mail piece designs. The contracts with the various printers were approved by the Board at its last meeting and we are now working with the printers on designs and signing off on proofs.
• Additionally, we have been keeping up with the Electoral Board and Hearing Officers' schedules. John Powell, Supervisor of Electoral Board and Early Voting, and his crew have been very helpful in that regard and have flawlessly provided the needed information to post on the website.
• Finally, there is an event that Mr. Holiday will staff on Saturday to encourage the registration of qualified 17-year-olds during the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday weekend. In tandem with that we have completed the mailing of brochures to all the educators that were identified by the Mikva Challenge as being involved with civic engagement. Thanks to Commissioner Swain for informing us of the event this Saturday.
Mr. Gough invited Ms. Tracey Hartleib to present the report from Equip for Equality. Ms. Hartleib stated that she was recently appointed the Manager of Voting Access Chicago Project to ensure that the City of Chicago's polling places are accessible to people with disabilities.
1. Equip for Equality is working to expand the volunteer base by recruiting from colleges and universities to conduct the accessibility surveys in the March Primary election; also conducting outreach to our pro bono attorney network and law students to recruit them to participate in the March election project.
2. Equip for Equality is updating its training program and materials for the surveyors along with a FAQ document for election Judges.
3. At the March election Equip for Equality will be using a new state of the art electronic survey that will be much easier for the polling place surveyors. It will also allow us to generate improved reports after the election.
VI. Old Business
A. Infrastructure Projects and Changes in Election Administration: Mr. Gough had nothing to report at this time.
B. Electronic Poll Books: Judd Ryan, of ES&S reported that everything is on track for the ' March election.
C. Voting Equipment: We are still in the process of evaluating the various bids.
D. Legislation: General Counsel had nothing to report at this time.
VII. New Business
A. Approval of a contract for furniture rentals with Hall's Rental Service for tables and chairs to be used at the Board's training locations for judges of election and election coordinators. Deferred.
B. Professional Services Agreement between the Chicago Board of Elections and Ronald Boyd.
The Chairwoman stated that Mr. Boyd had been a full time Board employee. Mr. Gough added that Mr. Boyd retired early which left us without someone doing to conduct the services that he had performed. He has agreed to return as a contractor for the upcoming election.
The contract would be at a rate of $35 per hour not to exceed the sum of $80,000 over the term of the agreement. The term of the agreement is from January 1,2018 through December 31,2018. Commissioner Kresse made the motion to approve the agreement for Mr. Boyd's services, during calendar year 2018, of preparation of the Board's Early Voting sites and Receiving stations and polling places. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion. The motion passed by unanimous vote of the Board.
C. Approval of Contract for Printing of Forms, Envelopes, Signs and Handbook, 2018 Primary Election between the Chicago Board of Election and Lake County Press (Handbook).
Purchasing Agent Lorel Blameuser recommended that the Board award the contract to Lake County Press for their 2"^^ sample, as opposed to the sample that they originally had submitted, based on detailed specification for IFP (Invitation for Proposal). The second sample is a more enhanced book. Lake County Press' bid was still lower than the other bidders.
Motion to award the printing of the 2018 primary election handbook to Lake County Press in the amount of $69,782.00 for a term of December 26,2017 - May 31,2018 was made by Commissioner Kresse and seconded by Commissioner Swain. The motion passed by 3:0 vote of the Board.
D. Board action pursuant to 10ILCS 5/10-8 and Section 500.11 of the Board's General Rules on Administration to determine whether the following petitions for advisory questions of public policy are in apparent conformity with mandatory provisions of the Illinois Election Code.
General Counsel Lasker explained that section 10-08 of the Election Code requires that when we receive signature petitions for ballot access, whether for candidates or referenda, we are to certify all petitions that they are in apparent conformity with the mandatory terms of the Election Code unless an objection has been filed. The Board received approximately 35 different petitions for advisory referenda. Of these petitions the staff identified 5 that are not in apparent conformity with the mandatory terms of the Election Code.
1.Petitions requesting that a "rent control" question of public policy be presented to voters of the 1st Ward, Precinct 1.
The headings of the petitions petition expressly states that the signers of these petitions reside in various precincts of the 46th Ward. Section 28-6(b) of the Election Code requires that in order to initiate a referendum by petition, you must reside in the territory where you are intending to place the referenda up for vote. We believe the voters of the 46*'' Ward are not legally authorized to initiate a referenda in the r* Ward, that is clearly stated on every sheet of the petition, we did check to see that every page of the petition was uniform. A motion to find that the petition that was signed by voters in the 46*'' Ward to request a referenda for the r* Ward is not in Apparent Conformity was made by Commissioner Swain, seconded by Commissioner Kresse and approved by a unanimous vote of the Board.
2.Petitions requesting that a "rent control" question of public policy be submitted to voters of Chicago's 3rd Ward, Precinct 10.
Mr. Lasker explained that Section 28-6(b) also requires that the advisory referenda be signed by registered voters within the territory equal in number to at least 8% of the total votes cast for Governor in the preceding Gubernatorial election by the voters of the precinct or precincts within the territory where the question is to be submitted. For this particular referenda petition we refer to the 2014 Gubernatorial Election and the signature requirement calculation required at least 22 signatures, but only 18 were filed. A motion finding that this petition is not in Apparent Conformity was made by Commissioner Kresse, seconded by Commissioner Swain and passed by unanimous vote of the Board.
3.Petitions requesting that a "rent control" question of public policy be submitted to voters of Chicago's 4th Ward, Precinct 15.
Mr. Lasker explained that the signature requirement for this petition was 41, there were only 39 signatures filed. A motion finding that the petition for referendum in Ward 4 Precinct 15 is not in Apparent Conformity was made by Commissioner Swain, seconded by Commissioner Kresse and approved by unanimous vote of the Board.
4.Petitions requesting that a "rent control" question of public policy be submitted to voters of Chicago's 22ndWard, Precincts 5, 6,16,17, 20, 21 and 24.
The signature requirement calculation for those precincts would be 131, only 122 were filed. A motion finding the petition is not in Apparent Conformity was made by Commissioner Kresse, seconded by Commissioner Swain and approved by 3:0 vote of the Board. 5. Petitions requesting that a "community zoning" question of public policy be submitted to voters of Chicago's 25th Ward.
For this ward-wide referenda the signature requirement was calculated to be 754, and only 105 signatures were filed. Commissioner Swain made a motion to find that the petition was not in Apparent Conformity, Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion and the motion passed by unanimous vote of the Board.
VIII. Legal Report: General Counsel Lasker stated that there was not much to report, but complimented Mr. Holiday and the Electoral Board staff. Mr. Laskar anticipated that the next meeting of the Electoral Board will be Friday.
IX. Financial Report: None
X. Public Comment: None
XI. Executive Session: None
XIl. Adjournment: Commissioner Swain moved to adjourn until the next regularly scheduled Board meeting of January 23"^ at 9:30 a.m. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. Motion to adjourn was approved by unanimous vote of the Board
The meeting adjourned at 9:53 a.m.
https://app.chicagoelections.com/documents/general/BoardMeetingMinutes-2018-01-09.pdf
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