MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNTY OFFICERS DESIGNATED TO FILL A VACANCY ON THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
NOVEMBER 13, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Discussion/Action: November 6, 2009 Committee Meeting Minutes.................................... 1
Discussion/Action: Special Election if Required................................................................... 1
Discussion From the Public.................................................................................................. 7
Adjournment........................................................................................................................ 9
The Committee to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors was called to order in the Administration Building, Auditor's Office Conference Room at 5:02 p.m. Members present were: County Treasurer Tom Kriz, County Recorder Kim Painter, and County Auditor Tom Slockett.
Slockett: Let's call the meeting to order. The first agenda item is the November 6, 2009 Committee meeting minutes. Is there a motion? Do we have those Casie?
Deputy Auditor Casie Parkins: They were sent out.
Kriz: They were sent out, yes.
Parkins: They're on the web.
Painter: I would move approval.
Kriz: I will second that.
Slockett: All in favor say aye.
Painter: Aye.
Kriz: Aye.
Slockett: Aye. All opposed the same sign. Motion passes.
Slockett: Now we're at discussing the special election if required. We did have a petition that was submitted to the office and we received it for processing. It's in process. It looks like without having the actual results, it looks to me as if there will be a sufficient number of signatures. My staff estimates that we'll have it before 6:00, approval. We don't have an approved petition at this point in time. I can just tell you that normally we have 250 or 10 signatures, and it's very easy to approve them. When you have this many and they are collected by a variety of people, it's amazing the amount of different ways they can be filled out that are questionable. I want to thank County Attorney Janet Lyness for being available to consult with about it. We've basically decided in favor of counting the names unless we're absolutely certain that they're not a Johnson County signature, realizing that there is a process available to challenge it later. For example, what's required is a signature, a date, and an address. The Code 331.306 states that people have to make a statement of their place of residence. Some had street names but no address. After consulting with the County Attorney I decided that if it was a known Iowa City street we decided to accept those. Some of them had an address but no city. If it was not known to not be a Johnson County address we counted those. Some had a partial date. So they would have October 30th or something like that but not a year, and on most cases it would be on page that did have listed on it, so we counted those. The process we used is we were intending to stamp a number on each page, but they already came prenumbered by the submitters so we decided that was a waste of time and we just had someone check their number, and they were stamped received. When we determined the number of pages we gave the petitioners a receipt stating that it was received but not accepted. Then the process was to divide into teams of two people to go through each page and strike out any known non-Johnson County addresses, or if they were blank, if they left some of the required pieces of information out. Then they would write the number of signatures on a page accepted. Those are entered into a spreadsheet. Then we'll print out the spreadsheet and double-check them back against each page to make sure that the number was data entered correctly and so forth, and then we'll have a number. That should be completed we hope before 6:00. It appears to me there will be sufficient signatures but I can't say that for sure at this point in time. Any questions?
Painter: I don't think so.
Slockett: Any thing from you Janet?
County Attorney Janet Lyness: No.
Slockett: I would suggest that we recess. Are you going to be available in the building?
Painter: Yes, I'll probably just stay.
Kriz: I'll be here.
Slockett: Do we need to recess until a definite time or can we just recess until…
Lyness: Why don't you just recess until like a quarter till 6:00. Why don't you just recess until 6:00 and get back together then if you think its going to take that long. And then if people want to leave they can come back too.
Slockett: It would be better to have a definite time than to keep people waiting.
Lyness: You could recess for 15 minutes and if its not ready you could just have people wait too. Whatever your preference is.
Slockett: Well, its 5:09 now, almost 5:10, so do you want to just recess until 5:45 and then if we're not finished yet we can recess again?
Painter: That sounds good.
Slockett: Does someone want to move that we recess?
Kriz: I'll move that we recess until 5:45 and reconvene at 5:45.
Painter: I would second that.
Slockett: All in favor say aye.
Painter: Aye.
Kriz: Aye.
Slockett: Aye. All opposed same sign. We are recessed.
Recessed at 5:09 p.m.; reconvened at 5:46 p.m.
Slockett: It's time to reconvene the meeting. We do have a valid petition with 7,810 signatures. I think it would be appropriate to discuss setting an election date. I've got some information on what is possible. I've talked to the Secretary of State's Office and to County Attorney Lyness. The first possible date is December 15th. That's exactly 32 days from today. That is a date that we can choose, but it's not required that we do it that soon. It's the earliest possible time. It has the advantage of being while the University is still in session. Finals are that week. It's the Tuesday of finals so faculty and staff and many students will still be in town. It will essentially be a ghost town the following Tuesday, which is the 22nd, and its right before Christmas. I think it would be a real problem getting poll workers to work the election that day and the same for the 29th, which is New Year's and still in the holiday. There are a lot of people traveling, people visiting, and so forth. The next possible date on a Tuesday is January 5th, and that is a possible date of a Bowl Game, again, which might make it difficult to get people to be willing to work. The school of instruction is the previous week, and that's still in the holiday season. Our office feels that would be a very difficult date as well. The next date is January 12th on a Tuesday, and that date is less problematic in terms of getting poll workers, staffing the polls, and so forth. The disadvantage is the University is not back in session yet, and it is on the following Tuesday. So if we had it on January 19th, that would be a date when a big chunk of the electorate is available to vote. Whether they will or not is unknown. County Attorney Lyness agrees that that's the window we should consider, from December 15th to January 19th. There was an election recently, not long ago. The County Auditor in Crawford County passed away, and there was an election, and it was about 60 to 70 days after the election. Apparently, there was a Dallas County Sheriff's Race, I believe, according to County Attorney Lyness, where it was about the same timeframe. December 15th is 32 days. January 18th is 67 days. Another disadvantage for the 15th is the candidates nominated by petition would have to collect 250 signatures and have it filed in my office by next Friday. This is the weekend where, although the forms are available on the internet, if they wanted to get them from our office, they wouldn't be able to get them until Monday, so there would be just five days to collect signatures. Also, the political parties would need to convene a convention according to their party rules. We don't know what those are, at least I don't, and certify the selection of their convention to me by next Friday, so one week. When I say I don't know, there are members of the Republican Party here who can speak for them. The Democratic Chair stopped by this afternoon. During his visit, he said he didn't believe it was possible for the Democrats to convene a convention. They have a seven day notice requirement, and he felt that it wouldn't be possible for them to supply a candidate's name by next Friday. Afterwards, I received a phone call and he said it's in doubt, so it's uncertain whether they would be able to or not. It's sort of around an interpretation of whether calling convention is the same as reconvening a convention. In order to name a candidate, they have to reconvene the Democratic Convention of about 330 delegates, and the question is, do the same notice requirements apply to reconvening as to calling the convention, and he didn't have an answer to that. So at this point in time, we don't know for sure whether that party could supply a name. I would be interested in hearing what your thoughts are, but also if the Republicans could tell us if there is a problem with them for the 15th.
Bill Keettel: I simply don't know.
Slockett: You don't know either?
Keettel: We have this referred to the State Party, and we haven't heard all of the answers yet.
Slockett: Okay, and that's essentially the same thing for the Democrats.
Kathy Hogendorn: Is it a conflict for Painter to be contributing to this decision since she was on Janelle Rettig's Election Campaign…
Painter: No.
K. Hogendorn: …and she was on the three panel Board or panel to decide who was to take Larry Meyers' place.
Slockett: Well, all three of us were on that board.
Painter: We all were.
K. Hogendorn: But she was on Janelle Rettig's Election Committee.
Painter: Right. I've been advised by the County Attorney that the political appointment law has no conflict of interest embedded in it. That it is a law that's written with the full expectation that it places upon us, when we take our oath, it's one of our duties to be one of the three people on that panel.
K. Hogendorn: But now you're making a decision on a special election.
Painter: Right.
K. Hogendorn: So now it's a whole new arena. Now you're also involved in this with someone that is a major player in this election.
Slockett: Well, basically you're bringing up legal issues, and our…
K. Hogendorn: Well, it's a fairly major legal issue.
Slockett: Well, let me finish the sentence. Our legal advice comes from the County Attorney, who doesn't have a problem with Kim being in this process.
Painter: And I would just note Tom, as a reminder, the minutes of our first meeting reflect that I advocated strongly for an election, and then we voted in the following meeting. In the interim time, I received a great deal of feedback from a broad array of people who preferred not to have the money spent. But I want to make it very clear that I have great respect for the election process, and that I'm very impressed with the fact that a petition has been presented, and that we have signatures to have an election.
Slockett: Well, and I think all three of us expressed a desire, all other things being equal, to hold an election. Our thought was that the only way the $75,000 or thereabouts dollars could be saved for an election is if we made an appointment, and then the public could make a decision to hold the election, and that's what has happened. I think we're comfortable with that.
K. Hogendorn: And that's what you're elections have cost in the past, is $75,000?
Slockett: Well, it's very difficult to predict a hypothetical election in advance, when at the point that estimate was made, we didn't know when the election would be, which makes a difference to how many people are going to be able to vote.
K. Hogendorn: But your past elections, have they come close to that amount?
Slockett: Well, the last election was in 1997 for Recorder, and the amount we paid for poll workers was very different. The costs were very different. The one previous to that was in 1994, and it was combined with a state-wide constitutional vote on a constitutional amendment, so there aren't any good fits to exactly predict. The other thing is we still haven't decided when it's going to be held. We don't know if the political parties will have candidates. We don't know how many candidates there will be in the election, and so it's very difficult to predict those costs.
K. Hogendorn: But everybody throws around 75,000.
Slockett: 75,000 is the lowest number that, at the time, I received from my staff. And depending on when we hold it and what our expectations are for turnout, it could be less than that, depending on how many satellites we have, and that sort of thing. It's very variable. We adapt our satellites to expected turnout. One of the things that we have very good figures on is what to expect in a satellite. We like to have a minimum of 100 and hopefully closer to a 125 or 150 voters to make it cost effective to have a satellite. In our City Election we had seven petitions for satellites, and we're required to have those satellite sites when it's petitioned. We tried to discourage the petitioners because we didn't think they were good locations. What petitions don't understand is just because you set up a satellite, doesn't mean people are going to vote there. So what we try to do is accommodate people when we know they are going to vote early. So our best satellites that are cost effective, are the Iowa City Library, the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, and our best Hy-Vee location is 1st Avenue on the east side. Those are the kind of places we might have a satellite. But it also depends on who the candidates are, what kind of interest we see in the election, and that sort of thing. But, we try to conduct elections in the most cost effective way by accommodating the wishes of the voters in casting their votes. That's how we set satellites.
Kriz: Well, I'm sure as we proceed through this process, you'll be able to keep some detailed records on that, and we'll have a better idea for the future of really what it does cost, if it's 75,000 if it's 80,000 if it's whatever it be. I would just assume that we keep good track of that, and then we'll have a good handle on that. As we talk about a date, I certainly like the later in January. I think it serves two purposes, be it the 12th or 19th. More the 19th, only if all the University people are back in town. It gives people who may not be affiliated with a party to go out and get their signatures, get their name known by people, get out in the public. It gives the main two political parties the ability to call their convention and nominate their candidates. So, I think it makes a better election process for people and for the voters to get to know the people, by setting a date, possibly the 19th of January. So I would much prefer that to the 15th of December. I think that really eliminates some people from being involved. I would wholeheartedly suggest the 19th, or 26th even, of January, so people have time. But, I just throw that out.
Painter: Sure.
Slockett: I agree. I like that too.
Painter: I would agree with that too. As a person who essentially made a decision to vote for the appointment process with the understanding that it was the only chance the citizens had to save the money, and that they could then come forward and request, by petition, to have that election, they want that election, and the last thing I want to do is set it at a time when we're not going to have the maximum number of potential voters on hand to take advantage of that situation and have a great turnout, a great election. So I agree with you Tom, the 19th would be great with me.
Slockett: Alright. I agree because when we started out, I didn't think that 67 days fell in what would be permissible at the earliest practicable time. But since then, after talking to the Secretary of State's Office, the County Attorney's Office, and they have consulted with other counties, they feel that as long as we have reasons why we're doing it and we can defend it, that falls within the window of what's at the earliest practicable time. Frankly, I don't think in the past, that was the ruling that we had. So people change and decision-makers change, and I'm more comfortable with the longer time frame. It gives everyone time to take a deep breath, decide what they want to do. It gives people time to actually campaign and put their campaigns together and so forth. Because we're right in the middle of the end of year holiday period, doing it on the 19th would be good. You threw out the 26th. In a way that would be preferable because, on the 19th, some people are just coming back to town, but at the same time, the schools are back in session on the 4th, so many people will be back in time to experience the campaign and so forth. But I didn't actually discuss the 26th with anyone, and no one suggested that as being in the window of at the earliest practicable time, so I'd be a little uncomfortable with that. Although that would be, if it were totally permissible, I think it would be fine, but one of the reasons there's a tight schedule for holding an election to fill a vacancy is the Code realizes the desirability of having that elected person to fill a vacancy in place as soon as possible and having the certainly that they're going to be there. I think that's one of the reasons the language, at the earliest practicable time, is there. So, I'm willing to discuss more.
Kriz: Well, no. I'm fine with the 19th. I'm just saying I would like to give it as much time as we can and still not draw it out that it doesn't make any sense.
Tom Cardella: Can I ask a question?
Slockett: Please do.
T. Cardella: Because a private citizen submitted the petition, and the petition wasn't submitted by a political party, if either political party were to decide to contest the petition that was brought forth today, does that push the election? Does the petition need contested then push that out or would that date still be firm?
Slockett: Okay. First, any individual can contest the signatures, which is what I think you're referring to. And the election date is not changed unless the three person panel, made up of the County Auditor, the County Treasurer, and the County Attorney, accept the challenge and set aside the petition. So the election process goes forward in tandem with contesting signatures, and then it's interrupted if the petition is set aside.
David Hogendorn: What would the submission date be for a candidate to submit his name?
Slockett: Well, it would be 25 days before the 19th, which we'll need to figure out.
D. Hogendorn: Is that the 26th, 27th of December?
Slockett: Yes. December 25th, Christmas Day, so that would be moved to the 28th, the next business day.
D. Hogendorn: December 28th?
Slockett: December 28th.
D. Hogendorn: Alright.
Kriz: Well, I'd certainly make a motion that we set the election for January 19th, 2010.
Painter: I will second that.
Slockett: All in favor, say aye.
Painter: Aye.
Kriz: Aye.
Slockett: Aye. All opposed, the same sign. Okay, we've got an election date set for January 19th, 2010. Alright.
Slockett: Is there any discussion from the public?
Deb Thornton: The only thing I would like to offer in terms of dealing with locations and early voting and that sort of thing, is given the history of the current, what you might consider off-season elections versus the first Tuesday of November kind of timeframe, particularly with this most recent City Council Election, where there were, because of the petitions, an extraordinary number of early voting locations and virtually no turnout in way shape or form. It doesn't appear to me to be statistically relevant to turnout to how many locations you have. I would encourage you, Tom, in terms of looking at locations prior to any petitions being submitted, to look at a fewer number certainly better than a greater number. The Auditor's Office here is easily accessible to handicapped and is widely open, so certainly people are not hindered in their ability to vote because of that. It doesn't seem to me that by having multiple Hy-Vees and multiple other locations, that it helps.
Lori Cardella: As far as early voting, would there be early voting in this?
Slockett: Yes, in every election, there is early voting. The 40 days before or as soon as ballots are available. Since we won't have the names of the candidates until 25 days before, or I guess it will be December 28th.
Kriz: December 28th.
Slockett: So we wouldn't have early voting available until later that week. By law, it's available at the counter in the Auditor's Office, the petition deadline is 32 days before the election date, so the 25 days was the 25th, so December 18th, would be the petition deadline for satellites. And again, as I said, we would not have had satellites at the petition locations if it were up to us, but we aren't in control of that process.
Thornton: Right, and certainly given this timing, with the idea that many people will be out over the Christmas Holidays and New Year's Holidays. Again, it wouldn't seem to be appropriate or practical to have a lot of satellite sites unless they come in by petition. Then, you can't avoid it before the 19th. But it doesn't seem to drive turnout and if people aren't around, then it certainly would cut down cost.
Slockett: Right, and the other thing that we've learned statistically is that the further ahead of an election you have satellites, the less interest there is. The voters want to see the campaign. They want to take everything into account before they vote. One of the suggestions I had was if you're going to do this at a time that far into the year when many people will be gone for the campaign, to have satellites very early on so that people could have the opportunity to vote. But my response to that is, our experience is that is not cost effective. Just because you theorize, well if we set it up early on, then people can vote early. Well, people don't vote that early. That's not what they want to do. And especially in a small turnout elections, because of our experience, we focus right before Election Day for the satellites, because that's when it's cost effective to do it. I would expect that in an election like this, when a lot of people are out of town, that the candidates will make efforts for early voting by mail. So there'll probably be quite a few of those, given the holiday period and everything. That's actually one of the more expensive ways to do it, so it's not cost effective, but that's a convenient way for many people to vote in a time period like this. Bill, do you have a question?
Keettel: For the record, this is Bill Keetel from the Republican Organization. What would be the earliest date that one could request an absentee ballot in this seasonal.
Slockett: Right now.
Keettel: You can. So right from the start?
Slockett: Right, yes. The Code used to have a beginning time to request absentee ballots, but the Legislature removed the beginning date to request.
Keettel: And what would be the earliest date that your office will mail out absentee ballots?
Slockett: As soon as they're available. Since we won't have the candidates available until the 28th, later that week. So probably the 30th or 31st, we would be mailing them out.
Keettel: Thank you.
Slockett: You're welcome. And our Committee will no longer have a reason to meet. We will no longer exist at the close of this meeting. I take that back. We should probably have a meeting to approve the minutes. So do you want to do that next Friday? We'll put the web up subject to approval, we'll put the minutes up subject to approval before that, if you agree, but then we could make any corrections.
Painter: Next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is Fall School at the Marriott in Coralville, but it does finish up Friday at noon or 1:00.
Kriz: Early, yes.
Painter: So we could do, you know, 4:00.
Slockett: 4:00 Friday? Okay, that sounds good.
Kriz: That's fine. And I would encourage, if we can, because one of the questions that came up for me during the whole process, was the $75,000 tag. This is the perfect time that we can really break it down and so we'll know. From the comments tonight, that's still a question, so let's…
K. Hogendorn: That was one of the barriers we hit, was people said, well this is going to cost $75,000. Well, that's just a number that's been picked, an arbitrary number.
Kriz: And that's what I'm saying. I think this is the perfect time to.
D. Hogendorn: To get a handle on what it is.
Kriz: To really do that, and I know the Auditor's Office can do that.
Slockett: Well, and every election will be different.
Kriz: Nothing will be the same. That's right.
Slockett: It depends on so many variables.
Kriz: But at least we'll know when it's all said and done.
Slockett: So we'll know that an election held this time of year with x number of candidates and so forth, will cost so much at a particular point in time. But it's very difficult to predict election costs ahead of time.
Kriz: It will serve as a reference point.
L. Cardella: One more question. Would you notify myself if there is someone contesting our petition.
Slockett: Sure. We'll put it up on the web, but if you would like, we can email you or give you a phone call.
L. Cardella: A phone call.
Slockett: A phone call, sure.
D. Hogendorn: I will have another question on that. If there is somebody who contests it, then do we all get back together to go through the contest procedure or whatever we want to call it?
Slockett: No, the County Auditor, County Treasurer, and County Attorney meet, and it would be a public meeting, we would post an agenda and everybody would be able to participate.
D. Hogendorn: Alright.
Kriz: It would be a slightly different group than this one here.
Painter: Yes.
D. Hogendorn: Sure.
Painter: The County Attorney has to be on that group.
Slockett: The County Attorney is on that group.
Kriz: The County Attorney replaces the Recorder.
D. Hogendorn: Just so I know that we'd be able to come.
Slockett: Just by statute.
D. Hogendorn: Alright.
Slockett: Any more questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn?
Kriz: I move we adjourn.
Painter: I'll second that.
Slockett: All in favor say aye.
Painter: Aye.
Kriz: Aye.
Slockett: Aye. Opposed? None. We're adjourned.
Adjourned at 6:17 p.m.
______________________________________________________________________
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the _______ day of _____________________, 2009
By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Committee on DATE at TIME.