SFEC Regular Meeting May 2024 20240516 0101 1

Perfect welcome everyone to the May 15 2024 regular meeting of the

San Francisco elections commission I'm the president Robin Stone The Time Is Now 6:02 pm and I call the meeting to

order before we proceed further I would like to ask commission secretary Marissa Davis to briefly explain some procedures

for participating in today's

meeting oh thank you president

Stone the minutes of this meeting will reflect that this meeting is being held in person at City Hall Room 408 one doct

Carlton B goodlet Place San Francisco California 94102 and remotely via WebEx

as authorized by the elections commission's February 15 2023 vote

members of the public May attend the meeting to observe and provide public comment either at the physical meeting

location or remotely details and instructions for participating remotely

are listed on the commission's website and on today's meeting agenda public

comment will be available on each item on this agenda each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak

six minutes if you are on the line with an interpreter when providing public comment you are encouraged to state your

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to lower your hand in addition to participating in real time interested

persons are encouraged to participate in this meeting by submitting public comment in writing by 12: p.m noon on

the day of the meeting to elections. commmission sfgov.org it will be shared with the

commission after this meeting has concluded and will be included as part of the official meeting file thank you

president Stone thank you secretary Davis uh will you please proceed with

item one commission roll call President Stone presid vice president Parker she

has an excused absence commissioner bernh holes here commissioner D here commissioner

loli here Commission Wong here president stone with the members president

accounted for you have a quorum great thank you the San Francisco elections

commission acknowledges that we are on the unseated ancestral homeland of the rayu shalone who are the original

inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their

Traditions the remit to shalone have never seeded lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as caretakers of this

place as well as for All Peoples who reside in their traditional territory as guests we recognize that we benefit from

living and working on their traditional Homeland we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the rsh community and

affirming their Sovereign rights as First Peoples closes agenda item number one we'll move to agenda item number two

general public comment public comment on any issue within the election commission's General jurisdiction that

is not covered by another item on this agenda welcome

pH one second let me get your time going here

nobody it's too

loud okay you're good to go yes so tifi is my name artist name I

wasn't aware of this commission actually I just found out tonight which is surprisingly empty nobody cares it seems

never mind let's go straight to the point I wrot it down generally I don't write anything it comes from

automatically the words come out of my mouth okay but let's do it so basically

because of the expensive consequences of the pandemic of an

intelligence one of these consequence is to have exacerbated the trust in government

officials and the system by which they are supposed to be soundly elected so

the future of San Francisco SF which is not science fiction s Francisco

incidence is a totally new system that's going to be by drawing basically you select randomly a

certain number of locals who are going to decide who can

run or not for a position after any candidate has demonstrated enough

responsibility and critical thinking to be part of the draw this

limit enormously the possibility of Corruptions because in that case the

first mandate initial mandate the length is reduced okay

now we need to pay attention meanwhile how basically unintelligence here is

going to self- destroy it's automatic so the system

today but with More Than Just a Little Help From My

Friend the SKU of San

Francisco from me to you all

have a good night thank

Youk you anyone

online thank you secretary Davis that closes agenda item number two we'll now move to agenda item number three

approval of previous meeting minutes discussion and possible action and previous elections commission meeting minutes I'll open

the conversation for

Commissioners commissioner d uh yes I um had a couple of um minor

typo Corrections which I uh sent over to uh secretary Davis and and to president

Stone um I also feel like we've kind of gone from kind of gross detail to almost

no detail and I think it's uh useful to um provide um some detail when the

discussion uh especially when it um includes suggestions or proposal that

kind of show what the Commissioners are engaging in so for example for the uh

April minutes um you know commissioner Wong had made a

comment about adding Chinese and Filipino media for the Outreach for

non-citizen voting I thought that was kind of important to note um you know I had suggested targeting schools with um

underrepresented populations for the high school ambassador program um so anyway I uh made a couple

of suggestions like that uh and then for item number

six um I just thought it would be good to show that we took public comment before

we actually voted so just flipping the order a little

bit and then for item number seven we had a fairly extensive conversation on

the issue of um trans transliteration of candidates names into Chinese characters

and it just wasn't clear where we came out on it so just adding a sentence indicating that we basically concurred

with the Department's recommendations to modify the current policy just so it's clear kind of what the conclusion of our

discussion was and

for for the March

one uh go for my Note since seems to have signed me out

um uh same couple of typos um for item number

four uh commissioner Wong had mentioned the importance of collaborating with cbos to

ensure uh that great content and the mythbuster Mondays was also available to

uh people who don't speak English um in item number five um uh

again uh there was a pretty extensive discussion about how we could um take

advantage uh and communicate that it's not just about election night in fact president Stone had mentioned that it's

really like election week and then I had suggested it's actually election month and maybe to kick it off with the start

of early voting um and then commissioner Wong had again made a comment about the

importance of targeting ethnic media and uh making sure that the

FAQs that are so have a lot of information are also available in multiple languages and then finally for item

number six we had also agendized we had talked about agendize the racial Equity progress report so just a few additional

details that I have provided in uh with track changes to commission secretary

Davis thank you commissioner d I'll I'll touch on the one comment you

made just about uh going from too much to too little um since we've talked

about this multiple times and for our new commissioner just to share a little bit

about the previous discussion the minutes are not supposed to be a transcription of the

conversation uh we offer multiple ways for folks to review what the commission

discussed it is really just a formal record of what was

agendized very Loosely uh like a loose like a general statement about

that and then any action that was taken the more detail that is required is around public

comment um and so I have been in the operation of what

we had discussed at the beginning of the year um sorry I'm like leaning heavily

forward um at the beginning of the year and last year we've had multiple

conversations I don't believe that it's necessary to include all of what you just shared that's my perspective um

because we do have we follow the rules of what we have to include and then we also have the video recording and the

video recording also is available in multiple locations and in the uh

description of the video recording we also put timestamps so folks can watch

and find the individual discussions so they could see that

um that said you know I don't want to get in the way of what

you want to include um and so if you want to include those things I'm not I

I'm not going to say no but I I'm not I don't personally think it's necessary um

the only one part that I I don't feel that I want to or that I would like

uh uh oppose is a very charged word I just would not agree about is the part

about the consensus of the Department's policy I don't think that we had a

general like we didn't have that takeaway of like we all agree it's this

I think we one thing that maybe is an alternative to that is like we agreed not to continue the discussion or that

no I think the fact that no action was taken kind of speaks for itself um but I wouldn't feel

comfortable suggesting that we had some sort of like consensus that's the only

part of the contents of what you said that I personally don't agree

with just want to give yes commissioner

D yeah I I I um appreciate the efforts to kind of you know slim down the

minutes and I I and I think it's great that we're starting to put time stamps in and bookmarks I think that's all

really helpful for the public um I do think that you know kind of providing a

gist of the discussion which in most cases I think was done there were some good summaries of kind of what was

discussed um and uh that I could called out a few things because you know uh I

think it's help ful for someone who doesn't want to go back and and pour through two hours of video to you know

just see kind of what the commissioner engaged on especially if there are kind of policy issues that are consistent

with um what you know the commission is been advocating in terms of greater

access Etc so I I think that's helpful and I think it adds one or two sentences

so that's why I call those out in particular um and I'm totally fine with switching it to you know no further

action was taken it's just felt like it just felt like it wasn't clear what happened at the end so adding something

like that would be fine cool so just to um recap I want to make sure we're on

the same page so your suggestions we can accept those um with the exception of

the one agreed upon tweak and then going forward if there's content that you want

to add unless there's a disagreement about the actual like content of it I think

it's you should definitely feel that you can is that a fair is that

fair completely I just think in the interest of transparency just to make it easy on the public fair

enough anyone

else thank you commissioner D for your efforts um and

always watchful ey over the minutes I appreciate it um let's move to and I mean that

genuinely um let's move to public

comment oh sorry before we move to public comment do we have General consensus of everyone else to do what we

just discussed just a general head nod would be great okay cool just want to make sure it's not just commissioner die

in myself making the decision for everyone okay let's move to public comment

okay let's move to agenda item number four director's report discussion and possible action regarding the May 2024

director's report I will hand it over to director erns thank you president Stone so uh as you can see from the report

there's start things are starting to kick uh kick into action in the department for the November election I

think the one of the main points to reiterate from the report is that Friday is the beginning of the nomination

period for candidates to file for mayor and board supervisor contests um and I think really from

there I can take any questions and and clarify anything that's in the report but so want to make sure that people realize that Friday is the the beginning

of the following uh period for mayor and voter supervisors thank you director ARS open

it up for

yes commissioner Wong thank you pres president Stone um

yeah so I just I want to highlight two parts one on the non-citizen voting web

page as well as um the Monday's hearing on AI in elections so I'm going to start

with the easier one the non-citizen voting reformatted web page and I had a

chance to take a look of the web page it looks fantastic and I really appreciate director ARS of incorporating the

feedback that we discussed from our last meeting ESP especially useful to inform non-citizen folder that they might

answer no to the question related to um registrating for and participating in

elections on their naturalization application I think that would really reassure noncitizen voters um to proceed

with their right to register and vote in Schoolboard election so that I really appreciate and I also notice that you

provide information related to requesting for vacation letter after

each election that's something that you know we talked about last time and then I really appreciate director AR's um you

know effort in incorporating those um discussion um and I'm really excited to

see that there's an upcoming language accessibility advisory committee meeting coming up um to discuss um non-citizen

voting Outreach at foot with grassroot organization and do you have any idea when the next

advisory committee meeting will be held so we haven't set the date yet it'll be in June prob in June okay good to know

um and I am interested in attending um the meeting to listen and without making

any comments um and I just want to check with DC Russell um from my understanding

um Commissioners can attend the meeting to listen and without making any comments eson as it doesn't exceed the

Quorum is that a correct understanding yeah there's no problem there's no issue with you attending the meeting and

listening as long as there's not a quorum of members there gotcha should gotcha um since I think we need to co

coordinate among ourselves so we don't exceed the Quorum I think I would suggest adding this item for the future

agenda for the next meeting um yeah because I'm I'm still pretty new I just

don't know if is something that we can discuss right now I think it should be discussed after is it is agenda next

meeting kind of clarification what are you asking to have agenda um to talk

about my my potential attendance to the language accessibility I don't know if I

need permission or okay I don't uh so I think we can talk about it

right now okay okay I don't think okay I mean I think folks can weigh in I I

happy to add thoughts but I don't think we need a formal agenda item okay gotcha

um yeah I would love to attend um the language accessibility advisory

committee meeting and then just would love to hear all your feedback and if anyone else also is interested in

attending thank you uh commissioner I point of clarification as well for the director is that meeting in a public

forum yes yeah be people attend the meeting remotely so it's not a it's not

an inperson meeting so anyone could anyone can watch it

right um and is it recorded it is okay I I don't see any reason why not I

think personally um I'll speak for myself uh I'm always wary of when and

I've not always but I've learned to try and I be cautious of for my own self

this isn't me telling you what to do but with the departments committees um knowing that my presence can be

potentially intimidating um as you know the commission um for example when I go

to the department I almost 100% of the time tell the director that I'm I'm

coming so that I'm not a surprise hey you know um so that's that's more advice

of just um something to think about but knowing that it is a public

forum uh that anyone can listen to I don't see I I don't I personally don't have any

concerns I think yeah that's just

advice you you can continue with your yeah yeah if if other folks have want to

weigh in on that or immediately they can or we can just wait but you can continue your comments commissioner D do you have

a feedback on this particular issue no I'm delighted that you're planning to attend thank

you any other comments on this topic just I want to make sure go you can

finish your okay yeah perfect um all righty so I am going to attend um so you

know please keep me posted once the meeting date um is available and I do

have a second comment on the AI um in election special hearing at ruse

committee on Monday um I just want to check with DCA again if I can make

comments and ask questions related to the special hearing it is noted on the director's

report because it's part of the director's report that was included with the packet of materials on the agenda

you can you can ask him about that yes perfect just want to be very careful um

so I had a chance to actually reveal the hearing recording I find it really

educational informational it really high to recommend the public um and my fellow Commissioners to review the recording if

you haven't done it already it is really really helpful to hear from uh director Arns the ethics commission and also um

expert in this field and just to have like a quick Rec recap and also verifying if I understand the issue

correctly the dep department does not monitor or regulate uh campaign speech

though the department jurisdiction covers misinformation related to the operational side of the election such as

for registration V process for example I think one example is say someone you

know um maliciously talked about um misguiding people on the voting date um

or how they should register that's something that direct um the department can um cure and you know alert the

public about is this my is this um correct understanding of what the

department can do in relation to this information conceptually yes the the

specifics would matter but yeah I mean the department would monitors and potentially would respond to any speech

related to the operations of the election like you like you like you mentioned but every statement doesn't

necessarily mean that we're going to respond to it just it depends on the situation and the and the um and the

facts involved but yes we don't we don't monitor we have no authority to monitor or to regulate and we have no resources

to enforce any sort of political speech gotcha yeah that's I think is my

understanding from the hearing as well so I'm happy to and want to highlight that for the commission and also the public I think that's really important

to know what the jur jurisdiction is um and on the hearing you mentioned about

the department has develop protocols for identifying and reporting to sorry responding to false and and misleading

elections information um and you know subsequently activate a evaluation and

response plan um and you you know basically Give an example that um once

the department at identifying problems they can alert the public about that by releasing press conferences updating the

web page and also spreading the information to um nonprofits Partners um

and I do have a questions about just just wondering not that I'm imp that you you should do that uh I question that um

for the reporting and evaluation response could the public for example

report misleading information related to for the registration the operational side of things to the Department of

Elections according to this protocol yes okay and then so the public

can report to you correct and then you will you might I might not follow up with that depending on the content

correct okay that's good to know um and so on the hearing the ethics commission

also testified on their own protocol right um to Monitor and regulate some

aspect of this information and I think Lamy the disclaimer um and I was just

wondering if there's any ongoing conversation or collaboration with the ethics commissions on this particular

issue so we have uh exchanged uh we had

a conversation since the hearing yes gotcha because I remember the executive director was talking about um she want

to learn more about the department response plan and I think that would be really great to um perhaps you know when

things are more materialized you can share more with the commission or the public um you know the collaboration or

more detailed plan for dismantling AI related disinformation related to the

oper operational side of V voting I think the public will be benefited to learn more about what the department is

doing and then the coll collaboration with ethics commission if possible yeah I think it depends on what we there's so

many variables there's no there's no one set approach to this and also AI doesn't really create new concerns around the

election it creates perhaps new methods or it it amplifies the the ability

ability to generate yeah information that would be adverse to the Integrity of the election so AI itself has not

created new scenarios that we haven't dealt with before right so I don't know what You' want me to report to be honest

with you um so if you could clarify please um I guess so going into more

details on the hearing I heard from the ethics commission that they want to

educate the candidates and committee on AB 730 um and not

necessarily investigate anything related to that law it's more about educating the public on on this and potentially

also collaborating with um the department on you know perfect Tain the existing system so I'm just

wondering if there's more information on the existing system and you know if there's any plans or updates from the

ethics commission would be great too because you you you mentioned that you started conversation with ethics

commission just wondering if there's anything come out of it it would be great to share certainly yeah if that

makes sense certainly yeah I think that's more about following up with what the hearing was about and and just happy

to see more Co coordination among government agencies and commissions in this important issues and I I totally

agree with director ARS that AI generated issue is not new in terms of this information but because of AI the

ability to generate this information has increase substantially and that make um

you know elections officials like yourselves and the commission hard to you know dismantle those information and

make sure the public have correct information um prior to the election so I I think that's something that I I'm

just really interested in learning more about certainly I think that's it from my side thank

you commissioner D thank you president Stone um I was going to ask director ARS

about what you said about AI at your session so thank you commissioner Wong for that executive summary um so a

couple other um comments um thank you for the update and all the work you're doing with young

people in the city I I think it's fabulous and really interested in the student mock election um and

uh uh I'm wondering we'll we'll get an update on that or is that uh you know

you're providing the information to them to sign up for it will we have a chance to hear um about the results of this

student mock election well the secretary state's office conducts the mock election so we are providing information

to the schools to to join the Secretary of State effort in organizing and

conducting the election as far as results the the results of the election are posted and

so you can even go on sos' website now and see past election results uh from

the mock elections and the mock elections consist of State contests and

state measures uh certainly we can provide the information to the commission yeah uh so

since it's at state level I suspect there won't be any rank Choice voting then right correct okay um also I'm glad

to see uh making progress on the Go Green campaign that was good to see uh

and then I of course am extremely delighted that uh uh you're going to be

working on improving the elections results reporting so I'm very happy to

to see that uh and um I would be happy

to uh make myself available if there are any questions on some of the suggestions

that I put forth in the memo before and then I also wanted to offer

myself as a resource if there's anything on the education and rank Choice voting

um that I can you know help the department on I just happen to have a lot of experience with rank Choice

voting and and how to message it properly I've worked with Fair vote before so if I can be of service please

do not not hesitate to call surely okay thank you thank you thanks commissioner

D anyone

else okay I had a couple of um comments uh I was looking for

something just bear with me something that came up

requests find it um oh okay I remember what it is now

okay um thank you director Arns for a thorough report and all the great work

um especially being responsive to commission input as always it's really

awesome and also just seeing continued great registration numbers in alignment

with the commissions priorities thanks um can you speak a little bit about why

you were asked to present about AI at at

this special meeting to the extent that you're

aware of I mean I don't know the Genesis for me I

was contacted by supervisor Preston's office uh asking what the Department's

role would be in relation to deep fakes and and that was in I think December and

then from there there was that was told that a hearing was was imminent on AI

and that elections would be asked to report on it and then uh later and then

also ethics would be included ethics commission would be included and it wasn't until uh on Monday when the

hearing took place and that's that's my knowledge of our role or reason we were brought

into that hearing so perhaps it doesn't sound like you're saying this but one might wonder if it has to do with a

candidates like someone who's running for office might be concerned about deep thinks about his own

campaign um I and you don't have to answer that but I'm just curious if perhaps that had to do with it because

as it pertains to elections you know we shouldn't it really would be the ethics

commission that would deal with concerns about campaigns um as it pertains to

responding to operations of the department and actually administering the election

would you say you have a pretty robust process for responding to any kind of threat whether you know through the

city's mechanisms of the like through law enforcement FBI

um and the mayor so whether it's AI or someone physically intimidating someone

would you say it's similar a similar type of protocol that you would follow for something you saw with a deep fake

that you would with a physical threat as well would you say it's the same yes

and like we could we can't stop anything I mean this we can but we can certainly

put information out that that contradicts or uh refocuses people on

you know the actual uh process and

the but if if if the Department of Elections wanted to put out information and message to the public and to voters

that there is disinformation Mal information or or misinformation Mis dis

and Mal uh we would have a very solid response and support from a lot of

different agencies and we would draw in a tremendous amount of media attention

quickly uh ethnic media wouldn't be an issue uh we would be in multiple languages uh and it would happen nearly

instantaneously and that's been my experience if something doesn't go right in elections uh the people show up and

if we were putting something out there that there's something needs to be fixed people would show up so

I so and it to me it's it's not the concern isn't the action It's the

reaction to the issue and I I think and then it's then in relation to the reactions how much time has passed from

the action to the Rea because you don't because I don't want to have my my concern is that there's um too much time

where people reacting to bad information without the department being able to respond to it and put out good

information and that's to me where the damage would would because maybe someone would would vote and they and we've

counted that ballot and they voted on on bad information we we can't we can't fix that you know uh so we want to be able

to have a a response to the so the reactions are are are minimal to any bad bad information but we have the means

and we have the support in the city and also outside the city and also the community organizations would would be a

part of this as well um yeah I think we San Francisco especially could be would

be very responsive and I think it'd be a very thorough response to any sort of bad information that was circulating

about an election or elections process thank you for sharing that um I

appreciate that Insight I think it's important also just to not

over overemphasize fears ahead of November um

as well I think there are a lot of a lot of different Industries and

areas of concern and around you know the election in a national lens around the

role of AI and I think not just the election but lots of other um sectors

and industries and policy implications that go that I think there are a lot of

folks who don't work necessarily in AI who might be saying what are we doing about this what are we doing about this

right um and I don't think necessarily that's the purview of director like the

director of elections of San Francisco but I do think what's important is that we have a strong response protocol if

something if there is something that occurs whether it is from um uh AI or

physical intimidation or anything like that and I know to be sure um that that

is something we've continued to talk about and that the department is working on so the only other thing I would add about that is I think it just continues

the conversation about how important it is that relationships with the media and

the department remain strong um and what I mean by that is around

results reporting and um making sure that the media knows how to look for the correct

information on the website uh and understands the length of time it takes

to count ballots which is stuff we've really already been talking about so I

think it just kind of further amplifies that need um but it's great to know that

there is a response plan I think people way above all of our pay grades need to

be um approaching this issue uh congressionally in other ways um so I

think for the short term important that we just have a plan to respond to immediate threats one question unrelated to AI uh

that I wanted to ask was actually I had two questions one was just about the budget process uh and

the elections commission's desire to include a line item for digitization of

our records uh do you know if that will remain intact or get approved slash has

it been approved will it be approved can you share a little bit has it been cut good glad to hear that mayor's office is

listening um please keep it in um okay cool I had one question about the

training uh moving from uh in-person interviews sorry not

training the in-person interviews to and I want to just find where it where it is

I think it was on yes the department would continue to integrate equital practices hiring temp election workers

allow applicants to complete a short interview questionnaire in Li of traditional face tof face

um and we'll work with HR to vet the content of the questionnaire does that

also cut down like create more efficiencies for your team additionally so will require fewer hours and you know

do you feel that you'll still be able to uh like it can achieve the same goal

or outcome of having uh like a robust process that you

need if you even need a robust process like will it still serve the goal that you're trying

to get by going that path we're hopeful we actually did this partially for

people who for for folks who assisted with the um processing of the ballots

last election so now we're going to expand it out to other areas of our operations so we had we did test yeah so

so so yes it worked it worked fairly well uh for for the ballot processors

and we're hoping that we can expand that out and it'll continue to to work well so so I don't mean to be funny here but

um you might also consider how AI would impact that because uh folks may also be

using chat GPT so uh it might be worth

putting in the questionnaire into chat GPT to see what answers would come out so if folks

are putting in an answer that just was spewed out of chat gbt you can compare

against what answers you got full full circle there with AI um that was it

otherwise thanks thanks again for this report and I appreciate all the hard work excellent thank you commissioner

loli there we go that's better um thank you for the report and I just have a

question about the section um congratulations on submitting your racial Equity progress report I had a

question on the first part um about the outreach program to those um individuals

who are involved with the criminal justice system do you have a way of tracking the number of people that are

being impacted by this or

measuring we can we can measure the like one measurement is the number of people that we engage with uh during our

sessions and I think we do that uh but once once we're no longer on

site it'd be hard for us to really track we don't potentially we we could track

registration if they use the hard copy registration form um because when we go when we have

Outreach we we generally categorize a certain uh number of registration cards

for an event or to to a group so potentially we could be tracking that as well um but as far as we don't we don't

track them as if we have not tracked them if they're voting or uh beyond the registration status really

or just just are engaging and that would that would be anonymous but so so the the engagement the point of Engagement

then potentially at registration in the past we we have we have measured those sorts of instances

is is there a way to give us a sense of how many people as a result of this

program and Outreach have registered who were previously not registered and potentially be in a future report for

the the for the jails yes uh I think pre-registration for those in the in

juvenile probably I'm sure um but in the jails yeah and that's probably one of my

previous director's reports too I don't remember okay if we put the number in there but I can we can I can provide

that the next next month okay so yeah thank you I think also point of uh

clarification I think you also include it you include it not from a registration perspective but in terms of

participation in the election um in your postelection report uh of the um folks

who participated in jail voting but not registration so that is a data point that we get okay through that um but I

imagine prisoner Legal Services probably has like a very well I know you guys work together on that anyways oh yeah

commissioner see um just just clarification I'm more interested in

registration um as a result of the Outreach as opposed to

participation yeah okay thank you I was responding to the director saying he

thought he included it in a previous report and I was saying I think that it's actually the number that he's singing about is the one of the post

election review yeah but could be wrong always anyone

else okay let's move to public comment

no hands are raised thank you thank you secretary Davis and um thank you

director ARS uh let's move to that closes agenda item four let's move to agenda item

number five Commissioners reports discussion and possible action on commissioner reports for topics not covered by another item on this agenda

meetings with public officials oversight and observation activities longrange planning for commission activities in areas of study proposed legislation

which affects elections and

others all right well I'll just share one quick um item in the vein of digitization of Records uh secretary and

Davis and I have been talking over the last couple weeks about digitization of

Records pending that uh the budget approval um and so I've asked that we

start kind of throwing things away in the file cabinet that are not necessary

and starting to catalog and organize those records um and then should we get the funds to do it we'll be able to good

to go um we'll be able to scan and upload onto onto the website and get

that organized so I have a feeling that once we do get the budget this will be a

probably at least a year process um not just because of the organization of

Records or even the actual like the digitization of them but also more over

getting them on the website and organizing them on the website is a task uh and so I just want to set everyone's

expectations that that not only will take a long time but it also will likely

not be under me as president or I I would assume that folks wouldn't ask me

to do a third year as president so someone else will um have to oversee

that that project um in once that comes around so uh just wanted to get everyone

heads up hopefully we get that um that funding and I think it'll be really important for continuity that we get it

digitized yeah um anyone

else okay let's move to public

comment No Hands raised thank you secretary Davis that

closes agenda item number five uh now we'll move to agenda item number six discussion and possible action

concerning commission's process for performance review of the director of Elections and commission secretary so

I'll just set the table a little bit um as the ever astute commissioner D

pointed out there are no attachments for the secretary's evaluation that's a there's a specific rationale for that

because I was going back and forth about how to approach this um so a little bit of background um

uh former commissioner jonic had in his very lengthy um proposals for the

evaluation process um which I actually I used the bones of in in other ways um

for the director's process I just simplified it a lot um I took a lot of those recommendations and I one of the

things that I thought was really good for the secretary was that we should

align it we should actually detach it from the review of the director um reason being we should align

it with the year the term of the president so he proposed in his

documents that we conduct the evaluation for the secretary in December based on the president's term I agree with this

approach um last year we didn't conduct a review of the secretary and there was

a specific reason for that which is that secretary Davis joined in April um and

uh and um took you know I think the onboarding process she's also a

part-time employee I don't think it would have been Fair uh to conduct an annual performance review uh but so my

proposal of how I want to approach this is actually just to for me and secretary

Davis to uh have a midyear General conversation um and then

of just hey how's it going let's like look back and how digs going moving forward and then conduct a more formal

process at the end of the year um to align with the end of my term as

president and um we would probably kick that off around October November so what

it's not ultimately that far away uh if you do want to provide some thoughts uh

ahead of that I will take those into consideration in my conversation with secretary Davis but um this is the way I

think it it makes best sense um moving on to the director's uh the

director's evaluation so couple things about this so uh

commissioner jonic put together a very

uh strong process um but like I said I wanted to simplify it streamline it a

bit but I used kind of the bones of that and actually condensed it a little bit

um and one of the challenges in addition to that um it was

also an extremely long process for us last time we had I don't even know how

many meetings I don't even want to think about how many hours and so basically

what I did was I took the S the I took commissioner jonic and I think uh BC's

conversation about this streamlined it and then I actually condensed a very specific part about this before I get to

that um one of the biggest challenges we have that you may be wondering how it

fits into some of this is that we changed the June 5th the June meeting to June 5th which means we actually have a

much shorter Runway between this meeting and our next meeting and so that is the

reason why we're not having the full evaluation in June we would do it in July but the process is kind of extended

to provide enough time for everyone to weigh in the biggest difference of

commissioner jonic and my proposal which I actually hope will you all will find

agreeable mostly because I think it will shorten the length of the conversation

is that you all will provide me with your reviews of the director I will do I

will combine everyone's comments into what I believe to be a full recap of

everyone's um and try to take the main points and then share all of that back

with everyone so I will put together like a summary document it won't be everyone's comments every single comment

for every single section it'll be okay I think you know commissioner Loli and commissioner burnol had a similar

comment or you know I think this was addressed in a different part of the review or whatever I'll try and do my

best to honor people's input um and put together a summary document of what I

propos to be the final version I will also share everyone's individual reviews so you'll be able to see okay see how

she may be connected those dots Etc and that way we can review the final the summary document in

our discussion um and that way people can bring specific points that they want

to make sure maybe I I didn't capture in the summary document I just think it'll be a much more efficient process that

way this is like I said not included in commissioner jonic a original proposal

so this is a new uh step in the process that I I'm hopeful you all will agree

with um and then to that vein I I included additional time in my review of

everyone's evaluation um then perhaps everyone else gets I think I gave

everyone two weeks I think I get a little bit more than two weeks if I remember correctly um and the reason for

that is also that it's over the 4th of July I don't plan to work on the 4th of July uh so um those are the those are

the the kind of three considerations I wanted to raise

with that I will hand it over for you all to uh weigh

in yes commissioner D yes thanks for that and for

considering the timing of major holidays and our meetings um

I think one thing that um is missing that was in the proposed um process that

vek discussed last December was the

um um opportunity to request additional

information uh we had talked in the past about how um the commission doesn't have

a lot of visibility into uh um you know

staff interactions with director and yet we're you know expected to evaluate him

obviously that's an important part of his job um and so there were a list of

suggestions that that um uh was discussed by

boek uh we had talked last year about you know 360 reviews employee surveys

eeo complaints um um just objective information that we could consider U as

part of our evaluation rather than you know not having a whole lot to

say just because we don't have visibility over that so where would where would you think that would

fit um would you like me to respond to that yes if there is a

specific uh piece of information that you wanted

that you specifically would like to have us consider feel free to okay raise that

I I never felt fully comfortable in some of that um I think the eeo complaints I

think I was more open to I think our relationship with the

Department is really supposed to be through the director so that is why I didn't I I wasn't trying to

uh opine on those specific items I just didn't I wasn't or rather I wasn't

trying to prevent us from talking about these specific documents I just didn't

think that they were as yeah it wasn't a priority in putting

together the process yeah I mean so I I think I mean you're right that is the commission's uh interface with with the

Department is through the director yet we are the only you know

evaluation point for the director there's no separate DHR process um and he is a senior manager

that you know manages a you know a lot of employees a lot of of temporary employees and so it it would be hard to

provide a a comprehensive evaluation without you know considering that and

providing feedback and it was pointed out that you know in the past uh there

were guidelines that were adopted in 2016 which predates all of us um But it

includes it previously apparently uh the commission used to

invite um you know one or more employees to to to interview uh in closed session

so um that I'm sure is in you of a Anonymous employee survey or some

Anonymous you know kind of 360 process but what I would hate to do is um not

take advantage of the expertise that DHR does provide to you know provide

comprehensive employee reviews and including for managers um and if there are you know

tools or employee surveys that have been done you know I would I would be interested in seeing that because I feel

like you know that's that's where we kind of Punt because again we don't have a lot of visibility over that and yet it

is an important part of his job um just to respond to

that uh so a couple of questions and comments um so you said take advantage

of what DHR does provide are you aware of what DHR provides or you're just making a guess that that's what they

provid I'm guessing their professional HR organization that you know that manages a huge number of employees and

and managers and probably had standard processes and because of the unique

composition of the elections commission and our oversight responsibility for the director they basically are hands off

and you know that's fine um but it doesn't mean we shouldn't leverage their

expertise and whatever tools they use for other managers I see that tools they use for other because I don't know that

they do do 360 reviews like I can't confirm do but I have I have met with

DHR um and the extent to what they offer

is being able to tell us the number of like eeo complaints um for the department and I

will just speak person I I would be very surpris I'm very curious of

where of having a member of the department come and speak I know John

has been invited to come and speak I would not I'll just speak to everyone I would absolutely not be comfortable

with someone working for John coming and presenting to us I think that's

personally I find that inappropriate um and I also don't think we'd be able

to really get the answer like I don't know how objective that would really be actually um but I do think uh when I've

spoken with DHR in the past the because I've gone through this now multi times

of the evaluation and also when we talked about opening competitive selection process I also engaged with

DHR quite a bit and eeo complaints seem to be where at least commissioner jonic and

I landed and I think we talked about it as well uh the trouble is those things

are we can't really get much further than that because they're actually like

confidential um but we could I could if folks wanted to I could uh ask them if

there have been eeo complaints um I could I could reach out and ask well and

and you know I don't know if they do employee surveys that are you know

Broken Out by Department I mean you know I will just say that you

know we've kind of faced the same issue at the state level at the uh California citizens ring commission where there

were 14 of us who were supervising the executive director and this question came about how to do evaluations and you

know they sent their head of HR who gave a very professional presentation on our

responsibilities of managers and and a framework on how to evaluate and you

know they had processes and standard practices in place um and so I'm

assuming DHR you know at at at the city you know probably has equal level of

sophistication so I don't know I don't know if they do an annual employee survey um Citywide and maybe break it

down by Department to provide feedback for managers if nothing else but if that data exists I would want to see it and

leverage it um you know we did have that unique opportunity when we were looking

at uh you know opening up a a competitive search that a number of employees came and spoke to us in public

session and wrote us a letter and so we we had some you know feedback from

employees the last time around even if it was um kind of under under um you

know perhaps with inaccurate information that prompted that kind of response uh

but but yeah we had discussed that it's like how can we get some feedback from

employees I mean I tend to agree I mean I'm not sure how this was done in the past it apparently was a practice of the

commission uh to invite you know a couple employees just to provide feedback just you know in close session

I have no idea how they were selected I have no idea what the process was but um

that seems to me in lie of something that you know might be more objective

and standardized like an employee survey satisfaction survey I mean it's pretty normal in the private sector so I don't

know I can't claim to know what what the what the city does over here but I've got to imagine there's some kind of tool

for employee feedback I would be happy to go back and ask DHR

if they can send us data and that if that's you know in I I can incorporate

that into the uh you know the next two weeks just reaching out to them and saying hey do you have anything that's

readily available because I also would hate to have it slowed down the process as well um so I'll just reach out and

yeah ask them if they have anything and if they do I'll include it right in in

yeah I mean standard statistic too like retention I mean so there's eeo complaints there's retention turnover

you know there any any other kind of of information that we can use would be

helpful I mean I'm sure they do they must do some kind of survey for all the temporary pole workers that interact

with the Department as well I mean I got to imagine there's some some kind of feedback

mechanism so if if it if that's available you know it would be helpful to have that because otherwise we're

literally only reviewing him based on our interactions with the director at at

meetings you know any one-on-one meetings that we have and his own self-evaluation and that's not a lot of

data points it's all so I wouldn't agree with that I mean we also he provides

monthly reports sure he provides report he provides election very robust election plans and postelection

reviews um I just would you know I agree that there are maybe you don't have all

the data you want but I wouldn't say all that we get is I mean the director provides a lot of transparency into what

he does I don't disagree with that but I'm saying we don't get any information from other sources other than the

director that's all I'm saying well I I would also add the incident reports for

the election plans is data I mean I think there are many I just don't yeah I don't

necessarily agree that that's it's only through the director we get full incident reports John isn't the excuse

me director ARS isn't the one who's like providing data on how people

vote I I get what you're saying that you want a different audience of like you

want a different stakeholder to provide other like angles of data but I don't

think yeah I just I just don't fully agree with that assessment um but I I am

happy to happy to reach out uh to DHR and ask

what they have that's no

problem and perhaps I mean just going in response to that commissioner D I mean we could also I think totally fair we

could also provide especially for new Commissioners a list of what data we do

have access to um is so that folks know you know they can consider the types of

things when doing their uh doing their evaluation um because I don't think that

is included at this point in the process so I'm happy to also add that here different uh data points that you could

use to evaluate on these criteria commissioner

Wong thank you for the robust discussion I think I learned a lot from your discussion about past practice and um

Suggestions by uh president Stone and also commissioner D um I have a clarifying questions uh president Stone

when you say EO complain do you mean equal employment opportunity that's correct okay and just to clarify because

I'm I'm super new to this commission so you mentioned that DHR can provide

information related to eeo complaint oh um yeah I just want to have

like more clarification on that totally no problem um they can provide the number of eeo complaints but they can't

provide the content because that's uh privileged gotcha that's useful to know

okay yeah sorry I should have clarified that no worries so only the number but not the contents due to confin um you

know privacy issue okay um and in relation to employee survey I do agree

that it would be great to have different source of information when we conduct evaluation so if if DHR has an existing

survey already conducted on a regular basis it would be useful for us to

consider those when we conduct evaluation and I think what commissioner D was talking about like retention data

or any sort of HR data that they already collected would be extremely useful so it's it doesn't harm to ask digr for

more information but that said I do agree with president ston to not um

summon or ask employees to um testify in close section just because

of just existing power dynamics it is could be scary um even though it's a

close section who knows people can find out and I don't want employees to feel

uncomfortable while doing that so Anonymous survey would actually help if

such thing exists um to prevents power dynamics or things that we don't want to see like retaliation at work so I think

that's kind of kind of just my feedback based on the discussion and I do have two questions um one is just a really

simple question so each commissioner will need to sub submit their individual evaluation form I was wondering will the

public be able to reveal our individual okay what about the final recap

evaluation no yeah that's a sorry continue off I'll respond yeah yes okay

just to confirm that the public would not be able to reveal the individual

evaluation form what about the final recap evaluation thank you for that question I

I uh should have said that from the beginning especially since you haven't gone through this process before um the

commission will hold because I only wrote the commission holds close session to review and agree on a f final

evaluation um none of that will be an open session

none of that will be publicly available all of that is done privately and in fact what will also likely

occur I I mean I don't want to speak for the full commission but I think this is how it worked last year if

I had to guess this is how we will want it to be that this year the director also won't see our

individual uh evaluations either we will agree to one evaluation that I propose I

deliver to him um and last year just to also speak to this since I I should have

clarified this so I I um appreciate the question last year I also um I gave him

a a written copy but then I also met with him in person privately and shared

the feedback and allowed him to ask any questions if he had any um but all of that is confidential so after we've

talked about the process everything is uh not in the open

so including the um director self evaluation would be confidential as

well yes okay thank you so much president Stone

I'm just wondering about the yeah like if it is subject to public information no I'm glad you asked I I should have

said that from the beo no worries I appreciate the clarification and also like coming up with a robust system to

evaluate um the directors in a way that is respectful but also you know make

sure that we're also functioning and then actually providing constructive feedback to the director um and I do

have a second question that I think you might already have addressed but I do want to talk about this so since since I've been on board for only three months

I'm not sure if I have enough information for um I reviewed the form already for example like effectively

uses and manages the Department's budgets and resources I'm sure you know director ARS did a wonderful job it's

just I do not have information um um to do and I can revie past meeting

recordings and minutes but it would be really hard I think for me to do a thow

Assessments in some aspect so yeah it would be great if there's any guidance

or additional information or data to look into and I would feel more comfortable commenting or else I might

just kind of just say I don't have enough information yeah yeah I think that's totally fair um

my my response to that and I think other folks should weigh in as well um is that

you don't have to do anything there this isn't like you know when you show up to the first meeting and we're voting on

something and you're like I don't know anything about this and you still have to vote um it's not actually that

scenario this time um you know if you want to write one sentence of from my

short time I observed X um I also I'll speak for myself in this I I don't think

you should have to go back and look through every single thing if you know that's a lot of a lot of work um and so

you know I think if there's an area that's of particular importance to you you know I I'm supportive but um I don't

overburden yourself would be my personal suggestion but that's that's just me yeah thank you for your thoughtful you

know comments and and feedback um I would take you up on it I think I will um write you a few feedback that from my

you know really brief observations and interaction um at one-on-one with director ARs and

provide constructive feedback but then might not be able to you know provide you know feedback on other as yeah thank

you commissioner thank you commissioner Wong commissioner

laosi yes I have a question about the timeline for the review I am going to be

traveling internationally and so just wanted to make sure that I'm clear that

you need our comments by the 28th or by

July 12th the 28th the 28th

okay should I would it be helpful if we go step by step

um no I'll just have to get them in early because I won't be here I won't be yeah I'm going to have to do it

immediately since I won't be here either okay I just want to make sure that I understand at that so you need them no

later than 28th what I would suggest is if you can get get the self- evaluation

earlier I mean if he finishes assignment early then distribute it early so that

those of us who are leaving town can work on it yeah sure I mean I also I

think we gave I gave him the same amount of time I believe that I gave I would

give us I think I gave two or three but if you recall from last year and commissioner Wong I

know you weren't here the director puts a tremendous amount of work into this um like he writes a very thorough report

self- evaluation I think last year was more than 10 pages um and so I want to

be fair to him also and I don't think any of us write 10 pages um so I just

wanted that's also I wanted to be fair to knowing that he cares deeply about doing that um but if you need a if you

need to Edge into my review you like let's let's talk about that I'm happy

to um but basically the the process is you know giving everyone you know he

gives it on the 13th yeah and then I would just immediately send it to all of

you on the 13th that's fine and then on the 28th you send to me and then between

the 28th and the 12th I am evaluating everyone's and putting together that

recap which will take me a lot of honestly a long time I'm sure it will

so I wanted to leave myself well you're going to get our feedback early because we're going to be gone okay great

looking forward to that um okay and and like don't overburden I mean I think I

think yeah we can hopefully yeah uh so if you need a couple extra

day just let me know ahead of time so that I don't am not bothered I don't want to like have to message anyone

saying where's your thing um right no I'll get in early I am going to to be

out of the country from June 22nd through July um 9th so I am not going to

be available yeah I'm leaving even earlier so I'll be doing it that weekend get I'll get it in early but thank you I

just want to clarify that because it wasn't clear and then I had another question um and DCA this might be

something in your purview I'm not sure um the 360 evaluation if that were to be done

are there any legal implications for doing

a 360 review which is essentially um a review how many people and nonprofits

I'm reviewed in my position in that manner and look at Anonymous feedback and talk to my head

of school about it so it is a common way to get information um and feedback from people

you supervise or just the community at large that you function in is that

something that is not common in the city and county or are there any legal implications because often people are

with bargaining bargaining units what what is that well I'm not a labor lawyer let me

just say that from the outset I don't um I'm not aware my office is not do 360

reviews but it is something that's under consideration so I'm not I don't think there's a legal issue with doing I am

not aware of um I've never received an anonymous survey for my department the

only surveys that I've seen that are similar ilar to that are related to the racial Equity implementation that we've

done in the past couple years across the city so it's possible the department has done that kind of survey and he may have

even reported on that here I'm not sure but I'm not aware of other departments doing sort of like a general employee

satisfaction survey or review the department head survey so I'm just it

may exist but I'm not aware of it okay thank you that's probably why when I

when commissioner jonic and spoke with DHR basically the best they could offer

was eeo complaint numbers um but I will ask I'll ask what they have access to

right essentially it's not a common practice of the city and county I can't speak to that but I will I

you so um okay but no I'm just kidding yeah it's it's just really common it's

very common it's very common in the private sector it's pretty normal I mean I've never had that in any organization

I've ever worked in and worked in have you been a director yes okay that's

interesting yeah it's it's very common in the private sector I also worked in the private sector I'm just saying it's

not just because it happens doesn't mean that it happens here so I think it's fine if they have it they have it if

they don't they don't I'll do what I can as I said um and I will ask and if we

just get EO numbers or no numbers from them that's what we get but I'll ask

yeah and then they should have like turnover and retention numbers that that should be basic stuff they

capture anyone

else okay so just to quickly make sure everyone's on the same page after this

meeting I'll share the form and the process with director Ernst immediately

the next day um ask him to complete the self- evaluation form give him the June 13th deadline as

a reminder that is after our June meeting our June 5th meeting we will not

be agendize this so just a quick reminder of that um when I get it from

the director I will immediately share it with all of you you will have until June 28th to review submit submit as Hefty or

as not Hefty as appropriate um and then

I will put together a recap evaluation that I will share to the full

commission which is basically a proposal of combined comments and include share

that plus all of the uh individual commissioner evaluations so that in the

packet so that folks have that for ahead of the July 17th regular

meeting once we've had the conversation and agreed in hopefully in that one meeting I will then share it with the

director thereafter do I have General consensus

that with that approach okay I'm really really hopeful

the goal in my mind is one closed session meeting okay that is the goal if we can

achieve that then I feel like we're rocking and rolling um

great oh and in the interum I will also reach out to DHR

great let's move to public

comment there are no

great let's that closes agenda item number six let's move to agenda item number seven agenda items for future

meetings discussion and possible action regarding items for future agendas so

just a reminder our next meeting is June 5th in room

416 I think um I think we sometimes like that

room better yeah um any asks I think it will be probably

a pretty light agenda given that we'll have just met uh pretty much just

meeting minutes the director's report but anything

else nothing need agend let's move to public

comment no hands are raised thank you secretary Davis okay

the time is now 7:26 p.m. and the me meeting is

adjourned told you be a quick one thank you commissioner bernh house

by are you considering you said

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erfect welcome everyone to the May 15 2024 regular meeting of the