18th 2023 regular meeting of the San Francisco elections commission I'm the president Robin Stone The Time Is Now 6
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 thank you president Stone the minutes of this meeting will refect reflect that this meeting is being held
in person at City Hall Room 408 one Dr Carlton be goodlet place in San
Francisco 94102 and remotely via webx 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 a public comment you are encouraged to state your
name clearly once your three minutes have expired staff will thank you and you will be muted please address your
comments to the entire commission and do not to a specific individual while
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when joining by WebEx or a web browser make sure the participant side panel is showing by clicking on the participants
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addition to participating in real time interested persons are encouraged to participate in this meeting by
submitting public comment in writing by 12:00 pm 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 in part of the official meeting file thank you
president Stone thank you secretary Davis will you please proceed with item
one commission roll call yes president Stone present vice president
jonic here commissioner bernh holes here commissioner Dy here commissioner
Hayden Crowley commissioner loli she's absent today and commissioner
Parker here president stone with six members of the uh our present and accounted for it
you have a quorum excellent and I will hand it over to commissioner Hayden Crowley to State the uh elections
commission's land acknowledgement resolution as adopted on October 19th
2022 thank you president Stone I think you're
muted there we go thank you president Stone the San Francisco elections
commission acknowledges that we are on on the unseated ancestral homeland of the ritus alone who are the original
inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their
Traditions the Rhimes rimus aloney 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 rimos community and affirming their Sovereign rights as
First Peoples thank you commissioner Hayden Crowley and with that we'll move to item number two general public
comment public comment on any issue within the elections commission's General jurisdiction that is not covered by another item on this
agenda am I turned on here yes yeah okay um hi there alen burdell District 8 um
I'm here today to ask you to do two things um number one bring the fierce committee to a close number two uh Write
a brief memo to the Board of Supervisors to share what you learned during the redistrict and reform hearings that
you've had why bring Fierce committee to a close well the in in his August 18th
article in the chronicle JD Morris wrote redistricting can have longlasting consequences the district boundaries
influence who is elected to the Board of Supervisors therefore helping determine
whether the body leans Progressive or whether the body leans
moderate why is the unelected oversight body of our Department of Elections so
highly involved in something so fundamentally political as redistricting we've heard from this
Fierce committee that we can't guarant guarantee free and fair elections if we don't have Fair representation at our
Board of Supervisors but nothing about guaranteeing Fair representation at our
Board of Supervisors appears in the charter amendment that established this oversight body 20 years ago and nothing
appears in the what we do section of your website to suggest you have anything to do with guaranteeing Fair
representation at the Board of Supervisors no none of that appears because your
role is centered around policymaking to ensure free and fair elections here in
San Francisco the redistricting conversation belongs at our Board of
Supervisors not here that's why La has a committee set up at their city council
and its sole purpose is redistricting reform show me another
municipality between the Pacific and the Atlantic that has a Department of
Elections oversight body that's pushing a redistricting Charter Amendment at
their city council you cannot do that because it does not exist there's not
one I challenge you I challenge you to present that this commission did the
right thing back in April of 22 when it rebuffed pressure from commissioner Cynthia D to re withdraw its
redistricting task force members this commission again did the right thing when it rebuffed the pressure from
commissioner D to can our excellent uh director and now it's time to do the
right thing once again close this Fierce committee and send a brief redistricting
reform member to the Board of Supervisors you all in closing you all
clearly from my review of meetings being here you all want to
do the right thing and you just need I'm just going to say it some
backbone to push back on some of the political pressure that's been brought to
this thank you okay we have some participants
online okay you're unmuted Kelly you want
I have no comments at this point yeah okay thank
you Lauren do you have a
comment Lauren can you hear me
me hi I don't know if you can we can hear you we can hear you oh I
I hadn't raised my hand or unmuted so I don't know what happened yeah sorry about that are you
ready to go I don't have a comment you don't have a comment okay thank
you okay thank you secretary Davis um we will now move to agenda item number
three approval of previous meeting minutes discussion and possible action on previous elections commission meeting
minutes and I will open the floor secretary
the and just a reminder you can use the um the screen to raise your hand and I will
go in the order commissioner D thank you president Stone um I had
sent a number of um suggested edits just because there were a a number of typos
and um sentences that I felt needed clarification so I have uh pass that
along to um uh to secretary Davis and she has shared it with the other
Commissioners I I might suggest that we delay voting on this to give everyone a
chance to take a look at that and they may have additional
changes thank you commissioner D any other I don't see any other hands raised
point of clarification uh you gave edits and are they're not in this particular
document so they will be in a future sure one I'm sorry it's in your email oh
it's in my email okay
okay um I can respond to the to the proposal or the proposed uh process from
commissioner D um we haven't been voting on minutes we've just been kind of
consensus uh I have not had the chance to look at your specific feedback but if
they're just typos and points of clarification I don't necessarily know if we need to have like a formal vote on
it but I'm open to other Commissioners uh feedback if they would like to see another draft that's fine as
well if there's an area where I feel adamantly different from commissioner D
I'm sure that would make sense for us to bring it again but I'm sure that that it's a pretty straightforward um does
any commissioner have any strong feelings one way or
another um
commissioner Hayden Crowley I'm I'm just not sure because I'm looking at it right now
and um I just like some there's a couple things that are just jumping out at me
here that I'm just not sure about um can you just provide a little bit of
um Insight because I'm looking at the I'm looking at the draft on my phone which is not the best place to be
looking at it um but they're not done with um you know with the with where you
can see the changes but maybe maybe they are if I were looking at it on my computer but on
my phone it's not so and I mean if they're really like just typos I have no
problem approving the minutes but if there's anything substantive okay well why don't we just
for the sake of moving forward I'm happy to give it another month for folks to
review um unless commissioner Hayden Crowley you disagree or is the point
you're making that um that you'd like me to use some discretion or judgment about
the edits whether they're substantive or not once I've had the chance to review and if they are more substantive bring
them to the commission at the next meeting or if they're not then we can just move forward I'd be happy to have
you take the exercise judgment okay um just other do other Commissioners have
any um thank you for the feedback um any other Commissioners want to weigh
in commissioner Parker sorry um I'm seeing just one
comment is that right um no actually uh if you look at
it with the with the um uh all edits you
you will see I made some direct edits and then I put one comment but a lot of
is just again kind of clarifying things like sometimes it wasn't clear whether sentences were referring to a program a
policy or whatever so I added details I found it hard to understand personally
um you know looking at my notes so that's why I I made those suggested edits so sorry but yeah I think it would
be great if everyone just has a chance to take a look at it I just had a chance to submit it a little bit before the
meeting uh Parker did you have additional thoughts you wanted to make um I just when I was doing it in the um
when I was just viewing it in the email I couldn't see all of those and so I just I just opened up and word and now I see that there are more because if there
was just the one common I was like that's fine just do it but um I'm waiting or whatever okay uh
commissioner D was there more you wanted to say okay uh Commissioners uh
commissioner burol or vice president jonic I it sounds sounds like maybe you
don't have comments but wanted to give you the opportunity in case you
do yes vice president deronic yes so I um I'm okay with
um you know giving you the discretion if if there's nothing substantive if there's some point of disagreement it
might be worth bringing it back but um if if there
is no disagreement then doesn't seem like we need to bring it back next
month thanks for the feedback
Okay Hand isn't T correct okay okay it sounds like there's
General consensus so just to clar make sure we're all on the same page um I will take a look at commissioner D's
feedback thank you for sending that over um if there are material
edits uh that I deem would be worthy of commissioner uh additional
commissioner feedback or discussion I'll do that um and I will focus specifically on anything that goes outside the bounds
of you know grammar or clarification or typos um let's move to public
comment no public comment great um then let's move to
agenda item number four the director's report discussion and possible action regarding the director's report and I
will hand it over to director John erns thank you president Stone so I guess the
biggest draw on the direct support so the uh selection process for the or the Public's part in
selecting completing the survey to select a sticker design ended yesterday and the uh the uh top three sticker
designs will be announced next Thursday on the 26th um so uh the survey has been closed
um I think we had around 9,000 9 to 10,000 uh surveys submitted so uh pretty
good pretty good uh response to it certainly a lot of effort on the Department's side a lot of folks in the
department put a lot of really good work and lot of good energy into the sticker uh process sticker design and
competition process so want to certainly call out our deputy director Natalia Kina who put a lot of time and was the
lead on the project and then many other folks in the department as well so uh and then also I guess what's different
in this report than others I did at the request of President Stone provide some information on the development of the
risk risk risk limiting auditing uh program that the department and the department of Technology are developing
uh it's an open source tool so it'll be one that we'll we'll Post online when it's finished uh we've got gone through
a few iterations not having an election this November actually uh delayed
progress a bit because we couldn't test it again and with with live ballots uh but what's interesting and good is that
Professor Stark at UC Berkeley uh is developing I guess the math around statist the statistics
around uh combining both uh poing Place ballots and vote by mail ballots within
the same audit uh previously only the cards that were uh
imprinted with an ID at the time of tabulation and there's this imprint and I I need to say too this imprinting of
an ID on the cards during tabulation is not voter specific so we have no idea where these cards came from it's the the
cards have been pulled from the envelopes they've been sorted uh for for
processing so there's no way to tie an imprint to a specific voter so it
happens in the vote by mail ballot processing but at the polling places there is no imprinting that occurred uh
so it was there was a challenge mathematically to combine the two categories of ballots in the same risk
limiting auditing because they required two different approaches to to doing an audit but it looks like we'll be able
Professor Starks now his his next contribution will be uh that we actually will be able to include both categories
of of cards uh which will be unique I'm not I'm not aware if this happening anywhere else and uh I I gave a really
high level uh synopsis I wasn't trying to give a lot of detail uh but if you want to know information I can certainly
follow with with another synopsis or or memo um and other than that I can take any questions from the commission so
thank you director Arns folks can feel free to start raising their hands and I'll just go in
order vice president Jordon okay uh thank you dor HS for your report and for the addendum um just have a some
questions about like three different categories um first on the March election do you how many elect measures
so far are there for the local and state that are confirmed one state one state yeah
there's one one I guess District I think ethics commission has a a measure going on the
ballot and so yeah so there's one somewhat of a district measure I
guess U from outside the the legislative process and I don't know if anything
else has passed yet I don't so I don't there's not a there's not a number that I can get to you okay what's the cut off
or what's the data which you'll know for sure I'm sorry what is the data which you'll know for sure uh down November or
December uh 1st 95 days prior to election day okay thanks and then on the
risk climing audit stuff I have a few questions um is there some kind of a p
informational page about like basically what happened in the for the November 2022 audit kind of like the result of
the audit and a retrospective or something not formally no
uh I can I can I can look for something that uh we can provide like you know how
many ballots were checked and things like that yeah I get the information and then um for the work you're doing going
forward I I know it's a joint thing with the Department of technology is there money allocated to the project or is it
more pro bono work that's being done no so the open source funding that the city
provided uh a couple years ago has been funding the development of this tool
about how much money is it uh how much is left yeah around $100,000 I think it
is okay and then on the point about the imprinting of the IDS do you know um are
there any like next Generation voting systems that or are I guess I'll just say are there any voting systems out in
the world that do imprint the poing place ones or I don't know you don't know okay and then on the I voted sticker um
had a few question the sticker contest had a few questions for next week are you going to be releasing the number of
selections for each choice or you just going to be announcing the winners uh I don't I personally have not
planned on release releasing but I'm sure we will uh the the focus has been really on the sticker designs but yeah
we could provide the information okay because I one of the things is like at the last meeting IID asked if you're
going to be um like what voting method was going to be used for deciding the the winning contest or winning design
and are you are you doing it based on just the highest number of selections or
or were you going to just that would be one of the inputs into deciding the winner that will be
the so we're using survey bonkey then also any hard copies that were submitted hard copy yeah yeah I think um if I had
known it sounds kind of like it's morally a vote you're just counting up
the choices but it it seems like it would have um been a very good opportunity use rank Choice voting like
not just from the perspective of seeing um who the winner is but also in terms of educating people about you know how
rank TR voting works because I know like you know one two of the sticker designs both had parrots so maybe the
parrot lovers will be splitting their their support across two selections but
um I know I know there are different online platforms for doing rank Choice
voting votes online and they they do the tab ation so it's something to think about for a future contest if you have
it so um that's all I had thank you thank you vice president jonic and I
apologize this is a point of privilege would you mind repeating the question that you had asked like the first question you had asked I was distracted
and I missed it and I want to about the measures the beginning the first question I don't recall what it was
oh I had asked how many um state and local measures there would be on the
ballot on in March and when he would know for sure okay thank you and what was the answer just one state so far and
then one local ethics commission thank you I appreciate it and then he would know on December 1st thank you I
appreciate everyone taking that um moment to uh answer my
question commissioner Parker um I don't actually have any
questions um on your report but I did just want to acknowledge you know a few things like you know congratulations on
the CI CIO 100 award um and I appreciated the attachment the description of the work that's you know
um helpful to learn about so thank you for taking the time to share that with us um and it's exciting that you'll be
able to share this with other jurisdictions that it's Innovative work so I really appreciate that I really
enjoyed the sticker designs it was fun to look at those um and see some enthusiasm around that um um I also uh
in in terms of access and you know um the approach that you all are taking for
the seasonal positions the One-Stop shop for the hiring being all in one day um
that also feels you know really Innovative and accessible so I really appreciate that um I did check out the
eata tool a bunch and kind of and then I also went back out to the the regular elections page um the homepage to see if
that was still easy to find if I was just going to the homepage and was it was very easy to navigate um and I
really appreciate the transparency you know as a voter not just as a commissioner but um being able to find
all that information really easy easily so I appreciate that um and actually I lied I have one little question um
related do you have any sense of the budget cuts that we're going to see I know you haven't received um you said
December is when you'd be receiving more Direction around cuts to make midyear do
you have any more sense of what that might look like not yet we're still in conversation with the mayor's office so
uh I think I indicated it'll be a 3% the mayor forward a 3% cut for departments uh that would be like around
$800,000 I think from our our budget if we were to hit 3% I don't know really that's that's feasible going into a
presidential primary election so we're having that conversation with the mayor's office still uh I don't so I
don't have a number to to share with you and they're just doing like they're recommending 3% flat across all
departments not taking a more Nuance approach to some things should or shouldn't be cut they're just saying 3%
that's their target across the city yeah got it okay yeah that seems hard to do
in a in an election you're like we've got ahead okay thank you yeah and I actually thought you were going to bring up the high school ambassador program
and you didn't I know I always do and I appreciated seeing the recognition that was done at City Hall for that so won't
disappoint I did read that I was appreciative of it I just thought I'd focus on other things this time
thank you commissioner Parker do we have additional
hands commissioner Dy commissioner Hayden Crowley commissioner bur holes
any commissioner D sure I'll make a few comments although most of my questions have already been asked um yeah I
enjoyed the the sticker designs it was a nice variety um but but I did miss the
opportunity to do a rank Choice vote because there were three that I liked and I would have liked to just rank them
one two and three and I never I wrote it for my favorite and I didn't get around to I was thinking oh I should vote
tomorrow for my second favorite and vote again for the third favorite so um I'm curious was there um any discussion in
your team that you know kind of came up with this design on on the voting method because it does seem like the voting
method that was used is like what's used a lot on social media which is all about how many of my friends can I get to vote
for my design as opposed to you know a traditional
election well the mechanism that we knew we could use was Survey Monkey uh and that was generic and uh it's not
necessarily a vote per se and so that was really what was on our minds going
into this we weren't considering actually a rank Choice voting uh contest for the stickers at the start okay
um as vice president jonic said we we always look for opportunities to to educate the public might have been fun
to do it with a sticker contest but um I had some question on the higher math uh
so I I got that there's a different process that was needed to to look at the in-person votes versus the the vote
by mail and that had to do with whether there was a number imprinted or not um but I didn't
get I I was trying to understand what that higher math would be I mean we know that the vast majority of people are
voting by mail now and there's a smaller very small percentage that vote in person
and that would seem like that would naturally work out just on the you know
it would be weighted by the number of of vote by mail ballots and the total number of in-person ballots what can you
can you give me a sense of of what why there was a you know comp Le Lex mathematics that that that were needed
for Professor to weigh in on because the cards from the polling
places cannot be enumerated and brought into an equation as well as or as easily
as the vote by mail ballots can because they're imprinted they're enumerated from the scanners and so to to do the
math you need to identify specific cards and to pull specific cards you have to identify them in some manner uh pulling
Place cards when they're when they're cast uh I mean they're they're pulled from the bins they're put into bags or
put into boxes they come out at the polling at the at the process the warehouse uh they do it goes to the
canvas so there's there's many opportunities where the cards would be shuffled and they wouldn't be in the same order that uh that they were
processed and so somehow there has to be a wayed to capture not a specific card
but the the potential U likelihood of the results at the pulling place is
being correct and that's where the math comes in okay so it has to do with being able to identify the specific ballot
cards and how well and for the polling place cards how how to include cards
that cannot be identified right okay so it's probably a probability kind of
right all right thank you commissioner Hayden growley thank
you uh president Stone um thank you again uh director AR for um your report
and for all of your accomplishments um I well I just want to comment on the
request about the rank Choice voting uh for the sticker program well I think it's an
intriguing idea I just want to remind our commissioners we need to be mindful about budget we're looking at a 3 to 5%
cut and when you add a level like that um that tends to add money and resources
so I I hesitate to be like the one that you know I don't like to discourage
great ideas because I do think it's a good idea but we also need to think in tandem about budget where things have to
be cut we don't need to be looking at additional unfunded
mandates thank you commissioner Hayden Crowley um I think everyone who wanted
to had the chance I'll jump in on um on a couple of
items uh a few areas of um that I are
quicker wanted to call out I was excited to see the um the community input incorporated into
the director's report and into some of the Outreach planning I think that's really great I think that incorporates some of the stuff that we have been
talking about on this body um recently as well um so getting some feed back
into how the department is doing Outreach from the folks who are out there in the community so thank you for
that um I too was going to ask about the budget cuts uh I am very concerned about
what the department has in front of it um in 20124 and the idea of cutting 3%
seems pretty significant um so please do keep us surprised of what that would what that would mean um and I imagine
you don't want to share anything before you actually know but um as soon as you do know it it would be great to get some
details um and I know that there was also a lot of back and forth when we went through the budget process earlier
this year um where you know the mayor's office had asked a lot you know again a
lot of departments to cut back we were able to kind of you and your team were able to kind of retain most of what you
had wanted um and so I again assume you can't comment on this be yet um but do
you have hope that that might be the same situation this time around knowing that we have a presidential election and
um much to do ahead of that do you anticipate it to be the same sort of approach from the mayor's office that
will retain the funding for that department or do you think it will be there will be some areas of cut even if
it isn't 3% until we're done it's hard to really make a statement I figured you would say
that uh uh but the mayor's office
understands the Department's Mission the mayor's office has never been has never sought to to diminish the Department's
ability to to to fulfill its Mission and I think that'll be the case uh in this but current budget situation as well
good glad to hear that um okay so we'll we'll definitely look to hear more about
that in the November meeting as well um I also wanted to say thank you for
putting together the one sheeter obviously ly uh not not always ideal to
have the commission asking you do additional work uh but I I really appreciate you doing this because I
think it's a great um it's a great thing for a to you know the department to be
able to showcase the good work it's doing B offer the public transparency into that and C um explain a little bit
more give more insight from the Department's perspective so I think this is really great and as these things come up I think it should be continue to be a
practice that um you know when there's when there's a big um announcement of some kind or an award it would be great
to be able to showcase the work of the department in that way so thank you for doing that extra work around that um I
also was very excited about the E data the dashboard so great for transparency
particularly around some of the priorities that we've established as a commission uh and so I I'm excited to
dig in even more um and then I wanted to just make one last comment about the I
vote Ved actually two comments about the I voted contest um I appreciated you
acknowledging your team uh and specifically Natalia I think is who you said was spearheading it so big thank
you to her as well um doing something totally new lots of good learning uh and
I do think perhaps maybe there is a middle ground in the future of finding a free tool um that could potentially do
rank Choice um as an option I think you know we do get the feed or I personally
get the feedback um I think we've talked about this before on the commission that some folks feel that there is a learning
curve with rank Choice voting in the city and so something like uh a a fun
idea such as the I I voted sticker contest could be a cool educational tool so perhaps um perhaps future election
cycles that could be something worth exploring um as a as a free like a free tool that wouldn't add additional uh
costs um but I think it's really great as a first year I'm really excited I voted I also saw the awesome um signs
downstairs in front of the department if you haven't all seen it it's great I was taking lots of selfies and photos in
front of it um so thank you to the department awesome great stuff and I'm really excited about all the input
you've been getting as well um okay that's all for me did anyone have any last thoughts before we
move to uh to public comment okay let's move to public
comment
no public comment should we give folks a we'll wait a beat still
nothing all right that closes out agenda item number four we'll move to agenda item number five commissioner reports
discussion and possible action and Commissioners reports for topics not covered by another item on this agenda meetings with public officials over
oversight and observation activities longrange planning for commission activities in areas of study proposed legislation with which affect elections
and others um let's start with vice president jonic who can run through um
his his specific items and then I'll hand it over to commissioner D and then I will finish out on mine um and if
folks have additional items and they're surely welcome to raise their hands vice
president thank you president stone I have a few things to mention the first is there there two documents I included
in the packet today the first is what I have so far with the the draft annual
report for 2022 and at the last meeting I said I would provide a draft um it's it's not
complete yet but I wanted you to see what I have so far and just a lot happened in that year so there's a lot
of stuff to compile but if anyone has any um you know feedback to me about what you'd like me to be sure to include
just let me know and then secondly I had a short document to share some news that
happened in September which is the state of New Hampshire certified um voting
works' open source voting system for use starting in March 2024 so that would be the November 2024
election there so I thought that was interest of interest to us because there are some similarities to um what we were
hoping to do with our policy and in New Hampshire that the vendor worked with
the state to um develop some customizations that to meet the state's specific needs and they did that at no
cost to the state and um so perhaps you know the department could
reach out to New Hampshire to learn more about what that collaboration look like because we have similar goals
here and then lastly um earlier in the year we had had a guest speaker
Professor Alex Holderman from the University of Michigan and he spoke to the commission about a a vulnerability
he had found in the Dominion voting system that affected Us in the November 20222
election and one of the things that came up in that discussion was this idea of having a way for security researchers
to contact the city if they find a vulnerability because Professor halderman had emailed the department but
um didn't get a response back so during that discussion um we had talked about
the idea of um reaching out to the city's Chief Information Security Officer Michael
maxman and um I finally got around to doing that and so I'm going to be meeting with him and commissioner
bernholz is also going to be meeting as well and we had the we had actually the
two of us had actually met with him four years ago about another security issue so hopefully that'll be happening in the
next couple weeks or so that's all thank you thank you vice
president jonic um commiss commer
D thank you president Stone oh oh sorry actually commissioner D if you don't
mind I'm gonna quickly allow commissioner burnol to comment on vice president janik's
report thank you um U commissioner jonic
couple questions if you happen to have the answers handy uh is there any rank Choice voting
in New Hampshire and do you have any idea about
um numbers or percentages of jurisdictions in New Hampshire that plan
to actually use voting Works system um there's no rank Choice voting
in New Hampshire that's not one of the requirements that state had but um I did
have a conversation with Matt row who had had spoken with us at a few meetings
and he said there this only happened in September but they're basically in New Hampshire they have a they have to um
each Town gets to decide on its own which voting system to buy so um they're
in the sales process right now and I think [Music] um
um I don't know if the number is known yet how many are going to be using it in in
November and they wouldn't be using it in the primary um no I think well Matt had said
I think their primary might be before um March I'm not sure yeah
they're early yeah so the the earliest usage would be in November 2024 there
okay great thank you sure thanks commissioner burnol commissioner
D yeah actually I had a quick question for Vice presid on it before I give my report um the
certification document that you included had indicated that um they needed to
meet certain requirements by 2026 it wasn't clear from what I could
understand from your report it sounds like they've already met those requirements is that is that right or do they still have additional Hoops to jump
through well Matt told me that they they do plan to meet the requirements or they
or they meet them currently so he he didn't indicate to me that there was any issue with them Meeting those
requirements thank you uh okay um so uh as we know we were all
waiting with baited breath to see what governor uh Nome was going to do on the pending State legislation on a redistri
reform and uh it was a split decision uh he signed AB 764 which will now be known
as the fair Maps Act of uh 2023 uh and that uh prohibits incumbency
protection because that was something that was widely a problem in this last cycle um it increases requirements for
public input hearings um you know the number and when they happen um that's
never been an issue for San Francisco we've always had many uh
hearings um it also clarifies uh the recourse if the IRC the independent
Rising commission cannot agree on a map and that was something that
um uh wasn't very clear before so now it clearly outlines that it will go to the
superior court and that the Superior Court can hire a special master
um uh it's unclear uh how this
how this legislation may or may not uh affect San Francisco there are
um um exceptions um in certain cases and other cases where it it seems like it
would sweep up San Francisco as well um for example uh this was brought up at
our last meeting that since we have our own mapping deadline probably this
recourse would not apply to us um it but
it's not clear because it says uh the section does not apply to a charter city
that is adopted in in its City Charter a different method for adopting city council District boundaries when a
districting deadline is missed and we don't have anything in our Charter that
indicates what will happen if the deadline is missed and so we we kind of
um uh improvise this last time around um the other thing that it has that may be
of interest to us is it has the long list of disqualifying conflicts of interests that were also in AB
1248 um and and that clearly says that it
includes Charter cities as well so in any case I've um I've asked our dcas to
uh please opine on this and and help us understand what the implications are um
for ab 764 and uh I know they're working on it uh they're hoping to get something in
early November for us on that uh so the the bad news was that AB
1240 was vetoed um not on not on the
substance of Governor Nome in his note said he supports ensuring community control but on budget
considerations uh even though this probably wouldn't be a factor in next year's budget it won't be a factor for a
while probably for the next couple of years uh but in 2019 he had vetoed
similar legislation uh that were proposed uh in
s SP 139 by Senator Allen uh on the
similar grounds uh oh in that one he very clearly stated that he agreed that
these commissions can be an important tool in preventing Jing mandering so um
part of the reason he stated in his previous veto message was that uh jurisdictions are allowed to establish
independent commissions on their own and so uh that was one of the reason he had
cited previously um so in this case he cited uh State
reimbursable uh um funding that
um uh should be handled in the budget process so that's a somewhat similar
language to what he had previously stated now interestingly enough he did
sign uh SB 314 which established a Citizens redistricting Commission for
Sacramento County County's Board of supervisor and he also signed
ab34 which uh creates a similar commission for Orange County so and
several other County commissions have been created by special bills and so it seems that he's been signing the ones
for particular counties uh but not the Statewide
legislation so uh having said that it's been solid support in the legislature
about same number of um same number of Senators and one extra assembly member voted um this time for
a1248 um we have always uh known that this
legislation we started this process I think commissioner Stone said 16 months
last month so it's been 17 months since we started studying possible reforms uh
so we started this before uh the state legislation uh had been introduced and
uh we will the fierce committee will continue to um move forward with
recommendations um and bring that hopefully to the entire body uh in a in a package for the
entire body to consider at our November meeting and hopefully by then there'll
be some clarity um from the city attorney on the impact of of what we
will have to comply with regardless of the charter Amendment uh and where we
might have some degrees of freedom so uh that's all I have on the state
legislation and until our fce committee meeting on October 30th when we will review this in more
detail did you say November I think you meant did you say October oob October 30th thank you commissioner D um folks
can raise their hand I also gives an opportunity for commissioner Parker you wanted to weigh in as well um I know
you're on Fierce commissioner L is not um has an excuse absence today so um
wanted to give you space if there's anything specifically otherwise you could raise your hand um okay
commissioner Hayden Crowley thank you commissioner D um I would just like to
know I'd like the City attorney to weigh in on what's within our jurisdiction and
what isn't because I'm listening to different perspec persectives and I do want to know where we're going
with this because I have been of the um the frame of mind from the beginning
that that ultimately this belongs with the Board of Supervisors and um I did think that that
at some point that that was where it was going to be moved so I just am
questioning how much more involvement we and and whether or not it's appropriate
or not appropriate for us to be making recommendations around it I know that's the purpose of the fierce committee but
now I'm questioning whether or not that's within our scope so I don't know
um uh DCA Flores if that's something you've already weighed in on and I haven't and I've missed or um if we
could get clarification on that thank you for the question commissioner Hayden Crowley um we have
weigh in on this almost every meeting I think we could asked this question um well I don't think it's been clear I
really don't no worries um so yes the commission does not have authority to
put um this Charter Amendment on a ballot um the commission can work with
the Board of Supervisors um to put this on the charter um I believe it is public
knowledge that the commission is working uh on a charter um amendment
that obviously is too late now for the March 2024 election um point point of
clarification the commission is not working on a charter Amendment not the commission I'm sorry supervisors the supervisors yes just want to make sure
that's clear to anyone listening yeah so I believe that uh one of the supervisors said that she is working on a charter
Amendment um and again the commission can have as little or as much involvement in that process either by
giving recommendations to the Board of Supervisors whenever um a charter amend mment is introduced or you know
individually if the Commissioners want to be members of the public advising um
or giving their opinion about this to the Board of Supervisors um so again you the
commission does not have authority to put a ballot measure um and because this
is generally within the realm of Elections um there's you know
there's it's if you wanted to continue on this process it it would not be inappropriate um but also you don't have
a requirement to continue with this process so it's really up to the commission's discretion um if they want
to continue to do this uh redistricting
recommendations um in case the Board of Supervisors ever does um pull up an item
for Charter Amendment does that clarify commissioner Hayden Crowley uh
uh thank you dcor yes it does and I apologize for the misunderstanding but there has been a lot of different
opinions on this subject and so I I appreciate the clarification and we're
always here um out of the meeting to discuss this with you um and to you know
to talk further I don't feel like this is the only opportunity that you have to ask us questions thank you both um I see
commissioner D's hand is raised I want to give folks another opport like folks an opportunity to um who haven't had the
chance to speak if that's okay um commissioner haen Crowley was at the end of your comments okay um vice president
jonic thank you president Stone I just had a couple questions following commissioner d
report um the first one is took Deputy City attorney Flores um just to just to confirm are
you are you um will are you or will you be reading
AB 764 to see whether it affects San Francisco in any
way uh yes my office is reviewing um this uh legislation um as we have
communicated to commissioner D um we may may or may not decide to issue a public
opinion if you know if this is just like another reiteration of the fairmax app of
2019 okay one of the things I would would like to know is um you know if
there are parts that affect San Francisco you know would it require San
Francisco to adopt a charter Amendment or would these requirements just take effect
like you know it it wouldn't be necessary for us to pass a charter Amendment um it's too soon to opine on
that yeah but when you get around to it that would be one of the questions I have sure thank you and then um this is
a question to commissioner D for um in terms of or the entire first
Committee in terms of the document you're putting together if um if at any
point a commissioner wanted to provide some language on your document would that be something that we would provide
before you while you're working on it or is it after you present it to the
commission um vice president jonic do you want to go through the rest of your questions or do you want to that's all I
have that's it okay um I commissioner D yeah it it might be helpful for um for
us just to reiterate what our process is going to be so uh so again at our last
meeting we went over kind of the the highlights of our discussion so you could kind of see where the fierce
committee was coming out um we didn't take a formal vote at that time because
we wanted to see we ourselves wanted to see everything in writing after six hours of reviewing everything so we will
have an opportunity as a committee on October 30th to kind of see everything
uh together um and then our intent is to
probably use very much the same format of the beautiful deck that um uh
commissioner Parker had worked on uh for the fierce committee with answering each
of those questions uh and with what our final recommendations uh would be to the full
body and take a formal vote and and then we'll publish that
um as soon as we can for the full commission to consider and review and so
again remember our mandate was very limited which was the fierce committee is was going to dig in and then
recommend uh a set of reforms for the full commission to consider and then the full commission will
then agree or disagree or modify and uh make a decision on on on referring this
to the Board of Supervisors um as uh DCA Flores noted
the supervisors have their own process going on uh they're the ones with the legislative Authority and so I'm sure
they would love to hear what we recommend um as as they consider what to
put in the ballot measure and then they will have you know they will they will go
through a public input process to finalize things because there are a number of things that we've talked about before that the fierce
committee doesn't have a strong opinion on or you know wants the Board of
Supervisors to to use that public input process to make a final determination so the goal is by
November the full commission will be in a position to to you know move these recommendations forward or not um but
for our racial Equity report we want to try to give this off our plate by the end of the year so we can focus on
elections for 2024 and in answer to um
uh commissioner's question I want to make sure I remembered it
um would you please restate your question sure I was just asking if if a commissioner had language they wanted to
um you know propose to be included in the the document is that something that
they should provide to you before before you come up with your draft document or after yeah I mean we are an open Forum
as we asked at the last meeting if any Commissioners have issues that you want us to address in our October 30th
discussion so that we can put this final report together uh we would love to hear
it so we we had um commissioner barnholtz brought up the question about financial disclosures and commissioner
Hayden Crowley brought up the question about major donors so these are things that we will discuss as a committee uh
so if you have something that that you would like us to address or discuss I mean we're probably not going to be
finessing it down to specific language we're mostly focused on you know these are the reforms that we think make sense
uh we're keeping it you know Broad and high level because how the uh the
supervisors who are sponsoring the ballot measure might you know specifically write language that will be
open to public comment through their process okay thank you
okay um I don't see any other hands I'll make some comments specifically about
the redistricting piece and then um I will also move into my
updates so uh thank you for the report and the high level of what happened at
the state level I want to reiterate a couple of things that I shared in the
last meeting um and resurface them here just for emphasis uh so I think we
probably hopefully all agree that next year our top priority is uh the election
the elections um and supporting the department and insulating the department from um any sort
of uh unnecessary attention that would take their
attention from anything other than doing the job of Running Free Fair and
functional elections and so to that end I think it's important that as it
pertains to redistricting in this initiative on the commission that it is wrapped up before the end of the year so
that when we go into 2024 we are no longer working on this this issue um and
I think that's in the best interest of of the initiative and uh the department
and the public and I hope I hope folks will agree but I want to reiterate how important it is that 2024 our focus is
on supporting the department and also working on the priorities that we committed to uh last last meeting that
all touch how we're going to support elections next year so just want to remind everyone of that second piece
that I wanted to resurface is the the process and the plan that commissioner D
laid out um and some some key dates uh so from my understanding the fierce
committee will be meeting October 30th the next Commission meeting will be November 15th and then the following
commission meeting um not including the opsite because we are not agendize
redistricting for that uh the next meeting will be December 12th and then it's the end of the year so really what
that means is if we think backwards if we go back to my point number one uh
that means we have two elections commission meetings to wrap this up um
and what does that mean for the fearce committee so we talked last time about the uh interest to transition the
awesome document that the committee put together that included a lot of questions and we had some discussion around it but transition it to answers
um and a a kind of robust package that commissioner Dy had spoken to um I I
would like to share that I think it would be very important for that document to for the commission to have a
week ahead of the November regular meeting for us to review that document
um one caveat to that being that I don't think we will need a full presentation
from commissioner die or chair die or any member of the fierce committee walking through each specific bullet the
idea would be that we review a package um in that meeting and hopefully
everyone will just make sure that they read it thoroughly ahead of time um and then it means that we would
have one other meeting to come back um and make a final decision I realize it's a pretty tight
timeline for the fierce committee um it's just something I wanted to to share the other piece about that that I think
we'll have to discuss is um what is that vote going to look like what is that
what is that what does a vote actually mean um so the question could be is that
you know our slate of recommendations to the Board of Supervisors is that this is
what we've learned to be the best practice um we will have to discuss in those meetings when we decide uh when we
vote what that will actually what that package to the Board of Supervisors would actually be alongside that we also
will want to consider how we present it to the Board of Supervisors um will that
you know one of the things that uh DCA Flores had called out was that the uh individual Commissioners in a personal
capacity could reach out to you know could try and participate in the process
I believe this commission all voted and agreed to having it be B A commission a
full commission position and a stance um meaning we would take a vote um and
ideally we wouldn't have individual com Commissioners representing the um this
initiative outside of uh what we have agreed to as a body so I wanted I wanted to share that we need to discuss that
when we do make a final vote about what that package would look like how we're presenting it is it a letter that is
signed by um by all of us is it let's let's think about that um ferce
committee if you don't mind uh maybe you have some suggestions for that um but
the the last kind of point about that which I already touched on and I just want to finish this off um because
finish where I started which is this once we've handed this over to the Board of Supervisors I feel strongly that we
remove ourselves from the process it is so important especially in election year
that we are not um participating in a process that will be you know we have
all discussed the Board of Supervisors has the resources and the Outreach
capacity and uh and more to um to take
this to the next step and I think it's really important that we let them do that um so I hope that you all will
agree if there is a point of of contention with that let's talk about it but my my hope is that we're all in the
same page page about that um and that indirectly that will prevent us from
from uh distracting uh from what the department needs to be doing next year
which is running our elections any last thoughts about that
before I move into my updates commissioner Hayden Crowley thank you president Stone I just
want to um thank you for your leadership on this question because I agree with you that we do need to wrap this up and
we need to support the department in this next year um it's going to be a critical year and Running Free Fair and
functional elections should be our number one priority so I appreciate your feedback on that I do have a question
because there will be a number of recommendations in that package are we going to be doing voting as one because
there may be some that may I mean if I take a look at it and I don't care for
one or two I might vote no on the whole thing so is it something that we're going to go through one by one and we
and as you mentioned we don't need uh a another presentation about it because
we've been down the road but it could just be one of those things where we go line item by line item how many
recommendations will there be ultimately at the end of the day approximately and what are we looking at is this going to
be a marathon meeting um I will definitely thank you
commissioner hiden Crowley I'll I will hand it over to the fearce committee I'll I'll also share my brief thoughts
which is I fear going line by line by line um I think we've done a really
great job as a body cutting our meetings down um not that it's not important to have these conversations but um I do
think maybe we could all prepare one idea and I will you know hand it to
everyone I'm just one member of this body is to um for folks to come prepared
to share in the November meeting to share the specific areas that they want to challenge or influence or change the
language of as vice president jonic said and have that be in the November meeting we have a discussion about the specific
points that were are brought um because maybe there'll be a recommendation that no one has issue with and then we're
just opening it up um and the hope is that the fears committee has already kind of done that um and so uh that way
we can have discussions about people's specific areas and then in the December meeting there's an updated package and
then we've vote Yes or no and let's say you don't like where it ends and you vote no for the package we can you could
also include your explanation to that in whatever let's say you were in the minority of the vote we could include
that as part of the explanation that's just an idea though um just just an idea I see commissioner Parker's hand is up
so so I think um a couple of things um one in
order to have an efficient process I think that if there are issues that haven't been brought up yet um questions
concerns or recommendations for specific language I would highly encourage people to send those to us before our October
30th so we can do that heavy lifting and in including those as much as possible
and then perhaps um at our November meeting as a full commission I mean maybe we sort of treat it as as one
would a consent agenda you know where it's like it's a full It's a Full Slate and this is the whole thing and if you
want to pull a particular item because you have concerns about what what's been proposed
um then then you pull it you know otherwise like so that sort of approach you would take with a consent agenda
maybe could be a way we approach this um so which is part of why I think it's
really important that if if you have any concerns just send them along to chair D
who will then bring them to our agenda for discussion so that we can have an efficient
process thank you commissioner Parker vice president jonic yeah thank you president Stone yes I I also add just a
suggestion on the process to follow up with what commissioner Parker said like one option that might allow the
commission to vote on the whole document to avoid having to go through everything would be you know if there's one point
that you disagreed with maybe you could there could be a little appuse in there saying that commissioner so and so
disagreed with this point but you you could let people know in advance and that way you could choose to support the
document with that clause in there so so the document would reflect that there was disagreement on on a particular
aspects kind of like minority opinions on things it's like Supreme Court yeah
yeah desent dissenting opinion um commissioner Hayden Crowley did you have
any thank you um commissioner D anything else from you okay um just really
quickly please do send us the note because we only got two items from the last meeting and if there are other
things that are on your mind just let us know because we will do that heavy lifting for you okay thank you
commissioner D I will say until we see an actual package it's
pretty hard to provide that level of feedback at this point so you know I haven't shared that because I really
want to see a full document first um and I'll speak for myself on that so I you
know I I don't want there to be surprised if when I see the finished the the draft of that recommendation that
comes from hopefully the the fierce committee's final vote um if I have thoughts about that it's not it's not
because I've just been holding out I really do want to read the document before I uh before before I um vote on
anything we will we will oblige thank you um and just this is going to not
make everyone happy but uh clearly 2024 as I've said top priority
but if we can't get this done in the December meeting I'm going to have to call special meeting because it's that important that we do not do this in 2024
and I I hope everyone agrees um and I don't like to make you know
threats um but I think again what's most important is not bringing this into 2024
so hopefully hopefully you all are in agreement with that um okay if there's
nothing else as it pertains to redistricting I'll just jump into um a couple of updates on my end um first
just some high Lev ones and then I'll go into the the the packet item so good
news uh from from the director um that we have our
computers so um secretary Davis will send a note about this how you can get
yours if you want one um and making sure you're all set up but it's very exciting
I can't wait to have mine um but please look out for that email from secretary Davis and if you have any questions
about that please reach out to her um the second is that I have sent the I've
sent director ARS the priorities that we agreed to in the last meeting um we be in conversation over the coming weeks
and months um I also shared the commission's desire to uh potentially
have individual Commissioners participate in quarterly voter registration activities um and so the
director and I will will be talking about that and how to do this in the right way um one thing I just wanted you
know I think I mentioned this last time but if I didn't I'm going to share it now uh we do I do want to be thoughtful
of not causing any sort of environment that could be intimidating for members of the department given that we are the
oversight body um so we'll try and figure out the way to do that in the best possible way um but I think it's
always great to get visibility into um into what into what the actual
day-to-day work is um which brings me to the next Point uh which is that our offsite is now uh confirmed for December
1st um we're working on the agenda for that um big thank you to director arnst
for also being open to having US tour the warehouse I'm really excited I think this will be great it'll also get people
uh more uh more familiar with the warehouse ahead of 2024 because I think
it's also um I know commissioner Hayden Crowley in the past you've been there on Election night I think it's really an
awesome experience to be able to see the amazing work that the department does on Election night um and leading up to the
election and so getting familiar with that space leading up to um the primaries and everything coming next
year I just really excited about it um we will also have um some uh one of the
agenda items be around open source um and some other stuff so I'm really excited I really appreciate everyone
getting back to me and bearing with me when we had to reschedule um and then the last is just
this process so in the last in the last meeting um actually in the last two regular meetings uh there had been
conversation raised about legislation uh that um that is um either Advanced or
implicates the Department of Elections or elections in San Francisco in general and the commission having an opportunity
to potentially review that um and so I spent some time um thinking about this
but most importantly also collaborating with the director on this process um and
making sure that there that it was a collaborative effort um or even a negotiation of sorts of what would make
sense uh making sure that you know us being as a body having some element of
notification around um around these types of um instances of legislation
which is you know full disclos Ure not that frequent but still important um
while not also slowing down the the operations and the Daily Business of the department so um that is what you're
looking at it's very very brief um but a big thank you to director Arns for working with me on this um being open to
it uh and really the high level that I I'll just call out is that um the the director has agreed to offering to a
30-day notice requirement for um you know legislation that um that affects the
department and and our elections and also has offered to include a brief
description of the legislation and any uh and the rationale behind what that
position so for example when we were talking up 1416 around ballot labeling um we we had kind of had this
conversation about how it was in the it was technically brought in front of the the commission through boek and through
the budgeting process but it was necessarily this formal notification to the department excuse me to the
elections commission that uh This Is The Stance the department will be taking and
I think it's a good opportunity for the Department to be able to explain this is why we're taking you know this position
forever what reason um one important note of that though is that the commission does not have to take doesn't
have to agendize it and doesn't have to take a formal vote so there's no policy that that binds us to anything it's more
just a notice requirement that allows us to know what's happening know why the department is doing it um or working on
it and then um if so choose the elections commission can uh review
independently you'll notice that there is also a component about Contracting decisions which I know has been a topic
of conversation historically on this body um and the important thing to note
is that of course the elections commission cannot interfere with those types of decisions or even necessarily
the contents of it um but I there is room to independently review that the
department followed the appropriate process um that the city has laid out for that and also the commission may
take an independent position in terms of a resolution of sorts um of whether or
not they support or don't support it but but there is no uh capacity for or
rather there's no um uh room for the elections commission to interfere with
those decision decision so I wanted to make sure that was called out because uh obviously large Contracting decisions do
require a piece of legislation so that is the high level of what's in this document um I hope it uh
reflects what you all had in mind um the last thing I'll just mention and then I'll open it up for for Commissioners to
make comment is that it if we do um if if folks do approve of this we will um
it will obviously mean that for 1416 and what the what we will do for that for next year would probably follow this
process um and already that is something that um that we will that we will have
to think about in in the future but not right now um that is all from me so I'll
open the floor up for folks to add their add their thoughts add their comments feedback um it is all
appreciated yes commissioner D yeah thank you for um working with director
ARS to put this together I um my only thought was 30 days might
be a little short for us given that we only meet once a month and so maybe
something like 45 days just to make sure that we we have a meeting that we can actually discuss it uh because sometimes
at least in the past we've learned about this you know through the director's report which we get 72 hours before a
meeting and so part of it is that we haven't had enough time to absorb it and think about it and so um so yeah I
really I really like that we would a get notice and B get some more insight into
the Department's rationale um uh I would also like to
see the um the the the counterfactual which is
like here's why the department thinks we should do this but I'd like to see pros and cons uh because I think you know
when we had first heard about 1416 we had mostly heard about the fact
that it was going to be costly and it might result in you know it would break all kinds of processes because of the
number of cards and we didn't hear the other side of it which of course we heard in Spades at a following meeting
so it would be helpful to you know to get that from the Department like here's
why we could do this here why we could do it here's where we came out
thank you commissioner D vice president jonic yeah thank you president Stone uh
for starters just thanks for a lot for putting this together and director AR for being um you know collaborating on
on this document um I think it's a great idea I think this is something that would have come in handy many times over
the years um just because you know like like we all know
sometimes something can go before um a committee and then you know if we only
find out about it a few days before when the committee agenda packet gets posted then there's not really enough time for
the commission to um you know take a position on it if it wants to whether that be in support or
maybe there's a small tweak that um the commission might have wanted to voice to
the director before that but um I yeah I think I'm fully supportive of this and
just thank you for the work and putting it together thank
you thanks vice president jonic other
hands okay I'll add um my thoughts in response to the feedback from commissioner D so um couple of thoughts
as it pertains to um the you there are a few that I wanted to touch on one is the
30-day requirement so the idea behind 30 days there kind of two components of
this one is um things do have to move kind of fast um sometimes with these
types of things if we give it too much time um it could actually slow down the department um and it it would might
actually interfere the one good thing about the 30 days is that uh most of the
ways that you think about it you would still be able to get one elections commission meeting in within that 30-day
period and as you see in the um in the proposed
policy it says the full commission full elections commission will receive formal
notice so all Commissioners would be made aware of it um and let's say
happens you know with a very short window the commission could call a special meeting so um the idea was to
create a nice Harmony between um supporting to not slowing down the work of the department while also um giving
the commission opportunity so just wanted to respond to that and then um I'm glad you like the Insight idea um I
I have mixed emotion about the uh pros and cons because I think actually as it
pertains to 1416 I think if we had had a formal notice even if it didn't have the the
alternative stance it would give us time to research the alternative stance um and it would give time for members of
the public to to um to weigh in if if
necessary I would be interested to hear what other Commissioners have to say about that just because it would obviously add um add a layer of of work
for the Department um but I'd like what I'd like to know what other folks think um and then I uh oh I got all of my
points special meeting 45 versus 30 days notice everyone will be made aware and then the pros and cons um but I'd like
to know what other what other folks think about about those two things um as well and if anyone has has strong
feelings commissioner Parker have to keep turning my mic on
um I mean of course pros and cons are always nice and I I am wary of doing
putting too much um on the department to provide in background I I feel like if there's a brief
rationale director arnst is a smart thoughtful person I would assume that um in that rationale that if there was
something very controversial about it there would be some sort of an anticipation in that and saying and we
see that you know there might be this thing but we have decided to move forward with this position because X Y and Z and so I can see something like
that being in in some language and anticipated if it's going to be controversial um because he's at all of
our meetings he knows what we talk about and care about and and things like that um I don't have a strong opinion about
it but I am wary of of adding too much um ahead and as long as we have notice
on a particular item and the public has notice on a particular item that we will
be able to get the information we need thank you commissioner
Parker vice president ronic yeah just the last thing commissioner Parker that that you said made me think of something
but um if the commission learns about something 30 days in advance that
doesn't necessarily mean the public knows about it but I'm wondering if um
you know we would have the ability to like post on our website you know where the
meeting would normally be posted that um just the information just so that so
that um people outside of the commission could also learn that but just an
idea thank you vice president jonic commissioner Hayden
Crowley I believe that any proposed legislation would be on the Board of Supervisors site in advance there's also
a notice that's given through the Board of Supervisors to the affected departments so I can't see where that
would be a problem for us to post anything as well
but the DCA can weigh in on that thank you commissioner Hayden Crowley um I don't feel like we need and
I feel like it's pretty straightforward um I I actually support that um and I
think vice president janik's suggestion about posting on the website I like that
it holds the commission to something in this policy as well um that even if um
uh let's say the um the commission doesn't choose to
agendize it or there's not much you know anything like that if the commission wants to post it on the website to make it more available to the
public they may do that so I'm happy to to incorporate that
um yeah I don't I think that's interesting because then it gives room for for alternative opinions to arise
kind of answers the procon question
does anyone else have any comments on the 45 versus 30-day
requirement commissioner Hayden growley uh I'm in favor of 30 days I think it's really difficult to operate a department
and we the city city government gets accused all the time accused maybe is a
rough word but of plotting along and not moving quickly enough and we do not need to throw more obstacles Les in the
Department's way thank you commissioner adley commissioner
d uh yeah I just wanted to State for the record that I I think you addressed my
concern uh so as long as uh especially if it's posted on the website so if that
30 days includes public posting then I think that addresses both my
concerns um thank you commissioner die I'm just taking a note um okay any other
comments okay I'm going to move that we adopt this policy do I have a
second second thank you commissioner Hayden Crowley um let's move to public
comment hi there um DCA Flores a moment ago um chuckled
when uh asked about the uh questions um
about uh the appropriateness or legality of your all's work with this Charter
Amendment and redistricting and you you should think about that Commissioners why why
is CA Flores getting that question at almost every meeting and I've looked
back at these meetings they come up this question comes up at most of the meetings one of you asked it in one way
or another and we've seen answers from DC Flores similar each time tonight she
said generally within the realm of Elections that's uh one answer that
we've had in other meetings she said that it's elections adj
so I'm not criticizing DCA Flores I'm just pointing out that's what her replies are
um let that be instructive something doesn't feel right about this or else
you wouldn't be asking that question all the time and I urge you in this year
this election year that's coming up ask yourself do you want to be embroiled in
this controversy around redistricting during an election year or on the approaching of it does the department
deserve that does this does do we Citizens need
that from you isn't this something that we can handle at the Board of Supervisors with our supervisor why do
we need this commission to put its thumb on the scale of this political matter it is a
political matter risting there's just no question about
it I think it's probably the only Election
Department oversight body to Lobby a city council for a redistricting
initiative I don't think there's another one in the country I thought about it I don't think there's another one this is
not how it's done down at La again they have their own committee down
there this is something for not for you guys to
do this is a political on this is why does
this polit why is does a political unelected
oversight body want to make this recommendation so the question uh that
came up a minute ago what will the package be that was the question what
will this package be let this package be a
report we don't need this body to make a recommendation to our Board of
Supervisors thank
you thank
you we do have one call
in hello caller hi this yes hi this is
Lauren gerarden with the League of Women Voters of San Francisco um thank you for
all these great discussions tonight um redistricting and also proposed
legislation these were conversations um that obviously the league was very
interested in hearing uh your conversations about and as was mentioned during your discussion the elections
commission started its inquiry into redistricting reform well before ab1
1248 was introduced and you're as we've said before we believe you are the right body
to be working on this um your very public um very open meetings um and the
abundance of conversation um and public comment that has been able to be shared
has been truly just a wonderful part of this process which if anyone has seen
the Board of Supervisors process they have open process as well but this is
truly robust um and really I think is just showing up in the results that the
fierce committee is producing um and we're really looking forward to the city attorney's uh
analysis of ab 764 impact on San Francisco um we're really glad to hear
that that was requested uh we strong ly encourage the information be made
available to the public because it affects redistricting which itself is a
process that must happen within full view of the public so how can the public
understand redistricting if it doesn't know what the city believes its responsibilities are from the new State
uh the new state law um and we we really want to see this
wrapped up as well um the league is also very busy during election years um and
uh are working on voter registration campaigns and things like that so um we
want to we want to be able to focus on that as well um and you know but I just
think it's so important that you do put reforms forward a package of reforms forward uh that can help the Board of
Supervisors craft a charter Amendment so San franciscans can get the independent redistricting they deserve and our
community can get the fair elections that we need as a city and thank you for sharing the process for proposed doe
legislation um about the 30 days notice 45 sounds great but we like more notice
we like the public to have more time um but you know I I I I hear the concerns
about slowing down the process but if you do decide to go with 30 days notice and the suggestion to call a special
meeting as a way to solve that tight timeline I wanted to uh we wanted to remind the
elections commission that you still don't have a way to push meeting information and meeting
notices bye thank you your time ran
out I I'll just add that if there was you want to finish that thought you can send also send it via email um and we'd
be happy to add it to the meeting record um and I I would be happy to read it as well thank you
it okay vice president jonic yeah I I can
guess what they were gonna say but I think it might have be that we don't really have currently have a mechanism
of pushing information out to people like it would require people to visit the website every
day so um I mean I could be wrong but that's what I'm guessing sure that's
it um I welcome the feedback and ideas if people have them um including from
the league about how to think about that um and um you know it could even be like
an addendum that we add later on to the policy I'm definitely open um to that I think this is at least a good starting
point I hope folks agree um and it can always be added and amended as I
said okay any other comments before we move to a vote commissioner
D you're on mute I just wanted to clarify that uh I think there was
agreement on on that we would post it on our website uh when we get it 30 days in
advance so to me that seems like a minimum even if we don't have a way to push it out which I'm sure we can solve
over time I just want to make sure we haven't lost that because it's not currently in the in the proposal
are you asking for there to be an amendment to the document that in specif
that specifies that the elections commission would be responsible for posting it to its website a friendly
Amendment
sure let me just make a note of that vice president jonic yeah I don't
want to too much um you know make it too much work but if do we also have a a
mailing list for for agendas like maybe that could be the way to push stuff out if um let's table that please sure that
is a bigger conversation um yes let's table that conversation but I appreciate
the enthusiasm around it and the idea we can keep talking about that um I will tell you secretary Davis has been doing
some work in the background on that specific ask great no no problem oh
yeah also this will be included in the director's report so this will be posted on your on your website by default so it
doesn't have to be a special process to get this information to the public thank you director
ARS okay have a good night very cool it's hot out there yeah um okay so um
the motion is to adopt the proposed
policy with the uh Amendment as as proposed by commissioner
D um secretary Davis can you move to a
vote Yes um president Stone yes vice president jonic yes
commissioner burn hols yes commissioner d
i commissioner Hayden Crowley yes commissioner Parker yes and
commissioner Luli is absent okay you have six yes votes for
this awesome thank you I'm really I'm really excited like I said welcome ideas um from the league from Commissioners
from members of the public um our email his address is on the our email
addresses are on the website so don't hesitate to reach out to us um thank you everyone so let's move to
item number six agenda items for future meetings discussion and possible action regarding items for future agendas um
and this is items that we haven't already touched upon of
course any items folks would like to raise vice president jonic yeah um just
the the question about the um the ballot labeling topic is that something that
you think we'll talk about this year or um this is President Stone I it is
something the director and I have already talked about it earlier this week um so we will um we're going to try
and work on a discuss we're discussing it um so yes I think it has to be
discussed very soon because it will be a part of the budgeting process um for the next year so yes I don't know if it'll
be in the October I mean sorry the November meeting but I think before the end of the year is likely okay thank you
yeah thanks I will also add that we will
probably separately agendize the president's report not to put you on the spot um but we'll probably make that its
own separate agenda item um so we give give things a little bit more space anything
else okay let's move to public comment
I have no public commenters okay that closes out agenda
item number six the time is now 7:42 and the meeting is adjourned.