1 1 MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS 2 * * * * 3 Wednesday, September 18, 2013 4 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 5 * * * * 6 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: ANTHONY CLARK, Chairman 7 AL SCHMIDT, Vice Chairman STEPHANIE SINGER, Commissioner 8 CARLA MOSS, Deputy Commissioner SETH BLUESTEIN, Deputy Commissioner 9 DENNIS LEE, Deputy Commissioner 10 PRESENT: FRED VOIGT, Legal Counsel 11 GARY FERRIS, Poll Material Supervisor JOHN DAY, Warehouse Supervisor 12 DEBORAH MURCHISON, Election and Voter Registration TIM DOWLING, Documents 13 JOSEPH LYNCH, Election Material GREGORY IRVING, Data Support Supervisor 14 GREGG KRAVITZ MICAH MAHJOUBIAN, Soap Box Solutions 15 BRIAN BARRY, Committee of Seventy 16 HELD AT: Delaware and Spring Garden Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 17 REPORTED BY: 18 Renée Helmar, Shorthand Reporter 19 * * * * 20 21 CLASS ACT COURT REPORTING AGENCY 22 Registered Professional Reporters 1420 Walnut Street 133 Gaither Drive 23 Suite 1201 Suite H Philadelphia, PA 19102 Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 24 (215) 928-9760 (856) 235-5108 2 1 (Whereupon, the proceeding began 2 at approximately 11:00 a.m.) 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: Good morning, everyone. 4 (Whereupon, there was a 5 collective response.) 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Today is Wednesday, 7 September 18th, 2013. The Sunshine Meeting is now in 8 session. 9 Are there any public comments? 10 (Whereupon, there was no 11 response.) 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Old business? 13 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I wanted to mention one 14 thing; if I may? 15 MR. CHAIRMAN: Sure. 16 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: This week the department 17 launched the new Web site, and the feedback, I think, 18 overall, was very, very positive. 19 And it was a lot of effort by a lot of people. 20 Most certainly our vendor. And I know Don, Seth, Greg, 21 Barry and Linda put in hundreds of hours working with the 22 vendors as well. And I think it is something that we can be 23 very proud of, and I'm thankful we had the opportunity to 24 work with this vendor. 3 1 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Commissioner. 2 Gary Ferris. 3 MR. FERRIS: Good morning, Commissioners. 4 As you know the school district has closed some 5 schools in Philadelphia, so we lost a total of 28 divisions, 6 polling -- 28 schools that had polling places in them. 7 Out of those 28 divisions, 5 are going to remain 8 at the same site because they've now become charter schools. 9 So, we went out and talked to those charter 10 schools. Those five divisions will remain in those schools. 11 The charter schools have agreed to still let us use those 12 schools. 13 So that leaves a net loss of 23 divisions in the 14 City that will have to be moved to different polling places 15 because those buildings are shuttered. We're not allowed to 16 use them. There is no one on site. We talked to the school 17 district, we cannot use those sites. 18 So, you all have a copy of the new polling places 19 where those sites will be relocated to. 20 Those divisions that are moved will be part of the 21 regular polling -- there will not be hearings on these 22 because they're considered refusals. 23 This information will be posted on the Web site. 24 Once I bring it up at this meeting today, I'll make sure 4 1 that everything gets put into the system by this weekend. 2 So all that information will be on the Web site if someone 3 goes to look up a polling place, the new information will be 4 on the Web site. 5 Those people will also get ID cards mailed to 6 them, as has been past practice, up until a certain date 7 that is picked by the Commissioners and the administrator, 8 which is around October 16th. 9 October 16th is the last day the Commissioners 10 will be able to hear any changes on polling places. 11 So, after that date ID cards will be sent. 12 After that date anything that changes, letters 13 will be sent out to anyone whose division is affected by any 14 kind of change due to a refusal, a Court Order or an 15 emergency change. 16 We still are working on some refusals that have 17 come in. There's about ten that we haven't heard back from. 18 There's about ten no responses. 19 Now, we will also have some hearings due to 20 handicapped accessibility changes. 21 There won't be as many as there normally are 22 because, we spent most of the summer trying to relocate the 23 schools that had closed. 24 So, I can say, approximately -- maybe between 10 5 1 and 20 hearings we'll have for handicapped accessibility 2 changes. 3 As soon as I get that list put together you'll get 4 a copy of that, and we will pick a date when we will have 5 that hearing for the changes. And I will announce it 6 probably at the next meeting when that will be. 7 And I think that's all I have. 8 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Thank you, Gary. 9 John Day, please. 10 MR. DAY: Right now we're finishing up the PM test 11 on the voting machines, and we'll be done that by the end of 12 the week. 13 Next week we'll start laying out everything for 14 this upcoming election. So we are right on schedule. 15 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Sounds good. 16 MR. DAY: That's it. 17 MR. CHAIRMAN: Is that it? 18 MR. DAY: Yep. 19 MR. CHAIRMAN: Ms. Murchison. 20 MS. MURCHISON: Good morning, Commissioners. 21 We have had three schools since September. The 22 third was our start. 23 We visited Holy Cross School already. We had 401 24 board members attend those classes. We also visited West 6 1 Catholic School. We had 379. 2 This week we're at the Office for Registration, 3 Delaware and Spring Garden. Next week we have double 4 schools at South Philly High and the old school, the old 5 Cardinal Dougherty. 6 And I have my temps and permanent employees filing 7 2012 General Election. 8 That's all I have, Commissioners. 9 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Thank you. 10 Mr. Tim Dowling. 11 MR. DOWLING: Absentee ballot applications are 12 starting to trickle in. We got 109 so far. They were sent 13 down to Greg. 14 We mailed out 474 applications to people who were 15 listed as permanent absentee recipients. And we are 16 continually sending out military, SBO, MRI and CRI ballots 17 out to overseas. 18 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 19 MR. DOWLING: Bilingual interpreters, we'll have a 20 training day on October 12th. 21 Within the next week or two I'll be sending out my 22 general notice letter to everybody in our database, getting 23 a feel for how many people are going to work on Election 24 Day. And then based on what I get in return, I'll send a 7 1 second letter assigning them a training time or a refresher 2 training time. And that will be held on October 12th, here 3 at Delaware and Spring Garden, on the sixth floor. 4 Last, the primary went very smooth. Went very 5 well. The people that we hired to do it were very 6 appreciative of how easy it went. 7 We're also in the process to -- a global type 8 project regarding alleged discrepancies in the ward and 9 division maps and written descriptions. I'm comparing them 10 to house ranges. And that's an ongoing task that we're 11 involved in right now. 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 13 MR. DOWLING: And that's it. 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: Sounds good. 15 Mr. Lynch, please. 16 MR. LYNCH: Good morning, Commissioners. 17 We're currently working on the materials for the 18 upcoming election. I think I have everything in, but still 19 waiting for some of my boxes to come in, a couple of other 20 items. But most of the envelopes and stuff are in. We're 21 marking that up. 22 And we're also working -- Garret's working on the 23 database. 24 And, hopefully, I get -- he can give me an export 8 1 out of that later today or early tomorrow and I can start 2 working on the absentee ballot so that I can get it up to 3 Tim Dowling. 4 That's it. 5 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I have a question for Mr. 7 Dowling. 8 On the project with the discrepancies, given the 9 timing are we expecting that any changes will be made before 10 the November Election or are we up in the air about that 11 or -- 12 MR. DOWLING: Well, that's a decision that the 13 Commissioners are going to have to make. And it's going to 14 have to be made soon, because it's a very detailed process 15 in doing the petition, redrawing the maps and rewriting the 16 written descriptions, notifying all the people that are 17 affected, which is the ward leaders, the party committees, 18 the committeemen, the board workers and the public at large 19 in those affected precincts. 20 To move -- I mean, we're in the middle of 21 September, I would not recommend anything after the end of 22 September. It would create confusion for the voters. 23 If we're going to do it, we have to do it soon. 24 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Okay. And are you -- are 9 1 you planning to recommend to us some change over? 2 How are we -- how are we going to handle this? 3 Is this -- 4 MR. VOIGT: Before the next meeting, Commissioner, 5 we will vote to have one or more of -- at least one or more 6 of the divisions that are in question. 7 It's more complicated then we originally thought. 8 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Right. 9 MR. VOIGT: So we'll let you know before the next 10 meeting. 11 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Okay. Great. Thank you. 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Irving, please. 13 MR. IRVING: Good morning, Commissioners. 14 Hope you all had an enjoyable summer. It's good 15 to see you back. 16 Right now the staff is currently working on all of 17 our new applications which we're receiving in. 18 As of today, we've received 14,500 applications by 19 way of the mail. We've received over 60,000 electronic 20 applications. Adds up to roughly 74,000. 21 So far out of the 74,000 which we've processed, if 22 you look at the numbers which we sent weekly on a 23 statistical report, that number, since the close of 24 registration, has only grown by 1,715. 10 1 But, yet, we've processed over -- there are a lot 2 of duplicates out there. There are tons of duplicates. 3 People are already registering. 4 The Welfare Department has -- I don't know if they 5 made it mandatory for everyone who signs up to fill out an 6 application, but we're getting tons from them. And most of 7 these people are already registered. 8 So, we're just processing them, as according to 9 the law, and they become duplicates. 10 We've transferred and deleted from our files, 11 because of deaths or people who are registered in other 12 counties, roughly 11,000 voters. 13 In the month of July we did our NCA, which we 14 mailed out 26,000 letters to people asking them whether they 15 moved or not or confirmed they are still at the same 16 address. 17 We sent the AVN 30-day letter later for the people 18 that we did not hear a response from. And as of today we've 19 processed about 9300 of those. 20 Staff is currently still filing Affidavits from 21 the 2012 General and the 2013 Primary Election. And they're 22 also pulling applications from people who transferred out of 23 Philadelphia so that we could forward these to the other 24 counties, as well as pulling the deceased out of the 11 1 cabinets. 2 We've extended our hours until 7:30 p.m. Monday 3 through Thursday, and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 to 4:30 4 a.m. to help with -- from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to help 5 with the workload. 6 Other than that, that's all I have to report on 7 today. 8 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER SINGER: So, I have a question about 10 the duplicates. 11 MR. IRVING: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Is it -- now that the Web 13 site is up, is it easier for people to check on the Web site 14 whether they are registered or not, or is that still 15 something people have to call for? 16 MR. IRVING: I don't know. 17 But that doesn't matter. That does not matter. 18 COMMISSIONER SINGER: But what I'm wondering, 19 if -- if we have a way for -- if there is a way to reach out 20 to Welfare and the other departments that -- 21 MR. IRVING: No. 22 We've talked with the -- 23 COMMISSIONER SINGER: -- to view some of these 24 registrations -- 12 1 MR. IRVING: We've talked with the Department of 2 State about that, okay. They get the applications from the 3 Department of State. 4 And that's -- committee people generally want to 5 walk up to you and say, look, I got 200 people, I know these 6 4 people here are registered, but I give them one and they 7 help me out and they fill it out. 8 There is nothing that can be done about that. The 9 law says they can fill out 100 of them if they can. 10 Case in point, this is 87 applications 11 (indicating) from one person. This is just from this 12 election period since the close. Eighty-seven. 13 She sent them in two, three, four times a day by 14 KYW. 15 There is nothing that you can do about -- no 16 matter -- people don't want to look on the Web. They just 17 fill it out to get you out of their face. 18 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Eighty-seven duplicates? 19 MR. IRVING: Yes. 20 This woman has some kind of problem. 21 We had one of our inspectors go out. He's talked 22 with her. And when he came back he says, lost cause. 23 MR. VOIGT: We have had a particular problem, this 24 woman has mental issues, and we are going to try to deal 13 1 with it by having the district attorney send a detective 2 out. We've done this before. We are going to do it again. 3 There isn't a lot that we can do legally to 4 persuade this conduct in this particular case. But we are 5 going to try. 6 This is an exceptional situation. It's not the 7 norm. 8 MR. IRVING: I will give this one woman credit, 9 though, she fills them out thoroughly, okay. We don't have 10 to send any back because it is missing information. She 11 fills them out completely. 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Irving. 13 MR. IRVING: You're welcome. 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: New business, please? 15 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I just have one item for 16 that. 17 I just want to mention -- or thank, I guess, Joe 18 and Joyce and Garret for really fixing up the sixth floor, 19 and anyone else who helped. It really looks terrific. 20 MR. LYNCH: A little housecleaning, that's all. 21 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: The only item that I have 22 was, about a year ago on the 26th of September 2012, the 23 mayor put in place a new compensation package for 24 Non-Represented Civil Service and Exempt Employees that 14 1 became effective October 1st, 2012. 2 The package was accompanied by a 2.5 percent pay 3 adjustment to offset increased pension and health care 4 contributions by these employees, as well as restore step 5 and longevity increases for Non-Except employees. 6 Our department's budget was increased to 7 accommodate this salary adjustment. It was increased by 8 $10,480. But it was not implemented for all those affected. 9 I would like to motion that the Commissioners 10 implement the 2.5 percent salary adjustment for all those 11 affected by the increase by the pension and health care 12 requirements for whom this has not already been done. 13 So I need a second. 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. I second. 15 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 16 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 17 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 18 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: That's all I have. 19 Sir. 20 MR. IRVING: On behalf of everyone that it 21 effects, we thank you, Commissioner. 22 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Thank you. 23 MR. IRVING: Thank you, Commissioners. 24 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. This meeting is adjourned at 15 1 the call of the Chair. Thank you. 2 (Whereupon, the proceeding was 3 adjourned at approximately 11:18 4 a.m.) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 C E R T I F I C A T E 24 16 1 I, RENÉE HELMAR, a Shorthand Reporter, and 2 Notary, Public, certify that the foregoing is a true 3 and accurate transcript of the proceedings which 4 were held at the time, place and on the date herein 5 before set forth. 6 I further certify that I am neither 7 attorney, nor counsel for, nor related to or 8 employed by, any of the parties to the action in 9 which these proceedings were taken, and further that 10 I am not a relative or employee of any attorney or 11 counsel employed in this action, nor am I 12 financially interested in this case. 13 14 15 16 17 Renée Helmar 18 Shorthand Reporter 19 20 21 22 23 24