Boards and Commissions

 Board of Supervisors of Elections

Meeting Minutes
City of Rockville Board of Supervisors of Elections
April 21, 2004

The City of Rockville Board of Supervisors of Elections met on April 21, 2005 at 11:00 a.m. in the City Manager’s Conference Room, Rockville City Hall, 111 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland

MEMBERS PRESENT: Doris Ecelbarger, Chair, David Celeste, and Linda Aksamit.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Sid Gottlieb and Margaretta Tutson
STAFF PRESENT: Claire Funkhouser, City Clerk

Re:    Welcome/Updates from members and staff

Since it had been a while since the Board had met, the meeting began informally with everyone sharing some updates about what they have been doing since the last meeting.

Re:    Overview of Candidate Notebook, including changes for 2005 

City Clerk Claire Funkhouser reviewed the 2005 Candidate Notebook for the Board’s approval prior to its being distributed to any prospective candidates.  Ms. Funkhouser said that the notebook is complete except for the listing of the polling places, which is also on the agenda for discussion today.  The notebook is basically the same as last time.  Ms. Funkhouser reported that as soon as everything was finalized, the candidate notebook would be scanned for its placement on the City’s website.  A logo for the 2005 election has been designed by the Graphics Division and is visible on the City’s web page.  A couple of items have already been placed on the web including the 2005 election calendar.  The form to request an application for the absentee ballot will be on the web next week.

Re: Discussion on Other Issues

The group discussed a meeting that staff had attended with the City’s Communications Team concerning publicity and translation issues.  The Communications Team is an interdepartmental group that includes staff from the Public Information Office, Graphics, Cable, and the Department of Information Technology.  At the meeting, there had been discussion about trying to better coordinate any translation of election materials to reduce costs.  Another benefit to better coordination would be more consistency for the reader.  Pedro Flores, a bi-lingual staff member for the City’s Department of Information Technology who had worked extensively on the 2001 and 2003 elections, had reported that some of the items had been considerably more readable than others.  The Communications Team will continue to work with the Clerk’s Office on all issues related to publicity and translation.

Re: Review of 2005 Polling Places

The Board reviewed the list of the prospective polling places for 2005 based on the list of the sites used from 2003.  Ms. Funkhouser said that she felt that the list would probably stay the same, with the exception of the possibility of Lakewood Elementary School, which might be a possibility.  Lakewood had been used in the past for elections, but had not been a site lately because of issues that included some resistance on the part of the previous principal and lack of availability due to renovation.  Ms. Funkhouser said she had already inquired with the County’s Community Use of Buildings about using Lakewood but had not received a definitive answer.  She wanted to know if the Board was all right with this idea.  The members of the Board present said to pursue the use of the school, including asking one of the Councilmembers who lives in that area for her opinion about using Lakewood Elementary School rather than the Latvian Lutheran Church which had been used in 2003.  The Board agreed that, if Lakewood were not available, the church would be acceptable.

Re: Recruitment of Judges

Ms. Funkhouser said that, as was done in 2003, the Clerk’s office would be contacting judges who had served then to see if they would be available for this election.  Efforts would again be made to ensure that as many bi-lingual judges as possible were available.

Re: Status of Final Reports of Candidates from 2003 Election

Ms. Funkhouser said she wanted to update the members of the Board about one of the candidates from 2003 who still had not submitted his final campaign report.  Ms. Funkhouser recounted the efforts of the staff to obtain the report, which had even included fining the candidate.  The Board directed Ms. Funkhouser to continue to try to obtain the report by contacting the candidate’s treasurer by phone and letter.  Previous calls have gone unreturned.

Re: Possible date for next meeting

Possible dates for the next meeting were discussed, with the understanding that there would be no meeting if there were nothing much new to discuss.