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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/15/2019 Office of the County Auditor, Office of the County Clerk Office of the County Auditor Honorable Arthur Brun Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Felicia Cowden Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Excused: Honorable Luke A. Evslin Honorable Ross Kagawa Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i The Committee reconvened on April 15, 2019 at 9:08 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. I would like to call back to order the Committee of the Whole and the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 Departmental Budget Reviews. Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum. On the schedule for today, April 15, 2019, we will be hearing from the Office of the County Auditor, which will be handled by our County Clerk, and the Office of the County Clerk, which includes the Elections Division. As we do each morning, we will take testimony. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify? There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony. There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back to order and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Jade, we will start with the Auditor's Office, which only has two (2) line items. If you want to say anything about that? Then we will move on to our budget. JADE K. FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA, County Clerk: Sure. Good morning Council Chair Kaneshiro and Members, Jade K. Fountain-Tanigawa, County Clerk. Before you, you have the budget for the Office of the County Auditor. As you notice, all positions have been dollar-funded. We have two (2) expenses. Other Services, which we use for payment of the storage fees. We have the equipment that was in the Auditor's Office previously. We have that in storage and we have that monthly amount. We also have Consultant Services, which is for our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which we will be in the first of the five (5) year contract. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: I have a simple question. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Sure. Councilmember Cowden: The elements that we store in the storage, it has been about six (6) years since we had a County Auditor? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Almost. Councilmember Cowden: What is it that we have in there? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: We have executive desks, files, file cabinets, and things like that. Office furniture. April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 2 Councilmember Cowden: Just office furniture? Not computers that are going bad? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Nope,just office furniture. Correct. So if there is ever an Auditor, they can take the furniture and there is no need to purchase new furniture. Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: And the Office was officially shut down approximately two (2) years ago, correct? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Correct, officially. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: As far as not having warm bodies in it, and moving out of the space that we were renting. Councilmember Cowden: I was just thinking that it is $36,000.00 if we were paying storage rent for six (6) years for $6,000.00 a year. That might be expensive to store filing cabinets. That was just a thought. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: There is a lot of office stuff in there. Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: Thank you. Jade, being that we are looking at filling this Office, should we not be adding to the budget? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: That is really up to the Council. If you want to fund the positions,you could do that when an Auditor is hired through a supplemental money bill. It really depends. We did not want to take the liberty and fund all the positions because for the Office of the County Clerk, we are not sure what positions the Auditor would want to fill or need. So we have left that as-is. Councilmember Brun: Okay, thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: From my standpoint, we have $275,000.00 in Performance Audits under the Council's budget for this upcoming fiscal year. My feeling was, if we hire an Auditor within the next fiscal year, we will not need to spend the Performance Audit budget and that can be transferred to the Office of the County Auditor. If we do not get an Auditor in the next fiscal year, we would use that money to contract for internal audits that we would do. Councilmember Brun: Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: Just following-up on that. I was thinking that and this $255,000.00 for Consultant Services could also perhaps be reallocated towards that Office and the hired positions, is that correct? April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 3 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That amount is specifically for the CAFR. The annual financial audit. Councilmember Cowden: Alright, thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Not a problem. Any other questions for the Auditor's Office? Office of the County Clerk Committee Chair Kaneshiro: If not, we will move on. Jade, do you have a presentation you want to make? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: If you look at our budget, everything is fairly flat. If you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them. We do have some exciting news to report with regards to Elections. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions for Council Services or that budget? Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: I just want to make a comment that I think you all do a really good job and I appreciate all that you do. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Thank you. We are very fortunate to have an awesome staff. Councilmember Cowden: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: With that, we will move on to Elections. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: We really want to take this opportunity to thank our State Legislators. They had some confidence in us and we will be getting All-Mail Voting in 2020. They were very instrumental in getting that bill passed, and the Governor signed it into law. To my right is our Elections Administrator Lyndon Yoshioka, and we do have a PowerPoint. LYNDON M. YOSHIOKA, Elections Administrator: Good morning everyone. Mr. Chair and Councilmembers, Lyndon Yoshioka, Elections Administrator for the record. We really want to start off by thanking our Legislators, including Representatives Nakamura, Tokioka, and Morikawa, and especially Senate President Kouchi. He was really key in allowing this pilot project to move forward. The first slide there, I also want to thank the State Office of Elections. They are really helping us to pull this together. They developed that logo there at the very top of the screen which we will try to incorporate into a lot of the material that we will be producing over the next year and a half. To begin with, this pilot project was the result of the passage of House Bill 1401, House, Senate, and Conference Draft 1 that was signed into law by the Governor as Act 182. This Act will authorize an All- Mail pilot project for the County of Kaua`i, but still allow registered voters to vote in-person if they so desire. Every registered voter will get a ballot. If they wish to vote that mail ballot, they can do so. If not, we will establish a Voter Service Center in the basement of the Historic County Building Annex that will provide voter assistance to individuals with disabilities, as well as late voter registration services. We will also accept voted absentee ballots there at that site as well. April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 4 As a general timeline, we are actually beginning efforts this year to get the word out. We will be doing an election notification mailing, as well as begin some voter education efforts beginning in August of this year and move that through perhaps the mid-2020 calendar. In early- to mid-2020, we need to really begin our regular election notifications, as well as the education effort. We will roll all of that in together. Ballots will be mailed for the Primary Election in about mid-July of 2020. Voter Service Center will open at the same time as Early Voting sites statewide; however, for the Act, we will be open on Election Day as well. There will be a little change in the hours, which I will get into as well. For the General Election, we anticipate ballots going out in October of 2020. The Voter Service Center will be opening • again to coincide with the Early Voting period. Again, we will be open on General Election Day. For Voter Notification & Education efforts, we will be sending out a specific postcard in August of 2019. It will provide some information on voting by mail in general, as well as specific information pertaining to the pilot project. If I am going too fast, please at any time, just let me know, and if you have any questions,just let me know. We are trying to also time an informational brochure and a new webpage that we will try to roll-out together in one...during the same time. Voter education outreach sessions, banners, posters, and public service announcements (PSAs) will also be issued at the appropriate times. For the ballot mailing, and this is key to any solid mail voting effort...prior to us doing any mailing, we will cleanse the data using United States Postal Service (USPS) tools, the first of which is referred to as the National Change of Address (NCOA) file. We do this to identify voters in the file who may have moved or changed addresses. This does a good job at improving the delivery success rates of the mail pieces that we will send out. We will also have to reformat the addresses to meet USPS standards via the Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) standard. This also improves the delivery success rates, but also helps us qualify for discounts in postage. Ballots will only be mailed to properly-registered voters at the address that they have on-file. Anyone who wishes to receive a ballot at an address other than the address that they have on-file can still do so, but they need to submit a separate application to tell us where they want the ballot to go. Councilmember Cowden: Can I ask a question? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Sure, but usually we wait until the end. So maybe you can make a note of the page and we can get back to it. Councilmember Cowden: Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, go ahead. Councilmember Cowden: I will ask it at the end. Mr. Yoshioka: Some key things that we need to let voters know is that the ballots will not be forwarded without some type of written authorization from the voter. We do that for several reasons. Number one, we need to know where the ballot needs to go to, first off. We also want to be sure that that ballot is being sent to another address pursuant to the voter's request and authorization. Any undeliverable ballots will be returned to our office and will trigger a follow-up process by staff. We begin with a phone call, and if not we will follow-up in the mail. Ideally, we would want to reach them as soon as possible, so we have opted to try to call them first. Ballots will not be mailed to individuals with April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 5 outdated addresses. The thing that we will be stressing over the next several months is that voters need to let us know if they moved or changed their address. Bottom line is if we do not know about those changes, there is no way we can be assured of updating the file itself. The ballot packet will include a ballot, a secrecy envelope which is yellow, it contains some information on one side and some instructions as well, and a return envelope, that will be an undetermined color. We will have the return envelope be a separate color. During the Primary Election, voters will receive an instruction sheet to provide them with information on what the single-party primary voting process is. Voting instructions are also in the upper left corner of the ballot itself and on one side of the secrecy envelope. In order for ballots to be considered valid, they must be physically in our custody by 6:00 p.m. on Election Day. Voters also need to sign the back of the envelope in the affirmation section. If they are unable to sign, and sign via a mark, then a witness must provide their signature and information immediately below the signature block for the voter. Any issues that we encounter whether it be missing signatures, non-matching signatures, or signatures outside the affirmation area, would trigger a follow-up on our part to attempt to resolve that issue. Deficiencies as described in this Act, must now be cured within five (5) business days of the election. If a voter with a deficiency can address their issue within five (5) days of the election that still provides them with an opportunity to have their ballot counted. There is a possibility that you will see some changes to the vote counts even after Election Day due to this provision within the Act. If need be, voters may also request a replacement ballot as long as they have not already cast a ballot during the Voter Service Center period, or have already turned in a ballot to our Office which we have received and deemed valid. For the Voter Service Center, again it will provide in-person voting services, assistance to voters with disabilities, late voter registration services, and we will also accept voted absentee mail ballots. The Service Center will be open Monday through Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from July 27 through August 7. On Primary Election Day only, it will be open 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., which is essentially polling place hours for those counties that run in-person voting services at polling places on Election Day. For the General Election, the Service Center will be open Monday through Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from October 20 through November 2. On General Election Day, we will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. So ballot counting is a little different for this particular pilot project. The Act does authorize us to begin ballot scanning, no sooner than ten (10) days prior to the election. We refer to this as pre-processing. I do not think we will be using all ten (10) days. We will probably schedule maybe three (3) or four (4) days prior where we will have all the observers together to oversee the process and begin scanning. However, no election results are released until all polls have closed statewide and that is pursuant to State Law. Of course, we will be doing manual audits and other checks to ensure counts are valid on Election Day. That is all I have, are there any questions? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you for that. Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: Yes, my question is relative to page 3, or slide 5, where it says, "Voters may apply to receive a ballot at a temporary address." Why I am focused on that is that we have an estimated 25% housing insecure. It is really difficult to get a mailbox if you do not have a physical address. I had the opportunity to see how many people are seemingly pretty well-employed or functioning in our community for some time and I will regularly have people asking me if they can please use my address for things. It is very difficult for some people to even get a mailbox. I have to say, for the most, say "no," because there are all kinds of consequences if you have too many people perceived as living April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 6 at your house. I think that we really need to be proactive at how to manage that challenge because without a physical address, you cannot get a post office box. Without a post office box or physical address, what is this temporary address that you can have? Mr. Yoshioka: That temporary address is primarily for individuals who may be away during the election period. Councilmember Cowden: So what about these people who are living in their cars or living in someone's garage? There is a lot of that happening. Mr. Yoshioka: I understand that these individuals are still qualified to receive mail via general delivery. We will be certainly... Councilmember Cowden: I do not think they are. It is difficult to do that. When you have a general delivery address...I just wonder if there is a sizeable amount of population if we cannot give that a focus. I think that is a portion of our community who really does need representation and whose vote really does need to count. Those are teachers, a lot of people who are that way and when you pick a general delivery piece, if you are living from one region to another there is a very narrow window of when you can pick-up that general delivery. If it is not where you work or you have to take the time to go and pick-up your mail, it is a much bigger problem than people realize. I would really like to see that we have a plan in place for that portion of our community, because it is significant and they are definitely not transient kind of people. Not that I am going against transient people. They are people who might really have some roots in the community. I think you answered another one of my questions. When I am looking at the amount of days that are available here at this building for early voting or coming in and doing it, I have been wondering whether these people who do not have a solid address, can they come in here? Mr. Yoshioka: Yes. Councilmember Cowden: That might be a way to really address that. Maybe our Paratransit rides...there are so many people who are very regional, who do not come the distance to the edges if they do not have a car or they are not in full health and in capacity...I just want to make sure that we take care of those people. So houseless people with no solid address, they could come to this Office and get that figured out? Maybe they could show pay stubs or... Mr. Yoshioka: Often, it is a case-by-case basis. We will work with them to figure out what is the best solution, of course within the scope of the law to allow them to vote, definitely. Councilmember Cowden: Yes. Mr. Yoshioka: Yes. Councilmember Cowden: Maybe I can have a report in the next three (3) months, what is within the scope of the law, so that if we need to change it within the next legislative season, that we can adapt something if there is a problem. Mr. Yoshioka: Sure. April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 7 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: As long as they are registered, they can always walk-in and vote, correct? Mr. Yoshioka: Absolutely. We have what is referred to "Same-Day Voter Registration" and "Late Voter Registration," so even if you are not registered by the deadline that is in State statute, you can still come in to Early Voting or the Voter Service Center and register and vote right then and there. Councilmember Cowden: So you can come in and register and say, "I live at Salt Pond Beach Park?" Mr. Yoshioka: Absolutely. Councilmember Cowden: And not have a mailing address? Mr. Yoshioka: It is preferred, but we would not deny someone registration just because they may have issues receiving mail. The mail is partially there to allow us to get stuff out to them, but that is not entirely a disqualifying feature of the process. Councilmember Cowden: Okay, because that is important to me. I do see routinely where people have barriers by not having mailing addresses. It comes up pretty regularly for a lot of different things dealing with the law or even receiving car insurance, and things like that. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: To clarify, we are not prohibiting anyone from voting, as long as they are registered, correct? Mr. Yoshioka: No, absolutely not. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: I had the same question as you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Elections? I wanted to ask, I noticed on the write-up, our voter turnout was 58%? Is that high? It seems high for... Mr. Yoshioka: It is not as high as we would like it. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: What is the national average? I thought typically we were in the 30-40% range? Mr. Yoshioka: It is a little lower in the Primary Election. During the General Election it will pick up. Even with those numbers, we have led the state for I think just about every election that I can recall. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are we higher than the other counties? Mr. Yoshioka: Oh, yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It seems higher. Councilmember Chock. April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 8 • Councilmember Chock: So Lyndon,just to confirm, if people walk-in there will not be any machines, really, to vote on? It is just a place to submit the paper? The ballot? Mr. Yoshioka: For the Voter Service Center? Councilmember Chock: Correct. Mr. Yoshioka: No, we will have a whole set-up down there. It will have everything for someone to be able to register and vote either a paper or an electronic ballot. We need to have the electronic voting capability to allow for...based on Federal Law...to allow for individuals with disabilities to vote without assistance. We need to have that available. However, if someone had already received a ballot by mail, before we allow • them to vote downstairs in the Annex basement, we would need to cancel that first ballot and re-issue them a paper or electronic ballot, depending on what they wish. Councilmember Chock: What people have typically experienced in the past, in terms of walk-in, will be the same? Mr. Yoshioka: There will be no change. The only difference is that we will keep that operation open on Election Day. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions? If not, that is all for today. Mr. Yoshioka: Thank you. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Again, I would just like to say thank you to everyone again for their participation in these budget reviews. I think Councilmembers came prepared and we did not send as many questions over to the Administration. They have been responding to them very timely. I know it is a lot of work. I thank everyone for their hard work on the front end of this. For the public's information and as reminders to the Councilmembers, here are some important dates to consider, Call-Backs were not needed, so Call-Backs which were scheduled for April 16, 18, 22, 23, 25, and 26 have all been canceled. Call-Backs are typically used only if our meeting goes long and we were not able to get all the information from the Administration. We would then have a Call-Back to get them back in here. I believe we were able to ask them all the questions we needed. If we have any further questions we can E-mail it to them. Staff will be meeting with each Councilmember separately to go over your decision-making proposals so that they are able to prepare various proposals. These meetings are strictly between you and staff. The Mayor will transmit his May Supplemental Budget Communication as authorized by the Charter on or before May 8, 2019. Staff will be preparing a comparison, and I am asking the Administration to please submit the various changes as well so that it is transparent. On May 8, 2019 at 5:00 p.m., we will be holding our public hearing on the Mayor's March budget submittal. Decision- Making will start on May 10, which is an important day for us, we need everyone here, and continue on May 13, and 14, if needed. I believe in the past, we may have taken two (2) days. Again, thank you to everyone for being a part of this process and for all of your hard work. This concludes our scheduled Departmental Budget Reviews. Seeing no objections, I will April 15, 2019 Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk Page 9 adjourn the Departmental Budget Reviews for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. We also do not have a Committee Meeting this Wednesday. There being no objections, the Committee adjourned the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 Departmental Budget Reviews at 10:07 a.m. Respectfully submitted, , .tkAJ' S ott K. Sat Deputy County Clerk C - Darrellyne M. Caldeira Council Services Assistant II Allison S. Arakaki Cou s cil Services Assistant I 0 , i , 6 JesIca Young Council Services Assistant APPROVED at the Committee Meeting held on May 22, 2019: it 1-14/4 ° 1.Aii. )11. At.O ARRY 4 a NESHIRO Chair, Committee of the Whole