[SPEAKER_01]: Very good. So yes, per the agenda, the Medford Election Commission was scheduled to have our meeting today, February 15th at 6 p.m. It is being 6.06 and we have a majority of folks here. I request to call the meeting to order.
[SPEAKER_05]: I second. I third.
[Elections Manager]: Okay, the next part is the acceptance or review of January 18 2023 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, I believe those minutes were shared amongst this amongst this group. And I propose if everyone's had a chance or there's any objections that we move to accept the minutes from the last meeting, you can you can request
[Elections Manager]: someone to move. You can't move because you're eager.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very good. My Roberts, my Roberts rules of order are a bit rusty.
[Elections Manager]: Okay.
[Unidentified]: Do we have a second?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Second by myself. Yep. Tony.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Elections Manager]: Um, so old business, we have the response to res, Mark, you can, I think we'll skip over A of old business until Henry gets here, but if you want to start B of old business, that would be great.
[SPEAKER_01]: The new business you said, I'm sorry.
[Elections Manager]: The response to resolution.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm not quite familiar with what that one is. So certainly I introduced the topic to discuss the response to resolution 22590, but I will claim an element of ignorance to it.
[Elections Manager]: No, no, no. We had discussed it in the past meeting. So in December, the city council, councilor Bears had requested some information from the election commission pertaining to any challenges from the November election and any other information we thought that would be relevant with regards to the new leadership and changes that we thought might be implemented. The information was sent to the city council for their last meeting. And at their last meeting, they had requested within resolution 23-026 that the commission, the commissioners and the election manager come in and present the results or the conclusions from that December resolution. So I think the presentation for the old businesses that it was presented, they've now asked us for to come and present to them personally. And so the commission should have a discussion about their comfort level and how they want to approach I'm presenting to the city council with regards to the commissioners resolution. You guys.
[Unidentified]: Go ahead.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So is there a timeline they're expecting us to be able to present to them? Do they ask for anything?
[Elections Manager]: I did not see a timeline, but we can certainly, we can work with the mayor's office. Henry can work with the mayor's office directly to come up with a timeline if we want to, however we determine we wanna go.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Henry might have more data on this. So if we could just hold off and move this towards the end of today's meeting and revisit this at that time, I make that motion to move the meeting to this item to the end of that.
[Elections Manager]: Is there a second for moving it and holding off? I second it. Okay, thanks, Tony.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, next, Marcus C. That is a review of the election calendar.
[Elections Manager]: I'm through the election calendar with the state. And I have also reviewed the calendar and compared to calendars from local areas plus the calendar from 2021 from our city clerk. The calendar is all ready to go as long as the commissioners are happy with the way the calendar looks. There's nothing abnormal on the calendar. Everything is pretty much standard with what we've done in the past. So we can send that to, we can vote to approve the calendar. And then the calendar to the city council, just so that they can review it. And so they have that on, on their radar for, for this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Uh, I moved to accept the count. I looked at it. It made sense to me. So unless there was any other thoughts, Karen.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Um, so you were already heard back from the state and it's been approved. And we've had time to review it and make sure that all those dates are correct. And we've all looked at it. So I make a motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_05]: I second that emotion.
[Unidentified]: Sounds like we have a motion and second. All in favor. Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sounds good. So move.
[Elections Manager]: Okay, perfect. Um, the next market, new business, new business outlook, there, there seems to be Henry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, Henry. Welcome. Welcome to the session. We're just working our way through through the agenda in your in your absence. So we have reviewed the minutes and we have gone through some of the old business with the exception of the 2023 caucus. which I know Melissa had indicated would be an item that you would be more suited to speak to. But the next step was then to go into new business. But now that you're here, we want to move back to the 2023 caucus information before we move into the new business.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Motion to move back and follow the agenda as it's outlined in our paperwork.
[Unidentified]: Seconded. I second that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Hi, Henry.
[Unidentified]: Hello.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Henry, just so you know, Method Community Media is live streaming.
[Henry Miller]: It's supposed to live streaming because we were supposed to meet in person. Okay, I just made it from CDO. It took me longer to leave what I was doing. I'm a little disappointed. We didn't stick with what we planned on. Okay. And besides, Melissa, I knew I was going to come back here. Even if you wanted to stop the meeting, you guys should have waited because I was going to make the meeting.
[Elections Manager]: Henry.
[Unidentified]: Henry, I started the meeting. Henry. Okay.
[Elections Manager]: Henry, that was me. I started the meeting because we had just a few things we could start. We're now ready. Do you want to talk about the caucus, Henry?
[Henry Miller]: No, because the thing is, we have to stick with what we said. I had a conversation with Aaron yesterday. I had the same conversation with Melissa yesterday. I've been out on the streets since 6 o'clock this morning, realizing I wasn't going to make it on time. I swing by City Hall at 5.30, come to find out we were going to meet virtually. How would that be done? A good team talk to each other. Okay. Now it took me almost eight minutes counted just to get access to the Zoom like that was sent to me. That's not how I work. I don't work like that. And I don't think I have so far on the little time we spent together, I've worked that way. Okay. We're not conversing with each other.
[Unidentified]: Okay. Henry, do you want to say something?
[Henry Miller]: You already start the meeting without me continue doing it like I wasn't even here, because that's how it started. So let's keep it that way, like I'm not there. Make me absent, make me in any way you want to, because we did it wrong. And I can show you an open meeting law where we make some violations.
[Elections Manager]: Henry, that was my fault. I wanted to get through the, I knew you were coming. I wanted to get through the minutes part of it so that we could move forward, because I want to be respectful of people's time. So I apologize. Can we talk about the caucus? Do you want to talk about the caucus, Henry?
[Henry Miller]: It's important. You and I already had talked about the caucus on the side, right? So we had a conversation that was supposed to be presented here today. And I clearly told you, I said, give me a computer. Because I'm already at CDO. Let me do it there. Otherwise, I say, wait until I get there. It doesn't matter who run the meeting. It's a question, how we handle it.
[Elections Manager]: I take responsibility, Henry. I take responsibility. So that being said, we talked about the election calendar. If everybody, we talked about the election calendar, it seems as if the election calendar is ready to go. The response to the resolution, we wanted to wait until you were here, Henry, so we could talk about what your thoughts were on that. The next part.
[Unidentified]: Melissa, can I interrupt? Henry, you're dropped. That's OK. We're just going to go with the meeting. Just go. OK.
[Elections Manager]: All right, so the next thing to talk about is the draft mission statement. As you'll see, there is a new website or there's an updated website that we've put together that Henry and I worked on with the staff in the office. What I would like to do is, as a team, come up with a mission statement that reflects what we see our role as within the realm of elections in Medford. It's obviously not a one-off thing. It's gonna take a couple of discussions to do that. Tonight clearly is not the right night to be doing a discussion, a joint discussion, but I do think it's something we should think about and what our overall goals are as our mission statement is concerned.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So on that, if you look on our website, the beginning of the beginning opening, I think it's the wording, which is, similar to what I would expect our mission to be, but I'm not sure we need to have an official mission. Is it requirement? And because that statement is so strong and looks so good, I really liked the wording of it. Could you have it in front of you, Melissa? Could you read it, please?
[Elections Manager]: Yep. The Election Commission is responsible for managing and supervising elections, the annual census, and registering voters in the city of Medford. well ensuring well excuse me well ensuring compliance with the federal state and local election laws policies and guidelines established by the Massachusetts general laws and the city of Medford ordinance ordinances and municipal code and Henry was instrumental in drafting that and making sure that that was it was good.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So when you, when this was brought up at a previous meeting and said to start thinking about a miss mission statement, and I read that, I really felt like it just laid out to the community what our role is. And I don't necessarily feel like we need to alter that. I think that that's, that's our role and that's what we do. And unless other commissioners feel differently, I would vote to just leave it the way it is and, and continue our work.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would agree. If it's not a requirement, I think it captures the essence of what the organization does. I've been with far too many organizations where we spend endless iterations trying to come up with a mission statement to tweak one word, one letter. But I think in the interest of the limited time that this organization has, it captures the essence. And if it's just serving as a headline, if you will, for the website, I think it captures the right things. And if at some point we Hey, say you need a change that we may need to tweak some wording. Fine, but I think in the interest of expediting things, I think it fits the bill.
[SPEAKER_06]: I agree with Aaron and Mark. If it fits the bill and we really don't require it to change anything and we believe in what the mission statement says, then that's all good for me.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I make that motion to continue the way it is presented to the community now and not add a mission statement.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay. I need a second. I second that.
[Elections Manager]: Okay. All right. Great. So we will put aside the caucus information until... We can table it to our next meeting. Yeah, I think we can table that to the next meeting. I also think we should table the resolution, the response to resolution 23-026 until I've had a chance to talk to Henry and just find out what his comfort level is. I think one thing just for everybody to realize is that with the resolution, we're trying to determine how we work with the city council and what information how we want to work together, what the rule is for working together. I think that's their question, and we have a responsibility to respond to that. And I think we will be able to come up with a really good working relationship with them. But that's just, you know, that's just sort of.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I agree.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, so a motion is, I'm going to make a motion on the table to table that until our next meeting as well.
[Unidentified]: I second that motion.
[Elections Manager]: Actually, Mark, you can't send Kat second.
[Unidentified]: I think Tony has one.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, all right.
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, carry on. I'll keep quiet. We have to say the first one.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: You can say the motion is approved.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, the motion. Do we have a vote on the table? I'll say aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Aye. Motion's moved. Next item on the agenda was the new website to discuss.
[Elections Manager]: Yep. And I just, the goal is more or less talked about it, but yeah, go ahead. We did. So what happened was when I looked at the website and we were, you know, transitioning from a board of registrars, um, registrar voters to the election commission, I wanted to make sure that it really reflected what we were doing and how the things that we've talked about. So if everybody can take a moment, not now, but take some time and just look at it and review it and make sure the information is comprehensive. I would appreciate it. The more eyes on it, the better, I think. And we've incorporated things from Janice Joyce, who's been here for years, and Babe, and then myself from other communities that I've been in. So I think we've captured everything. If everybody can review it and then just, you know, send me an email with any feedback you have, I'd greatly appreciate it.
[Unidentified]: Okay, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the next section that we have there is the election manager updates.
[Elections Manager]: Yes, exciting. So the census has been received by residents in Medford. About a third of the residents have responded to the census. I know Eunice had brought up some pointers from the Facebook page that people were concerned that we did not include postage on the return envelopes. And Eunice, please feel free to pop, you know, add in anything that I've missed. Also doing it online. With postage, to send out the census, it costs about $10,000 in postage. And I think that that's cost prohibitive to put postage on envelopes for people to return them because invariably some of those envelopes will not be returned. And so you're just looking at lost postage. At this point, you know, roughly 7,000 people don't return their census the first time around. And then we have another three that do after that for the second mailing. So we would be losing that amount of money, which I think would be a shame. We have processed in the office and we've entered in information for about a third of the census that we sent out. So we're in good shape. We have a team of people that are working here on a regular basis. Some are volunteers just processing opening and sorting and Jan, Babe and I are entering them into the system so we know that everybody's up to date. My request is that residents understand that it is a process. There are a lot of residents that live in Bedford and so we process these things as they come in. We don't necessarily know exactly when someone's come in So if we get a batch of 100, we're not going to necessarily be able to sort through and find somebody's individual census to confirm that has been sent in. But we always do our best. Then the other thing I have is I'll be sending out some information to the commissioners, letting them know about different articles and opportunities for trainings if they are interested. We are going to be working with the state cybersecurity organization to come up with a business continuity plan for our office. The continuity plan is not related to the poll pads and making the poll pads a Wi-Fi. The continuity plan is primarily related to the last day to register to vote comes up and the state system isn't working. How are we going to respond to that? And what changes can we make to ensure that our staff is able to register everybody to vote and everybody is eligible to vote prior to the close of that registration period? In addition, other backup things that are important, i.e. voting lists. How do we pull together our voter lists? How do we make sure that all of our election workers know what to look for when they're looking at the voter rolls and how to use the poll pads? And if a poll pad isn't working, what's our backup plan? Do we have other poll pads in place? Do we just use the paper and how do we do that across the board? So the state will be coming in to help us do that. And I think it's a good, it's a good exercise for us to make sure that everybody in the office and the commissioners understand what the expectations are. And other than that, I will be sending some articles out. And so everybody has them. If you'd like more information, I'm happy to seek out more information. If you think that the information you're getting is the right level and the right amount. I'm happy to just not send out too much. It's up to you guys whether you want to read a ton or not. We did get approval for some more ARPA funds to get two new poll pads. The poll pads will be used for the sub-precincts 6-2a and 7-2a to ensure that voters register in those polling locations in those precincts, that they are given the correct ballot and that they have an opportunity to talk to somebody directly about 6-2a and 7-2a. the complexity with those two locations are that they are sub-recincts and there's a separate representation for those two. So we're going to work on that. We're going to keep them where they are, but we're going to find some ways to make it so that the voters feel confident that they're getting exactly what they need, ballot-wise and support-wise.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, Melissa, when the state comes in, do commissioners have to be there or is it a day thing, a week thing? Do they kind of audit everything? Is that what they do?
[Elections Manager]: It's gonna be a process. Shannon from the state will come in and she and I will sit down with Babe and we'll start looking at the big picture of what we have and what the state sees that we need, knowing Medford and knowing what they've heard from the past. they're able to help us come up with a plan. We will, you know, obviously we'll go and I'll have homework to do the plan. I'll present it to you guys. We'll bring it back to the state. They'll look at it, give us some more suggestions. So it's going to take quite a while. It's going to take at least four to six months in order to really start this process and get it moving forward. And I think this is a good opportunity now because the census is moving forward nicely and, you know, it's just a good, it's a more quiet time to work on it. But if you want to be a part of it and you want to be here on a regular basis when we have the meetings calling in, you're more than welcome to do that. And I would encourage that. Thank you. We closed the head clerk position, which was Jan Joyce's old position. So the head clerk, we posted it internally. We posted it internally for five business days. for the right amount of business days, it has since closed and we do have one person who replied internally and so that person will be interviewing and we will make a determination as to whether the person's fit or not. The person's been doing the job for a while, has been in the elections office for a while. So I'm hopeful that the interviews will go well and everybody, she'll have her questions answered and we'll have ours answered as well. And other than that, I will continue to work with Henry to get our next meeting all set up and running. We do need to make sure we build that relationship with the city council and we continue offering information to the people who are listening and want to know more about elections. That's all I have.
[SPEAKER_05]: What's going on with the city council? Are they looking just for the results or do they want to have access as the results come in? Or is it just the final results that they're looking for?
[Elections Manager]: I think the city council, so this is the first time the city council has not been the overseer of the elections office. And I think they want to understand sort of what's going on, what changes the commissioners and the election manager will be making and how that will impact them, if I understand correctly from what I've read. And I think it's just a dialogue trying to make sure that they understand that the election process is still gonna be the same. We're gonna work very hard to make sure that everybody has what they need and respond to questions and any challenges that came up from the November election, we're working to resolve any of those challenges and make sure that we have solutions. I hope that answers your question, Tony.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Thank you.
[Elections Manager]: Any questions for me about the office? Good.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, Nara.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Once you fill the lead position, that could potentially open up another position. Will that be posted internally as well?
[Elections Manager]: It will be. Yes, it will. Right now, Jan Joyce's position was not filled. So there's Jan Joyce's position, and then there's a senior clerk position. So the idea is that we'll end up with just the same number of positions that we had when Jan was here. They're just different titles at this point. OK. Yeah. But, and I'm hoping that the position will be posted within the next three weeks. And we'll be able to get that filled pretty quickly.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. Okay, that finishes that section, right, Mark?
[SPEAKER_01]: We're on to- Just about to say now we move on to the next section, which is correspondence from the state.
[Elections Manager]: I don't have, I haven't heard anything from the state. I attended training. Last week, well, we heard from the state that they are hoping that vote by mail will be easier going forward as far as data entry into the system. So they're working on that. There will be a new voter registration system update that is sent out hopefully within the next four months. And that update will enable us to better utilize the voter registration system where all the voters all the census data is pulled from and all the voter rolls are pulled from. The state's been working really hard on trying to pull that together. We will have access to accessible vote by mail for our election. The state is paying for that for us. So if anybody has a need for accessible vote by mail because they can't make it to the polls because of a disability or they need assistance filling out the ballot, we offer that through the state. And so that'll be available. UOCAVAs are the same overseas. And vote by mail, as you saw in the census, vote by mail, that applications have been sent out. And we are getting those in pretty fast and furiously. So as soon as the elections set up in the city, we'll start entering in those vote by mail applications.
[Unidentified]: Right, very good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much. I appreciate those, those updates. If there is no further updates on correspondence from the state, we'll move on to section seven of the agenda, which was an opportunity for public comments. I know we have some folks so want to open it up to the floor for any sort of comments.
[Elections Manager]: You miss you're on mute.
[Unidentified]: Okay, thanks.
[Eunice Browne]: I'll even turn the video on. There you go. folks. Aaron yesterday for a moment or two. So I'm just a couple of comments kind of backtracking on a couple of things regarding the website, which looks great. But I did notice that there are no campaign finance reports beyond 2017. So for example, elected officials currently in office that have been in office, like say Adam Knight, there's none of his reports past 2017. And then for candidates who've come on the scene since then, like Bears or Morell or others, there's nothing at all. So, you know, so that's one thing to note. And then the other thing, going back to the census, and I had sent this in an email to Melissa the other day, there was a long discussion on one of the Medford Facebook groups about it being a hassle to return, having to go out and get a stamp, know, nobody uses stamps, nobody mails things anymore. And I'm just sort of paraphrasing what I saw. You know, everybody does stuff online. So to have to, you know, go find stamps and put it in the mail and so forth is a hassle. So a lot of people I think in the city don't realize and I think we have an awful lot of new residents don't realize that that box is outside the side door. And when I went to fill out mine, I looked through the paperwork and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that I saw any instructions in the packet that was sent of how to, ways that you could return the census other than the obvious, which is going to get a stamp and putting it in the mail. A lot of people don't realize that that box is there at the side door. And then folks commented, I guess there are other communities that actually do it online. So wondering why that isn't, or could be something maybe down the road. And then somebody mentioned that they returned theirs to a box at a fire station. Didn't know you could do that, or can you? So that's my two cents, thanks.
[Elections Manager]: Thank you, Eunice. The ARPA funds that we received, we purchased a box that is a ballot slash census box that will be cemented outside by the white box. And it literally says city of Medford ballots and census box. There's one inside the building already but we were approved to get second funds for that. So that will be outside and hopefully that will help people be able to drop their ballots and census in that box. It will be a dedicated box to the elections office.
[Eunice Browne]: Yeah, I think it just needs to be really well publicized.
[Elections Manager]: So what I did was I did post, I did let the folks upstairs in the mayor's office know that how to give people how to return their census. We can certainly send out more information on that if you think it's helpful. The mayor is gonna do a robo call or there will be some communication sent out from upstairs regarding the census. So we can add that in to make sure that it's great to get it back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think another part of that is, I think it's certainly, we wanna make sure folks have the ability to do their census, but just thinking more broadly to, I mean, any sort of city communications, I mean, I've got my copy of my water bill here, in fact, which I know if I need to pay, I can either just, I can pay it online or I can mail it or I can bring it to the city hall. So I guess I would just be wondering about why trying to make, making a special exception for either postage paid or obviously we wanna, There's no cost to send out a note by robocall or anything like that. But doing postage paid for the census, given the limited budget, but I would say if we're going to do that, then we need to think more broadly for all communication. I don't get postage paid on my water bill, for example. And so why would we want to try to, not that I don't want to, but just the cost prohibitive nature of it is in the grand scheme of things. as long as, especially given that there are multiple other venues out there by which to get the census and other city correspondence available, given the fact that there is a box, several boxes, in fact, in front of the city hall.
[Elections Manager]: And the other thing is within the building, we have a census box that's right outside of our office, 102, the fancy box right outside of 103, and then there's a collection box right outside the parking assessor and collector's office. and it's labeled census forms. So we're getting there, I promise. And I can certainly look into the online, you know, doing it online. I don't know what the capabilities are and I don't know what other communities are doing. Do you know what community was doing that, Eunice?
[Eunice Browne]: Give me a second while I scroll through and see if I can, I seem to think it was maybe Cambridge or Somerville.
[Unidentified]: I think it might be different there.
[Eunice Browne]: Yeah, I mean, oh yeah, Cambridge. Yeah, Cambridge.
[Elections Manager]: OK.
[Eunice Browne]: OK.
[Elections Manager]: All righty. And you had other stuff, Eunice?
[Eunice Browne]: And just the other about the campaign finance report, nothing beyond 2017. I know you were working on the most recent, recent ones, but there's nothing from 2019 on there either. They were on there before, before the transition.
[Elections Manager]: They should have been merged over. So I'm going to have to look and see why they didn't all get merged over, because I didn't change any of that. And I don't believe anybody else would have changed it. But I will look at it. We have some time in the office, we can do that. So we'll look at it and make sure those are up and ready to go.
[Eunice Browne]: Yeah, I think everything was on there up until, with the exception of the most recent ones, that just literally came in the last few weeks. Everything was there prior to the changeover.
[Elections Manager]: OK, I'm not sure why it was removed. I'm not that I, yeah, I will find out and we'll make sure.
[Eunice Browne]: It got lost in translation somewhere.
[Elections Manager]: Exactly, exactly. So anything else? That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, cool. Well, thank you, Eunice. Appreciate you attending and your feedback. Are there any other questions or comments? All right. Well, hearing none, then I propose we move on to the last section prior to adjournment, which is just any sort of other business that was not as part of the original agenda that may be last minute items that anyone wanted to bring on board.
[Unidentified]: Very well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hearing none, then that concludes the portion of our agenda. And so with that, the final item would be adjournment. And perhaps we could have a motion to adjourn.
[SPEAKER_05]: So moved. Second.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very good. Sounds like we have a motion. All in favor?
[SPEAKER_05]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Aye. Aye. Very good. All right, with that then at 6.41 PM on February 15th, I call this meeting of the Bedford Elections Commission to a close.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, y'all.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you very much, Commissioners and Melissa and Eunice.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you very much, guys. Good night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very good. Have a good night, everyone.
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