Board Members:
- Anthony Lewis (R)
- Susan Motter (D)
- Dele Lowman Smith(D)
- Samuel E. Tillman (N)
- Baoky N. Vu (R)
Discussion and Adoption Of A Resolution For The Dekalb County VRE Implementation Plan:
- Dele Lowemen: So since our meeting last week we had a flurry of meetings and conversations that have been very productive and positive in terms of coming to resolution and clarity in terms of coming to an agreement we discussed on the last resolution we discussed in our prior meeting. We met with the working groups of committee that included: Commissioner Jester, myself and the vice chair as well as three additional members of the working group and Ms Hamilton joined us for that conversation and it was very enlightening and we were able to come up with recommendations on how the department can organize itself to work with a partner which is the national home institute as well as The Center of Technology and Civic Life and to support the department as pulling out the absentee ballot as operations well as provide support on poll worker training so if you don’t mind Ms Hamilton you mine enlightening the board on what we discussed?
- Hamilton: So each of you got a new proposed OR chart yesterday. What we want to do is take the absentee by mail piece out and make it its own entity which falls under the director and guided by Ms Glenda Woods. Ms Glenda Woods have been doing our absentee ballots for several years escalating her up to the supervisor for 6 months of the year then she would go back to her election coordinator position when the re-election cycle is over. We are having a group work under Ms.Glenda along with a project manager provided to us by I.T. This group will work hand and hand with I.T. to help with the implementation of the pieces we want to put in for vote by mail. We also want to bring in a communication manager for the next 6 months to promote the vote by mail piece and under that communication manager keep our public education and also hire our pio ast stated in our amended budget. We had our two election coordinator position but after talking to vice chair and logan smith we thought it would be best because of time constraint to put temporary personal into those positions,Then in 2021 we would be able to complete the hiring because of the crunch time frame to bring someone in and to train them when we already have in house personnel. In our 2021 budget it ask for them full time. Also in that same avenue is adding two additional voter registration technicians whose primary job is audit control but they review the applications that were entered into the statewide Voter registration system and once they are entered in they will be a part of the scanning process then placed into our electronic files. One additional piece that we want to add is a typeof manager over our two warehouse pieces which is a technical side and our supply side. Then we would like to put two personnel under them for temporary roles and look to place them into permanent roles in 2021. So the only thing we are asking for in the amended budget other than the general request r is the pio and the training manager. It’s best to use a training manager. We had an election coordinator acting as both the poll worker manager and training manager. Sometimes it’s not enough time to get those rolls together so if we bring in an in house training manager that would work year round to make sure we are trained and poll workers are trained that it will better help us in being successful.
- Dele Smith : So as the board heard one of the requests we had last week was to be able to look at the OR chart to do a more strategic staffing plan and Erica just laid it all out there. The vice chair and I were pleased with that plan and it will work well with being able to partner with the national voted home institute. Just as a reminder one of the consultants that we work with, Amber McReynolds, leads The National Vote At Home Institute. They are going to be working with Gwinnett and Fulton. Is that correct Erica?
- Erica : I know about Fulton not sure about Gwinnett but I think Gwinnett did reach out to them
- Dele : Correct so they are doing a good bit of work in Metro ATL. We think in addition to expertise work that they already possess with working Dominion and vote by mail process which is all over the country we can also benefit with them working with other counties in the metro Atlanta area. In addition, they have a partnership that I have mentioned with the National Center of Technology and Civic Life that will be able to assist us in creating virtual poll worker training. While we are still working on getting those budget numbers it appears that it could be secured at a savings over and above what we originally anticipated.
- Vu : The most important thing in this case is finding obvious infrastructure to work with the consultant along with our human resource. I am extremely gratified. Let me also add that next week we will also have a call with our budget sub committee and they were extremely supportive. I believe we are in a much better place now.
- Motion gets approved
- Next Meeting : August board meeting changed to August 21
- Meeting adjourned
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