2009-01-12 Elections Committee Minutes

Present:  Carolyn Birden (WBAI PNB), Steve Brown (WBAI LSB), Bill
Crozier (KPFT LSB), Anthony Fest (KPFA LSB), Bob Lederer (WBAI LSB),
Efia Nwangaza (Affiliates PNB), Bonnie Simmons (KPFA PNB), Yosh Yamanaka
(KPFK PNB).

Absent:  Westley Bethune (KPFT LSB), Tico Chacin (KPFA LSB), Kathy Davis
(WBAI PNB), Jan Goodman (KPFK LSB), Leslie Radford (KPFK LSB), George
Reiter (KPFT PNB), Rob Robinson (WPFW PNB).

AGENDA - Mon., Jan. 12, 2009 – 8:30 p.m. Eastern

1.  Approval of agenda (5 min.)

2.  Set next meeting date (5 min.)

3.  Review and approval of prior Minutes, if available (5 min.)

4   Proposed Bylaws amendment re NES/LES (15 min.)

5.  Reports from working groups

         a) RFP for Election Management (Anthony Fest) (15 min.)

         b) Cutting election costs (Bob Lederer & Bill Crosier) (see PNB
Finance Comm.

             e-mail & resolution below, followed by tentative list of
suggestions from the

             working group (20 min.)

         c)  Cleaning up listener membership lists (Steve Brown) (5 min.)

         d)  Staff lists (Carolyn Birden) (20 min.)

6.  Proposed new election rules (Yosh Yamanaka, Jan Goodman) (20 min.)

7.  Motion re campaign finance reform (text pasted below) (20 min.)

Adjournment time:  10:30 p.m.  Eastern

(Note: PNB motion adopted 3/20/08 limits PNB & committee meetings to no
longer than 3 hours after meeting begins or midnight Eastern, whichever
comes first.)

Next meeting date:  Wednesday, 4 FEB 2009 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern

Approval of the December 1, 2008 Minutes was postponed until the
February meeting.

Pursuant to the PNB motion for us to consult with Foundation Counsel
prior to sending out the RFP for election management services, Item #1
in the RFP was modified by omitting the sentence "Pacifica will
reimburse you for reasonable hourly wages paid to the five LESs"
from Item 1 copied below:

1.      Appoint, supervise, and pay a Local Election Supervisor
("LES") at each of

five station signal areas:  Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY,
Washington, D.C., Houston, TX.  Pacifica will reimburse you for
reasonable hourly wages paid to the five LESs.

Thereafter, the RFP as amended above was sent to five previously
identified vendors.

Our secretary will ask Otis to post the amended RFP on Pacifica's
websites, will ask the acting E.D. to instruct the five GMs to post that
RFP on their station websites, and will circulate the amended RFP to the
Elections Committee.  Anthony will post the amended RFP to websites
likely to reach additional vendors.  Upon receipt of the bids, Bob will
forward the bids to the working group.  The RFP working group together
with Bill, Bob and Art Stasney will evaluate the responses and bring
their findings back to this committee.  Yosh will ask Art to send each
bidder a 40-ballot sample STV election with transmittal letter asking
them to return their tally results within seven days.  Bob will ask the
CFO for a summary of costs for the last election costs to give us some
idea of the reasonableness of the incoming bids.

Proposals for cutting election costs were presented by Bob and Bill.
Seek out non-profit organization and other bidders for low cost or free
election management services.  Perhaps unbundling services and farming
out to volunteers will lower costs.  However, relying upon multiple
sources risks missed communication, missed deadline, finger-pointing,
etc.  Bonnie will ask California Reconciliation & Mediation (?) whether
they would be willing to perform the vote counting or other task(s).
Perhaps we should ask the vendors whether they would be willing to
utilize our volunteers.  However, the vendor's accountability may be
compromised by the use of volunteers.  We can ask each vendor their
opinion on the use of volunteers to do some of the work.

Particularly in view of the timeline for balloting being extended from 4
weeks to 6 weeks, first class mailings should be dropped in favor of
cheaper standard class mailing (3- to 5-day delivery) available to
non-profits.  Bonnie to ask the PNB Chair to include on the next agenda
the Election Committee's November 10, 2008 3-part motion on cleaning
up the stations' mailing list and amending the PNB motion which had
required first class mailings of ballots.

During bidder interviews, emphasize that the vendor must use a unionized
printing house for candidate pamphlets.  Ask the vendor for one price
using the least expensive grade of paper for election materials and a
second price using recycled content.

Discussion on electronic balloting deferred.

Don't have higher-priced personnel doing menial, clerical tasks.

Reduce litigation costs by insuring that replacement ballots are
received timely.

We should consolidate the policies, problems, procedures, and
recommendations set forth in the election summaries prepared by prior
NESs.  Ask that the NES prepare written policies that the NES and LESs
are to follow.  Bill volunteered to contact local stations create a list
of problems encountered by earlier NESs and LESs.

For future consideration:  possible Bylaws amendment to increase
Delegate terms from 3 years to 4 years and hold elections every other
year rather than twice every 3 years.

Adjourned at 10:58 p.m. Eastern.  Submitted 23 MAR 09 by Yosh Yamanaka,
secretary pro tem