DraftMinutes 04/23/2014

New Hampshire City and Town Clerk’s Association

Executive Board Minutes

April 23, 2014

PRESENT: Denise Gonyer, Debra Cornett, Jeanette Vinton, Betty Ramspott, Mary Reynolds, Kimberly Johnson, Christine Dupere, Kathleen Valliere, Kitty Cornwell, Linda Guyetteand Kathy Seaver.

EXCUSED: Lori Radke, Kerri Parker, Diane Trippett, Rhonda Gauthier, Jean Oleson, Mariann LeTarte, Maryellen Pelletier and Sue McKinnon.

GUEST: Sandra Rowe, Pat Waterman, Virginia McGinley, Barbara Wakefield, and Nancy Johnson.

President Gonyer called the meeting to order at 9:43 am.

Denisemade the following announcementsat the start of the meeting:

  • Karlene Stoddard of Newport is retiring. They are having an open house for her from 12 to 2 at the Town Offices for all that want to go. Betty Ramspott indicated that she would be stopping by the open house. Denise indicated that she had written a letter to Karlene that Betty would deliver for her. Denise also mentioned that Karlene’s Assistant would be running in May for the Town Clerk position.
  • Municipal Clerk Week is May 4th- 10th.
  • Reminder of theRegional Workshops. She said she would be going to most of them. Lori will cover for her at the Seacoast Regional.

SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE – HAVA: Anthony Stevens introduced Deb Unger. She originally worked as a Town Clerkin Exeter.

Anthony Stevens and Colleen McCormack asked us for what we would like to hear about at the Regional meetings. Anthonyindicated that hewould let us know about all the changes in ElectioNet. Colleen indicated that they are trying to get to be fully automated. She indicated that putting the Questionnaire on the system has been going well. She also indicated that you can print out a pdf of the listing as well as an oath template. She also indicated that any communication with their office will be done by email only. She also mentioned that the questionnaire is not open to the Supervisors of theChecklistjust those with a clerk number of 390 or 400. She indicated that an email was going to go out in the middle of May with all the changes.

Colleen indicated that so far 135 election officials have gone through the on-line training, and 33 of those were clerks or clerk assistants. She also indicated that the AVS lines were going to be opening in June; she will be sending out an email. Starting in July the clerks need to contact them to let them know if the line is working, if there are any changes on where the lines need to be placed, and if polling places have changed. She indicated that the jack should be marked with an “SOS” so you know this is for the AVS machine.

Colleen also indicated that they are looking at a new system called Prime3. She indicated this system might be a lot easier to use and more compatible for people with disabilities. They are starting the process in looking into this. HAVA will again supply all the equipment for this system. Colleen will bring this information to the Regional meetings.

Anthony talked about SB278 with regards to publishing absentee ballots on line. He indicated this bill is still alive. He also indicated this would show if a ballot was counted and if not what the reason for the rejection was. However, we still need to be careful about provisional ballots.

Deb Cornett indicated that she had a ballot that never made it to the voter, how do we mark it. Colleen indicated that if it comes back you enter it into ElectioNet. If it does not you leave it blank. If an absentee ballot comes back really late, you are still to go into the system and enter it. Anthony reported that according to the PEW poll, NH has the highest rejection in both UOCAVA and regular absentee ballots. These numbers included the received too late to count ballots.

Anthony also mentioned that they are working on the moderators and their role in overriding whether a CVA has to be signed or not. There was an incident where one moderator said they knew the person, and then when questioned later, he had no idea who that person was. Right now there is no law in effect regarding this situation. However, if unsure make sure you call either the AG’s office or the Secretary of State’s office. Betty Ramspott suggested that a discussion on the moderator’s roles be included in a workshop. More discussion was had on this subject.

Denise indicated that they train all their election officials on the laws and procedures. We will bring this issue up more at our next meeting. Keep in mind what you set as a precedent may be set on what you do.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Nancy Johnson joined the meeting and gave us an update on the progress of the legislation we are watching.

SB374- relative to establishing a commission to review and make recommendations to standardize and make uniform the definitions of “domicile” and “residency” in state statutes. She indicated that amendments were made to this, and she believed it would get through the house. She was unsure what the amendment would read, as it was not ready at this time. She would keep us informed.

HB1543 - relative to filing for state representative special elections. This deals with when absentee ballots can be counted. This bill has been amended. She believed it ought to pass.

SB183 -relative to identification of voters, processing absentee ballots, and voluntary political expenditure limitations. This bill has also been amended. They are eliminating that you need 10 or more voters to challenge. The committee is recommending to kill the bill.

HB422 - relative to the adoption, revision, and amendment of municipal charters. This has also been amended. It will take away the charter commission’s ability to do something within the commission and send it to the voters. Therefore, if receive 20% of the votes cast or at least no fewer than 10 votes, an item can pass. Denise believed this would make it easier for a town to adopt a charter and then be able to appoint town clerks. More discussion was had on how the city charter works in relation to elections and if the use of ward clerks. According to Mary Reynolds of Laconia, ward clerks report to the City Clerk who oversees the process. Each ward has their own moderator and other elected officials.

After lengthy discussion a motion was made by Denise Gonyer, and seconded by Deb Cornett, to change our position on HB422 from a watch to an opposed. The motion passed.

Nancy indicated we still have time to get out our reasons to the House committee why we are opposing this bill.

HB1266 – relative to the appointment of the Town Clerk. According to Deb Cornett most town administrators are for the appointment of town clerks. They are appointed themselves. The bill was killed in the house, however, it is being brought forward again. One reason stated is that some towns have a hard time getting people to run for office. However, if it is changed to appointment this takes the power away from the rights of the voters to choose who they want.

Nancy indicated that the HB1545 passed with a small change in the wording. The wording effectively changed saying a town can solely use the new voting booth as opposed to just being able to add the new booths to the old ones. This passed both the House and the Senate.

Nancy also indicated that HB1261 – relative to increasing the fee charged for delivery of notice of civil forfeiture of an unlicensed dog – was amended back to $5 as opposed to the cost. This passed both the House and the Senate.

SECRETARY REPORT: With the draft minutes getting out late to the Board, it was suggested that we have everyone email their changes to the Secretary. After the changes were made to the minutes, a new draft would be sent to the Board members to vote on by email. This expedited the approved minutes getting out to the Association as there would be no meeting until June. There is a lot of valuable information in our minutes we wanted to make sure the Association got them in a timely manner.

A motion was made by Jeanette and seconded by Kathy Seaver, to have future minutes put out to the Association as unapproved after all noted changes were made. The motion passed.

A motion was made by Linda Guyette and seconded by Denise Gonyer to accept the minutes for March as amended. The motion passed with one abstention.

TREASURERS’ REPORT: Debra Cornett reviewed the treasurer’s report for March, through April. Debra indicated that as of 4/22/14 we have a grand total of $8,354.53 in both accounts. The checking account has a balance of $87.95 and the ING account has a balance of $8,266.58.

Deb supplied the Board with an updated listing of all the Towns still owing dues. She asked the co-chairs to contact their respective towns and remind them to pay them.

It was suggested that we have a fundraiser at the conference. Denise suggested that we ask the vendors if they would like an advertisement in our booklet for a certain dollar fee or place an ad on our website.

A motion to accept the Treasurer’s report was made by Kim Johnson and seconded by Christine Dupere. The motion passed.

OLD BUSINESS: Deb Cornett received a card from Maryellen Pelletier thanking us for the card and flowers the Association sent her on the death of her mother.

Jeanette Vinton gave an update on how the New Clerk’s Workshop went. She indicated several topics that the clerks suggested more time be given, ie talk on transfers, mileage rates, and specific plates. They would also like more examples used to help describe certain situations.

She also indicated that some of the really new clerks were overwhelmed with the amount of information given. Some believed it was more of an advanced clerk session as opposed to an entirely new clerk. Betty Ramspott indicated that a long time ago it was stipulated that only brand new clerks were to attend. It was suggested that we may want to do two different classes. One workshop just for new time clerks and one for those with a little bit more experience.

Denise made some suggestionsfor the binder that was handed out.

NEW BUSINESS: Discussion was had regarding the letter written by Dir. Bailey regarding the Electronic Vehicles Registration program. Dir. Bailey letter stated that he believes that unless more definition and clarity is made that it is not in the best interest to put out new RFPs at this time.

Denise talked about the open position for Legislative Committee Chair and said that she is willing to fill the position for this year but does not want to pass the problem of filling the position down to the next President as the position is an important one and needs to be filled. There was some discussion of ideas on filling the position and discussion ended with no definite plan in place.

Denise asked Jeanette to get her a list of the nominating committee members. She would like an email put out for everyone to meet with a cc to her.

Discussion was had regarding the Landlord Tenant Security Deposit (RSA 540:1b). Not sure what to do with this.

Deb Cornett inquired whether or not the Association was supposed to have liability insurance. As far as she can tell it has expired. She said she has tried to contact the insurer, but has not received a call back. Pat Waterman indicated that she would contact the individual and get back to Deb.

WEBSITE UPDATE: Denise read an email from Sue McKinnon regarding the website. It indicated that Executive Board Profiles are up on the website. She also indicated that the following items have been updated: Clerk Directory; NH Joint Cert Registration and Scholarship forms; 2014 Meeting Schedule, NE Conference Registration and Scholarship forms. She also indicated coming soon would be: NH Conference Registration Forms and Scholarship; NMVTIS Title Chart and the NEMCI Registration forms.

OTHER BUSINESS: There was none. All regions are set.

There being no further business before the Board, it was moved by Jeanette Vinton, seconded by Kim Johnson, and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 pm. The next meeting will be June 18th.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanette Vinton

Secretary

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