PETER JENSEN, NapaValleyRegister.com -
In advocating for an overhaul to the Napa County Elections Division, a St. Helena attorney and an American Canyon City Councilwoman offered blistering criticism of Registrar of Voters John Tuteur to the Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The comments follow a critical report from the Napa County Grand Jury that was issued earlier this year, urging the supervisors to make Tuteur’s position an appointed one, not elected as it is currently.
The Board of Supervisors approved transmitting a response to the grand jury during its meeting Tuesday. The response letter said the board needs more analysis before deciding to overhaul the Elections Division, but attorney Kathleen Herdell and Councilwoman Belia Ramos Bennett urged the supervisors to do more.
Herdell said there’s a great deal of dissatisfaction among county voters with the current elections process, including Tuteur switching the vast majority of precincts from polling places to vote-by-mail, and the three weeks it took for the Elections Division to release the final results from the November 2012 election.
“People seek me out to make comments about the disarray,” Herdell told the board. “They believe you will only do what’s self-serving. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Ramos Bennett said she had been contacted by the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the Elections Division’s outreach to Spanish-speaking or bilingual voters, as the county had to begin publishing elections material in Spanish in 2011, following the 2010 Census.
“I am very concerned that the Department of Justice is on to Napa County,” Ramos Bennett said. “That is very significant.”
Ramos Bennett said after the meeting that she wants to see more done to engage Latino voters in the county to make them more involved in the elections process locally.
“This is a very good point in time to bring it up,” Ramos Bennett said. “This is an additional concern that the Board of Supervisors should be considering as they make their decision.”
Tuteur confirmed that the Department of Justice had made an inquiry earlier this year to his office, and said his staff had submitted all the materials and documents produced as part of the switchover to dual-language voting.
A Department of Justice official had one follow-up question regarding the number of bilingual workers in the Elections Division — five — but has otherwise made no further attempts to contact him, Tuteur said.
“That was the only question they had and we answered that,” Tuteur said.
When the county switched over, it issued postcards to all registered voters, asking which language the voter would like to see election materials printed in. It also began printing bilingual registration forms, which also asked a language preference. Spanish-language ballots and pamphlets are available upon request, Tuteur said.
Tuteur said that complies with the legal requirements.
“The DOJ seems satisfied with the materials we’ve published,” Tuteur said.
Representatives from the Department of Justice did not reply to a request for comment Tuesday.
Members of the Board of Supervisors were divided with how to proceed in pursuing any overhaul to divest Tuteur’s duties.
The county is holding a study session Oct. 22 on the duties of the registrar of voters and the Elections Division. The Board of Supervisors will debate making the registrar an appointed position, whether to split registrar from Tuteur’s other duties as assessor-recorder-clerk, among other changes.
But some supervisors were troubled about whether that would provide the County Counsel’s Office enough time to draft an ordinance changing the job descriptions and duties by the time candidates for registrar could begin collecting signatures in lieu of a filing fee, an initial round of campaigning that kicks off the last week in December. Tuteur has announced he will seek re-election in 2014.
Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht acknowledged that getting accord on the issue from his fellow supervisors will be difficult, perhaps exacerbating the time crunch.
“If we had three votes to make changes to the Elections Division, we probably would be doing it next week,” Wagenknecht said.
While he said he sees a need to improve the elections process, Supervisor Mark Luce said those concerns were trumped by a desire to see the registrar of voters stay an independent position in the eyes of voters. Having the Board of Supervisors appoint someone to the job would make the selection appear biased, he said.
“If I had a problem with that, it would be taken up at the next election,” Luce said. “I think there is great value in having an independent registrar of voters. I understand there are burps in the system all along. I understand there’s room for improvement.”
Supervisor Diane Dillon said she wanted to take time in another meeting this month and debate whether a majority of the board would support making changes to the job.
“I would like this board to consider if we are actually taking an action that would require an ordinance,” Dillon said.
Supervisor Keith Caldwell said he wanted to wait to see what the cost estimates of creating another management position in county government would be, which would happen if the board split registrar from the assessor-recorder-clerk position. But he also wanted the public to become more involved.
“To me, you’re putting the cart before the horse,” Caldwell said. “We need to hear from the public. They need to come and give their opinion.”
And ultimately, under the current setup any citizen dissatisfied with Tuteur’s job performance could opt to run against him, Supervisor Bill Dodd said.
“They have the right to run against him at any given time,” Dodd said. “That’s the yin and the yang of it.”
Herdell was displeased with those options, saying few citizens are qualified to do the duties of registrar and assessor-recorder-clerk.
“I don’t want to be property tax assessor,” Herdell said. “I want elections split off. There’s ways to set this up so it’s still independent.”
No comments:
Post a Comment