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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 10152002 - C.58 BOARD OF SUPERVISORS - ' Contra FROM: Steve Weir, Clerk-Recorder Costa DATE: September 24, 2002 County SUBJECT: County Employees as Volunteer Poll Workers Program SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION Recommendation: 1. ADOPT the County Employees as Volunteer Poll Workers program. 2. ENCOURAGE participation in the County Employees as Volunteer Poli Workers Program by county employees and department heads. FISCAL IMPACT: County employee time would be diverted from their normal duties to work at polling places. Potential General Fund lost and revenue impacts would depend upon participation. BACKGROUND/REASON(S) FOR RECOMMENDATIONfS): The Elections Division continues to have difficulty recruiting qualified and interested citizens to serve as pall workers, particularly in countywide elections. The County Employees as Volunteer Poll Workers Program will provide a needed recruiting source and will provide an incentive to county employees who wish to serve as poll workers. To serve as a poll worker, a person must be a registered voter and must serve in a polling place in his or her county of residence. The California Election Code allows exceptions to these requirements: • Section 12302 (a) allows county employees to serve in a polling place outside of their county of residence. The Elections Division hires and trains approximately 3,000 registered voters to serve as poli workers in a countywide election. Approximately a quarter of all those positions must be replaced before every election. To mitigate this situation the Elections Division recruits year-round. We anticipate that the recruitment issue will become particularly acute: • Because of the complexity of administering elections and the demands placed on poll workers, many current poll workers have stated that they will not work in any future primary elections; CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDA ION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF 80 LJN APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. 7 UNANIMOUS(ABSENT AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: Contact: Candy Lopez,Assistant County Registrar , 648-4173 '3 Cc: Clerk—Recorder ATTESTED tt is HR—Labor Relations )OHN SWEETEN,CLERK OF THV BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Department Heads BY: DEPUTY • Now that Contra Costa County is required to comply with the bilingual provisions of the Voting Rights Act by providing foreign language assistance at the polls, we are required to staff polling places with poll workers who are fluent in English and Spanish. Many County employees serve as poll workers on Election Day, but they must take accrued vacation or compensatory time-off to do so. The County Employees as Volunteer Poll Workers program would provide another recruiting source for poll workers and will interest County employees in serving their community without using accrued vacation or compensatory time-off. The County Employees as Volunteer Poll Workers program would administratively assign eligible County employees to the Elections Division for Election Day only. The program: • Would require the employee to request and receive approval from his or her Appointing Authority for an absence in order for the County employee to serve in a polling place on Election Day. The employee would not be required to use either accumulated vacation or compensating time-off for the absence and would receive regular pay for hours normally scheduled to work (8,9,10) from his or her department; • Would pay the County employee the stipend and allowances from Voter Registration and Elections for serving as a poll worker on election day; • Would not receive overtime compensation for serving as a poll worker on Election Day. The Fair Labor Standards Act (USC Title 29, Section 207, (p)(2)) states: "if an employee of a public agency which is a State, political subdivision of a State, or an interstate governmental agency undertakes, on an occasional or sporadic basis and solely at the employee's option, part-time employment for the public agency which is in a different capacity from any capacity in which the employee is regularly employed with the public agency, the hours such employee was employed in performing the different employment shall be excluded by the public agency din the calculation of the hours for which the employee is entitled to overtime compensation under this section." • The same stipends and allowances that are paid to all poll workers would be paid to county employees. The employee would not be required to forfeit any stipend or allowance. The current stipend and allowances are: Stipend/allowance Precinct Precinct Clerks Inspectors Service as oll worker $95.00 $75.00 Attendance at training class $20.00 $10.00 Employee participation in this program would be voluntary and optional and available only to eligible county employees. The eligibility of an employee to receive time off for purposes of participating in this program would be subject to the approval of the employee's Department head or his/her designee and the employee signing an agreement acknowledging the terms for participating in this voluntary program. Employee organizations will be provided notice of this program. Cather counties, faced with similar recruiting problems, have successfully adopted this program. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY EMPLOYEES AS VOLUNTEER POLL WORKER ON ELECTION DAY REQUEST TO PARTICIPATE AS A VOLUTEER Gubernatorial General Election, Tuesday,November 5, 2002 By completingthis form and submitting it to my supervisor I am requesting permission to volunteer as a pollworker on Election Day. If granted permission to participate, I will be assigned to work at a palling place to be determined by the Elections Division from 6:30 AM until 8:30 PM. During that period I will be given two 15- minute breaks and a 1-hour lunch break. I understand that I will receive the volunteer stipend for my service; $95 for the day plus $20 for the training class for the position of Precinct Inspector, or $75 for the day plus $10 for the training class for the position of Polling Place Clerk. I also understand that I will be paid for my regularly scheduled 8, 9 or 10-hour shift on November 5, 2002. 1 further understand that I am not entitles to, and will not receive, overtime compensation for my time spent as working as a poll worker. By my signature below, 1 confirm that my request to participate as a poll worker, and my actual participation, is an entirely volunta decision and made without an ressure or coercion. Name: Date: Department: Position: Home Address: i Mailing Address: Home phone: Work phone: Employee Number: Employee Signature: Department Head/Designee Name: Department By signing, I release the employee to work on Election Day pending placement by Head/Designee the Elections Division. Signature: Upon approval'of participation the employee shall complete an absence report. The employee shall complete the "other"description and write "Volunteer Pollworker" In the "Explanation" line. A record of participation will be returned to the Department Head/Designee confirming the employee participated in the program the entire time the polls were open. Please FAX this completed form ASAP to: Elections Officers Section: 925-646-1385 If fax is unavailable, deliver/mail/interoffice to: s Contra Costa County Elections Division Attention: County Employee as Volunteer Pollworker Program 524 Main Street Martinez, CA 94553