Agenda Packets - 2013/10/07 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

A: It's really two separate things. The training and implementation costs for the new voting system will be paid by the county. This will include the first-time training of election judges in the use of the new equipment. It will also cover any demonstrations that are set up for the voters in the year that the new voting system is implemented. The regular, biennial training of election judges in preparation for the state elections will continue to be covered separately by our election contract with you, as is now the case. 5. Kennedy & Graven: Section IV, A.1 provides that the municipalities shall "appoint a Project Manager with the authority to make binding decisions on behalf of the Municipality." This may be difficult for any city since cities do not have unlimited power to delegate authority to its employees. For example, I do not believe that a city employee could be delegated the authority to terminate the agreement or not to pay bills when due. To the extent that authority can be delegated to the city manager or clerk, this paragraph would not create a problem. If, however, the county expects the Project Manager to make a decision that has not, and perhaps cannot be, delegated to an employee, it would simply have to be referred to the city council. A: Good point. We have changed this to our designated election contact for each city in the revised JPA. 6. Kennedy & Graven: Section XII deals with indemnification and insurance. Each party is required to indemnify the other for certain claims. The obligation to indemnify the other party does not contain any limits. The courts have interpreted an agreement to indemnify another party without any limits as a waiver of the statutory protection of tort limits under Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 466. Because cities typically buy their insurance in reliance on this protection, an agreement to indemnify another party without any limits can expose the city to uninsured liability. The agreement does provide in Section XII A. that liability is governed and limited by the Torts Claims Act. However, that act allows cities to waive the protection of the liability limits. I would recommend that a new paragraph XII.F. be added as follows: "F. Nothing herein shall be deemed a waiver by either party of the limitations on liability set forth in Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 466." A: The county attorney's determination was that this change was not needed. 7. Can we drop from four precincts to three? Are there statutory guidelines as to maximum population per precinct? A: Good question. You cannot change the boundaries of Precinct 4 until 2022 at the earliest, since the precinct boundaries are also the boundaries of county commissioner districts 1 and 2. The other three precincts are presently configured as follows: MV 1 2,078 voters MV 2 1,344 voters MV 3 2,193 voters If these three precincts were combined into two new precincts, each of the two new precincts would likely end up with approximately 2,800 voters. They would at that point be two of our ten largest precincts in the county. (The countywide average is 1,625 voters.) The benefits of consolidating the three precincts into two would be lower capital costs (the city would be purchasing one fewer ballot counter, ballot box and ballot marking device.) the city would also have slightly lower annual operating costs. The downside would be the need to process a much larger number of voters through fewer locations, although in my view, that is manageable. It would likely require a somewhat different configuration of space at the community center, but I suspect that would be manageable as well.