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Item No: 7C Meeting Date: August 8, 2011 Type of Business: Council Business City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Resolution 7816 Approving a Contract with Ramsey County for Election Services Introduction: The City and Ramsey County have been discussing the feasibility of having Ramsey County assume primary management and oversight of elections activities for the City on a contract basis. Ramsey County presently provides such services for the cities of St. Paul and Falcon Heights as well as for the Mounds View School District. Other cities are presently contemplating such a contract. The City Council discussed the potential of such an arrangement with the County at the August 1st Work Session, at which time the members present expressed support. Discussion: Management and oversight of the primary and general elections is a very complicated and time consuming endeavor; each year it seems new and more stringent mandates and procedures are adopted. The training involved is extensive and all elections staff must attend; this last election myself, Desaree Crane and two other staff members participated in the election and absentee ballot training. In addition to the requisite staff training, staff would then coordinate the recruitment and training of the election judges—as many as eighty-five individuals attend the multiple training sessions. The County’s election division, led by Joseph Mansky, is highly skilled and capable of such contract oversight, a function they already provide for other entities. The County has prepared an agreement for the City’s consideration which would transfer almost all election responsibility to the County. The only City responsibilities would be to accept absentee ballots, canvass the election results, provide the title and text for any city-sponsored ballot questions and provide final approval of the polling places. The cost of the first contract, a one-year agreement for the 2012 calendar year which is a presidential election, is $36,500. Presidential elections are busiest and thus most expensive elections in a four year cycle. Mounds View has budgeted/spent the following amounts for elections since 2007: YEAR EXPENDITURE 2007 14,409 2008 32,051 2009 11,851 2010 38,210 2011 10,323 2012 38,893