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<br />Item No: 3 <br />Meeting Date: August 1, 2011 <br />Type of Business: Work Session <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: James Ericson, City Administrator <br />Item Title/Subject: Review Elections Management proposal from Ramsey <br />County <br /> <br />Introduction: <br /> <br />The City and Ramsey County have been discussing the feasibility of having Ramsey <br />County assume primary management and oversight of elections activities for the City on a <br />contract basis. Ramsey County presently provides such services for the cities of St. Paul, <br />Falcon Heights and the Mounds View School District. Other cities are presently <br />contemplating such a contract. <br /> <br />Discussion: <br /> <br />Managing the primary and general elections has increasingly become a very complicated <br />and time consuming endeavor, as each year it seems new and more stringent mandates <br />and procedures are adopted. The training involved is extensive; this last election myself, <br />Desaree Crane and two other staff members participated in election training relating to the <br />election itself as well as absentee balloting. In addition to the staff training, staff then <br />coordinates the recruitment and training of the election judges—as many as eighty-five <br />individuals attend the training sessions. <br /> <br />The County’s election division, led by Joseph Mansky, is highly skilled and capable of such <br />contract oversight, a function they already provide for other entities. The County has <br />prepared an agreement for the City’s consideration which would transfer almost all election <br />responsibility to the County. The only responsibilities of the City would be to accept <br />absentee ballots, canvass the election results, provide the title and text for any city- <br />sponsored ballot questions and provide final approval of the polling places. <br /> <br />The cost of the first contract, a one-year agreement for the 2012 calendar year, is $36,000. <br />Next year, 2012, will be a presidential election, the busiest and thus most expensive of <br />elections in a four year cycle. Mounds View has budgeted/spent the following amounts for <br />election services since 2007: <br /> <br /> Budget Actual <br />2007 14,409 <br />2008 32,051 <br />2009 11,851 <br />2010 38,210 <br />2011 10,323 <br />2012 38,893* * Proposed <br />