LAKEPORT, Calif. – The purchase of new voting equipment for the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office and a plan to pay deputies for being on call will go to the Board of Supervisors this week.
The board will meet beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 19, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
In an untimed item, the board will consider staff’s request for approval of an agreement between the county and Hart Intercivic Inc. of Austin, Texas, for a voting system replacement.
The one-time cost for the new equipment is $275,252, according to County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, who the board also made interim registrar of voters last month after the interim register, Maria Valadez, took a job in Mendocino County.
Huchingson said that on Jan. 22, her office – “in cooperation with the Registrar of Voters office” – issued a request for proposals for a new voting system.
The Registrar of Voters Office has long been in need of equipment, with retired Registrar Diane Fridley and Valadez having worked diligently for decades to work with old equipment used as part of the Mark-A-Vote system.
Lake and Sonoma are reported to be the last two counties in the state to use the Mark-A-Vote optical scan paper ballot voting system. Like Lake, Sonoma County will transition to a new system this year.
“The current system was acquired in 1983 and can no longer be supported,” Huchingson said.
Huchingson wrote in her report that proposals for a new system “were solicited from the only three firms certified for use in California.” The county received proposals from two firms, Hart Intercivic Inc. and Dominion Voting.
“The proposals were reviewed and although both firms met all requirements of the proposal, it was determined that Hart Intercivic Inc., provided the lowest cost, most responsive proposal of the two,” according to Huchingson’s report, which did not include the proposed cost submitted by Dominion Voting.
Huchingson’s memo to the board explains that the county has applied for state funding to cover the purchase, and the county has been allocated $246,000 for the replacement of the current voting system from the Secretary of State’s Office, which requires a dollar-for-dollar match.
Lake County must replace its voting system by 2020, and Huchingson said the state will reimburse the county based on claims submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier told Lake County News that Hart Intercivic has offered not just to train county staff but also to assist with the May Lakeport Fire Protection District fire tax election.
That help will be crucial in the wake Fridley’s retirement in December and Valadez’s departure, which resulted in nearly seven decades of experience leaving the department in less than two months.
Valadez left within months of an unsuccessful attempt by Huchingson to get the board to change the job requirements to disqualify Valadez from being named considered for the job on a permanent basis, as Lake County News has reported.
When the board did appoint Valadez in early December – an appointment which went into effect on Dec. 29 – it was only on an interim basis.
She left for a permanent, higher-paying position and a more stable employment environment in Mendocino County last month. That left only two part-time staffers in the office, neither of them qualified for the registrar’s or deputy registrar’s jobs. Fridley also is volunteering in the department on a part-time basis.
The county is now in its second recruitment for the registrar’s job, after the first yielded three qualified candidates, only two of which were interviewed. Both of those candidates were rejected.
The application period for the job is open through March 31.
Also on the Tuesday agenda as an untimed item, the board will consider a side letter with the Lake County Deputy Sheriffs Association to provide deputy sheriffs assigned to patrol the opportunity to be placed on on-call status and to be compensated for it. The request from Sheriff Brian Martin is based on the staffing shortages in his department.
The board also will continue its consideration of a new ordinance regarding hazardous vegetation abatement. That item also is untimed.
The full agenda is published below.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Approve minutes of the Board of Supervisors meetings held Oct. 16, 2018, Nov. 6, 2018, Dec. 4, 2018, Dec. 28, 2018, and Jan. 15, 2019.
5.2: Adopt proclamation designating March 17 to 23, 2019, as National Surveyors Week in Lake County.
5.3: Approve letter of support to Sen. Nielsen for a $23 million budget request to fund a North State Regional Training Center in Yuba City in Sutter County and authorize the chair to sign.
5.4: Consideration of Lake County Standard Agreement, for funding to enact California Complete Count Census 2020.
5.5: Approve long distance travel for Dean Eichelmann, and Christine Hannigan to St. Louis, Missouri, from March 24 through March 30, 2019, to attend the Preparedness Summit, hosted by National Association of County and City Health Officials.
5.6: Adopt resolution approving the Medi-Cal Administrative Activities Provider Participation Agreement #19-96011 and Certification Statement between the county of Lake and the California Department of Health Care Services in the amount of $300,000 for fiscal years 2019-2020 through 2021-2022.
5.7: Sitting as Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors, adopt resolution revising the Fiscal Year 2018-19 Adopted Budget of the county of Lake by canceling capital improvement reserves in the amount of $380,000 for LACOSAN Middletown Sewer to make appropriations in Budget Unit 8353, Object code 63.05 to pay for the Caltrans Force Main Relocation Project.
5.8: Sitting as Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors, approve the contract for the relocation of sewer facilities in Middletown project, in the amount of $341,449 to Terracon Constructors Inc. of Healdsburg and authorize the chair to execute the agreement.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:08 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating March 17-23, 2019, as National Surveyors Week in Lake County.
6.3, 9:10 a.m.: Presentation of Employee Service Awards.
6.4, 9:30 a.m.: Consideration of an ordinance amendment, AM 19-01 to Amend Chapter 21 of the Lake County Zoning Ordinance, to remove the requirement for commercial cannabis applicants to be enrolled with the Regional Water Quality Control Board as of April 19, 2018, and to remove the requirement for a conditional certificate of recognition (self certification) of compliance with Article 72 in order to apply for early activation of use.
6.5, 10 a.m.: Presentation of annual report by Lake County PEG TV.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of an agreement between county of Lake and Hart Intercivic Inc. for voting system replacement for a one time cost of $275,252 and authorize the chair to sign.
7.3: Consideration of side letter with the Lake County Deputy Sheriffs Association to provide deputy sheriffs assigned to patrol the opportunity to be placed on on-call status.
7.4: Continued from March 12, 2019, consideration of letter to Sen. Mike McGuire to express appreciation for his support of AB 72, to be signed by all five board members.
7.5: Consideration of an ordinance adding Article VIII to Chapter 13 of the Lake County Code regarding hazardous vegetation abatement.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Employee disciplinary appeal (EDA 19-01) pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54957.
8.2: Employee disciplinary appeal (EDA 19-02) pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54957.
8.3: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(1): County of Lake, et al. v. PG&E, et al.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Supervisors to consider voting equipment purchase for Registrar of Voters Office, agreement for deputy on-call status
- Elizabeth Larson
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