ARROYO SECO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL

Letter about:
ASNC Mt. Washington Re-vote Addendum

RE: ASNC Mt. Washington Re-vote Addendum

NOTE: (For some reason, the Yahoo Groups server wouldn't accept the 1 MB size of the attachement, so I'm unable to forward this to board members via ASNCAdmin).

In advance of Monday's meeting, however, you can also review the 1) draft addendum in text, below; and, 2) the original Election Procedures it references at:

http://www.asnc.us/Elections-2007/070907-ASNC-ElectionProds-DONE.pdf

Joe R.

-----Original Message-----

To: Naheed Qureshi, naheed.qureshi@ lacity.org
From:
Joseph Riser, JosephR@mindspring.com

January 25, 2008

Dear Ms. Qureshi,

As referenced in our phone conversation last week, and followed up by my e-mail this week, I'm forwarding to you as well a copy of the Addendum to be discussed and voted on by the board of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council next Monday (January 28, 2008); (also, at his request, I am copying IEA Jerry Kvasnicka). A PDF is attached.

Assuming the board approves at least some form of this on Monday night, I'll forward the final copy to you next Tuesday, January 29, 2008 for approval by DONE representatives.

You may note within the addendum that we have an urgent need to finalize this within 2-3 weeks of your receipt of it in order to adhere to the revote schedule provided.

We understand that for the approval of full election procedures, DONE has up to 90 days to review. However, as noted earlier, nearly all of the previously approved Election Procedures for 2007 remain unchanged and most elements of this ongoing election process were satisfied and unchallenged during the final months of 2007, which should help in DONE's expedition of that approval.

Please contact me with any related questions.

Regards,

Joseph Riser
(for) ASNC Rules and Elections Committee

(323) 376-9000

P.S. If you are unable to open the attached PDF of the Addendum and previously approved ASNC Election Procedures, a text version of the addendum is included in this E-mail, below and the original procedures PDF may be downloaded at:

http://www.asnc.us/Elections-2007/070907-ASNC-ElectionProds-DONE.pdf

===============

ADDENDUM (to Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council 2007 Election Procedures)

Submitted __________, 2008;
Approved by ASNC board ___________, 2008

DRAFT

Background: On December 18, 2007 the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, acting as the Final Decision Maker (FDM), upheld a stakeholder- initiated challenge to one portion of the 2007 ASNC general election held on November 25 and called for that neighborhood council “to revote ONLY the Mount Washington representative positions.” In keeping with the spirit and definition of that limited-scope decision, the ASNC Rules and Elections Committee provides the following revote-specific addendum to the 2007 Election Procedures approved by DONE this past fall, to serve as additional guidelines for a March 2008 revote.

1) Universal changes to approved elections procedures necessitated by the required revote (a continuation of the ASNC's November 2007 general election):

a) Based on the ruling of the FDM, all references within the 2007 Procedures to board seats other than the two (2) Mount Washington Geographical Representatives were previously satisfied and do not apply to this revote event.

b) Based on the ruling of the FDM, all such references to voting district(s), stakeholder definitions, voting eligibility, apply only to the community of Mount Washington, within and as outlined by the ASNC boundaries

2) Delineated changes to the ASNC 2007 Election Procedures, as necessitated by the ruling of the FDM, are as follows (unless otherwise noted above or herein, those procedures stand as previously approved):

(refer to corresponding Roman numeral sections in approved Procedures attached)

II. THE ELECTION

C. Voters may cast their ballots on the following dates, times, and locations:

March 24, 2008, 3:00-7:00 PM
Mount Washington Elementary School
3981 San Rafael Ave, L.A. 90065

E. Election will be held at Mount Washington Elementary School, which is handicapped- accessible. Stakeholders with disabilities may also vote by mail

IV. DEFINITION OF STAKEHOLDER

E. Previously satisfied on 9/27/07 and 11/25/07 for purposes of appearing on the ballot and becoming a write-in candidate, respectively.

VII. THE INDEPENDENT ELECTION ADMINISTRATOR

B. and C. Jerry Kvasnicka will again serve as IEA, assuming this addendum is approved by DONE in a timely manner (within 3 weeks of receipt).

VIII. THE GOVERNING BOARD

D. Previously satisfied on 11/25/07 for purposes of becoming a write-in candidate.

X. POLLING PLACE OPERATIONS

A.(iii.) The selected site is not generally convenient for those utilizing public transportation (it is unlikely that any large-enough site within the affected hillside community would be). It is, however, more centrally located to Mount Washington stakeholders than sites used in previous years. The ASNC Rules and Election Committee will endeavor to recruit volunteers willing to drive stakeholders that would have otherwise used public transportation to reach the polling place, when requested. Stakeholders who require the use of public transportation may also vote by mail.

XI. BALLOT DESIGN

C. All four carryover candidates for the two open board seats from the challenged November 2007 portion of this election previously submitted 100-word statements. These will be included with the corrected Mail-in Ballots for this revote event.

XII. CANVASS OF VOTES, ETC.

D. April 1, 2008

XIV. OUTREACH FOR THE ELECTION

B., C., and E. Previously satisfied during the unchallenged portion of the approved Election Timeline, between 9/4/07 and 10/19/07. All such dates meet or surpass the "not less than 60 days prior to the election" requirements.

D. (See Revote/Election Timeline following, specifically regarding the March 4 ballot mailing and the IEA-suggested "outreach mailer" to precede it by at least 1-2 days).

3) ASNC Appendix: For any references to specific dates for as-yet unsatisfied election events listed in the special 2007 election appendix, refer to the updated revote timeline that follows, and previous notations in this 2008 revote addendum.

4) Revote/Election Timeline - (compare to previous Attachment A)

-- -- -- -- --

The following election events/activities are proposed for March/April 2008:

[Note that previous elements of the original approved timeline already satisfied include: mailing of election packets (9/4/07); candidate workshops (9/23 & 9/25/07); deadline for declaring candidacy (9/27/07); submission deadline for candidate statement (10/19/07) -- all 4 candidates involved in the revote have already submitted these; Candidate Forum (11/18/07) -- all 4 candidates involved in this revote were invited to take part ( only 1 chose to); and, deadline for write-in candidates to file (11/25/07)].

New dates for timeline elements not satisfactorily completed during the November 2007 portion of this ongoing election, based on the ruling of the FDM:

EVENT DATE LOCATION

Ballot addressing - March 3, 2008

Official ballots mailed - March 4, 2008

Deadline for receipt of returned mail-in ballots March 22, 2008

Election Day - March 24, 2008
Mt. Washington Elem. School
3981 San Rafael Ave, L.A. 90065
(Smith Library/Community Ctr.)

Official Certified Canvas - April 1, 2008

Final date for challenges - April 6, 2008

Elected officers take office April 28, 2008 (at regular monthly board meeting)

-----Original Message-----

From: Jerry Kvasnicka, jkvas@earthlink.net
To: Joe Riser, josephr@mindspring.com

January 28, 2008

Joe,

Just a few comments:

Canvas of Votes: the deadline is 7 days after the election day; however, I am usually able to submit the Final Official Canvass of Votes (FOCCOV) by the next day if we finish the counting that evening. So I suggest you change to:
Canvass of Votes: no later than March 31

Final Date for Challenges: this is a floating deadline, ie 5 days after FOCCOV submittal. So I suggest you change to:

Final Date for Challenges: 5 days after FOCCOV submission. (the Challenge due date will be noted on the FOCCOV)

I also suggest that you put the 3-7pm on the timeline for the Mar 24th election day .. just to be clear.

Otherwise, if DONE approves this, I have it scheduled and feel that it complies with the needs and integrity of the "re-vote".

Jerry

Jerry Kvasnicka
PO Box 41048
Los Angeles, CA 90041
323 / 256-6330
818 / 269-7759 cell
866 / 636-4441 fax