The Elections Board’s budget request to the 30th Legislature next week will include $80,000 to hire a new employee and to contract its own independent legal counsel, St. Croix Elections Chairman Adelbert Bryan announced during a monthly meeting Wednesday.
Although a copy of the proposed budged was not released, according to Bryan, the district boards will share the additional expense for a full time Joint Board staff member and an attorney.
Board member Rupert Ross said he doesn’t believe the board can hire anyone without a change in the V.I. law.
Bryan argued that the V.I. Code doesn’t say they can’t hire, so “silent means we have the right to pick our employee.”
Ross said the matter has been discussed before and emphasized, “We don’t have the authority.”
Currently the Elections Board has no employees and the Elections System is running without management personnel. Bryan said there has been an unknown delay in acquiring a government notice of personnel action for Caroline Adams Fawkes – the new supervisor of Elections.
St. Thomas board members complained about the authority of the committee’s hiring process when selecting the former military officer for the position.
Fawkes was proposed by Bryan as acting supervisor after the deputy supervisors in both districts resigned within days of each other in March. Former Elections Supervisor John Abramson was on leave all year until his retirement in May.
The districts’ boards of Elections and the Elections System have separate budgets. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the 2013 appropriations for the V.I. Elections System is $1,269,020. The St. Croix board was allotted $81,914 and St. Thomas $75,252. The funds are released on a monthly basis.
Also discussed by Bryan, Ross and board member Liliana Belardo de O’Neal was the cost of the 2014 primary election. No budget numbers were mentioned, but it was agreed that the political parties will be responsible for the primaries and the Elections Board only certifies the results.
Voting machines are frequently the topic of Elections board meetings and on Wednesday Bryan introduced a representative from Election Systems and Software company who is in the territory inspecting the new DS 200 units recently delivered. Alexia Scott Morrison is testing the units to insure they are in working order after shipment.
The board agreed with to begin training staff, board members and the public before Thanksgiving.
The old voting machines will be stored for a period of time and St. Croix board member Roland Moolenaar outlined steps being taken to secure and store them. He said his committee, which includes Raymond Williams and Rupert Ross, established a chain of custody for the 93 outdated machines and researched storage options. Moolenaar said two proposals had been received for storage and Fleming Transport’s bid of $850 was the lowest.
Before approving Moolenaar’s report, Williams made a motion to call for two votes – one to approve the report and the other to approve the Fleming proposal. Ross seconded the motion, but Bryan said the second “wasn’t fast enough.”
A vote of 4-2 followed – Ross and Williams voted “nay” – approving the report and proposal.
Attending the meeting were Bryan, Ross, Williams, de O’Neal, Moolenaar and Glenn Webster. Attorney Lisa Harris-Moorhead was absent. The next district meeting is scheduled for Sept. 4.
