Elections board seeks funding for ballot scanner

     Highland County Board of Elections representatives Dinah Phillips, Steve Hunter, Andy West, and Steve Witham met with Highland County Commissioners Gary Heaton, Tom Horst, and Shane Wilkin on Wednesday, Aug. 25.

     The meeting was a follow-up for consideration of the purchase of a new ballot scanner for the elections board.

     The board of elections has managed a surplus of $18,838 in the 2010 budget, and $42,400 is needed for the high-speed scanner. Because of a recent Diebold settlement, the county board has an opportunity to purchase the scanner at half price. 

     Witham told commissioners, “The deadline is today in order to have the scanner in place for the November election. I would like to see it in place this year for the governor’s race for a test before we have a presidential election.”

     Witham told commissioners the elections board will have to upgrade its server, encoders, and touch-screen voting machines in the near future.

     “To get the scanner at half price, we have until July 31, 2011?” Heaton asked. “Is this going to become a mandate from the Ohio Secretary of State?”

     Witham responded, “We think so. We are now seeing a lot more absentee ballots. They are estimating absentee voters to keep climbing.”

     Board of elections member Steve Hunter said that this year, Highland County could be Dominion’s (the software provider, Dominion Voting) main customer in Ohio. “The support this year would be significantly different for us,” Hunter said.

     Commissioner Horst asked if the county needed to come up with $23,562. Hunter replied, “Yes.”

     Witham said, “We tried to spread out the payments, but with half off the price, they (Dominion) are real close to their cost.”

     According to elections board member Andy West, “If we don’t get this high-speed scanner, our regular scanners are not going to last much longer.”

     Witham said replacing the current scanners would be approximately $14,000. West told commissioners, “Sometimes you have to scan the ballots multiple times, and the scanners are just getting worn out.”

     “We have no choice one way or the other,” Witham said. “It’s either high speed or more regular scanners.”

     Heaton told the Elections representatives, “The problem we have is money – we’ve turned down a judge, and we’ve turned down the clerk of courts. We know this is one of our responsibilities; it’s just coming up with the extra $23,000.”

     “I just don’t see another $23,000 right now,” Horst said. “We have a capital murder trial and contract negotiations with the sheriff’s office coming up.”

     Phillips commented that no one anticipated a capital murder case, and those are difficult to fund. “I just don’t see where we could find any extra money,” Horst said.

     Heaton suggested the elections board contact Dominion and ask if they can purchase the scanner in 2010 with half of the money this year and the remainder to follow in 2011.

     “We do have until July 31 of next year to buy it at this price,” Witham said.

     Heaton then asked if they could deduct $24,000 from the elections board budget from next year.

     “We have no way of saying what we’ll have next year with special elections or anything else,” Hunter said.

     “We are pretty much bare-boned,” Phillips said. “We have volunteers who have donated $24,000 in their time.”

     Witham told commissioners the elections board will also encounter issues with licensing fees in 2013 and 2014 when current contracts end.

     “We’ve talked about $10,000 a year for upgrades,” Hunter said.

     Horst said, “We have the money for the first payment ($21,200). I’d have no problem if we can make the second payment next year.”

     “There’s just no way we can go out on a limb with our unemployment situation,” Heaton said. “We just don’t see a lot of extra revenue right now.”

     Witham told commissioners, “We understand the county’s dire situation.” Both Witham and Hunter said the biggest issue for the elections board is that the number of absentee ballots continues to increase with every election.

     Commissioners asked the elections committee to contact Dominion and request partial payment this year and the remainder to be paid in 2011 for the new high speed scanner.

     • In other action, commissioners met with Kathy Lewis of Air Evac from Georgetown regarding medical helicopter transportation from accident scenes and other medical emergencies. Lewis was meeting as a followup to the county and presented rates for the service to county employees and other southern Ohio residents. Heaton said that the family rate of $60 per year was worth giving an option to the county employees. Lewis explained that the company was founded in 1985 in West Plains, Mo. and has expanded to 14 states and also has cooperative agreements with Med-Trans Air Medical Transport and EagleMed. Lewis said if a family has no insurance, you only pay for your membership, which for a family of three or more is $60 annually. “We would like to get this information out to the county employees,” Heaton said. “I think it’s a great benefit at a small cost.”

     Heaton invited Lewis and Air-Evac to provide information to all 350 county employees.

     • Highland County Common Pleas Court Rocky Coss discussed recent bids on the county courthouse renovation with commissioners.

     “I really would like to see us do something this year,” Coss said. “I could find $20,000 this year out of the special projects fund and maybe $20,000 next year.”

     Commissioners recently accepted bids on courthouse renovations but have not accepted any of the bids. Coss said that it’s imperative that the box gutters, soffits, and painting, the most important repairs, are completed because of the risk of water damage. “There’s a possibility of getting some help,” Heaton said. “The low bidder is still very interested.”

     Coss said, “We’ve got to do something. Time’s a-wastin’.”

     • Commissioners then met with Perfection Group of Cincinnati on the energy efficiency audit. Perfection Group estimated possible utility savings of approximately $20,000. Perfection representatives said the BTUs per square foot for consumption of utilities was above average at the county courthouse and the justice center. Perfection said that they were at the point where they see “potential savings for the county” and wish to proceed with a walkthrough of the county’s buildings and facilities. Commissioners agreed to permit Perfection to conduct the walkthrough inspections and report back.

     In other action, the commissioners passed the following resolutions, all by 3-0 votes:

     • The authorization of a modification to the General Fund budget, Maintenance and Operations, as follows: from Maintenance & Operations, Repair, to Supplies in the amount of $100.

     • The authorization of a modification to the WIA budget as follows: from Transfers Out, to Other Expense in the amount of $100,000.

     • The approval of travel expenses for seven Veteran Service Commission board members and staff to attend the Ohio Department of Veterans Services annual regional training sessions on Sept. 8, 2010 at the American Legion Post #757 in Chillicothe, Ohio. There are no fees associated with this meeting. Transportation will be provided by Veterans Services.

     • The approval of travel expenses for Tonya Brown and Rebecca McIntosh to attend the Ohio State Association of County Veterans Service Officers’ Fall Training on Sept. 21-24, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio. Estimated cost of travel: Registration, $75 each, $150; Mileage, $85.50; Hotel Accommodations, $326.70; Meal Reimbursements ($30/day/person for 4 days), $240; for a total estimated cost of $802.20.

     • The approval of travel expenses for five Veterans Service Commission board members to attend the Ohio State Association of County Veterans Service Commissioners’ District Meeting on Sept. 27, 2010, at the American Legion Post 633 in Seaman, Ohio. There are no fees associated with this meeting. Transportation will be provided by Veterans Service.

     • The authorization of a modification to the General Fund as follows: from County Miscellaneous, Attorney-Indigent Fees, to Salary-Indigent-Stenographer, in the amount of $70.

     • The authorization of additional appropriation to the General Fund, Sheriff, as follows: from Unappropriated funds to Sheriff Employee Salaries, in the amount of $6,204.70. The additional funds are from the High Visibility Enforcement Grant.

     • The authorization of additional appropriation to the General Fund budget, Commissioners, as follows: from Unappropriated funds to ARRA Private Sewer in the amount of $18,750. The additional appropriation comes from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds through the EPA for the repair of Home Sewer Treatment Systems (HSTS).

     • The authorization of additional appropriation to the Dog and Kennel fund as follows: from Unappropriated funds to Other Expense in the amount of $5,000.