Final touches added to make new election board budget
In preparation for a new state law governing changes in how Porter County handles elections that goes into effect Monday, the County Council on Tuesday created a budget for the new Board of Elections and Registration.
The move required stripping funds out of voters registration and the election board, and putting that money into a fund for the new department.
The one sticking point was Clerk Jessica Bailey’s request for four deputies. At the suggestion of Councilman Bob Poparad, D-1st, and with some discussion, the council voted to fund two deputies and told Bailey to see how it goes and come back after a month if need be.
“I appreciate that this is a brand new division and no one knows how things are going to work,” she said.
Under the new law, Bailey said, the election board will expand from three members to five, with the party chairs each getting two board appointments instead of one. Pay for board members also will bump from $3,000 to $5,000. Bailey is the fifth member of the board.
The law is meant to improve how elections are run after the chaos of the November general election in which 18,000 absentee ballots were not counted on Election Day, more than a dozen polls opened late, and results came in three days late.
The law creates a director and an assistant director; Bailey will make recommendations for those positions Monday at the election board meeting, and they will have to be approved by a bipartisan majority of the board. Those positions will pay $49,000 and $47,000 respectively and have to represent each party.
She also requested four deputies, at salaries of $37,686 each, positions that also have to have an even political makeup.
“According to the law, everything you hire has to be half of one party and half of the other. You can’t have an odd number,” she said.
The office has had four f u l l - t i me employees, Poparad said, which included the Democratic and Republican directors of voters registration, appointed by their party chairs, and two additional employees.
“There’s a reason you asked for four,” said Councilman Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, adding the office also had a lot of part-time help.
Bailey said she believes there’s enough work to do for four employees to handle under the director and assistant director but she didn’t want to “butt heads” with the council and was willing to ask for two employees and let the directors decide.
“There is a lot of things that did not happen and need to happen going forward,” she said.
Councilman Mike Jessen, R-4th, said he looked forward to the new office staffed with effective, productive employees under Bailey’s oversight.
“I think that’s what’s been missing historically,” he said. “You were newly elected and thrown into a mess. You’ve handled it masterfully.”
The council voted 6-0 for the budget changes, with Council President Dan Whitten, D-At large, absent.
In the first of a series of meetings being held in different locations across the county, the council met at the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk.
Noting the erosion that threatens the pavilion where the council met and that has already caused the collapse of a viewing deck and the closure of a handicap accessible trail, Portage Mayor John Cannon said officials are doing everything they can to save the beach.
Cannon offered the council what he said was an “olive branch,” meant to improve the rocky relationship between the city and the county under the tenure of former Mayor James Snyder, who is awaiting sentencing on his conviction for two federal public corruption charges.
“I’m willing to do anything to get our relationship back to the way it should be,” Cannon said.
The council’s next meeting takes place at 5:30 p.m. July 23 at the Porter County Regional Airport terminal building, 4207 Murvihill Road, Valparaiso.