Minutes - Election Committee

Minutes of the Meeting of the

ECIA Election Committee

Held on December 9, 2020

 

  1. Time, Place and Attendees. A meeting of the ECIA Election Committee (“EC”) was held on December 9, 2020. The meeting was held via a ZOOM teleconference and was called to order by Bette Knight at 3:00 PM. Meeting was recorded by ECIA Staff. Four committee members in attendance hence quorum achieved. Specifically, Bette Knight, Kathie Graham, Jody Price and Butch Gorsuch were present. Mary Cassidy was excused. Sal Monaco in attendance as Board Liaison. Melinda Espinoza in attendance as Staff Representative.
  1. Approval of Agenda. There were no suggestions for modifications to the posted agenda. Jody moved to approve the agenda as posted. Kathie seconded the motion. Motion carried by a 4-0 voice vote.
  1. Minutes. Minutes for November 11, 2020 meeting were approved unanimously 3-0 via email on December 2, 2020. A request was made to ECIA staff on the same day to post to the ECIA website, and the minutes were posted the next day.
  1. Open Forum. None of the attendees of the meeting requested to discuss any topics under the Open Forum format.
  1. Staff Training on Election Procedures. ECIA GM Julie Navarro joined the zoom session for this specific topic. Bette led the group through a discussion/training of Section 5.1 of the Election Procedures with Staff as part of pre-Election training exercises. Note: This agenda item was conducted after the Board Liaison Report.
  1. Board Liaison Report. Board Liaison Sal Monaco shared the following Board actions with the committee:
  • Community Amenities have been re-opened with strict limits. ECIA Staff is back in office physically but the office is not open to public.
  • Community resident Nolan Zisman is on transportation advisory committee for Santa Fe County transportation group.
  • The ECIA 2021 Budget formally approved at last meeting Board meeting (November).
  • The ECIA Nomination Petition for 2021 formally approved.
  • Board approved simplified Dog Park registration forms.
  • HOA Assessments have been mailed.
  • Board has asked a task group to look at electronic voting, and the legalities of such.
  1. Old Business.
  2. Election Checklist – Bette led a discussion of the current Election Checklist focusing on GM activities. Julie Navarro was in attendance for this discussion.
  1. Electronic Voting – A task group has been formed comprising of John Reynolds, David Sorkin, and Jody Price. Task group to examine electronic voting (legalities and “how to”). Task group has not been assigned a timeframe. Task group looking at feasibility and whether a community desire exists to add this capability. The capability is technically “doable” as other organizations have accomplished electronic voting. The task group is to advise the Board whether or not the Bylaws will need to be updated to permit electronic voting. Butch offered the previous Bylaws Review Committee had this issue examined by the ECIA Attorney and it was her opinion the Bylaws needed to be changed, but that was the only governing document requiring a change to allow
  1. Publicity – Articles were sent in November to Information Committee. Information Committee made significant revisions such that Bette asked to have Election Committee byline removed from article. No web page or marquee requests have been sent to Staff yet.
  2. Charter Update – Butch explained recent changes made to the Charter since the November meeting specifically:
  • Addition of language permitting to move to Executive Session.
  • Moving the “attendees” paragraph in Section 4.0 to the end of the same section, as it improved the “flow” of the section.

Jody moved to accept the updates to the Election Committee charter as documented above. Seconded by Kathie. Voice vote approved the motion by 4-0.

  1. New Business. No new business was conducted.
  1. Adjournment. The Meeting was adjourned at 3:59PM. The next regularly scheduled monthly meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 13, 3:00 P.M. in the ECIA Conference Room or by Zoom.

 

Minutes of the Meeting of the

ECIA Election Committee

Held on November 11, 2020

 

  1. Time, Place and Attendees. A meeting of the ECIA Election Committee (“EC”) was held on November 11, 2020.  The meeting was held via a ZOOM teleconference and was called to order by Bette Knight at 3:00 PM.  Meeting was recorded by ECIA Staff.  Four committee members in attendance hence quorum achieved.  Specifically, Bette Knight, Kathie Graham, Mary Cassidy and Butch Gorsuch were present.  Jody Price was excused.  Sal Monaco in attendance as Board Liaison.  Sarah Skagen attendance as Staff Representative.
  1. Approval of Agenda. There were no suggestions for modifications to the posted agenda.  Butch moved to approve the agenda as posted.  Mary seconded the motion.  Motion carried by a 4-0 voice vote.
  1. Minutes. Butch reported the minutes of October 14, 2020 were approved unanimously 4-0 via email.  A request was made of staff on October 25, 2020 to post the minutes to the ECIA website, and the minutes were posted the next day.
  1. Open Forum. None of the attendees of the meeting requested to discuss any topics under the Open Forum format.
  1. Board Liaison Report.
  2. Given recent coronavirus surges and New Mexico Public Health Order, the ECIA Community center is closed except for maintenance personnel. Everyone else is working remotely.
  3. Budget is scheduled to be approved at the November 23rd Board meeting. Assessments are planned to be sent out to residents at end of November with a due date of February 15, 2021.  Assessment is unchanged from previous year and is at $550.  The due date is moved up to 15th to encourage residents to pay earlier so as to allow more people to be eligible to vote.  Grace period will continue to be April 1st.
  4. A task group has been established by the Board to review current insurance situation (current policy expires April 2021). ECIA wishes to improve insurance posture (e.g. swim lessons).
  5. Board will hold a committee chair meeting on November 18th, continuing discussion from previous meeting on compliance. Previous meeting discussed issues with dogs (leashed, unleashed, etc.) along with a few other issues.  ECIA is facing issues with members and nonmembers using common properties (e.g. Preserves).  Does ECIA need different policies for different areas?
  6. Board has approved five new cameras for the dog park. Need for cameras caused by recent dog interactions and dog owner interactions.
  7. Improvements made to procurement policy.
  8. ECIA has procured a four-wheel drive vehicle to assist in maintenance of the greenbelt areas. Additionally, ECIA has procured a chipper.
  9. The group working on a new ECIA logo has made progress and is expected to present current findings at the next Board meeting.
  10. The Board will not hold a meeting in December this year.
  1. Old Business.
  2. Election Checklist – Bette reported she has submitted a publicity article to information committee by 11/5 deadline.

Bette will begin work on key election dates.  Sarah indicated Melinda is the proper person to contact as she is the official Staff liaison for the Election Committee.

Another publicity article will be written for the January Vistas with the deadline being December 5th.

Sarah advised the Webpostings account via email should be used for updates to website or eblasts.  Contact Melinda for updates to the Marquees.

Bette will update the election checklist on Onedrive.

  1. Electronic Voting – Per Sal: There are no new updates since last committee meeting, as the update to the website is required before additional work on electronic voting can continue. No meeting has taken place.  Website expected to be updated by end of year. 
  1. Publicity – As noted in item (a) above, an Article has been submitted for December Vistas. A schedule exists for submission of remaining publicity articles
  1. Meeting Policy and Charter – Butch reviewed current status of the proposed charter to committee. Suggestion was made to add a section to cover executive session.  Butch to add that section and committee to review at next meeting.
  1. Nomination Petition – Committee reviewed the two alternatives prepared for the meeting. After discussion committee agreed to a revision to support the candidacy of a petitioner via email.  Mary moved to allow an email for support of a nomination in lieu of a physical signature.  Kathie seconded the motion.  Motion carried by a 4-0 voice vote.  Butch to clean up the review comments.
  1. New Business. No new business conducted

The next regularly scheduled monthly meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 9, 3:00 P.M. in the ECIA Conference Room or by Zoom.

  1. Adjournment.  Adjourned at 4:36 PM.

For the ECIA Election Committee

By:  __________/s/____________________    _11/20/2020          

Secretary Butch Gorsuch                                       Date