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By VICKI URBANIK An effort by Porter County Clerk Pam Fish to separate the tasks of administering elections with the job of registering voters fizzled Monday, due to objections from her two colleagues on the election board. With a letter of support from the Indiana Election Division, Fish told the Porter County Council Monday that state law requires counties the size of Porter County to have an election board whose duty is to administer elections, with a voter registration office that mainly handles registrations. As it is now, the Voter Registration Office, whose members are appointed by the two county party chairs, handle most of the election tasks. The Porter County Election Board, meanwhile, has no full-time staff, even though it is the entity that should be administering elections, Fish said. Fish proposed moving the two current Voter Registration directors into a new Election Board budget while adding two additional election deputies. The Voter Registration office, meanwhile, would be cut back to just two full-time positions. But the idea was rejected, first by the other two members of the Porter County Election Board and then by the county council during budget hearings Monday. Election Board President J.J. Stankiewicz, who like Fish is a Democrat, told the council that the election board had no input in the alternate budget proposed by Fish. Instead, he and his Republican colleague on the election board, Patrick Lyp, called for granting $5,000 raises to Voter Registration directors Kathy Kozuszek and Sundae Kubacki, both of whom were praised for their efforts in running the most recent and practically glitch-free election. Stankiewicz said Porter County should do a needs assessment of its election procedures, possibly with a move toward centralized vote centers. Lyp said that he believes that a separation of the Election Board and the Voter Registration office will ultimately be needed. But for now, both advocated putting Fish’s budget proposal on hold. Both Stankiewicz and Lyp said Kozuszek and Kubacki were promised raises from their current pay of $33,076 if they would agree to put forth added effort in the most recent election. “We gave them our word, we have to follow through,” Stankiewicz said. Porter County Council Attorney Dave Hollenbeck said there appears to be “at least some level of dysfunction” on the election board, with one member proposing a budget and the other two members asking for it to be deferred. But Fish said she presented her alternate budget after talking with council members who advised her that the Election Board shouldn’t ask for the higher pay for the current staff if it also wanted the additional deputies. “Respectfully I did that,” she said. Fish also said that with the current Voter Registration staffing, it will be impossible to handle next year’s election work, which includes at least one school referendum and state-required changes in precincts. Kozuszek disagreed, but said that a boost in the part-time funding would help. In the end, the council agreed to the $5,000 raises for Kozuszek and Kubacki and a $20,000 increase in part-time funding. School Referendum Although next year is not an election year, the county already knows that there will be at least one special election, in the form of a referendum on a new school in Porter Township. Under a new state law, HEA 1001, new school buildings can be subject to a voter referendum. Schools can seek the referendum at any time and do not have to wait until a regular election. Other schools that might seek referendums in 2009 are Union Township and Duneland. County Council President Bob Poparad, D-1st, said if schools want the referendum but don’t want to wait until a regular election, then they should pay the costs, just as cities and towns must do. Fish estimated that each school referendum would cost about $40,000. Council member Dan Whitten, D-at large, questioned if school board members are “willing to face the voters” to explain why they cannot wait for a regular election but to force added costs onto the taxpayers. “I think we need to be having discussions with them,” he said of school boards.
Posted 11/18/2008
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