First let me say that your work has paid off. Word has gotten back to us that your emails/calls have been heard on the need for electronic poll books. Several Councilmen has mentioned that their offices have been receiving support for this request. WELL DONE PATRIOTS!!  We will continue to track the final outcome.

Now for another critical matter that needs our attention immediately. Time is of the utmost importance.

One city budget issue which is working its way through the City Council is the "Elections Center lease". When one reviews the FACTS the decision should be easy however, we know that is never the case or the end of the story.

The current center is located at the Gateway shopping center which is costly and the center has several construction and functionality issues. Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland has received an endorsement  to move the Elections Center location from Gateway to an alternate facility. One Imeson Property.

Below is the Supervisor Hollands recommendation followed by his fact sheet which both clearly lay out the information needed for the City Council to make solid business and financial decisions.

Supervisor of Elections Recommendation for Election Center Location

 Supervisor of Elections, Jerry Holland announced the One Imeson Center as his recommendation for the Elections Center location. Council President Bill Gulliford gave a 1:00PM deadline today (7/23) for the Supervisor to have his recommendation to the Council for their review before tonight’s meeting where a vote by the Council is expected.

 The One Imeson property saves tax payers $573,003.03 for the first year and $3,288,422.43 over a 10 year period based on current rent schedules. Supervisor Holland’s recommendation will allow his office to meet the Mayor’s extraordinary lapse mandated for all constitution officers and departments. Holland must cut $587,604 from his office’s annual budget. “We want to cooperate with the Mayor’s office to find every possible savings in our budget to meet the extraordinary budget deficit,” said Holland. The new rent schedule of the One Imeson property allows the elections office to bridge the budget gap without compromising elections operations.

 “Our office is in agreement with the Council Auditors and Department of Public Works’ figures for the costs associated with the three proposals. Based on our analysis, the bottom line is the One Imeson proposal is the best value for the taxpayers. It is a politically neutral site that allows us to meet our budget obligations while being easily accessible,” said Supervisor Holland.

 In comparison with the other two proposed locations, the One Imeson property is $371,529.62 less than renting at the Gateway Shopping Center and $242,848.11 less than renting Southgate Shopping Center over the ten year lease period.

 The Supervisor of Elections Office and the Mayor’s Administration looked at all current city owned buildings and determined there was not a suitable city building available to meet the demands of a large county elections center.

 Supervisor Holland, however, still believes there may be a better permanent option in the future for taxpayers. “I still believe in the long run, the best home for the Supervisor of Elections Office and Elections Center would have been to build a combined office-warehouse space downtown on city owned property.”

NOTE: The Gateway landlord still does not have a final lease that both the city and the landlord had agreed to, so in the SOE and Mayor's recommendations there is still a discrepancy in the actual rental payment numbers. Supervisor Holland's recommendation and analysis were made on numbers submitted to the City by the 7/23 1PM deadline given by Council President Gulliford.

Supervisor of Elections

Elections Center Recommendation

 One Imeson Property:

“The Best Value for the Taxpayers”

 FACT SHEET

 Lease Highlights Include:

        * $573,000 savings in first year

       * Allows Supervisor of Elections Office to achieve

Mayor’s 14 percent budget deficit obligation

        * $0 cost to taxpayers for move and build out

        * Total savings of $3.3 million over ten years

        * Politically neutral site

       * Newest facility

        * Built to suit

        * Easily accessible from I-95, I-295 or Main Street

·        * Located on a city bus route

        * Four loading docks for moving election equipment

       *  Exclusive use of secured loading docks

        * One story building, maximizing efficiency

        * Free and secure equipment storage during the build out

     * New air conditioning and heating system

      *  New roof with fifteen year warranty

       * Two thousand parking spaces

·       *  One Imeson rent $371,529.62 less than renting at Gateway

and is $242,848.11 less than Southgate over ten years

     Again, I am asking you to flood the phones and email boxes and have your voices heard on this issue. Feel free to copy and paste the fact sheet information provided and add it to your email with your own thoughts. Contact information for City Council members can be obtained by clicking on the following link.

http://www.coj.net/city-council/city-council-members.aspx

     Additionally, there are 3 sub-committee meetings that begin this Monday the 5th and if at all possible we need to have a presence at each of them.

1. The Rules Committee: 9AM the 5th at City Hall

2. The TEU Committee: (Transportation, Energy and Utilities) 2PM the 5th at city Hall

3. The Finance Committee: 9AM the 6th at City Hall

    THEN, save the date of August 13th at 5PM and fill the seats at the City Council meeting in support of this proposal. At this meeting the issue will be voted on by the entire City Council.

     I sincerely appreciate your attention to this matter. It is said that ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL and I wish that were true. However, it is true that all politics begins at the local level and we need to ensure that our direct area of accountability sets the standard of excellence. Thus we will continue to be involved,we will continue to be the voice of the people and we will work tirelessly to bring RIGHT back into our government.

May God Bless you and May God Bless OUR America!!

Leanne