Budget Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Commission Minutes—July 26, 2022 5606 ballot when needed. She said currently with the Express Vote machines the County wastes thousands of preprinted ballots per election. She said the cost of the BOD printers is approximately $6,000 each. Mr. Peterson asked what the specialty of the printer is. County Information Technology Director, Bob Henderson was present and said the BOD printers utilize a universal transfer card that is encrypted and can only be used with a BOD printer and laptop. He said the ballot data is saved to the transfer card, inserted into the BOD printer, and the printer prints the data line by line onto the blank ballot paper. Mr. Peterson asked if there is more than one vendor that sells the BOD printers. Mr. Henderson said the North Dakota Secretary of State approves the vendors the County can use. Mr. Steen asked how many printers are needed. Ms. Madrigga said the budget request is for 40 printers that would serve 10 vote centers and one printer in the Finance Office for absentee voting. Mr. Henderson said the purpose of the BOD printers is to be able to print any ballot style at any voting location to eliminate running out of ballots and having runners get ballots from the warehouse or Courthouse to voting centers. He said having more than one printer at each vote center is important to keep length of lines down at vote centers as it takes minutes to print a ballot. Mr. Steen said 2023 is not an election year and asked why the purchase is being requested in 2023. Ms. Madrigga said the Finance Office would like to implement the BOD printers on a non-election year for staff to have adequate time to learn and set up the equipment. Mr. Steen suggested the County could purchase a small number of BOD printers in 2023 to implement and train before an election year and purchase the rest in a future year. Mr. Henderson said he would recommend purchasing all the BOD printers at once to ensure they are all the same model as the printers may not be exactly the same year to year. Ms. Madrigga said she would like to have 10 to 15 BOD printers purchased to start implementation. MOTION, passed Mr. Peterson moved and Mr. Breitling seconded to reduce the budget amount for the ballot on demand printers to $66,000 as part of the 2023 Election Fund preliminary budget. On roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously. MOTION, passed Mr. Peterson moved and Mr. Kapitan seconded to approve the 2023 Finance preliminary budget as amended. On roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously. 17. STATE'S ATTORNEY Burch Burdick, County State's Attorney was present to review the 2023 State's Attorney budget. Mr. Burdick said the 2023 budget request is similar to prior year requests. He said a proposed correction to the submitted budget is to add $2,000 to the overtime salaries item for victim witness coordinators. He said the budget request includes $15,000 to outfit third floor State's Attorney staff with sit to stand desks. He said the budget also includes an increase in fees for client services due to the increase in fees for expert witness fees in child welfare cases. Mr. Steen asked what account 4011020 hourly salaries is used for. Mr. Burdick said the account was used to fill a law clerk position each summer as an internship type position that is typically filled by a University of North Dakota University Law School Student. Ms. Heinle said with the new payroll system, the 1020 account does not exist and the budget salary is included with all other staff salaries at $9,000. Mr. Peterson asked Mr. Burdick if he is comfortable with current staffing levels and the budget amount for the incoming State's Attorney as Mr. Burdick will be retiring at the end of 2022. Mr. Burdick said he believes the salary range, particularly the top end of the range should be evaluated. He said the two candidates running for the State's Attorney position have about 15 years of experience in the State's Attorney office.