By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

With no way to predict how many times the 2008-2009 South Portland
school budget will go to a referendum vote – a requirement of the
School Administrative Reorganization law – the city council will likely
vote to consolidate special election polling places to capture some
cost savings in the face of potentially multiple elections.

“If we need to open up every polling place like we typically do, it’s
going to get very costly,” said South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey
during Monday’s council workshop. “Is [the budget] going to get denied
one time or two times?”

Councilor Maxine Beecher interjected, “Or 20.”

A special election on the school budget has been tentatively scheduled for April 15, Mooney said.

Regardless if a school district consolidated with other districts or
remained independent, all school units will be required to hold a
school budget special referendum election, following city council
approval of the school budget and within 10 days of a public hearing,
according to the law. If the budget does not pass, there will be
another public hearing and following that, another election. Should the
budget fail to pass by July 1, the latest budget submitted by the unit
will be considered the budget for the ensuing year until a final budget
is approved.

Mooney said lining up polling places and election workers could be
problematic and costly. She said elections are often a big interruption
for the South Portland Boys and Girls Club and the American Legion Hall
may not be available for multiple elections in a short period of time.
Many election workers also work full-time and have to take days off to
run the polls, she said.

The cost to rent both the American Legion Hall and the Boys and Girls
Club per election is $675, according to figures compiled by Mooney. The
average cost to pay wardens, ward clerks, registrars and election
workers overseeing a special election is $4,700.

If the city’s four polling places were consolidated to one station at
the community center, Mooney estimates the total cost of election
workers would be roughly $913.

The June special election on state bond issues drew a voter turnout of
1,398 voters or 7.7 percent of the city’s registered voters. A total of
2,190 voters from districts three and four voted at the community
center in the November election and Mooney said the center could easily
accommodate the whole city based on voter turnout from past special
elections.

One issue that remains to be seen is how absentee ballots will factor
into the process. Ballots are usually available to voters between 30 to
45 days before an election, Mooney said. According to the School
Administrative Reorganization law, absentee ballots must be delivered
to the clerk seven days before the budget meeting and may not be
counted before the conclusion of the budget meeting or after the polls
close.

“The whole thing is really very messy,” Mooney said.  

If a school budget does not exceed state and local spending targets,
the special election ballots will read, “Do you favor approving the
(name of regional school unit) budget for the upcoming school year that
was adopted at the latest regional school unit budget meeting?” If the
budget exceeds the target, the ballot will read, “…meeting and that
includes locally raised funds that exceed the required local
contribution as described in the Essential Programs and Services
Funding Act?”

“And that’s going to pass?” said Beecher.

Newly appointed mayor and member of the school department’s alternative
plan committee, Jim Soule, said, “Thus the need for possible multiple
votes.”

“It’s a brave new world out there,” he said.  

South Portland School Department Business Manager Polly Ward said, in
the  last five years, the school’s budget has exceeded LD1 limits
every year. She said the city’s five elementary schools and two middle
schools,  cause the budget to exceed the limit.

“We would anticipate in all likelihood [this year’s budget] would exceed LD1 limits,” Ward said.

The council is expected to vote on the change Dec. 16.

In other business, the council considered merging the existing
recycling committee with an energy conservation committee, which the
council agreed to create when former Mayor Claude Morgan signed the
U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a step toward
joining the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities initiative.

The agreement signifies a community's commitment to help stop global
warming by implementing energy solutions that save money, benefit
public health, reduce waste and pollution and reduce dependence on oil.
 

City Manager Jim Gailey said because the two committees have common
goals, it may be beneficial to merge the group into one larger
committee to tackle issues of saving taxpayers’ money, conserving
energy, preserving the environment and educating the public.

The group could also be instrumental in the city’s public outreach
campaign, set to kick off in February, about the city’s automated
recyclables collection, set to begin in the summer.  Because the
recycling committee and other groups such as the conservation
commission have struggled due to lack of attendance and city guidance,
councilors suggested a staff member be assigned to the group.