The Sherburne County Board last week approved a request by the auditor/treasurer’s department to purchase new election equipment at a cost of $654,125.

 

The current AutoMARK equipment was purchased by the county in 2006 and according to Auditor/Treasurer Diane Arnold, has a high failure rate. It is used throughout the county.

 

With a Presidential election coming up in 2016, the county issued requests for proposal (RFPs) in October to three election equipment vendors certified in Minnesota.

 

All three demonstrated their systems at the Government Center.  Although the low proposal came from Election System & Software (ES&S) at $512,638.51, the supplier of the AutoMARK, Arnold said the department recommended going with Dominion Voting, instead.

 

Arnold said ES&S wasn’t offering the AutoMARK, but the Express Poll system, which is not certified in Minnesota.

 

The third vendor, Hart InterCivic, was offering the Verity Voting System at $665,202. That system can’t transmit electronic results wirelessly as requested in the RFP, and the system requires Hart-sourced hardware for election result transmission online via Virtual Private Network (VPN).

 

The Dominion Voting Democracy System is an all-in-one optical scan tabulator and marking device that includes a wireless modem to transmit results.

 

 

Actual cost of the system is $489,640, with an additional $164,485 for a five-year license and firmware fee.

 

Arnold said the county’s share will be 52.4%. The rest ($233,068.34) will be paid  back to the county by cities and townships, either up front, or over four years.

 

The board approved the  following contract renewals  with state-mandated court-appointed attorneys:  guardianship/ conservatorship - Cindi Spence; paternity/contempt - Patrick Fugina; commitment - Thomas Richards; sexually dangerous personality/sexually psychopathic personality - Ryan Magnus; children in need of protection (CHIPS) Amy Chantry, Cathleen Gabriel, with Lisa Rutland, Rhonda Magnussen and Meredith Boudrie as back-up; termination of parental rights - Amy Chantry and Cathleen Gabriel.

 

The board approved designating Sherburne County as the sponsoring agency for funding for two projects in Becker. The first is federal funding for a Safe Routes to School project within the city. The other is Transportation Alternatives funding for a trail along Co. Rd. 24 in Becker.

 

Since the City of Becker is not a state aid city, the county must act as its sponsor in order to receive funding, said Engineer Rhonda Lewis.

 

“They won’t get funding from both, but they are trying for both” she said.

 

In other action the board:

•Accepted a $31,784 Family Group Decision-Making Grant from the MN Dept. of Human Services to help offset the cost of county staff who conduct meetings in child protection and out-of-home placement cases;

 

•Approved an expenditure by the IT department of up to $85,000 to purchase a storage system to support Virtual Desktops;

 

•Approved an expenditure of up to $25,000 to purchase a mobile device management system that will ensure the security and integration of laptops and tablets within the county’s IT system;

 

•Approved the purchase of updated security software and equipment for master control from Stanley Integrator at a cost of $365,000.