After some uncertainty regarding details about a potential new full-time employee with the Platte County Election Commissioner's Office, the Board of Supervisors ultimately postponed a vote on the matter.
During Tuesday’s regular meeting, Platte County Election Commissioner Connie Sebourn originally asked the board to hire a full-time employee but the position would only be temporary, lasting a year. More help is currently needed because the election commissioner's office is working on redistricting efforts, a sanitary and improvement district (SID) election and a bond measure in Humphrey concurrently, Sebourn said.
However, Chief Deputy County Attorney Breanna Anderson-Flaherty asked supervisors to postpone the vote until the Board’s next meeting, Sept. 28, so the role could be ironed out. She said she wanted to contact Zelle HR Solutions - the human resources firm that the county uses in regards to consulting and recruiting - because there was confusion on how many hours the employee would work and how long the contract would last.
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“I think we need a more definite timeframe,” she said. “… I think we need to contact Zelle before we do anything.”
The staffer would help lighten the load at the election commissioner's office as it has had its share of work to do recently, Sebourn said.
Sebourn added the new employee would help with the collection of ballots for both an upcoming bond measure in Humphrey to build a new pool and the SID election for seats 5 and 9 which was held Tuesday.
Sebourn said the individual would also help gather data when it comes to the redistricting of the county lines, which the county must do following the 2020 census.
In April the Board OK’d a contract with gWorks – a geographic information system business based in Omaha - which will generate a living online map of many political subdivision boundaries within Platte County. gWorks allows for online mapping services for counties and cities in Nebraska and Iowa.
The software also provides the county with access to real-time data about the redistricting lines. gWorks allows computer users to view boundary lines and other map information.
The process is different in years past as it was completed all by hand on paper. But, the previous method is “going out the door,” Sebourn said. gWorks is also computerizing previous county maps as all of the previous ones have been on paper, she added.
Sebourn said the new way is an effort by the State of Nebraska to have such information digitally.
District 4 Supervisor Ronald Pfeifer said he’s disappointed the county had to contract out for redistricting, saying he doesn’t like having to spend money on “inventing a new wheel.”
“(It’s) not a big deal,” Pfeifer said. “That could have been done in-house with a little help from the supervisors. That’s what we’ve done before.”
The 2020 census data will be used by gWorks, which the election commissioner's office should receive by early October. The results have to be finalized by the end of the year.
It’s going to be crunch time to complete the census data gathering. It was previously to be done by July 2020, however, the data gathering process was finished in October which caused a delay.
“We’ve got a short time,” Sebourn said.