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Mr. Andrew Siff, Managing Counsel, Senate Rules Committee Page Two, May 10,2000 . What Problems will be created bv the Directive? First and foremost, a backup site must be identified within Precinct No, 4, Based upon a review of this area, the only public facility is the City's Public Works maintenance garage, Assuming that this was an acceptable alternate, the second problem would be the timing of informing, advertising and educating Precinct No, 4 registered voters of the voting location change prior to the September State Primary and general elections, In fact, registered voters must be notified by June 14,2000 of the precinct location, Based upon the November 5, 1998 general election results, there were 2,203 total registered voters in this precinct, Using an average unit mailing piece cost of$3,50, the minimum total cost of this effort would be approximately $7,710, Obviously, this was not a 2000 budgeted expenditure of the General Fund, Conclusions/Observations While there is no question that DoD has every right to dictate uses within their facilities, we believe that the haste to which this directive is apparently being implemented and the inability to adequately plan for this event has left our City literally scrambling to comply with voting statutes relative to the September Primary. We believe that a more reasonable solution would be to exempt current DoD facilities that are being used for voting or polling purposes, and develop a transition plan to prohibit . such uses at these facilities by 2002 or 2004, Finally, the City of Arden Hills retroceded this federal property into the City's police and fire protection service areas in return for the USARC being available for various public purpose needs (i,e" recreation classes, public information meetings, senior groups, etc,), This relationship is represented in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the DoD and the City of Arden Hills, While we believe the relationship has benefited both parties, the DoD directive currently under discussion certainly does not meet the spirit of the MOU, Your assistance in representing the City of Arden Hills' position in requesting a 2000 election exemption from the DoD directive prohibiting this use would be most appreciated, If you have any additional information requests, please communicate them to us, Sinc~, I< 1il 7~ v Terrance R. Post . City Treasurer cc: Joe Lynch, City Administrator Ann Higgins, LMC Ron Canavan, USARC .