New Hampshire City and Town Clerk s Association Executive Board Minutes March 20, 2013

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1 New Hampshire City and Town Clerk s Association Executive Board Minutes March 20, 2013 PRESENT: Diane Trippett, Becky Benvenuti, Denise Gonyer, Jeanette Vinton, Tricia Piecuch, Kerri Parker, Kathy Seaver, Jean Oleson, Stephanie Glidden, Kimberly Johnson, Lori Radke, Phyllis Thompson, Maryellen Pelletier, Betty Ramspott, and Rhonda Gauthier. ABSENT: Debra Cornett, Wendy Drouin, Kathleen Valliere. GUESTS: Sandy Rowe, Interware Development, Pat Waterman. A warm welcome was giving to Rhonda Gauthier of Wilmot in joining our Board. SECRETARY MINUTES: A motion was made by Becky Benvenuti and seconded by Denise Gonyer to accept the minutes as amended from our meeting on February 20, The motion passed. TREASURER REPORT: Debra Cornett was not present. However, she sent down the Treasurer reports for January through March 19, A motion to accept the reports was made by Jeanette Vinton and seconded by Jean Oleson. The motion passed. As for the audit there was no news on this as of yet. Diane informed the board that she sent a letter to Director Bailey regarding the Change of Address Form that is on the DMV website. A copy of the letter was reviewed. In this letter it addressed the concerns of the Clerks with this form being up on the website when the customer does not have to send in any proof of residency. There have been several s sent around suggesting a change in legislation requiring DMV to have a form signed and sealed by the Town Clerk prior to changing the address in licensing. Dir. Bailey indicated that he will be coming to this meeting to discuss this matter. Becky cautioned us that if a legislative change is made it could put a higher liability of risk on the Town Clerk regarding that new resident. She indicated that this could also increase the work load on us already. Another thought is that this form is only as good as what you see. LEGISLATION: Tricia Piecuch indicated that Nancy will not be joining us as she is preparing for the cross-over of legislation. She is looking into the election laws that affect other laws, as they are all intertwined with the voter reg. legislation Tricia indicated that several bills were retained to committee. They were as follows: HB150 and HB151, both relative to inspectors of election. The sponsors Page 1

2 want to do some work on them. They indicated that they want good bills to come out not ones that will not work. HB294, relative to voter database information provided for preparation of jury lists. HB 343 relative to pawnbrokers HB351 relative to appointment of inspectors of elections. This can technically be tied into HB150 and HB151. HB366, relative to showing a ballot. HB422, relative to the adoption, revision and amendment of municipal charters. HB466, relative to determining qualifications of voters. We support this as they want to change the voter registration form and put this in with HB595. HB595 is relative photo identification of voters and this would have some similar action with the other qualifications of voters, but are worded differently. HB595 is up for vote this week. HB495, relative to titles for motor vehicles. HB600, relative to voter registration. Lucy Weber indicated that this would be Phase II of voter id. HB682, relative to credit card fees was a surprise bill. Becky went to the meeting. She indicated that it most representatives did not know how credit cards worked. Some of the discussion was based on how they thought the citizens would be disenfranchised because they did not want to pay twice, one through the vendor and one through the merchant. There was an amendment introduced, however, they did not vote on either bill or the amendment. Becky believed we will be seeing this one again. Tricia also indicated addition bills were ITL d. They are as follows: HB248, relative to establishing a committee to study the implementation of early processing of absentee ballots at state elections. With the passing of HB183, which we supported and put in an amendment for a start time of 9:00 am, the committee would not be needed as the changes were already passed to do early. However, this bill still has to pass the Senate. HB541, relative to city charters. This is where they wanted to make the city clerk elected by the governing body and require residency and living in the community. Tricia indicated that this could not be brought back this year. Page 2

3 Tricia then talked about the bills that passed and are heading to the Senate. They are as follows: HB112, relative to reclamation trust funds. HB119, relative to voter registration. This bill is interesting because they define domicile as: A domicile for voting purposes is that one place where a person, more than any other place, has established a physical presence and manifests an intent to maintain a single continuous presence for domestic, social, and civil purposes relevant to participating in democratic self-government. A domicile is that place, to which upon temporary absence, a person has the intention of returning. It was recommended that we watch this one as it is tied up in Superior Court at this time. HB137, relative to special number plates for members of the National Guard. HB183, relative to processing absentee ballots. HB265, relative to procedures for absentee ballots. The Legislation Committee is opposing this bill as it allows anyone to bring back the absentee ballot. They want to change the affidavit on the envelope giving a care-giver or family member permission to return the ballot. Discussion was had regarding this issue. A motion was made by Becky and seconded by Denise to support the legislation as amended. The motion passed. Becky said we can revisit this bill when it gets to the Senate. HB308, relative to technical corrections to elections laws. This is basically housekeeping of the elections laws already on the books. HB352, relative to sending checklists to the state archives. This passed with an amendment to change from 60 days to 90 days. HB595 big bill Supported going over to House. This bill removes phase II of the voter ID bill. SB 182 and 183 these bills deal with repealing and pushing phase II of voter ID out to Nancy heard grumblings there may be a push to put it out to SB183 retained again in committee SB182 to extend to 2014 is up for a vote tomorrow. The committee recommendation was to ITL, but we are not sure what will happen in the full senate. Page 3

4 Tricia indicated the following bills have passed both the House and the Senate. They are as follows: HB193, relative to registration of vehicles by residents without a permanent street address. HB194, relative to collection of permit fees paid with insufficient funds checks. This was going to the Senate floor for a vote. This requires the suspension of all the registrations listed to the person who has bounced the check and not just the vehicle he was registering. HB309, relative to filing for office. Tricia indicated that the House was meeting in two sessions, one today and tomorrow. Tricia indicated that HB411, relative to repealing a future reduction in vessel registration fees is supposed to come out of committee today. Discussion was then turned to the Senate Bills. Tricia indicated that SB120, relative to political contributions and expenditure, reporting by political committees, and nomination of political organizations may end up dying in committee. She then talked about the Senate bills going to the House. They are as follows: SB035, relative to the master jury list. SB047, relative to a surviving spouse s right to retain a Purple Heart plate. SB076, relative to disqualification of candidates. SB128, relative to fees for vital records. NEW BUSINESS: There are several new clerks that we have found out about. They are Fremont, Kensington, Haverhill, Milton, Nelson, Wakefield, Newington, Deering, Dalton, Warren and Epping. We would like to welcome them and hope they will be at the New Clerk s Workshop. Becky Benvenuti brought forward some information regarding the NH retirement system. Barbara Reed contacted Dave Fredette, Mike Jache and Becky Benvenuti who discussed a technical issue with them. She reported that in Page 4

5 towns were the same person was serving as the Town Clerk and the Tax Collector in a non-combined in one position, under NH retirement rules, the retirement system is stating the person technically does not qualify for retirement benefits. It was brought to our attention that these individuals have been paying into the retirement system and expecting benefits and are being told they do not qualify to receive them. There is legislation going forward to recognize and correct this issue, and to grandfather those already in the positions. Becky indicated that we should offer are assistance in this matter. Becky indicated that the current statute states a person has to work over 1700 hours in the year in one position in order to be eligible for the retirement benefits. Some clerks have found out per NH retirement rules, at age 65 their retirement benefits are reduced and then it is reduced again at age 70. Diane said the Kelli Barnaby contacted her regarding the amount of scholarship we give for clerks to attend classes. She was informed that it is $1,000. Becky made a motion and Tricia seconded it to keep the scholarship amounts at $1000. The motion passed. OLD BUSINESS: Diane informed us that she received a call from Anthony Stevens. He said they have made a formal request to the AG s office to remove the Clerks probation for the Primary and General elections. They are now just waiting to hear back from the AG s office. Anthony did not believe the 8 clerks from the General election ever received notice. The SOS is open to suggestions from the clerks on how we can stay compliant with the laws. There may have to be some legislation change made in wording on the UOCAVA to go from may to shall on the part of the SOS. Tricia indicated that the requirement to replace memory cards for voting machines have been put on the back burner. They are waiting for testing results with UCONN. These cards are not cheap. The New Clerk s Workshop is all set to go on April 1 st and 8 th. All the regional meetings are also set. See your Important Dates To Remember to get locations and dates. DEPARTMENT OF SAFETY: Dir. Bailey joined us and introduced David Hilts, the new attorney for DMV. Dir. Bailey informed us that got some results from the week that the Clerks were asked to collect errors in title processing. He indicated that over 90 towns participated. They have yet to meet with the dealers at this time. In that one week over 8000 titles were issued by dealers and 2000 by Town Clerks. 806 of those titles had problems. He gave us some statistics on what they found Page 5

6 wrong with those titles. He indicated that with these results they definitely need to work with the dealers. He said The Clerks proved they were right. They will come up with a plan to work with the dealers. Dir. Bailey indicated that on the issuance of boat registrations, there are three major vendors being tested. One has finished (Interware), and the others are close. They are scheduled to load the system into production for vendors on March 22 nd. Your office will need to be audited before you can go on. Becky asked if we were required to get audited before going live. Chris Ialuna said that if you are not yet on line you have to make sure you do a contract with them. If you have a contract then you can go live. Just inform them when you plan on doing this. Becky also asked if they can do this through e-reg. Chris indicated that after they get the all the towns up that want to do this they will move forward. Dir. Bailey indicated that next year the boat fees will be looked at. He indicated that some people are bypassing paying fees for tidal charges. These fees go to the marinas to do dredging. Most boats in these ports are not paying the fee. They are registering their boats elsewhere. Because this part of the registration fees are not working, there is legislative interest in this matter. Dir. Bailey noted that legislation is going well for the bill that suspends all registration privileges to an owner who passes a bad check. This legislation if passed will affect registration privileges of a person instead of just suspending plates on a particular car. He indicated he believes it will pass, and if it does, it will be implemented 60 days after passage. Dir. Bailey gave us an update on the EVR. He said the responses to the RFP are due by April 9 th. He indicated that they did have a number of interested parties show up at the conference who wanted to be part of this. He said he was expecting some responses to the RFP, but not sure how many. There may be another opportunity for some Q&A later. He will let us know through the Clerk representatives. The last item he wanted to respond to was the letter sent by the association regarding the Change of Address form. The form will not be taken down from the website. Dir. Bailey indicated that he would be happy to make the residency issue the sole responsibility of the Town Clerks. However, there are issues in which Attorney Hilts responded. At this time, we reiterated some of the horror stories we have regarding this issue to Attorney Hilts. Director Bailey indicated he would be willing to assist the clerks in crafting legislation that meets all requirements regarding residency along with input from the SOS and others. We will need to set up a committee to meet with all of the agencies that define residency to come up with a clear definition. Page 6

7 Discussion was had regarding allowing the DMV to go into the ElectioNet database for non-driver and voter id only. Tricia related a story where a person with a VOTER ID only was allowed to go into the bank to cash a check. Becky indicated that the growing issue is with DMV allowing a person not to put their legal address on the driver s license. Dir. Bailey sympathized with us, but said we will have to get a working group, including the SOS, to craft the requirements for residency. If we get in synch to what the Clerks allow and what DMV allows, we can stop people who try to go get past the system. Tricia indicated that she was willing to sit down and get a form done that both the State and the Towns and Cities can use for residency. Our biggest fraud is the mailing address. Dir. Bailey said they need the mailing address for law enforcement. If someone changes their address with you, or us, they can get a replacement license for $3 with the current address. However, you are not required to do this. When a law enforcement officer is checking on that person, the new address is in the system. Just make sure the Clerk s put the address change form in their document piles. Putting a sticker on the driver s license does not mean anything anymore. Discussion was had on Fish and Game define a resident and if it was possible to do the same. DMV is going to be tied to the voting issue and there is no constitutional right to for hunting as there is for driving a vehicle. There was some discussion on non-naturalized persons and NH companies on where their vehicles could be registered. This is the time to start to think of legislation. There should also be legislation where the Towns can also re-register a homeless person s car as opposed to just registering it. Dir. Bailey said he would be happy to work on the residency issue with us. Kathy Seaver indicated that Pike Construction sent her letter saying that she can register their cars at her town. Is this true? Dir. Bailey said it was their choice. Motor Vehicles wrote a letter to inform them to register the cars where they are housed. It was further discussed that principally housed is where the business is and not where it is housed. We suggested this be put into legislation. Dir. Bailey confirmed that they are not going to take down the Change of Address form from the website. If you find that mistakes are being made, i.e.: only the mailing address was changed and not the legal, etc., contact the MA desk or Chris regarding these. Page 7

8 Becky asked about the MSRP issue we are still having, and if she can contact Dave Hilts regarding it. He said fine and gave us his address of Priscilla Vaughn was up next from Titles. She indicated that she got the new Title handbook to Sue. She indicated that Sue would be putting it up on the website. Priscilla discussed an issue regarding GVW. They have been finding that the MCO does not match sometimes to what the Redbook is saying. Therefore, she is seeing different weights on the title apps compared to the MCO. Make sure when you have MCO that the weight on that MCO is what is populated on your title application. Priscilla also indicated that some Clerks are putting the word DUPLICATE where the title number should be, please do not do this. These titles usually up with Kathy. She also indicated that there are different names for such companies such as CAB EAST LLC or CAB EAST. Put what is there on as they could be different companies. Other differences could be found with ALLY BANK and ALLY Financial or NISSAN INFINITI and NISSAN ACCEPTANCE CORP. Priscilla also informed us that if you have an exempt vehicle and they want to title it, they must have the original title. Do not send the original to the Title Bureau, make a copy and give them back the original. You must put the license number, in-state or out-of-state, on the title application of the person who is signing the application that is in front of you. If they do not have a license, you can use a passport. (See SAF3109.) Even if you are doing the town portion only, you need to record their license number. Priscilla talked about HB495 which was retained in committee. This is where they want to use the manufactures year instead of the model year. It also provides for 1999 and older vehicles to be titled forever. Priscilla said they are looking for ideas for the Regional Workshops. She said they will discuss out-of-state dealers who have titling rights. They are compiling a list every day. She said they have to pass on-line training with a 70% or better. She indicated that they can take away these privileges as fast as she gives them. There has been a lot of concern with companies such as Cash for Titles or LoanMax, title vehicles. They give a loan to someone by using their title to the car as collateral. If they don t pay the loan they repossess the car. They then try to retitle the vehicle as if they are a dealer. Legally, they cannot do this. They Page 8

9 are not a dealer and are not licensed to be a dealer. They try doing this to perfect the lien. Keep in mind those states, for example NY, that give the title to the customer even if there is a lien on it. In one case, a NH resident tried to go a title loan place in NY, and that office refused to accept the title because it was never done in NH first. Chris indicated that there have been issues with the warehouses number and you should use the old number until further notified. He indicated that the fax number is okay. Brenda indicated that if there are any changes to a registration outside of renewal a person needs to fill out an Application for Duplicate Registration. They have to pay the fee. This refers to if the customer has made the changes, i.e. changing the color of the car. If you are just titling the vehicle to go into trust, they do not need a new registration. Brenda indicated that the new Motor Vehicles manual is ready for distribution. They will it out. There are a lot of new changes, so please make sure you read the whole thing. Brenda indicated that addresses are becoming very important, please make sure they have your current address. Please notify them if you have a change of address. She also indicated that VPN rollout is moving much slower as they have had some issues. Brenda said there will be a new advanced training in June. They are looking for some totally different ideas mil, plate swap vs. plate change, residency, boats, etc. They want to make this a learning experience. Chris encouraged us to look at the Partners page of the DMV website. MAAP usage updates is a new page and will list when there is an outage. They will update this page regularly. Kathy Seaver asked if they could send the link to the partners page. With the workload we have, it is important if you can make sure the address is from the MA desk and that the subject line is more specific about either MAAP outages or other important subjects. Chris indicated that the validator elimination project is under way. They are working on the browser towns form and will do the others later. Chris said he would follow up on the hold up for vendors for the printer project. Priscilla indicated we are doing good work with the high end vehicles. Becky indicated her frustration because Trooper Carr expressed dismay that we were Page 9

10 still letting the customer register these vehicles. They are usually using a notarized power of attorney. Priscilla said we cannot discourage people from using the power of attorney. If it seems fishy, just do it, and send the paperwork along, we don t want to put you in jeopardy. Town Clerks should not be doing it as a POA. Brenda indicated that if a person is asking for a vanity plate and it is questionable, you can tell them they cannot get it. You can explain to them that it will not go through and they should try for another plate. OLD BUSINESS CONT D: Pat Waterman said to make sure your Finance Departments are paying attention to where the checks are supposed to go for conference. She also said she would be sending out a second reminder for the conference. Pat also said she was searching for a new venue for next year. She will keep us apprised of her findings. Diane indicated that the Governor s Commission was disappointed that we did not want them to attend a meeting to discuss developing procedures for permanent dog registrations. They are still hoping we could help them with developing licensing procedures. Tricia volunteered to talk to her. There being no further business before the Board, it was moved by Jeanette Vinton, seconded by Becky Benvenuti to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 12:35 pm. Respectfully submitted, Jeanette Vinton Jeanette Vinton Secretary Page 10