City Council APPROVES Amending Ordinance No. 14,561 to increase the payment amount for the election services agreement with Harris County

The city council approves in amending Ordinance No. 14,561 to increase the payment amount to Harris County (the "County") for the joint election agreement (the "agreement") related to the City of Baytown's (the "City") Runoff Election for District Nos. Five and Six to be held on December 12, 2020.

On November 17, 2020, the City Council passed Ordinance No. 14,561 authorizing the city manager to negotiate and enter into a joint election agreement with the County for the the City's Runoff Election in District Nos. Five and Six.  As the agreement was still being negotiated, the City, based its costs on passed runoff elections, and estimated the costs to be in an amount not to exceed $15,000.  Since that time, the County has provided the City with a cost estimate that exceeds the approved amount significantly.  Therefore, the proposed ordnance amends the payment amount of the agreement from $15,000 to an amount not to exceed $95,000.

In speaking with the County on the increase in costs is due to the following:

• All the participating entities are cities so the costs are not distributed to other jurisdictions; and
• the City's number of registered voters (10,424) represents 8.27% of the total registered voters (126,091) in this runoff election.

Other items that increase the costs of this election include the countywide polling locations for Election Day and the added Drive Thru Voting (DVT) location that the City agreed to in Baytown for Early Voting as an enhanced service to its citizens.