Prepared by: Stephanie Singer Phone/

Transcription

1 Prepared by: Stephanie Singer Phone/ Campaign Manager: Shannon Marietta Phone/ Committee Name: Friends of Stephanie Singer Campaign Address: PO BOX 22390, Philadelphia, PA Fax: N/A Website: CANDIDATE CERTIFICATION Candidate Name: Stephanie Singer Office Sought: City Commissioner I have read the attached questionnaire responses and certify that the information provided is accurate and the opinions stated accurately reflect my own positions. Candidate Signature Candidate Signature: Date: Please complete and return this form via to: shapsj@comcast.net Send the first page of this form with candidate signature by regular mail to: Neighborhood Networks c/o Stan Shapiro, Vice-Chair 7213 Cresheim Rd. Philadelphia, PA 19119

2 BACKGROUND 1. What, if any, elected or appointed government office(s) have you held? I have worked as a Professor at Haverford University for over 10 years and now currently work as a Data Strategist a private real-estate firm. This is my first run for public office. 2. If you have previously held a government office: a. What are the primary issue areas in which you were involved? N/A b. What committees, caucuses or working groups have you served on? N/A 3. If you have not previously held a government office, what community or policy issues have you worked on, and in what capacity? (Please provide the names of two or three individuals who can provide information about your previous work.) I am currently the Eighth Ward Leader and serve as a member of the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party of Philadelphia. I have worked for several years to make voting results more transparent and currently run which is only website that publishes official election results for Philadelphia. Steve Huntington Adam Laver Karen Bojar 1. Please provide copies of all your significant campaign materials, including position papers, and information on your campaign strategy, expected funding sources, and endorsements.

3 Please see attachments. 5. What do you consider to be the most important proposal(s) that you will be making in this campaign?" The most important proposal I m making in this campaign is for accountability within the office of City Commissioner. Currently, the office does not keep time sheets for employees nor do they let the City Auditor review their financial books. The current City Commissioners currently refuse to keep financial records in many cases to avoid any investigations. As City Commissioner, I will open up the financial books, start keeping budgets and financial records online as well as end the practice of not working with the City Auditor.

4 ISSUES 1. What particular experience related to the duties of the office do you have that qualifies you to be City Commissioner? A City Commissioner is an executive overseeing a large operation. I have executive experience in the private sector, and I co-directed an Election Verification Exit Poll in A City Commissioner has to handle a large amount of data. I am a Data Strategist by profession, with experience collecting, analyzing and explaining data. I have post-graduate training in computer science and a Ph.D. in mathematics. A City Commissioner should make a lot of information available to the public. I have a website ( that provides a lot of information, including official election results for Philadelphia (which the City Commissioners ought to post but don't). The City Commissioners need to recruit many people to serve on the election boards. I have successfully recruited people to work on the election boards in the 8th Ward, as well as recruiting many committeepeople. 2. Do you believe the Office of City Commissioner should continue to be an elected position? Why or why not? No one person can make this decision, but I do have a problem with the way elections have been managed in this city. I think this has to be a discussion with the Mayor, City Council and the voters. It is a charter change question that should be placed in front of the voters to decide. We are the only large city in America that runs elections this way and our elections are more expensive. See above. If not, how should the Commissioners duties be redistributed? 3. Do you believe the Commissioners have a duty to increase voter registration and turnout? If so, how should they exercise it? The Commissioners have a duty to build a culture of informed, engaged voting in Philadelphia. They have a duty to make election information not just available, but easily accessible. They

5 ought to work with the other City agencies and with Philadelphia institutions to raise the profile of elections. These activities should increase voter registration and turnout. 4. Do you think community groups should be encouraged to help with voter registration and turnout? If so, how would you encourage them to do so? Currently, there is seemingly no outreach to build a culture of voting in Philadelphia. In fact, our current Commissioner has suppressed voters time and time again. Community organizations should be encouraged to help with voter registration and turnout, but no can force them. As City Commissioner, I will build relationships with community groups and work to increase voter registration and turnout. 5. What would you do to maximize registration and turnout in historically under-registered areas, particularly among minorities and youth? As City Commissioner, I would start with school programs created to encourage and assist teachers in educating all young people about the right to vote and the impact it has on your life. I believe we have to keep the younger generations as engaged as older generations and that has to happen at the schools. I would work with existing institutions and groups that reach those under-registered group. 6. What do you think of the quality of training that s available for election day workers? How would you improve it? I do not feel that the training provided is adequate. One improvement would be to offer a variety of classes addressing the different aspects and jobs, e.g., Machine Inspectors should get training on the machines, while Judges of Election should get training on how to handle typical situations and disputes. Another improvement would be to make the classes themselves more interactive. And the Commissioners Office could make better use of the training videos available on the PA DOS website. 7. What do you think of the quality and reliability of the City s voting machines? What, if any, changes should be made? It is difficult to get statistics about Philadelphia s voting machines. The Danaher machines used by Philadelphia have several documented instances of failure in other jurisdictions; however,

6 most other types of direct recording electronic voting machines have many more instances than the Danaher machines. 8. What do you think of the system for allowing the public to learn of the voting results? How would you improve its quality and reliability? As City Commissioner, I will change the way information is shared with the public. Right now Marge Tartaglione and the other City Commissioners refuse to publish official election results online. Once elected I will publish official election results on line, as I have done on a volunteer basis for years. As for the unofficial election-night canvass results, I will provide for mass download of the data as well as the current look-up facility. 9. What do you think of the Commissioners website? The current website is an embarrassment. Philadelphia is the 5th largest city in the United States and has a lively tech community -- we should have a website that is a model of usability and transparency. 10. What do you think of the Commissioners budget over the past few years? In the past the Commissioners have wasted millions of dollars on machine parts the city didn t need. More recently the Commissioners spent $20 million on a website, and millions on wages for employees who are not held accountable for their time at work. Several have had full time jobs at other places while holding jobs at the Commissioners Office. I will rein in costs and save the taxpayers millions of dollars while at the same time running elections better and more efficiently then they have ever been run before.