Just to pick up where we last left off following some changes that are almost completed here at DeepSaidWhat.com, the recount for the 19th District Court is over, the request by Candyce Abbatt withdrawn after just 28 of the city’s 58 precincts were recounted.

This of course means the outcome of the election for the district judge seat remains unchanged and goes into the record books as incumbent Judge Mark Somers as the winner with 17,077 to Abbatt’s 16,849 votes, same as on election night.

But guess who is now being asked to pay for the recount? You guessed it, the City of Dearborn.

Abbatt paid Wayne County the required $10 per precinct charge for a recount up front, totaling $580, but what is less clear is who will finally pay the people charges to actually get the recount machine up and running. Also does Abbatt get a refund of $300 for the 30 precincts that were never counted?

Consider this, the recount, according to City of Dearborn officials in the clerk’s office, required 27 people and looked like this:

– 20 state canvassers (2 people sitting at 10 different tables getting paid between $12 and $18 per hour)
– 2 Wayne County workers
– 1 corporate counsel person (Upwards of $120 per hour)
– 3 State of Michigan workers to oversee the counting
– 1 City of Dearborn worker

Dearborn City Clerk Kathy Buda says when she asked the State of Michigan employee in charge of the recount who would be picking up the tab for the work, the State worker’s response was that Wayne County would be paying.

But Buda says Wayne County will likely flip the bill back to Dearborn. That would mean one day pay for the group of workers for the first day of counting and two hours of pay the second day for showing up to do the remaining count only to learn the recount had been withdrawn by Abbatt the previous evening. The precincts counted in the district judge race included precincts 1, 2 (both McDonald School), 4, 5 (both Oakman School) 8 (Maples School), 20 (Salina School), 39 (Divine Child elementary); absentee boards 951 and 956. We requested a list of the 28 precincts counted but that wasn’t readily available.

“I have no doubt that the county will send Dearborn a bill,” Buda told DeepSaidWhat.com. “We recently received a bill from them for a recount resulting from the Aug. 5, 2008 Primary for State Representative – District 11. Three of our precincts were involved plus one absentee board. My deputy took our supplies downtown and the process took 1.2 hours. They want us to pay them $671.88. I am refusing to pay (with support of Council & Administration).”

It sounds like another bill from Wayne County will soon be on its way to Dearborn. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 10:27 am and is filed under City Hall. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.