WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meeting Minutes
July 16th, 2009

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order by President Phil Erro at 10:15 AM. A sign-in sheet was circulated and the following persons were in attendance.

Board of Directors in attendance;  President Erro, Linda Anderson, Rick Blankenship, Jorgen Clausen, and John Diener.

Others in attendance;  Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager, Rod Stiefvater,  Pleasant Valley Water District, Nancy Birdwell,  Ken Johnson CA DWR, Roberta Howe, CA DWR and Pablo Garza, TNC.

Agenda and Minutes:

The following is a summary of the Westside Resource Conservation District Board of Directors regular meeting held on July 16th, 2009, at the Westlands Water District Five Points office.

President Phil Erro convened the meeting at 10:15AM. A quorum was present and a sign-up sheet circulated. The draft minutes of the June meeting was posted on the Westside RCD web site and e-mailed to the Directors prior to July 16th. On a motion by Director Blankenship, seconded by Director Erro, both the agenda and minutes were unanimously approved by the Directors present.

Public Comments:

Under public comments, Pleasant Valley Water District representative Rod Stiefvater, who took over for previous Westside RCD Director Bob Viets on the Pleasant Valley Board, re-acquainted the audience with the resource issues in the Coalinga area especially with regard to water. PVWD has a number of proposed activities to manage water resources, especially groundwater, utilizing local watershed resources and potential recharge facilities such as idle gravel pits near the Arroyo Pasajero. The resource management goals of the water district and Westside are similar and Rod wanted to learn more about what some of the other activities and proposals of Westside were so as to integrate them also, especially improvements in the Arroyo and its tributaries. As a follow-up to that discussion, Nancy Birdwell discussed some changes in the upper watershed of the Arroyo. Specifically, conditions that were reported in the early part of the decade by the Sageís (rangeland watershed experts) as good watershed examples have degraded substantially. There has been a rapid increase in stream miles impacted by salt cedar in the upper areas of the Birdwell Ranch properties. It will take a concerted effort to remove and inhibit the infestation. The suggestion was to re-direct the inquiries of the regional BLM office from improving frog habitat to going back to cooperative work on federal land and adjacent private land to remove and treat the salt cedar. The Nature Conservancy representative Pablo Garza was invited by President Erro to talk about the initiatives their organization is proposing in the San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Garza outlined the mission and activities of the Conservancy. He mentioned that the organization has continued its role of a traditional conservancy of co-operating with and co-managing working lands but that it also was entering into an era of policy review and development, especially water policy. For example, TNC was one of the first environmental organizations that conceptually agreed with the need for an improved Delta water conveyance facility. The support is conditional, other actions and policy issues must be part of the solution package. TNC has a Sacramento staff and a San Joaquin Valley person who initially will be working on the ìrestorationî activities on the San Joaquin River. Pablo can be contacted for more information.

Reports:

Under financial report, the Manager outlined the current financial condition of the District. There was cash available to address the submitted payables. Several recent past bank statements and financial report and the most recent financial report from the accounting officer, Mike Cuttone, was reviewed by Finance Committee Chair Clausen and based on that record he moved for approval of the current report and payables, Director Blankenship seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.  

Under the Presidents Corner, President Erro briefed the Board on the current activities related to habitat restoration. Since the Westlands land use plan is still under consideration, some of the restoration proposals will likely have to be shelved until a decision of what activities will be done where. The issue is complicated by the potential need for agricultural sub-surface drainage disposal and the sudden interest in energy-related projects on the Westside due to our location and potential land availability. One result of the uncertainties is that the proposed application for CVPIA habitat restoration funds may not be submitted because the application proposed to conduct restoration on Westlands-owned lands that are in the land use plan dilemma.

There were no other specific Director reports.

Under the Manager reports, the Manager discussed the alternative approaches to the habitat restoration proposal that were reviewed in a meeting with H.T. Harvey Ecological Consultants, who is developing the application with the remaining funds from the Bureau contract as well a contributing some services pro-bono. The alternatives are to get certain land areas into a restoration process or to evaluate all the un-leased Westlands lands as to their condition and what threat they currently pose to neighboring properties and if restored what that condition would mean to the neighboring properties. No decision will be made until a meeting can be organized with Westlands staff to discuss the alternatives. The Manager also reported that the five-year plan will expire at the end of the calendar year and will be re-done for submittal to NRCS. Also the annual plans usually coincide with the budget and that nothing needs to be changed in the annual plan at this time. Finally, we are in a new fiscal year and a draft budget will be constructed for Board review at the next meeting. There was no other significant correspondence or administrative matters except that the County notice of elections was received. Since we evidently still have some vacancies, Supervisor appointments will likely be held up until the filing date for election applications has expired.
The ìpartnerî in attendance included CA DWR Ken Johnson who introduced Roberta Howe. Ken also reported on the numerous salt management activities that the Department staff was shepherding through Westside. Of special interest was the proposed retention of the services of Ag Water Services, a specialty company that will assist in the development of products from the residuals of salt and drainage management. Director Diener added to the discussion by outlining some of the activities and products potentially developed by this new partner.

There were no further reports and the meeting was adjourned unanimously at 12:05 PM.

Sargeant J. Green, Secretary-Manager