WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Draft Meeting Minutes
January 21st, 2010
 
 
 Call to Order:
 
President Phil Erro called the meeting to order at 1:20 PM. The following people attended:
 
Directors: President Erro, Gene Brughelli, Jorgen Clausen, John Diener and Craig Finster.
                            
Others:  Manager Sarge Green, Ken Johnson, DWR and Jim Cooper, Red Rock IFDM Consultant.   
 
Agenda and Minutes
 
A quorum was present and the Board members present unanimously found the agenda adequate for the meeting. Director Diener moved we accept the December 16th, 2009 meeting minutes; the motion was seconded by Director Brughelli and approved unanimously.
 
Public Comments:
 
There were no public comments.
 
Reports:
 
Financial Report; the manager presented the following. The current bank statement was available for review and inasmuch there was not sufficient funds to make payments, the payables would need to be carried over to the next meeting in anticipation of a receivable arriving from DWR. Therefore the Board took no action on the financial report.
 
Director Reports; President Erro outlined the current status of our Directors terms and the vacancies. He passed around copies of the application for appointment by the Board of Supervisors in lieu of an election in November 2010. The vacancies include some that will expire in 2012 and the others in 2014. The Directors present who need to be re-appointed were asked to fill out the application and the supplement required by the County Board. For the other Directors who were not in attendance, President Erro intended to meet with them personally to obtain their application if they were inclined to continue serving the District.
 
The next Directors’ report item was the possible consolidation of RCD’s. President Erro summarized the earlier efforts through LAFCO including who was involved. For instance, under the LAFCO municipal service review Panoche, Poso, Firebaugh, James and Tranquillity RCD’s were recommended to seek the possibility of consolidation. Panoche, Poso and James declined. Tranquillity adopted a consolidation resolution with our District when it was discovered that our Board had fallen below the Director threshold needed to take action (prompting the need for the activity outlined above) postponing the consolidation effort. President Erro then reviewed the value of the consolidation with Tranquillity. One particular value is the joint need to explore water supply reliability and flood management. The manager mentioned that later in the agenda he would present the outline of the five-year update of District goals and that water supply reliability was becoming the highest priority for land operators in the District therefore water supply using flood water and shallow salinized groundwater would be a new activity along with sustaining our efforts for rangeland watershed management, upland habitat restoration and drainage and salt management. Working with the area of Tranquillity RCD would give both Districts more options for the water supply and flood management activities. President Erro wanted to make sure the Directors present were comfortable with the proposal. In response, Director Diener expressed a strong desire to move forward with water supply opportunities using flood water and shallow groundwater as a District effort and was supportive of combining with Tranquillity to that end. He proposed adoption of a Resolution (2010-01 attached and made a part of these minutes) to express the position of the Board to consolidate with Tranquillity and work together on all the issues of common interest and especially those discussed in this meeting.
 
The next item under Director’s reports was brought to the attention of the Board by Director Diener. The issue was California Government Code Section 1090, also known as the “contract” conflict of interest section. Most conflict issues are covered under the Fair Political Practices Commission. However, this government code section comes under the jurisdiction of the CA Attorney General. The problem outlined by Director Diener was that the prohibition of Directors participating in contracts is applied broadly without discretion for circumstances such as for experiments and research such as at Red Rock Ranch. He believed that since RCD’s are an instrument of the USDA and the Farm Bill that an exemption should be sought from the State 1090 provisions when there is no true financial gain for the person participating in the contract. In the instant case, water from an experimental treatment system to be used on Red Rock Ranch constituted a strict 1090 conflict for the owners and operators of Red Rock whereas under federal rules the only impact would be for the Director in question to abstain from any similar contract award decisions. Director Diener sought a Board Resolution that would allow the Directors to be governed by federal rules not the stricter State conflict rules. If need be, the District should seek County Counsel’s assistance in determining such a Resolution could be adopted by the Board. The point being that there is no financial gain from the example, it is research on the viability of the treatment system. The water used would have been supplied to a crop one way or the other any way as a matter of doing business. Director Diener requested the matter be brought back to the Board in February.
 
Manager’s Report; Sarge Green brought forth an outline of the next Five-year plan and re-visited the earlier discussion of how he proposed that water supply reliability be added to the existing programs and goals. Directors requested he follow-up on two other items. One was about the participation of BLM in the watershed especially related to invasive species and the possible construction of a new special public access areas in the Los Gatos Creek upper watershed area. Also, a follow-up was in order with the Bureau of Reclamation on the upland habitat area near Tranquillity.
 
Under Partner reports, Ken Johnson of the CA Department of Water Resources summarized the current suite of projects under way and anticipated on drainage and salt management.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 PM unanimously by the Directors present.
 
Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager