WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Draft Meeting Minutes
April 22nd, 2010


 Call to Order:

President Phil Erro called the meeting to order at 10:10AM. Self-introductions commenced and the following people attended:

Directors: President Erro, Linda Anderson, Gene Brughelli, Craig Finster and Sam Johnson
            
Others:     Manager Sarge Green, Roberta Howe and Ken Johnson, CA DWR and Brian Leahy, CA Assistant Director, CA Department of Conservation,   

A sign up sheet was circulated and is made a part of these minutes.

Agenda and Minutes

A quorum was present and the Board members present unanimously found the agenda adequate for the meeting. Director Johnson made a motion seconded by Director Finster to accept the March meeting minutes as amended; the motion was approved unanimously.

Public Comments:

While the agenda was posted with an item to have a dialog with Brian Leahy, Assistant Director of the California Department of Conservation, Division of Land Protection, President Erro recommended we address the item under public comments. The following summarizes the presentation and discussion with Brian.

Brian briefed the Board and audience on his career thus far including that he was a rice grower in the Sacramento Valley, had moved to Nebraska to try corn and cows and then came back to go to law school. He was Executive Director of the "certified organic growers" organization followed by a stint as Executive Director of the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts. That role exposed him to Sacramento executive branch activities that resulted in his appointment to his current position.

One of the key programs the Land Protection Division manages is the Williamson Act. The budget crisis in Sacramento reduced the StateÌs subvention to the Counties that use the Williamson Act from 40 million dollars to $1,000, essentially gutting the program. The goal of the program was to keep property taxes low on agricultural operations and discourage land development from hop scotching all over the main agricultural areas. It was started in 1965 and covered one-third of all privately-owned land at the peak. Now that the State has dropped the tax-backfill, County's are taking individual stances on the program. Yolo County will try to save the program. One Supervisor in Fresno County has proposed dropping the tax exemption as it is not critical to the core functions of the County. The last time the issue came up, Fresno County did cover the costs. Now however, the votes are not likely there to continue the support. The impact will be felt the largest on ranching/grazing land since the return per acre is much less than high-value crop irrigated lands. This upcoming fiscal year the Governor's budget proposal is offering a compromise to help the Counties with 27 million (instead of 40 million).
The other interesting fact about the Williamson Act is that the "contract cancellation fees" have been a major source of funding for the Department of Conservation.

The budget situation has resulted in loss of staffing in the Division. The State is still looking at a deficit of 20 billion for this fiscal year. There is no word yet on what will happen. Bond sales were also supporting staff and work in watersheds. Proposition 50 previously supported 50 jobs. Some grant funds are still backed up in the State system and invoices still sit unpaid. The recent bond sale gave a hint things are getting a little better as a large block sold readily.  The importance of the sale was that it will be the source of funds to re-start the Department Ïwatershed coordinatorÓ program which was the main reason Brian was attending. His message was that since the new bond funds won't have the restraints of Prop. 50 which limited the "coordinators" to the CALFED service area requirement, the Westside RCD would have a real chance of success in an application process. It will be a statewide program and RCD's will likely be recipients of more than half of the grant positions because their mission aligns more closely with the proposed grant guidelines. The "coordinator" could be responsible for an interface with various RCD activities including, but not limited to: the "irrigated land regulatory program", tamarisk removal, BLM partnerships, coalition-building with IRWMP's and others.

Other Department or related ag land protection programs of potential interest and value to the RCD membership include: the "Farmland Conservancy Program Planning Grant" which ties agricultural land up more succinctly (longer contract terms) than the Williamson Act  and the "Strategic Growth Council" which has 63 million dollars in planning grants that will be used to guide land use planning.

Finally, Brian mentioned there is a vacancy on the "Statewide Watershed Advisory Council" from the Tulare Basin area. Someone from our area could likely get on the Council.

Reports:

Financial Report; the manager presented the following. The current bank statement was available for review and inasmuch there were some funds from the Westlands first-half operations payment a few payables were presented. On a motion from Director Finster seconded by Director Anderson, the recommended payables were approved unanimously.

Director Reports; President Erro outlined a proposal he had drafted for conflict-of-interest. He discussed the purpose of the code and some of the basic policy tenets. The purpose is to provide a layer of armor for Directors by outlining what conflicts to avoid. The NRCS has a document that outlines many of the activities that are of concern. The first duty is to guide Director actions; the second is to outline the kinds of financial interest issues for Directors and staff using disclosure guidelines. After the Director issues are covered, then the goal is cover employees and consultants. Director Finster raised the question about the contracts at Red Rock and Director Diener. President Erro mentioned that in certain circumstances Director Diener might have to recuse himself from certain decisions.

Managers Report; in the interest of time the Manager's report was limited to an update by Ken Johnson of DWR. Ken first discussed a contract glitch that was likely going to hold up re-imbursement from the Department in that the new "master contract" did not have enough money to cover the latest invoice. Instead it was discovered there was money left in the older contract. Therefore, the invoice had to be changed to reflect the old contract number and be re-submitted. The old contract had approximately $100,000 in it so some subsequent invoices may also have to be presented under that contract before the new contract has additional funds put into it. Ken then summarized the status of the Red Rock Ranch work. Sadly, one of the key staff managing all the data for the effort suddenly passed away and the Department will need some time to organize and pass on the information he was gathering. Technical work underway included that the enhanced evaporator was moving along and the Forever Water distiller was still progressing towards completion of construction and will likely be available for use in June 2010 one year later than expected. The treatment train being used to get the drainage water ready for the New Sky electro-chemical membrane was underway also and included the ion-exchange process and the enhanced evaporator which resulted in a concentration of about 150,000 total dissolved salts (five times sea water) so that it could be used in the New Sky membrane process. These steps reduce the overall cost of water treatment. A brief discussion ensued on the availability of drainage water (it is decreasing) and the alternate use of shallow groundwater on the Westside. Well water will be used in this process at some time in the near future.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 PM unanimously by the Directors present.

Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager