WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Draft Meeting Minutes
May 19th, 2011

Call to Order:

President Gene Brughelli called the meeting to order at 10:15 am. The attendance list is attached:

Directors:  Linda Anderson, Rick Blankenship, Jorgen Clausen, John Diener, Steve Elgorriaga and Phil Erro
             
Others:      Secretary-Manager Sarge Green

Agenda and Minutes:

A quorum was present and the Board members found the agenda adequate for the meeting with the exception that an item needed to be added to discuss the option of changing the meeting frequency based on a review of the District’s future activities and financing. The agenda was approved on a motion by Director Diener, seconded by Director Blankenship and adopted unanimously with the provision that under Director reports the new item that came late would be added. The minutes of the April meeting were reviewed and found to contain typos and omissions to be corrected by the Manager. The corrections were noted and upon their inclusion the minutes approved on a motion by Director Diener seconded by Director Clausen and adopted unanimously.

Public Comments:

There were no public comments.

Reports:

Financial Report; the bank statement and the proposed payables were presented by the Manager. The Directors reviewed the proposed payables together. Based on their findings they approved the payables on a motion by Director Clausen seconded by Director Blankenship and approved unanimously.  

Director Reports: President Brughelli reported that an icon of the Westside, Jack Stone, had passed away. Services were the coming Saturday at 11 am. Director Diener updated the Board on the projects and issues at Red Rock, especially salt management. He expressed frustration with some of the salty drainage and water treatment devices and people. We know what must be done but can’t get the technology up and running. We also know what to do with the water. For example, calcium and magnesium must be taken out or the devices will foul. UCLA is using a surfactant to pre-treat before their RO membrane process. Israel is using similar technology on brackish groundwater. DWR will finance a 60 to 80 day run of the UCLA system at Red Rock. The costs are down from $2,000/AF to $500 to 700/AF excluding reject management. The product water quality is likely good enough to improve water quality in the CA Aqueduct. That allows for more storage of federal water in San Luis Reservoir since the state demands can be met below the Reservoir thereby enhancing federal supply reliability.

The new agenda item was added on a motion by Director Blankenship seconded by Director Elgorriaga and approved unanimously. The Directors then took up future meetings frequency. After some deliberation on both the activities and likely financing for the District, the consensus was that quarterly meetings would be adequate for full Board actions and support agency reports and that an Executive Committee (Excom) could handle financial matters or other items needing attention on a monthly basis in between the formal Board meetings. A motion was made by Director Diener to hold quarterly Board meetings in January, April, July and October (JAJO) and have an Executive Committee made up of the President, Vice-President and Finance Committee Chair/Treasurer deal with appropriate business in the intervening months. The Excom discussions could involve one other Board member so interested as long as there was not a Board majority (5). The motion was seconded by Director Elgorriaga and approved unanimously. Concomitant with the reduction in meetings would be negotiations with the manager and other service providers to reduce their costs accordingly. The manager would propose some changes in the upcoming July, 2011-2012 fiscal year budget discussion.

Managers Report: The manager summarized the technical activities facing the District. The profligation of solar photovoltaic facilities on farmland was continuing in Fresno County and the manager was in the communications loop of all such facilities proposed in Fresno County. He was only commenting on the ones in WRCD. The process has smoothed out somewhat in that the proposals were more robust in describing their operations and maintenance plans to show how they would limit any impact on nearby ongoing agricultural operations. The comment period on the environmental assessment for the tamarisk control on BLM land in the Panoche Creek watershed had expired but there was no indication yet whether the assessment was adequate and whether the project would start soon or if additional documentation would be needed (an EIS). The manager also reported briefly on the Opuntia (prickly pear) and Argentine mesquite projects.

Given the new Board schedule the next full meeting would be in July at Westlands, Five Points office.

The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 11:45 am.

Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager