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| OPINION: PAWSD Report from Roy Vega |
| Roy Vega | 7/20/10 |
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| Back to the News Summaries |
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The open letter written by Darryl Evans that appeared in the Daily Post on July 7 ("The PAWSD Sham") summed up in a nutshell the frustrations and exasperation shared by many of the District's consumers. While customers are generally happy with the District's delivery of water and waste water services, there is rampant skepticism about the policies which the Board of Directors have implemented in recent years. These email updates are intended to restore confidence that the election of Allan Bunch and myself have brought a new era of responsiveness and accountability.
1. Monday, July 12, the San Juan Water Conservancy District met at the PAWSD conference room and agreed to forward the nomination of Larry Ash to the District Court to fill the vacancy on the Board created last March by the retirement of Fred Ebeling. This was a positive move as it represented an outreach to the business sector of the community and not someone with current or previous ties to the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District or other governmental operations. Larry had both Allan's and my support as well as the endorsement of the County commissioners. There is still a vacancy on that board as the result of the resignation of Ernie Amos. If you are interested in nominating yourself for that opening, please submit a resume and letter of intent to Carrie Weiss at the PAWSD offices on Lynn Avenue as PAWSD provides administrative support to SJWCD.
 2. The PAWSD and SJWCD received presentations that day on the cloud seeding program in the San Juan River basin. Several water utilities in the Los Angeles area see sufficient merit in this program to pay part of the program costs, and had a representative present to pitch for the continuation of the program. I am inclined to support the program provided that a new ground-based generator can be positioned to target snowfall in the Four Mile Creek drainage as this is the primary raw water supply for the District's reservoir storage system. Let me know your thoughts.
3. Later that day, the two boards held a joint meeting. The water engineer for the two districts asked to go into executive session to discuss "firm yields" in water supply estimates as related to the Trout Unlimited lawsuit being pursued by the two districts.. Allan and I did not see sufficient justification to warrant denial of public transparency, and so voted against executive session. The SJWCD board unanimously voted to go into executive session, and so the PAWSD board was excused from the meeting room along with members of the public. This was I suspect an unprecedented example of separating these two boards which had up until now been joined at the hips. There was also discussion with regard to cost of easement for the Laverty property adjacent to the Dry Gulch reservoir site. It is my position that any inundation of Laverty property would be caused by a reservoir size in excess of what has been identified in studies to date of the needs of the PAWSD. Therefore, that cost must be borne entirely by the SJWCD and not our District's ratepayers.
4. Another request to go into executive session was postponed as we questioned whether the principle involved (who was not present) really did have an expectation of confidentiality pursuant to commencing negotiations with the districts.
5. Allan and I did assent to a request for executive session to discuss the Second Remand of the Trout Unlimited lawsuit for two reasons. First, there is a possibility of bringing closure to this matter and stopping more legal and consultant fees and costs. Secondly, there is an offer of the use of the good offices of a public official whose level of involvement may need to be protected, at least until that question is posed to him/her. Stay tuned.
6. At the PAWSD Board meeting Tuesday night July 13, the matter of the Community Study Group on Water Supply took up the major portion. The use of a paid, professional, out-of-town group facilitator had failed to result in the group making progress. I had cast a dissenting vote on May 11 for hiring a professional facilitator until there had been an effort to see if someone local could handle the job and at considerably less expense. Study Group members present generally expressed two philosophies for continuation of community input into water supply planning. First, that the group organize and streamline itself and become self-directed, or second that the group disband in favor of a group appointed by the PAWSD Board and the Board of County Commissioners following a ""task force" model utilizing persons with identified "skill sets." While three of our Board members seemed ready to proceed with the "task force" model, Allan and I insisted that the study group be given the courtesy of official notice that their services may no longer be required, and that they take the opportunity for one more meeting to give the PAWSD Board some recommendations as the group had not been noticed that action might be taken that very evening of the 13.
7. At the May 11 meeting, Allan and I had opposed the incurring of costs associated with bringing the District's legal counsel down for the joint public meeting with the County Commissioners on May 24. After being outvoted, we had insisted that the Board be advised of the costs borne by the ratepayers of the District for this legal indulgence. We learned that counsel had billed $10,467 for this one day of costs and fees, but had generously written off $3,596 in discounts. Still, I found the $6,871 an egregious overbilling for what little legal service was received, and I had the matter placed on the agenda in order to express my anger. For this and other reasons, I am convinced that the District needs to seek alternative legal counsel.
8. Also on the agenda but which were tabled due to lateness of the meeting, were requests for charitable donations. It is my opinion that the Board should not put itself in the position of making donations to charities that a) some ratepayers may object to, and b) some ratepayers may have already donated to and would be getting double-dipped. Let me know your thoughts.
9. Finally, District Manager Carrie Weiss announced three resignations of District staff, including her own. The Board will interview the firm which has been contracted to search for a manager for the La Plata Archuleta Water District for possible retention in the search for a replacement manager. The District is indebted to Carrie for 28 years of dedicated service. |
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