Let the sun shine

Today’s Board meeting had quite a few interesting items. First was the continuation of the groundwater charge hearing, in which District staff related communications received from the community and specifically addressed some of them. The handout with the responses is not included in the supporting documents online, ironic, considering that the next agenda item deals with increasing the transparency of the Board’s and District’s operations. Several of the complaints came from the city of Morgan Hill, and the issue of South County complaints in general led to discussion among the Directors about removing the North County subsidy for South County agricultural open space, which would reduce North County costs by $5 or 6 per acre-foot, as well as some discussion about equalizing rates county-wide. I hasten to add that no action was taken on these issues, but the Board was clearly testy about the complaints. The hearings close on 13 May.

Next up was Ed Rast, the chair of the City of San José’s Sunshine Task Force. Here is the District’s summary of its own actions in this regard; Ed’s presentation is not available online. He suggested further opportunities for more openness, including earlier posting of agendas and supporting documents, a single master calendar for all meetings, open Board study sessions on labor negotiations, the designation of an existing staff member as Open Government Officer and a written public outreach policy. The Board moved to go forward with taking up some of these suggestions, with the hope of having them implemented before the start of budget work early next year.

On to item number five. The San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, of which the District is a member, was created in response to the severe flooding in Palo Alto in 1998. The JPA entered into an agreement in 2005 with the Army Corps of Engineers to produce a feasibility study for a flood protection project on San Francisquito Creek, and this study is now 18 months behind schedule. The Corps received no money to work on it this year, and has disbanded their project team.

Palo Alto residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of Measure B (Clean, Safe Creeks) in 2000, and were instrumental to getting the 2/3 majority necessary to pass it. They are understandably anxious to see progress on a project. So the JPA is asking the District to take over, in order to get the study done. The action requested was to authorize the CEO of the District to negotiate with the JPA. Measure B funds are an important source of revenue for the District, and I’ve heard at several meetings concerns about getting a “new measure B” passed after the current tax expires in 2015. There was also discussion about what other projects would get put off if the District took this one on, and the motion passed with the proviso that staff come back with a list of impacts on current projects.

Joe Judge voted against this motion, a first in my observation, expressing concern that projects affected would be ones in District 2.

Next up was a discussion of the SCVWD’s joining together with the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy, the VTA and the County to create a Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Communities Conservation Plan. As the memo says, “The overall goal of the plan is to create one endangered species strategy among the partners.” It’s a big project, in time and in space, and may entail the creation of a new entity with the ability to acquire land and issue permits. Discussion centered on the “covered activities,” and why dairies and feedlots were included, since neither now exists in Santa Clara County. Also the possibility of mitigation actions being allowed to move from the area directly impacted by whatever damage was being done, to another area with greater benefit to the affected species.