| IID revisits governance issue IV Press Online- 5/13/08
By BRIANNA LUSK, Staff Writer
Frustrated by projects over budget and a lack of accurate reporting by staff to the board, Imperial Irrigation District director Mike Abatti said things have to change.
“We need ethical reporting, we need accurate reporting,” Abatti said.
The proposed change came before the IID Board of Directors in the way of a proposed change to the governance manual adopted nearly a year ago.
Since then, the manual has been altered several times.
The proposed amendment, brought forward by Abatti, would add a number of duties to the project management office that would oversee capital projects.
The PMO would also report to the general manager but also have a “functional reporting responsibility to the IID board.”
General Manager Brian Brady said though he agrees the amendment included some positive changes to the governance, he asked the board not to take action before he could integrate needed changes into his strategic planning.
“The changes are overly broad,” Brady said.
In addition to the project management, the PMO would also house reliability compliance, customer service projects and water transfer projects as it was proposed.
Though a vote was taken, it was defeated 2-3 with Directors Stella Mendoza, John Pierre Menvielle and Anthony Sanchez dissenting.
Brady said he would come back to the board within 30 days with a viable solution as part of the strategic planning.
Menvielle said the issue should have been brought in an informational item before being voted on.
“At this point I don’t believe this should all be under one person,” Menvielle said.
Sanchez said he agreed with some of the proposed changes to the governance but as it was written, one person would be wearing “too many hats.”
Director James Hanks said though the change in the governance manual could be viewed as micromanaging, something needs to be done to reel staff in.
“None of this is new. These are all items that are already in the governance manual that have been pushed aside,” Hanks said. “This is designed to protect the ratepayer.”
In the last year, the board has grappled with staff in requesting information, particularly on the energy side when it came to purchase power agreements and other issues.
An audit of the purchase power and selling practices of the IID given to the board noted improvement was needed and risk exposure is high.
Mendoza said she wanted to give Brady an opportunity to do his job without interference with the board.
Brady has been with the district for about a month.
“A lot of things happened because we haven’t had a permanent general manager,” Mendoza said.# http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/05/14/local_news/news03.txt Nestle scales back massive Mount Shasta bottling plant Los Angeles Times – 5/13/08 By Myung J. ChunEmail Picture The Nestle company on Monday said it is significantly scaling back plans in Northern California to build what would have been the country's largest water bottling plant.
The announcement by Nestle Waters North America comes after years of opposition by environmentalists and a group of residents in the rural town of McCloud.
With soaring fuel and transportation costs, building a 1 million square foot facility at the base of Mt. Shasta no longer makes economic sense, said David Palais, Nestle's Northern California natural resource manager.
The company also has built a plant in Denver and expanded other facilities in the West. Palais told The Associated Press that those expansions make a large plant in California less necessary.
Nestle signed a contract in 2003 with the McCloud Community Services District to pump up to 521 million gallons of water a year. In exchange, the Swiss food and drink company agreed to pay between $250,000 and $350,000 a year to the town of McCloud, which is about 200 miles north of Sacramento.
Palais said the company now will seek permission to pump a fraction of that water and build a much smaller plant of about 350,000 square feet.
Nestle will ask for 200 million gallons of water a year from the three natural springs that supply McCloud. He declined to say whether the company would ask to have its payments to the town lowered.
The company said it also has agreed to two years of monitoring on Squaw Creek, a nearby trout stream. Fishermen, environmentalists and scientists had feared the stream might become warmer and lower if Nestle went ahead with its original pumping plans.
Critics of the plant welcomed Nestle's announcement but called on McCloud's five-member services district to negotiate a better contract.
"While it certainly is a smaller plant than it would have been, it nonetheless uses a large amount of water. It's still a major operation," said Severn Williams, a spokesman for the Protect Our Waters Coalition.
The coalition represents California Trout, Trout Unlimited and the McCloud Watershed Council, a citizens group.
It plans to lobby for a higher price for the water and a clause that limits Nestle to pumping only water from the springs around McCloud while prohibiting the company from touching the aquifer.
Williams also said the coalition wants a contract with a shorter timeframe than McCloud's current 100-year commitment to sell its water exclusively to Nestle. # http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nestle13-2008may13,0,6560431.story DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California.
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