4-14 Senate Committee

• Title: 4-14 Senate Committee
• IBCC - Doc Type: Legislation

4-14 Senate Committee
Interviewer, Interviewee

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anything. So, opting out has to be part of it. I have no problem
with that.

My view is that if we are right in the idea and if we are right in the
implementation; people will want to be a player. But if they
choose not to for all of their local reasons or whatever it is, then
that's the way it has to be. So, that's why it's possible to opt-it.
Fleshing out what happens in the more complex sense of, well,
"When do I opt-out? How do I opt-out?" Actually, the more
important question is, "How do I play? How do I opt in?" But
there's also the question of, "Can I opt-in then out? Can I opt-out
then in or make that choice several times?" My preference has
been to sort that out in the next phase of the way we develop the
details and that's in the charter part - if you've had a chance to
look at the bill. It didn't seem to me to need to be addressed in the
statute, but it absolutely needs to be clarified, in detail, in the
chalier. The charter will be a much more detailed set of mles of
play, let's call it, then we needed to do or wanted to do here.

But the key to the answer to your question is, people will make
their own decisions. My thought as I try to imagine how we go
forward is, that the state, the states role is one of nurturing and
providing resources. It's going to be our job to go out into the
communities and invite people to the conversation. Probably start
with any, if they're a successful SWSI roundtable meeting in a
community; that's probably a good place to start. If there's a
successful water conservancy district - any entity or municipality,
matters not to us. But we would hope to be invited by whatever
the lead water agency is or water group in a community or an
environmental group, matters not to us; but to come in and to begin
to layout the discussion. We would expect through the charter to
have a model set of mles. Say, if you want to form your basin
roundtable, you may do it anyway that works for your community,
but here would be the basic that we would offer to you as, maybe,
a stmcture to do that.

I'm going to hope that there will be very few who say, "No, we
absolutely don't want to play. We're not interested." I think that
it's up to us to show why it's a good thing to participate. And
because I think we're right about the interconnectedness of all
basins in the state, some basin may look at it as a defense
mechanism. That they would opt-in, not that they particularly had
goals or obligations internally, though many do that can also be
part of this discussion; but they want to know what everyone else
is doing, if someone is eyeing something that matters to them.
This gives them the chance to be involved in what everyone else is

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