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<br />II <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Ii <br />. <br /> <br />Western Slates Water Council <br />Executive Committee Minutes <br /> <br />Sheridan, Wyoming <br />October 5, 2006 <br /> <br />decided to maintain the reserves at about one-half of the annual budget. With the work that has been <br />planned with the WGA to implement the June 2006 report, we need to remain flexible in providing staff <br />enough money to get the job done. Duane stated that he believes those on the Committee all understand <br />there is more work identified than staff to do the work. The federal agencies will be providing some staff <br />support, as well as the Council members and their staffs. We simply need to remain flexible. If <br />additional funding is needed prior to our next Council 'meeting, we will handle any budget changes <br />through a <:onference call with the Executive Committee. <br /> <br />WESTERN GOVERNORS' ASSOCIATION WORK PLAN ITEMS <br /> <br />A. "Water Needs and Strategies for a Sustainable Future" <br /> <br />Duane Smith reviewed the next steps. There was a two-hour meeting held this morning, as well <br />as a discussion regarding a portion of the Corps of Engineers Scope of Work in the Water Resources <br />Committef: today. We look forward to the next meeting in South Dakota in May. Duane has asked Craig <br />to provide a brief monthly update on activities related to the scope of work. We are asking the federal <br />agencies to do the same. One of the weakest areas identified are the roles of the various federal agencies, <br />with the exception of the Corps of Engineers. <br /> <br />The next major step will be to identify all of the federal partners and what their roles will be. <br /> <br />At the end of the agenda, we have a Shared Vision Partnership Agreement with the Corps of <br />Engineers, and Duane has asked Mike Bratlein to come in. <br /> <br />Rod Kuharich mentioned that it may be advisable to seek some funds from the Corps of <br />Engineers for meetings and publications. The Corps cannot give the Council any money, but they can <br />offset cost;; by paying for meeting expenses, travel expenses, and publication costs. <br /> <br />Duane then outlined the process for how this whole project has come to being. It began at the <br />WGA meeting in Sedona, Arizona with the governors' approval of the report. This led to how to go <br />about implementation of the recommendations in the report. The Corps of Engineers received grant <br />funding, and they wrote a scope of work. Council members were a bit confused with the Corps' written <br />description of the scope of work. Therefore we met in Salt Lake City to refine the differences on the <br />scope of work. It became clear at that meeting that we would not get the Corps to write the scope of <br />work that the Council could embrace. Thus, Craig and Shaun took the Corps' scope of work and rewrote <br />it, tying th,;:: items to the WGA report. That really broke the ice in moving forward. Once this document <br />was drafted, the Corps agreed to it. Another meeting was held in Albuquerque, where the scope of work <br />was refined and augmented. The two-hour meeting with the Corps yesterday was to provide an overview <br />and then outline the next steps. <br /> <br />The Council and Corps will be holding another meeting in Irvine, California in November to <br />provide updates and identify the federal partners' roles. This will be updated again at the Council <br />meeting in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in May. <br /> <br />Shaun McGrath noted there are really two documents at this point. One is the scope of work, and <br />the second is the partnership agreement. Regarding the partnership agreement, we pushed the Corps to <br /> <br />3 <br />