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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Western States Water Council <br />Executive Committee Minutes <br /> <br />Sioux Falls, South Dakota <br />May 3, 2007 <br /> <br />WGA staffing the Water Quality Committee. Under this setting, a full-time law clerk would not be hired <br />until the Spring of2008, and this would have minimal impact on the budget scenario. <br /> <br />We decided to set forth alternate scenarios, which is the reason for the additional budget pages that <br />have been handed out. The alternative budget is higher. It would enable us to hire a full-time Legal <br />Counsel at the end of this summer (2007), and that would call for increasing the dues to $30,000 for the <br />following fiscal year and maintaining dues at that level. The various consequences to the reserves account <br />is shown on a separate page. <br /> <br />There are a couple of reasons that the Management Subcommittee wanted these options presented. <br />The main reason is that there is much work to be done, and it would be nice to get back to where we were <br />a few years ago in terms of staffing, where we had a third professional staff member, rather than somewhat <br />patchwork approach. It would be preferable to have someone as full-time Legal Counsel. Secondly, Craig <br />is planning on retiring sometime in calendar year 2009. Whoever takes over as Executive Director at that <br />time, and Craig's recommendation is Tony Willardson, it would be nice for the staff to have someone with <br />a legal background. This provides an opportunity to get someone in place to take that spot. Craig then <br />stated that we need a commitment that we will follow this incremental increase in some fashion if we are <br />going to get back to the point that we have three full-time professional staff members. <br /> <br />Phil Ward moved that the Executive Committee approve an incremental increase for the following <br />fiscal year - - adding an additional 10%. Thus, for FY07-08, the dues will be at $27,500 and in FY08-09, <br />the dues would increase to $30,000. <br /> <br />During discussion, Rod Kuharich questioned whether we could go ahead and hire the Legal <br />Counsel and cut into the reserve account in order to get that position on board on the timetable that we <br />want to have filled. Duane Smith agreed, and stated that this is what the reserve account is really for. It is <br />set aside to take care of needs until we can achieve the budgeted amount. The dues amount has already <br />been set at $27,500 for FY 2007-2008, which begins July 1,2007, and in the following fiscal year, the <br />dues would increase to $30,000. Phil restated that this is his motion. <br /> <br />Roland Westergard stated that this may be a problem for some states who have to project two years <br />in advance for their legislative sessions. <br /> <br />Phil: "Well, we've known the $27,500, and so that is going into effect on July 1,2007. So it would be an <br />additional I 0%." <br /> <br />Roland: "Our legislature is considering the next two fiscal years at this time, and I would assume they are <br />considering the $27,500 figure." <br /> <br />Pat Tyrrell: "Mr. Chairman, I am one ofthose states on a biennial legislative session. We had a new <br />bienneium begin last July 1, which I would have had to budget for two years ago. I'm trying to recall <br />when the $27,500 was approved. I'm trying to remember whether it was in my current budget or whether I <br />have to make it up somehow. In any case, which of the scenarios did you move?" <br /> <br />Phil: "I'm moving the completion of the incremental approach, which was to take budget increases in an <br />incremental fashion rather than jumping 20%, as we considered to have gone into effect July 2007." <br /> <br />Weir: "Pat, to answer your question, it is alternative C." <br /> <br />3 <br />