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<br />~,.., 'r'~ <br />" <br /> <br /> <br />ATTORNEY GENERAL OF COLORADO <br />Ken Salazar <br /> <br />November 16,2004 <br /> <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />1313 Sherman Street, Room 721 <br />Denver, CO 80203 <br /> <br />RE: Request for Expenditure from Litigation Fund for Contract with Steve Sims <br /> <br />Dear Members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board: <br /> <br />By this letter, I respectfully request the expenditure of up to $40,000 over the next thirteen <br />months (the remainder ofFY05 and the first six months ofFY06) from the Board's Litigation Fund, <br />pursuant to S 37-60-121(2.5), C,R.S, (2003), I believe this expenditure is necessary to defend <br />Colorado's allocations under the South Platte Compact. Section 37-60-l21(2,5)(a), (3), C.R,S" <br />authorizes the Board to spend money from this fund at the request ofthe Attorney General to defend and <br />protect Colorado's allocation of water in interstate streams and rivers in pending or imminent litigation, <br /> <br />As you are aware, we have reached a critical point in the negotiations on the agreement between <br />Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and the Department ofInterior concerning endangered species in the <br />South Platte basin, Representatives of Colorado and its water users are currently working on the final <br />language of the Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") and the related biological opinion for the <br />three-state Platte recovery program, Without such a program, Colorado and its water users are subject to <br />federal demands for water for downstream-endangered species and to litigation concerning such <br />demands, Steve Sims, my Senior Water Counsel and Assistant Attorney General, had been the lead <br />negotiator on behalf of Commissioner Ament, Colorado's representative and voting member of the <br />Governance Committee, Mr. Sims has recently resigned from the Colorado Department of Law, <br /> <br />I agree with the judgment of Commissioner Ament and the other members of the Colorado <br />negotiating team that it is very much in the interest of Colorado and its water users that Steve Sims be <br />able to continue in his current role, To retain Mr. Sims as our counsel, it is necessary for the State to <br />enter into a contract with Mr. Sims. For a variety of reasons, it would be difficult and inefficient to <br />break in a new lawyer at this stage of the proceedings, First, the work is exceptionally detailed and <br />complex, Mr. Sims has worked on the agreement almost full time for sixteen months, It would take <br />months for any new attorney to get up to speed on the matter, months in which vital developments might <br />occur and vital details be overlooked, Second, like many negotiations, success or failure often depends <br />on the relationships between the individual negotiators, A new attorney would have to spend vital time <br />developing those relationships, <br /> <br />State Services Building. 1525 Sherman Street-5th Floor. Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone (303) 866-3557 . FAX (303) 866-4745 <br />