MINUTES DEVILS LAKE WATER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT Special Meeting Workshop Oregon Coast Community College April 4, :00 pm

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1 MINUTES DEVILS LAKE WATER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT Special Meeting Workshop Oregon Coast Community College April 4, :00 pm BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Kent Norris, Chairman Tina French, Vice Chairman Bill Sexton, Treasurer Brian Green, Director David Skirvin, Director Kent Norris opened the DLWID Workshop at 6:00 pm I. Opening Statement of Objectives Tina French Introduced John from the Special Districts Office and they have provided a time line to move forward. As a reminder we cannot discuss any Board type topics. Please come to the next Board meeting on the 14 th to discuss in a public setting. II. Meeting Guidelines Kent Norris explained that they are there to only talk about the Lake Manager job description and what they are looking for in the future. III. Review of Current Job Description (Partial List) Kent Norris shared the current job description of a Lake Manager position. That partial list includes: Full time; Maintains regular office hours; Chief Budget officer; Provides monthly financial statements; Prepares meeting agendas and supporting documents; Attends all DLWID meetings; Provides technical expertise; Supervises additional staff, personnel, contractors, consultants, interns, and volunteers; Coordinates projects, programs, and activities with Federal, State, and Local agencies; Communicates with public and media to promote community awareness of the Lake; Attends other governmental and private organizations meetings as necessary; Supervises the control of the dam; Conducts and monitors lake water quality; Negotiates contracts on behalf of the board; Writes permits and grants as needed. IV. Review of March 10 th Meeting Kent Norris explained at the last Workshop there was an open discussion of what were the qualities people were looking for and what was important in the search for a Lake Manager. Some of those were Experience/Training; Skills; Qualities; and Specifics to subcontract which are listed in the four (4) page document available. Tina French reviewed the information suggested from the three posters under Experience/Training; Qualities; Skills; and the additional Specifics to subcontract. Kent has been managing the office with the everyday things and what has become obvious to all is that the Web Site design is something that needs to be contracted out and brought up to date. It was brought out that we need to be cautious that subcontracting out does not make the budget ridiculous. Payroll and bookkeeping needs to be contracted out for separation of business transactions. Recording duties are contracted out. A Lake Contractor deals with the Dam, Lake level, Temperature and Sign maintenance and she Page 1 of 6

2 is not sure if this should be outsourced and that whoever they get they need to be on the Lake. Bill Sexton said because there is no scientific activity involved in the Lake Contractor this is something that a volunteer committee can absorb easily. There is about twenty (20) hours a year put into this. There are a vast amount of volunteers staging and could absorb this duty. Tina French shared that she envisions the Lake Manager be in and around the Lake as much as possible. A Lake Contractor is not someone you would want to contract out. These duties should be the Lake Manager job and working with volunteers. Tina French continued with the subcontract list: Lab work was on the subcontract list and there is some lab work that is outsourced such as e-coli. Kent Norris shared that some committees can take over the collecting of samples. The testing can be done by those volunteers. Tina French added that the Lake Manager would ultimately be responsible for the Lab Work and should not be contracted out. Grant writing and research was also on the subcontracting list. This is periodic and not a monthly payment going out. The new manager may have this capability. Multi agency permitting is on the list and we are at this time in the middle of the dredging process and Paul was doing a good job at getting through this. We will turn this over to a contractor to finish this job up and will be discussed more at the Board meeting. It is a good quality to have in a new lake manager. Experience and Training is probably the most important one and needs to be settled on so that SDO can complete the education part of the job description. Education in Biology, Limnology, Environmental science came up as a requirement for this position. Brian Green said that there are different fields for these education experiences or training. Project Management: the dredging is not a huge project and the aeration is a big project and will need financing. This will take someone with the skills to keep these two things going and moving forward. As far as restoration of habitat and habitat management there is a lot of habitat on the lake and a lot of restoration that needs done. These are important skills that will be needed. Skills: Obviously we need someone that can use office and work on documents. Communication and people skills is what we want as far as relationship builder. Need someone that can bring all parties together as one. Qualities: Passion for the environment, relationship builder, proactive, problem solver with technical and people skills, and provide solutions rather than barriers are all part of the list. All of this information was sent off to SDO for them to put together the job description. Page 2 of 6

3 V. Discussion on Lake Manager Qualities Kent Norris said that was a highlight from last meeting. If you have an opinion after having some time to think about these and are there other things to talk about? This is an open discussion time. If these don t meet what you think are important; what else? Larry Brown shared that he has been on the Lake for sixty years and knows a lot about the lake. Communication skills is what we need. We have a Board and through the Board you can have a representative. The most important part is that the Board is communicating with the people around and near the Lake. You need input from these people around and near the lake. There needs to be good relationships between the Board, the people and who we have as a good representative not a manager. When experts are needed in certain areas the Board can make those decisions on the level of expertise needed. Kent Norris clarified that what Larry was saying is that we need someone with people communication skills more than education? Tina French suggested more of an Executive Director position that takes direction from the Board. Pat Dooling said that Joe Barnes suggested someone from OSU who is working on his degree and can tailor his program to fit this position. Steve Brown doesn t like the word Executive Director what you need is a facilitator. A facilitator identifies problems and works to solve them. This person has the tools to go out and get the person that has the expertise and bring back to the Board with a cost and identify if that is the right person. To repeat we need a facilitator with the Board and community identifies specific problems, goes out and seeks experts, with a cost with a problem solving analysis to bring it back for a decision. Noel Walker commented that what he is hearing said is that they are trying to find a replacement for the manager to keep the status quo. What about accomplishment. Solve the problems we have which we have not been able to do in the last ten years. Arrange with OSU for doctoral students that can put five months to a year and not necessarily full time. Being here when the lake presents its problems and people use it. If this person is available, it will save money and can be put in a project that is needed. Pat Dooling supports the idea of an OSU doctoral candidate but support from the school itself that will do a little buy in on the project which will sustain itself for years to come. They can take D Lake, something that they have established as an objective for their curriculum and can be a continuing thing that can enhance itself way past what anyone can think about now. Larry Brown said at least those home owners on the lake and those that had objections with the blue green algae which was a miserable condition and we are fighting mother nature. At least this way we know that we have an OSU person and Doctor so and so working on the issue all of the time. Tina French said this is something that is worth looking into and she will do some research on it. Miles Schlittier suggested they talk to previous interns. Mark Christie said that Kent has other contacts and alternatives when they were talking about dredging. Page 3 of 6

4 Mitch Moore said that if you go down that road this might change what you are looking for in a manager if you decide to go for a secondary program. Don t forget about Portland State University who has a program on lakes and Suzanne Bonamicis office is also a contact for grants which are associated with universities. Align self with universities might benefit. Mark Christie to dovetell on what Mitch said and look at more in a hybrid direction. Oregon State or PSU could be the science side of it. You will also need that consensus builder that can bring all together for a common goal. Dovetailing an opportunity from a science standpoint to potentially gain opportunities to move faster to bring agencies aboard, to bring grant money aboard, by having that collaboration with one of those two school organizations. Tina French ask John from SDO from what he heard tonight is this feasible? John said that this is a different direction from what they were going and he didn t know how much time they had to pursue something else. Can the lake be without a manager to do the testing and other things that need to be done? Tina French said that she and Kent were talking and he has been working hard and coming into the office every day. As she said to Kent this is our opportunity to hire what they consider the perfect person but she does not want Kent to be working in the office for a year. Miles Schlittier commented that the benefit of OSU or PSU is that they would like to have someplace to put an advance student to earn money and continue his education at the same time. This would be beneficial to the student and to the lake. Tina French said she agrees there is more in waterworks seasonally. A lot of people have stopped in the office and and the suggestion of part time has come up a lot. Her concern is that part time is a challenge. Mark Christie said you want to make the search criteria broad enough so that you don t eliminate some people that you might want to consider. If you go down the path on the education side with those top three items you are going to eliminate a number of people that might be quality people. David Skirvin said that how to deal with that is to make it a desirable quality. It wouldn t be a requirement but you would see that on their application. There are the must haves and there is the desirable list. Mitch Moore said that some of the experience does not have to be lake experience there needs to be useful skills other than the lake. The OSU and PSU is a great idea. There may be a need for a manager but the argument against it is that we need the money for something else. The question the Board might be asking is how much do you want to spend and what kind of person do you want and what value. Going into the aeration project is that we don t have the money for it. Maybe one of the greatest skills that we need is how do we get the money. There needs to be balance. Page 4 of 6

5 Tina French said we are not trying to hire someone for the next 20 to 30 years but someone for the next 2 5 years to get through an aeration project that has the skills to get that done and then it s on a different skills setter quality set they may be looking for. Kent Norris commented that there are a lot of different ideas of what the job was and what the future job should be. The Board has contracted with Dr. Horn and Associates for looking at different options for the immediate improvement of the Lake which includes aeration. We should have the list of 17 different options at the May meeting and will decide on one of those recommendations. We have had a Professional Board looking at things in a way to improve the lake and better the lake and we have a machine going which he has been a part of that the last three weeks. In his opinion as a Board member he looks at whoever is hired has a minimum of a bachelor degree from environmental science. There are two big projects, the dredging project which can be accomplished by volunteers and we have five different committees that are forming now that will help to provide some structure and some relief, from the duties of what has happened in the past. We have projects that are upcoming, and need project management behind that to bring them to fruition which includes grant writing and permitting. These are high on the priority list to get done. Currently there is a web site and ways to communicate with the public and the skills in those areas are important. The payroll and bookkeeping can be freed up and subcontract those pretty easily. Communication and computer skills, that has been brought out, will need and someone that is great at public relations. The phone calls are a wide range of things going on and are few. If you have the science background and public relations skills and able to support the project that are coming up these are most important to the district. This is his opinion. He truly believes that a strong science background is important. These other skills sets are equally important if not more important. David Skirvin agrees and does think there is a lot of merit to look at the Universities as well. This might be a path instead of an intern having a doctoral student for part of the year. He does not see managing the watershed without someone knowing the science behind it or providing input and direction to the community without having that foundation. Kent Norris explained that if you look at what Devils Lake Water Improvement District is it is unique in what its charge is. If you look at other water improvement districts or irrigation districts they are collecting fees and doing something completely different than we are. It provides both opportunities to look at this differently. What we have been doing has been good and what we can do in the future can be great. With what has been taking place with the potential for an aeration project or whatever we choose to do that is looming there and the reality is that we can make a bigger impact if we take something like that on and make a huge impact. It is not just the lake people it is the watershed and community and all forming all aspects together. Miles Schlittier is that the lake homeowners participate and provide support in their five committees that are headed by board members and those can be taken advantage of with a college intern. This can provide a lot of assistance in designing a program where Devils Lake can be important in learning. Brian Green asked about the next meeting to discuss salary and the benefit range, talk about part time and full time, supplemented by a grant or not? Tina French ask John from what he is hearing tonight is it still possible to meet to massage some of this out so that we have something to bring to the board. Do you have any idea to help with contacting OSU or PSU? Page 5 of 6

6 John said that they put together a draft proposal based on the last meeting and that is what he has tonight. What exactly are the qualifications that they want? If the Board wants to take a different direction after hearing what they have tonight they are here to assist in whatever direction you want to go. They have put together a time line for the actual hiring process. John shared with the audience that one of the things with the hiring process once they receiving the applications they bring those before the Board and they have a hiring consensus program. From this they take from the top five and do an assessment process and forms a committee group from the public which grade these five people and the Board members are involved in this as well. They do role modeling with these people if there is an issue and they can access in that area on how they would deal with that issue which helps with the communication and personality traits of that person. They are here to assist the hiring process. Tina French said that they can talk to OSU and PSU to get to the right person. Brian Green said this is something to explore with OSU and PSU to expand the range of people. Kent Norris trying to find good people that want to live on the coast. It is hard to attract good people that want to live here. Miles Schlittier said there is the need to make sure they have a strong liaison with the Oregon Lake Association. They may be able to recommend someone. Ann Norris said that people call in and this has been an emotional thing and not having a presence in the office all the time would put everyone at a disadvantage. Having a professional person from OSU or PSU is a great idea. Need a science background and someone that has just the basics. V. Timeline Proposal from Special Districts Association of Oregon Tina French thinks they have a good direction to go and will do research on the OSU and PSU. Tina ask John how much time line for this from what he heard tonight. John said that they need to figure out their time line as far as what they do before their next meeting. He will leave the draft job description from the last meeting. VI. Board Comments Kent Norris said that he has had two inquires already and Tina has had one even though there isn t a job description out there yet. VIII. Mark Christie suggested that from the suggestions that have been given tonight to synchronize both meetings and schedule another work session after the next Board meeting on the 14 th and before the next month Board meeting. Kent Norris said the bottom line is that we are at a juncture looking at a major project and change in what is going on and what type of person do we need to make those decisions as they move forward Adjournment Kent Norris adjourned the DLWID Workshop at 7:20 pm Substituting for Rick Mark, Respectfully Submitted, Joann Glass Page 6 of 6