SF Bay Area IRWMP Coordinating Committee
Meeting Summary
March 23, 2015
Location: SCVWD, San Jose
1. Roll Call—Appointed FA representatives present
WS-WQ
• Thomasin
Grim,
MMWD
WW-RW
• Linda Hu,
EBMUD
(by phone)
• Cheryl
Munoz,
SFPUC
FP-SW
• Mark
Boucher,
CCCFCWCD
(by phone)
• Brian
Mendenhall,
SCVWD
Watershed
• Matt Gerhart,
SCC (by
phone)
• Jennifer
Krebs, SFEP
• Harry
Seraydarian,
NBWA
Other
• Steve Ritchie,
Chair,
SFPUC
• Norma
Camacho,
Vice Chair,
SCVWD
Others Present:
Teresa Eade, StopWaste
Carole Foster, San Mateo DPW
Tracy Hemmeter, SCVWD
Carl Morrison, Morrison & Associates
Michelle Novotny, SFPUC
On the Phone:
Paul Gilbert-Snyder, EBMUD
Carol Mahoney, Zone 7
Bruce Shaffer, DWR
Jake Spaulding, SCWA
Ben Wallace, Contra Costa RCD
2. Updates on Round 2 and Drought Round
Jennifer Krebs gave an update on pending contracts. Oakland and San Jose’s contracts
are still pending for Round 2. By the end of the day, SFEP staff should have posted the
wording for Amendment 1. The LPS’s will review it and then we will upload the 2014
report for Round 2 next week, along with the invoice. On the drought round, we are still
waiting for DWR to give us the draft contract.
The group asked whether any grantee claimed to be a disadvantaged community in the
Drought round.
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Ms. Krebs replied that no one was able to qualify as a disadvantaged community. We
had 2 projects listed as benefitting the human right to water, but not necessarily in a
disadvantaged community.
3. PSC Updates
Matt Gerhart needs to stop his leadership of the PSC, and Harry Seraydarian will now be
PSC chair. Mr. Seraydarian stated that the call for proposal submissions was sent March
9th. It was similar to the basic announcement from last year, plus the priorities and needs
from last year and the scoring criteria. We sent a follow-up email when online submittal
was available.
DWR’s Draft PSP came out on the 12th. We have a PSC call set up for April 6th. We
need to make sure the web submittal process works. We might need additional people to
take a role with Excel help.
Carl Morrison noted that Matt Gerhart might still be able to help.
Mr. Gerhart said that the Excel file basically just requires data entry.
Mr. Seraydarian discussed the PSP. All project types are eligible this round. For scoring,
you get an extra point for human right to water projects, and 3 points for drought
preparedness projects.
Michelle Novotny asked how much we care about the scoring since this is the last Prop
84 round.
Mr. Seraydarian replied that it’s a policy decision. We are still potentially in competition
with Contra Costa in the “overlap” area. Jennifer Krebs would like the final grant
recommendation decision made by the CC at its May meeting.
Ms. Krebs said it looks like proposals will be due in early August. So, she thinks we
need to be out of the starting gates in May. If we make decisions by the May CC
meeting, we can have a kickoff meeting on June 9th [Note: original minutes said 6/2.
Annotated per recent update.] Horizon’s advice is to take the drought and human right to
water factors seriously. Last time, Calistoga and San Mateo RCD were the human right
to water projects.
Thomasin Grim asked what the DWR definition is for “human right to water.”
Ms. Krebs responded that DWR has a policy.
Tracy Hemmeter added she believed the definition was a “reliable supply of safe, clean
drinking water.” If someone already has that, there won’t be points given.
Mr. Gerhart stated we might be able to argue proposed projects are helping us meet our
goals.
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Mr. Ritchie stated we should use the same criteria that we used last year.
Ms. Novotny asked who our disadvantaged communities are.
Mr. Krebs replied that in the first round, we had a couple projects qualify: San
Franciscquito Creek, and a Bayland flood study. Then in Round 2, Pescadero did a
median household income survey in order to argue they were a DAC, and DWR did
accept it.
Mr. Seraydarian said the Bay Area sent a letter complaining about Prop 1 allocation, but
that allocation was DWR’s preference. In Provision 79745, it states that DWR shall
spend no less than 10% of the allocated funds for disadvantaged communities or underrepresented entities for their involvement, which can be for planning, monitoring, or
implementation. So, they want to do that first. There will be $6.5M for Bay Area. We
need to define what “under-represented communities” means.
Mr. Seraydarian discussed outreach to the various subregions. The North Bay had its
first workshop a couple days ago and had representation for all counties.
Ms. Hemmeter stated the South Bay’s workshop is scheduled for next Monday.
Carole Foster said the West is having a conference call this week.
Carol Mahoney said she had sent an email to the collaborative with the attachment. They
are having their next meeting on April 22nd.
Mark Boucher said he is still making outreach plans for the East.
Mr. Seraydarian stated the announcement went out on the Bay Area Watershed Network.
Ms. Grim said we should encourage people to submit projects sooner rather than later.
There’s a box to tag the project for this round’s funding. Ms. Grim reviewed the website
process for submitting a project. You have to update the project description to be
considered for this round of funding.
The group asked what should be done if someone wants to update a project but doesn’t
want to be submitted for this round.
Ms. Hemmeter said she was able to go in and edit an old project without submitting it
again.
Ms. Grim was concerned about how that could happen. Ms. Hemmeter said she will go
back and see if it’s possible to edit the project without submitting it for funding.
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Mr. Boucher stated that, right now, if you edit the project the only boxes you can change
are the information required.
Ms. Grim asked whether he saw the place where a person is supposed to check if it’s an
updated project.
Mr. Boucher said he did.
Ms. Grim asked whether this is what a person would see if they went to edit a project or
used the “submit new project” button.
Mr. Boucher replied it was.
Mr. Seraydarian said he highlighted time commitment and match in his recent outreach.
DWR has moved away from scoring based on cost/benefit, and are now only looking at
whether the project is the least cost alternative. We might need to change our scoring as
a result.
Ms. Krebs said everyone should note the differences between this year’s PSP and last
year’s.
Mr. Seraydarian said there’s a discrepancy in the PSP; it is unclear whether the work
proposed needs to be completed by 2020 or 2019. Last year’s end-by date was 2019.
Ms. Munoz stated there’s a project that is in the IRWMP, but the proponents couldn’t
find it in the database. It is for a Benicia Recycled Water Project.
Mr. Boucher confirmed he could not find Benicia recycled water in the online database.
That project needs to be re-entered.
Action Items:
• The PSC will continue its planning and implementation of the 2015 Grant Round.
• Tracy Hemmeter said she will go back and see if it’s possible to edit the project
without submitting it for funding.
• Cheryl Munoz will tell Benicia they need to re-enter their recycled water project
into the database.
• Matt Gerhart will work with Mr. Seraydarian to send an email to the 2014 project
proponents to make sure they know they need to re-apply.
4. Communications
Ms. Novotny stated she was still working on a table describing the various steps in the
IRWM granting process, who was in charge of each step, and how they affect smaller
organizations.
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Ms. Hemmeter asked whether she had talked to other regions.
Ms. Novotny replied she had not.
Ms. Hemmeter remarked that maybe San Diego had put something together. They are
always talking about how to get their grant money to them sooner.
Mr. Morrison commented that they’ve determined it really depends on the person at
DWR who is handling your grant.
Mr. Seraydarian said application costs are reimbursable. We’ve never asked for that. Is
that something to consider for this round?
Ms. Hemmeter commented someone could use it as part of their match.
Ben Wallace stated that cash flow issues are important, but there are others too. There
are the timelines for payback, and also the upfront costs of participating.
Ms. Grim asked whatever happened to the list of grants we developed, and is it posted on
the website?
The group determined the list had been completed, but never posted.
Ms. Krebs will re-send the final list to Mr. Boucher. Thomasin Grim will develop home
page language for the link.
Action Items:
• Ms. Novotny will complete a draft of the table.
• Ms. Krebs will re-send the final list to Mr. Boucher.
• Thomasin Grim will develop home page language for the link.
5. Announcements
Mr. Ritchie said that the Governor announced a drought relief package last Thursday. It
includes $660 Million in Prop 1E flood protection funds, and recycling and desalination
funding from Prop 1.
Mr. Mendenhall commented that the remaining Prop 1E funds are mostly slated for the
central valley.
Bruce Shaffer made a few announcements:
- There is a Draft Strategic Plan for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Program.
At the end of April, DWR is going to have public listening sessions to talk about possible
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revisions to groundwater basin boundaries. They are going to revise those boundaries by
January 2016.
- There is a meeting of the Water Storage Investment Program Stakeholder Advisory
Committee at 9am on April 1st in Sacramento to discuss the water storage component of
Prop 1. Information can be found on the Water Commission website.
- There is an IRWM conference on May 21st and 22nd in San Diego. They are looking for
volunteers to present at the conference, either with success stories or ways we could
improve. Please contact DWR if interested.
Mr. Ritchie asked the group whether we would like to have someone talk about the Bay
Area and our BAIRWMP? Is there something the Bay Area folks would like to have said
there?
Ms. Novotny said the question of increasing participation of smaller grantees might be a
good topic, and the group agreed.
Mr. Morrison said that, given it’s a Thursday and Friday, is Tony Atkins invited? It
would be good if someone from the legislature is there. Who’s putting it together?
Mr. Shaffer replied it is Tom Ludemann.
Theresa Eade asked whether we should include our concern about Prop 1 lag time and a
potential drop in participation.
Ms. Grim said it’s not clear yet what we’ll be doing in the intervening time. Maybe it
won’t be that bad.
Ms. Novotny said it would also be good to discuss why DWR, EPA and the SWRCB all
have different definitions of DACs.
Ms. Eade added that the Water Energy grant and Strategic Growth Council had different
definitions too.
Action Items
• Mr. Morrison will follow up with DWR about inviting the Legislature to the
conference.
• Mr. Ritchie will follow up to volunteer as a speaker for the conference.
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Bay Area IRWMP
April 6, 2015 Project Screening Committee
Draft Meeting Summary
I Introductions
-See participant list at end
-No additions to agenda
II DWR Draft PSP
- Approximately 6 people had read or skimmed PSP
- Possible issues?
o Dates – DWR intentionally used 2019 for project score vs 2020 for Proposal
o Benefits- DWR requires quantification but not monetization
o Monitoring – example of DWR requiring additional 7 years of monitoring
-Jennifer plans to attend DWR Workshop
Action-Any PSC member who identifies issue in PSP should send comment to Harry
Action –Jennifer will report back on workshop with any issues we should consider for comments.
Action- Jennifer will ask for DWR clarification on monitoring.
Note! –comments will have to be handled by e-mail before next CC meeting
III Web site/Project Submittals
Issues
- No upload for attachments yet
*Projects have been submitted
* Thomasin has asked David for spreadsheet of all projects immediately after Apr. 20 closing
IV Draft Scoring Matrix
Issues
Match- should we insist on 25 % at time of award
*Agreement- -capture information on match and handle on case by case basis,
Consider higher match as tie breaker if needed
Completion date- should we add and score?
*Agreement- capture information and decide later if we want to score
(if score consider – 2019 -2 points, 2020-1 point, zero if later)
Benefit/ Cost- not used now by DWR, Bay Area could still use
*Agreement – 3 points if described and high, 2 points if described and low, 1 point if not
addressed
Human Right to water and Drought Preparedness- DWR adds point for these projects
*Agreement- Deal with this later based on suite of projects
V Scoring Team and Rules
Team
*Agreement – 8 reviewers- each Sub-region and Functional Area
North- Harry s., South – Tracie H., East –Carole M.( by Carl), West- Michele n. Carole F.
Water S- Thomasin G. WW /WQ- Dave W. (Cheryl M as backup), FP/SW- Mark B. ( by Carl) Hab./ WS- Chris Choo
Rules –
*Agreement-Reviewer cannot score own project
Action- Carl M. and Leigh S. volunteered to develop scoring spreadsheet for 2015 using 2014 as starting point
VI Milestones for PSC Review
*Agreement on following schedule
April 20-All projects submitted
April 24, Friday– 10:30 am- 1:30 pm- 1515 Clay Street- 14th floor
In person ( call in for Chris Choo)-Preliminary Scoring, identify policy issues for CC
April 27, Monday- 10 am-1 pm Stop Waste (before CC meeting)
More scoring, identify questions to proponents, develop options
April 27 CC Meeting-Policy issues?
May 13, Wednesday- 12:30- 3:00 EBMUD
Review input, final scoring, consensus on best projects or options for CC
May 19, Tuesday- 10:30-1:30 SFPUC
Review input, consensus on best projects or options for CC
May 26 –CC Final Action
VII Wrap Up
*Reviewed agreements and actions
*Next meeting- April 24
Participants
Chris Choo
Teresa Eade
Carole Foster
Thomasin Grim
Tracy Hemmeter
Linda Hu
Jennifer Krebs
Andria Loutsch
Carl Morrison
Cheryl Muñoz
Robyn Navarra
Michelle Novotny
Harry Seraydarian
Leigh Sharp
Jake Spaulding
David Williams
BAIRWMP Coordinating Committee
Schedule of Future CC Meetings
Date
April 27, 2015
May 26, 2015 (Tuesday)
June 22, 2015
July 27, 2015
August 24, 2015
September 28, 2015
Location
StopWaste, Oakland
Contra Costa Co. Public Works, Martinez
SCVWD, San Jose
SFPUC, San Francisco
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