Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021 10 04 CFFCO Special Meeting Final Summary  * Decisions and action items are indicated in bold font. Members Present: Phil Andrus, District 2; Guy Dobyns, District 3; Rob Harbour, Interest – Working Lands; Richard Jahnke, Interest – Coastal Areas; Ron Rempel, Interest – Wildlife Conservation Biology; Craig Schrader, Interest – Climate Change; Dave Seabrook, Vice Chair, Interest – Food Security; Dave Wilkinson, District 1 Members Absent: Mary Biskup, District 1; Scott Brinton, Interest – Agriculture; Joanne Pontrello, Chair, District 2; Lorna Smith, Interest – Ecotourism County Staff Present: Tami Pokorny, Environmental Public Health Rebekah Brooks, Recorder (Rebekah Brooks Contracting) Guests Present: Sarah Spaeth (Jefferson Land Trust [JLT]) I. Call to Order: Vice Chair Dave Seabrook called the meeting to order at 4:01 PM. II. Welcome and Introductions III. Approval of Minutes: Tami Pokorny brought to the group’s attention a word that was missing from the previously approved April 27, 2021 CFCOC Meeting minutes. Richard Jahnke moved to approve the April 27, 2021 CFCOC Meeting minutes with the noted change; Phil Andrus seconded. The motion was approved unanimously. Rob Harbour moved to preliminarily approve the minutes from the July 12, 2021 CFCOC Meeting; Rick Jahnke seconded. Rob asked for clarification regarding the funding reimbursement to JLT for the Serendipity Farm project and whether there had been a motion or not. Rebekah Brooks confirmed that there was no motion made. The July 12, 2021 CFCOC Meeting minutes were approved unanimously as written. IV. Guest Observer comments: None V. Old Business Final 2021 Cycle Funding Awards Tami Pokorny announced that the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) approved the CFCOC’s funding recommendations for the 2021 Funding Cycle and made no changes. Those projects are moving ahead. VI. Sub Committee Reports None VII. New Business Arlandia Match Change Request Sarah Spaeth earlier distributed a letter summarizing the situation with the Arlandia Project. When funding was applied for, the appraisal was estimated as usual. In years past, estimates have been easier to approximate accurately, but this one was over-estimated in the chaotic real estate market. The other project costs still came in about the same, with the overall total project cost a bit less than anticipated as a result of the lower appraisal cost. The JLT would like to utilize the full awarded amount and is asking that the award amount stay the same, with the match percentage decreased to coincide with the lower appraisal cost. Phil Andrus moved to recommend to the BoCC that the match be adjusted as necessary and the award amount stay the same for the Arlandia Project; Rob Harbour seconded. David Wilkinson asked what percent change in match would trigger the Committee’s need to make a formal recommendation. Tami Pokorny clarified that no percentage amount was necessary, but the BoCC needs a recommendation from the group in order to make a change. Without the recommendation, the JLT would not be able to go forward with the adjusted match. The motion passed by unanimous vote. Bylaws Tami Pokorny reminded the group that revisions had been made to the CFCOC Bylaws about a year ago, and were reviewed by an attorney who came back with a lot of comments but is no longer with the County. The Committee can now choose to disregard the older comments and ask the new County attorney to review the Bylaws, or tackle the Bylaws again in light of current events and the 2022 funding cycle to make fresh changes before resubmittal. The group discussed concerns over the appearance of fairness forms and whether those can be disregarded as the previous attorney suggested; the language regarding the ranking process and opportunity to bring in lower ranked projects; rewriting items two and three in the Bylaws to align with the Manual; and how to proceed with revising the Bylaws, Manual and Application to make them consistent with each other. Dave Seabrook suggested forming a subcommittee to make revisions for the Committee to review and approve before submitting the documents to the County attorney. *Phil Andrus, Dave Seabrook, Rob Harbour, and Ron Rempel volunteered for the Bylaw subcommittee. *Tami will be in touch with the volunteers to arrange meeting times. Application Process Tami Pokorny reminded the Committee of the number of questions that came forward after the project applications came in, and suggested the CFCOC consider things that the application process may not have addressed. The project sponsors were concerned about the level of work and available time to return responses to the questions. Rick Jahnke went over his review of the Application, and how he started work on lining up the numerical organization and language between the Scoresheet and Application. His edits were distributed earlier to the Committee. Ron Rempel suggested planning an additional CFCOC meeting after the project presentations to discuss the projects as a committee before the individual scoring process. In that case, the new sequence would be: receive the applications, meet with the applicants, have a new meeting for a broader project discussion between the Committee members, and finally have a scoring and ranking meeting. Rick Jahnke suggested, rather than hold an additional meeting, that the Committee members score the projects based on the site visits and applications. That way they can get any additional information or questions answered during the project presentations. Rob Harbour felt that it was very worthwhile to discuss the projects with fellow Committee members. David Seabrook added that the various perspectives from each member add value as well. Phil Andrus pointed out that the ranking meetings used to be longer and more in depth, with a detailed look at each person’s scores and more discussion. Other members agreed that longer meetings were preferable to additional meetings. Tami agreed that having scores and questions ready prior to the presentations is helpful, and suggested changing the presentations meeting to more of a questions and answers session. Ron mentioned that in-person site visits would resolve many of these issues as well. Phil and Rob added that good debates are very helpful; Ron warned against allowing that process to turn into lobbying for projects. Rick noted that the lengthier discussions in the past were not used to persuade others, but for clarification and better understanding. Phil wished that the applicants had met beforehand to work out the possible portioning out of available funds; he found the high requests with very limited funds frustrating. *Tami and Rebekah Brooks will work together to summarize the Application Process discussion and prepare a recommendation that incorporates the concerns expressed and streamlines the process. Tami mentioned that an additional short meeting might be required to finalize the changes to the Application and Bylaws. Manual, Application, and Scoresheet This topic was partially discussed under Application Process. Ron Rempel also made some comments under Track Changes to the documents in regard to endangered species and critical and sensitive habitats; he would like to see those areas cleaned up. *Tami Pokorny will start with Ron’s and Rick Jahnke’s most recent versions of the Application and Manual and prepare the documents for Committee review. David Wilkinson suggested a change to Section 2 of the Application in terms of the sponsor’s commitment. He proposed changing it to a statement at the end of the Application for the sponsor to say whether they do or do not commit to the project. He posted an example of the wording in the Chat: “The sponsor commits to providing long-term stewardship to achieve the conservation and protection goals of the project as proposed in this application or as may be modified with recommendation of the CF Committee and approval of the BoCC.” Funding Round Calendar The next meeting date was scheduled for November 1, 2021. VIII. Announcements/Administrative Staff Update Tami Pokorny announced that sadly, CFCOC member JD Gallant passed away last month. There is a District 3 vacancy. She was reluctant to advertise without any known interest because it tended to be wasted money. *Guy Dobbyns said he would put the word out in the Quilcene area. Next Meeting The next meeting was scheduled for 11/1/21. The agenda will be a follow up on the discussions from today’s meeting. IX. Guest Observer Comments None X. Adjournment Dave Seabrook adjourned the meeting at 5:18 PM. Action Items: *Phil Andrus, Dave Seabrook, Rob Harbour, and Ron Rempel volunteered for the Bylaw subcommittee. *Tami Pokorny will be in touch with the volunteers to arrange meeting times. *Tami and Rebekah Brooks will work together to summarize the Application Process discussion and prepare a recommendation that incorporates the concerns expressed and streamlines the process. *Tami will start with Ron’s and Rick Jahnke’s most recent versions of the Application and Manual and prepare the documents for Committee review. *Guy Dobbyns said he would put the word out in the Quilcene area about the District 2 vacancy on the CFCOC.