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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019 09 10 CFFCOC Special Meeting Final Summary  * Decisions and action items are indicated in bold font. Members Present: Lige Christian, Chair, District 3; JD Gallant, District 3; Rob Harbour, Interest – Working Lands; Richard Jahnke, Interest – Coastal Areas; Joanne Pontrello, Vice Chair, District 2; Dave Seabrook, Interest – Food Security; Craig Schrader, Interest – Climate Change; David Wilkinson, Chair, District 1 Members Absent: Phil Andrus, District 2; Mary Biskup, District 1; Scott Brinton, Interest – Agriculture; Ray Hunter, Interest – Fallow Farms; Lorna Smith, Interest – Ecotourism County Staff Present: Tami Pokorny, Natural Resources Program Coordinator Rebekah Brooks, recorder I. Call to Order Chair Lige Christian called the meeting to order at 4:04 PM. II. Welcome and Introductions III. Approval of Minutes Richard Jahnke moved to preliminarily approve the minutes from the July 9, 2019 Meeting; JD Gallant seconded. The minutes were preliminarily approved by consensus. The minutes from the April 3, 2019 and May 1, 2019 Meetings were accepted and signed by the Chair. IV. Approval of Draft Agenda The agenda was approved by consensus as written. V. Guest Observer Comments There was none. VI. Sub-Committee Reports There were no sub-committee reports, but Tami Pokorny and Lige Christian met with Eric Kingfisher with Jefferson Land Trust (JLT) to discuss long-term project reporting. Their meeting would be addressed later in the agenda. VII. Old Business BoCC Awards to 2019 Projects Tami Pokorny reported that the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) accepted the revised funding recommendations from the JCCF Committee. VIII. New Business Revisions to Program Materials for 2020 Manual: Rob Harbour asked about revising the 70% project score requirement for funding; Richard Jahnke said that since the JCCF Committee is allowed to waive the requirement at any time, it is not critical to keep or remove it. David Wilkinson suggested considering climate change on the Score Sheet, which may feed back into the Manual as well. Lige Christian suggested returning to the Manual after looking at the other documents and discussing the subject of Long-Term Monitoring. Long-Term Project Review Ideas The group skipped ahead to this subject since it had implications for the Program Materials. Lige reviewed the meeting with Eric Kingfisher, who is amenable to sharing the JLT’s annual monitoring forms with the JCCF. Eric already inspects every JLT project at least once per year in perpetuity with their own annual monitoring form. The JCCF Committee went over the form. Eighty-four percent of their approved projects are with the JLT, so most of the JCCF projects are already being monitored for the long-term. The group discussed multiple aspects of finding a long-term monitoring solution, including: creating their own universal monitoring form for all sponsors; using the JLT form as data that could be input into a spreadsheet of all projects that JCCF has funded; following up with possible site visits; adding extra work for project sponsors; and the distinction between an official signed County report and a simple project update. Lige suggested meeting with Peter Bahls to see if the Northwest Watershed Institute (NWI) has a similar monitoring document that they would be willing to share with the JCCF. Short-term monitoring requirements will not change since the JCCF already requires an annual report for the first three years, and up to ten years if money is still being spent. Joanne Pontrello moved to ask for and accept voluntarily given data in written form from an inspection that has been done at a site visit, and to keep a record of it, and if something has not been done in five years or so, to follow up. Richard Jahnke seconded with the friendly amendment of supplementing the short-term monitoring of existing projects by including a long-term monitoring that would include the last date inspected and whether or not agreements are being followed. Lige Christian added the friendly amendment that in the case of the JLT, the JCCF Committee would accept their monitoring document as those data. Joanne accepted the amendments to her motion. Discussion followed. Dave Seabrook noted that the motion did not create new policy, other than requiring the inclusion of data that would satisfy JCCF needs as of now. David Wilkinson clarified that there is a distinction between a document that a County representative and the JCCF Committee officially sign off on, and an internally vetted JLT document that has been shared with the JCCF. The motion passed with seven votes in favor and one against. Lige and Tami Pokorny will meet with NWI to see if they have data that is comparable to the JLT data that they would be willing to share with the JCCF. (Return to) Manual After addressing long-term monitoring, the group returned to the program materials revisions. Richard Jahnke moved to add a new subcategory under Annual Reports that outlines Long-Term Monitoring Voluntary Reports; Rob Harbour seconded. The motion passed with all in favor. There were no other revisions to the Manual. Rob Harbour moved to accept the 2020 funding cycle Manual subject to the prior motion that will include the Long-Term Monitoring component; Dave Seabrook seconded. Richard suggested that the JCCF Committee simply accept the 2020 Manual as is this year and add the amendment to the 2021 Manual. Rob and Dave withdrew their motion. Discussion followed on the time restriction due to the annual reporting deadline, and the difficulty that might present to sponsors. Richard Jahnke moved to alter the annual reporting deadline from 10/30/19 to 12/31/19; Rob Harbour seconded. The motion passed with all in favor. Joanne Pontrello moved to accept the 2020 Manual as amended for the 2020 funding cycle, with the long-term monitoring addition to be made in the 2021 Manual for the 2021 funding cycle; Richard Jahnke seconded. The motion passed with all in favor. Application and Score Sheet Richard Jahnke moved to accept the Application and Score Sheet for 2020; JD Gallant seconded. During the discussion on whether or not to approve the application and score sheet, the group went over the addition of climate change criteria to the score sheet, and whether there was a way to include climate change as a metric for valuation, or whether it was too complex. David Wilkinson suggested that it was a way to differentiate between projects rather than to quantify project value. Joanne Pontrello moved to table the climate change issue and the acceptance of the Application and Score Sheet for the time being; Richard Jahnke seconded. The Committee decided it was a longer-term issue and that they should appoint a subcommittee to add a question to the Application and Score Sheet. The motion passed with all in favor. The subcommittee was formed with the intention of coming up with a long-term monitoring paragraph and a climate change question for the Score Sheet. Volunteers for the sub-committee were Richard Jahnke, Lige Christian, Tami Pokorny, Craig Schrader, and possibly David Wilkinson. Annual Report Form This is included in the Manual, and was approved with the motion to approve the Manual. Calendar Rob Harbour moved to alter the calendar to remove the 10/8/19 Meeting; Joanne Pontrello seconded. The motion passed with all in favor. The calendar was reviewed. The next meeting is site visits. Project presentations are scheduled for 4/7/20; project scores are due by 4/20/20; appearance of fairness forms and the Ranking Meeting are scheduled for 4/28/20. Richard Jahnke moved to adopt the amended calendar; Craig Schrader seconded. The motion passed with all in favor. IX. Announcements/Administrative Staff Update: Tami Pokorny reported an ending balance of $492,409.93, with around $235,000 reserved for projects. Upcoming membership renewals for Scott Brinton, Ray Hunter and Lorna Smith will be going out from Tami. Several projects are in the process of closing agreements. Richard Jahnke requested a simple spreadsheet of basic project information. Tami said she would send one out. She said outreach at the County picnic went well, but there were not many questions. The group discussed putting a JCCF sign in front of project properties to show that the support came from the JCCF. They discussed other ways to appropriately promote the JCCF. Tami announced that Clallam County just passed their own Conservation Futures. Lige Christian asked Tami for a demonstration of a County overlay of JCCF projects for the next meeting. X. Observer Comments There were no comments. XI. Adjournment Joanne Pontrello moved to adjourn the meeting at 5:56 PM; Dave Wilkinson seconded. The motion passed with all in favor.