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Wisconsin Association
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MINUTES
Wisconsin Association of Land Conservation Employees Board Meeting
August 2, 2006
Dino’s Restaurant, Portage, Wisconsin
1. Call to Order - Meeting was called to order by President Dale Hanson at 9:40 a.m. and asked that attendees do a short introduction. In attendance from WALCE: Dale Hanson, Kurt Calkins, Joe Van Berkel, Ed Hernandez, Paul Tollard, Dan O’Connell, Greg Cleereman, and Greg Leonard, from the Board; Andy Johnson, Administrative Committee; Penny Pohle, Professional Improvement Committee; Bob Micheel, Technical Committee; advisors present; Terry Lohr, DNR, Coreen Fallat, DATCP, Dale Hood, WLWCA, Pat Murphy, NRCS, and lobbyist Curt Pawlisch of Cullen, Weston, Pines and Bach, LLP.
2. Approve Minutes from April 5, 2006 Board Meeting - Motion by Calkins/Van Berkel. Carried.
3. Discussion with Curt Pawlisch regarding role of Association in lobbying efforts and contract with WLWCA. Hanson updated attendeees on last year’s agreement and present status. Pawlisch outlined the importance and critical timing of these efforts. He emphasized the importance of getting any new initiatives into Department’s initial budget proposal and the need to get the support of farm and environmental groups behind these efforts.
Pawlisch offered an example of an agreement to be signed between representatives of WLWCA, WALCE and the Administrative Committee outlining the procedures and work products that would be covered as a part of the lobbying arrangement and referencing an annual plan of action. Andy Johnson reported that the Administrative Committee had reviewed the agreement and recommended its approval for an amount of up to $4,000. Discussions ensued around the costs, lobbying needs, each association’s share, the potential cost of a strong campaign, the need for a media component, the detailed plan of action, past spending, 501(3)c limitations, budgeted amounts, and our present status in relation to the 2010 plan for full implementation of the non-point rules. Motion by Cleereman/Calkins to authorize Hanson and Johnson to sign the agreement as representatives of WALCE to commit $4,000 to this effort to be used in accordance with the plan of action agreed to by the groups. Carried.
4. Administrative Committee Referrals and Updates - Johnson asked to rearrange the order of the agenda items and to add a short uddate on the Livestock Siting Law. He reported that counties will have to either act as regulators or enforcers in regards to this rule. Either way DATCP has asked that we act as a sounding board for them regarding the rules. Educational programming for some of the others likely to be involved in providing assistance to agricultural operations has begun.
E. Statewide information and education efforts regarding enforcement standards. Statewide information and education activities regarding the non-point rules began and then faltered. Johnson reported that there seems to be an increased interest among farm groups and they are trying to appoint 3 members to represent them in the development of an informational program. He added that there seems to be considerable confusion among agricultural interests due in part to the fact that every rule and program they deal with has changed since 2002.
One of the most critical needs is to develop a method of tracking compliance and eligibility in order to effectively administer the program.
D. NR243 update. The proposed changes to the NR243 rules go to Legislative Hearing on August 3. There are strong concerns regarding the likelihood of their rejection by the legislative committee.
C. Consider initiative to track unmet cost share needs. The Administrative Committee is looking at a method of tracking unmet cost share requests as a means of providing arguments regarding the need for additional funding to implement the non-point rules.
B. Consider position on underspending and carryover of DATCP funds. The Committee is also looking into ways to better address the recurring concern of underspending, focusing on ways to make it easier for counties to spend the allocations especially in the carry forward funding.
He also reported that the Committee passed two motions, one to approve the lobbying agreement which has already addressed by the Board and the second to request that the Land and Water Conservation Board request an audit of the non-point rrogram. The program has been in place since 2002 and the Committee felt it was time to look at the effectiveness of the program, the tracking that is being done and other components.
A. Review and consider comment on DATCP 2007 preliminary allocation plan. Johnson reported the Administrative Committee had reviewed the allocation plan proposed by DATCP and had discussed the concerns voiced by members about the allocation of $50,000 for the update of the transect survey. The Administrative Committee felt that the recommendation was appropriate to have come from the Technical Committee as they are assigned responsibility to “Promote tracking and reporting tools that are easy to use and measure actual implementation of program goals and objectives.” The Board members offered input to this discussion although several Board members had been left out of the e-mail distribution regarding the concerns. Hanson voiced his opinion that the recomendation from the Technical Committee to apply for a grant for the transect survey update was appropriate as they are assigned “this authority”. Van Berkel agreed it was appropriate. He offered that this grant application for $50,000 did not go against the Guiding Principles because it is a one time use of available funds and does not create a “pigeon hole” as contended in the complaint. The complete wording of that section states that WALCE should “Minimize the number of grant ‘pigeon holes’, paperwork and bureaucracy that counties must contend with to obtain outside funds for local programs”. No county must contend with this in the future to obtain funding as it is a one-time grant for a specific project and not to a county. He did offer that there was a valid concern regarding this grant application being approved by the Board under the agenda item “Technical Committee reports and updates” and encouraged Committee chairs to provide more detail on items for the Board agenda.
5. Professional Improvement Committee Referrals and Updates - Pohle presented a summary of the changes proposed for the Scholarship Guidelines and the Policy and Procedures Manual. The changes would transfer the scholarship approval authority from the Treasurer to the Professional Improvement Committee, would increase the reimbursement rate from 50 to 100%, and would set the maximum amounts available to $500 per event and $1,000 per year per individual. Motion by Cleereman/Tollard to approve these changes within each document as outlined. Carried.
6. Technical Committee Referrals and Updates - Micheel reported the Technical Committee is beginning planning for the fall practice tour to be held in the east part of the state in October. They recently sponsored a meeting of those parties interested in revisions to the transect survey and are working with the realtors association to incorporate a manure storage notification into the real estate conditions report. Hanson requested people suggest an appointment to the Technical Committee from the Eastern Area.
7. Discussion regarding WALCE participation on Standards Oversight Council. Hanson updated the Board regarding a request from Lindquist to be appointed to this Standards Oversight Council. He credited Lindquist for his extensive work establishing the Council and mentioned the present concerns regarding the administrative fees being charged by the WLWCA and Lindquist’s desire to work to assure a sound fiscal future for SOC. Murphy, NRCS, gave more detail on this increased fee and stated that based on the federal agreement process administrative fee levels were between NRCS and WLWCA and that those fees were not subject to negotiation by third parties to the agreement. Motion by Calkins/O’Connell to nominate Lindquist to serve as a WALCE representative to the Standards Oversight Council with the caveat that his work concentrate on the integrity of the Council, not budget issues, and that the administrative fees between the Association and the Agency were not an area of input. Leonard questioned whether it was possible to separate these items. Motion carried.
8. Consider WALCE participation in League of Conservation Voters “Conservation Briefing Book” Priority Setting Session. Van Berkel reported that work on the 2007 version was to begin next week. He encouraged WALCE to participate in this effort to assure that non-point implementation funding for both staff and cost sharing remain a priority of the group. Motion by Cleereman/Van Berkel to authorize Van Berkel and Calkins to participate in this priority setting session to represent WALCE according to the guiding principles and to bring the final product to the Administrative Committee for review and final recommendation. Carried.
9. Approval of new committee appointments
Administrative Committee
Steve Oberle - Northern Area
Lisa Trumble - Western Area
Professional Improvement Committee
Christine Ostern - Northern Area
Pete Jopke - Western Area
Geoff Schramm - Eastern Area
Motion by Leonard/Tollard to approve these recommendations. Carried.
10. Approval of expense vouchers. Vouchers were received from Hanson, Hernandez and Baneck. There was discussion of Hanson’s request for only the actual gas cost versus the standard mileage rate. Van Berkel offered this would be allowable under the clause “most reasonable method” as long as the submission showed the savings through this method. Motion by Van Berkel/Cleereman to approve these vouchers. Carried.
11. Consider revision to approved budget to transfer funds from the Scholarship line item to Regional and National Meeting line item. This revision would transfer funds back into the National and Regional Meeting Attendance Line Item from the Scholarship line. This would restore a change made to the budget and approved at the annual meeting. Before 2006 there was always money in this line item but this year it was moved into scholarship because it was little used. This caused problems when the guidelines would only allow 50% reimbursement of scholarship funds. Baneck is appointed by and representing WALCE at this session and Board agreed he should be reimbursed for his expenses. Moving it back into Regional and National Meetings would allow this. Motion by Van Berkel/Cleereman to transfer this $1,000 from the scholarship line item to Regional and National Meeting Attendance line item. Carried.
12. Agency and Association Reports.
Fallat reported for DATCP and distributed a summary - attached.
Lohr reported for DNR and distributed a summary - attached.
Murphy reported for NRCS and distributed a summary - attached.
Hood reported that WLWCA hopes to have a new Executive Director in place by the end of September. He also reported that they had a very successful strategic planning session.
13. Other business. - Tollard mentioned the availability of soil quality coffee mugs. Contact Tollard or Mark Kopecky.
O’Connell reported there is a “Farm Fresh Atlas” for the Golden Sands area available out of his vehicle.
14. Establish next meeting date and location. - Next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, October 25 in Stevens Point. Dan O’Connell will book a location.
15. Adjourn. - Motion by Leonard/Cleereman. Carried.
MINUTES ARE NOT OFFICAL UNTIL APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS