Allow public participation and input

By Bert R. Bertrando

The GWD's current practices deny the public vital information and provide no meaningful way to communicate information to the Board on vital facts or possible consequences of proposed actions.

1. The District's web site should be modified to be more user friendly by providing access to the various studies and records of ordinances passed by the District. As an example, the current web site does not contain any information on the adoption of the medical insurance program which the Board voted itself or a copy of the New Water Supply Charge which has, in the last ten years, eliminated new farms. To obtain a copy of this information, a customer must file a official legal request with the District for Production of a Public Record and then pay for the copy. Such information should be readily available to everyone on the web site without cost.

2. The District should publish the agenda and materials about meetings more than 72 hours before the meeting. The short time period of information being available on the web site on Friday for a Tuesday meeting does not allow adequate time for the public to be notified and respond to the proposed actions, many of which are of great public interest and importance.Jack and I would have the agenda and related documents on the website at least a week in advance of all meetings, including meetings of the Board's special committees.

3. The minutes of the Board's meetings would have specific reporting of what was discussed and the reasons for the decisions made by the Board.The current minutes are incomprehensible to anyone who could not attend the meeting. For example,currently if a member of the public speaks on a specific matter,the minutes merely state that such a person spoke. Nothing in the minutes reflects the topic or the substance provided by the public speaker.

4. All audio tapes of the Board meetings should be retained. The District currently tapes the Board meetings, but does not tape any committee meetings. No minutes are kept of the Committee Meetings. The Board erases the tape of its meetings as soon as the minutes are approved. All tapes should be preserved for at least 5 years and certain key meetings should have the tapes kept forever.

The directors should each make their email addresses available to the public and have scheduled office hours to meet with concerned customers.Currently all communications from the public are screened by the District's staff and there are no direct lines of communications to the members of the Board. Jack and I will establish regularly scheduled office hours to meet with any of the District's customers who have any complaints or input to be considered by the Board. We would encourage the other directors to follow. This will cause the directors to spend additional time in the discharge of their duties, but it will make the Board more responsive to the needs and wishes of the District's customers.