Prescott Az News and Events ~ Read It News Magazine

Still suffering from control issues, the Prescott city council is unlikely to cooperate in regional water management group.

If Bob Roecker speaks for the Prescott City Council majority, Prescott looks unlikely to vote for participation in a regional water management partnership that can receive federal funds. Public presentations at the Dec. 5 council meeting did not appear to change his mind. A few days later, Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer echoed Roecker's arguments, trying to get them across to the people who believe themselves to be the Verde River Basin Partnership (VRBP).

In both meetings the Prescott-area politicians drew the same line in the sand: your group is not the official Partnership. Start over, or the cities won't join.

Objection Rejection

At the Prescott City Council meeting, citizens attempted to head off the cities' objections to joining the VRBP. Howard Mechanic asserted that the Tri-Cities (Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley and some of the County Supervisors) have tried but failed to show that the existing Partnership misses the requirements of the legislation authorizing it.

Jack Wilson, a member of the Verde Partnership, addressed Chino Valley Mayor Karen Fann's request that the VRBP remove the Big Chino area from the scope of the Partnership. Wilson pointed out that the VRBP's boundaries and scope are defined by federal law and cannot be changed.

Michelle Harrington, Rivers Program director for the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), affirmed that the Center has held back from the Partnership to avoid blocking the cities from joining, and has never been a member. CBD is a concern for the council because it has filed a notice of intent to sue the cities of Prescott and Prescott Valley for potential Endangered Species Act violations in connection with the planned Big Chino pipeline. Mayor Rowle Simmons has said that the Center plans to sue "no matter what," but in fact the CBD is currently waiting for the cities to engage in federal permitting activities before deciding whether to file a lawsuit. Addressing the council's concern about environmental groups, Harrington pointed out that if the CBD did join the Partnership, it would not even have one whole vote. As a national conservation group, it would be part of a caucus with only one vote for all its members.

"There's nothing that the VRBP can do to hurt the citizens of Prescott. I just for the life of me cannot figure out why we don't want to go ahead with this."

Council Member Bob Luzius, who favors joining, noted that the Partnership "is not a policy-making group, it's a scientific group" and mentioned "the $8 million of federal money that all municipalities on either side of the mountain can use." He countered the objection that membership might obligate city funds: "There's nothing that the VRBP can do to hurt the citizens of Prescott. I just for the life of me cannot figure out why we don't want to go ahead with this."

Tom Slaback, Sierra Club Grand Canyon chapter representative to the VRBP, focused on membership benefits, listing "complete scientific knowledge of the Verde Basin" and federal funding of necessary scientific studies, rather than "specially taxing local residents."

Square One Revisited

Roecker said that the existing Partnership was "going to have to be open-minded enough to perhaps start over, and I [mean] start over," because its structure "has obviously been shown not to be acceptable to the folks that are in these municipalities." (No one in the municipalities had yet voted on the structure's acceptability.) Wilson replied that many people would object to "starting over" because of the great amount of work accomplished during this year, especially collaboration with the Tucson US Geological Survey office on a science plan. "To say [we're going] to start over and throw that [work] down the garbage is just unacceptable…I don't see why we would want to do that."

Addressing Wilson, Roecker repeated that he remains willing to sit down and start over. He said his alternative proposals for Partnership formats had been rejected, and "we're rejecting yours," without specifying who he meant by "we." None of the councils had voted to reject anything.

Strategic Studies

Council Member Jim Lamerson asked Roecker what the Partnership, with no authority to set policy, would vote on. "Policy will come out of what happens with these studies, Roecker replied, "so we have to be integrally involved in…the process of organizing [them], it's just that simple… The elected officials will be held responsible for what happens."

When asked later what unpleasant scenarios this responsibility might entail, Roecker focused on the types of studies the Partnership members might decide to commission. He stated that no more research is necessary in the upper reaches of the Verde River, and he cast doubt on another study for which the Partnership recently won a grant.

At the meeting, Roecker continued, "We've got a fiduciary responsibility to our citizens. We've got a huge investment we're about to make to bring more water into our community" -- the planned pipeline -- "and we cannot allow ourselves to be put into an ad hoc group that we cannot --" Roecker paused here, and appeared to choose his words carefully -- "be assured that we can properly direct, and represent our citizens."

Off the Rails

The Verde River Basin Partnership meeting, held three days later, put aside its agenda to respond to County Supervisor Carol Springer's comments covering much of Roecker's ground. After the first few procedural agenda items, Coordinating Committee Chair (also Clarkdale mayor) Doug Von Gausig presented a letter his committee had prepared to request the Arizona Congressional delegation's support in funding USGS work on the VRBP's behalf. Supervisor Springer asked to be recognized.

"I'm a little confused," Springer said, "how you can send a letter from a group that hasn't actually formed." Von Gausig replied that when Sen. McCain wants to address the Verde River Basin Partnership, the current group is who he addresses. Communications Chair Dorothy O'Brien added that McCain's statements refer to them as the Partnership. The membership approved the letter.

A second letter, to the attention of the mayors and councils of the Tri-Cities, appeared next on the screen for comment. In it, Von Gausig reviewed his presentations to the councils and his responses to their reservations, saying he felt he had addressed them adequately but hadn't changed their minds. He continued: "This leads me to the conclusion that there may be an unspoken concern" centering around a possible need for mitigation of the effects of the planned Big Chino pipeline on the surrounding ecosystems. Von Gausig suspected the cities of fearing "data that appears to conflict with [their] interests" and possible litigation.

A few members worried aloud about the tone of this section and discussed ways to improve it. Eventually the group agreed that the committee would revise the letter, but before they reached that point, Supervisor Springer spoke again. This was where the meeting went off its original rails.

"The message they're getting is, 'All you need us for is to validate what you have done.'"

" I think to a great extent you've missed the boat completely on what is going on," she said, offering her opinion that "the message you think you've been sending is not the message that's being received." She said that though the group agreed its organizational framework was not finalized, nevertheless "You keep taking decisions" (votes on rules and committees, for example) "from a structure that doesn't exist." She said the Tri-Cities felt they would have no say in the Partnership's form if they joined now. "The message they're getting is, 'All you need us for is to validate what you have done,'" Springer said.

Von Gausig responded that the towns chose not to participate in the months-long process, although the Partnership group had tried to include them. "We did everything we could [except] lay down in the street," Von Gausig said.

A Blank Slate

After more discussion, Springer announced her "last shot (because I truly do not believe you are getting the message I'm trying to convey)." She said, "The way to make this work is to start over." Where the cities would like to start from, Springer opined, is "a blank slate -- a meeting of the stakeholders with a clear written agenda that they get to determine the rules [and] committee assignments." Then, she said, "it would be up to you all to make [your] case, to represent all the work you'd done to this group."

Von Gausig asked, "What group?" "The stakeholders," Springer replied. "With all due respect, you have members of the public, agencies, all able to have an equal voice." This launched a brief and inconclusive discussion of language in Title II, the VRBP's authorizing legislation, about who the membership of the Partnership shall include. To clarify "the stakeholders," Supervisor Springer referred to a statement in Section 203, describing the Partnership as "made up of Federal, State, local governments, and other entities with responsibilities and expertise in water."

Von Gausig asked whether the charter members in the room felt they didn't have either responsibility or expertise in water. No one raised a hand. But Springer defined "stakeholder" as having both expertise and responsibility. She explained later that this would include representatives of cities that deliver water to the public, and state and federal agencies with governance over water. Stakeholders are those accountable to the public, not just "everybody who has an interest in water," she concluded.

"Whaddaya Think?"

Von Gausig asked whether Springer wanted the group to present itself to the Tri-Cities officials and say: "During the last six to eight months, while you were gone, here's what we've done. Whaddaya think?" Springer replied, "Almost." Only "stakeholders" should determine the agenda and sit at the table, she said; then the Partnership can explain what it has done, and they can approve it or not.

All three Yavapai County Supervisors attended the meeting, but Supervisor Tom Thurman did not speak. Supervisor Chip Davis indicated disagreement with Springer's assessment, calling it "ironic when critics on the sidelines attack people working in the trenches, getting bloody and dirty.” He asked that the Partnership keep the door open for the Tri-Cities to join in the future, and Von Gausig pointed to a sentence in the letter covering that.

Since the Dec. 8 meeting, the Partnership has determined its final legal form and sent a letter to Sen. McCain announcing its intention to move its work forward despite the disinclination of the Tri-Cities to join. The invitation to them remains on the table, and Bob Roecker says he wants the Partnership to work. Agreement on what the Partnership is, however, looks unlikely.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed