MPWMD BOARD MEETING--FEB 27, 2003--EXHIBIT 17A--MINUTESOF THE DEC 20, 2002 TEAM SAFETY MEETING

- The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. in the Conference Room –

MEMBERS PRESENT: Thomas Christensen, Rick Dickhaut, Darby Fuerst, Debby Martin, Cynthia Schmidlin

MEMBERS ABSENT: None

I. TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

OLD BUSINESS

1. IIPP Update: Cynthia described the items in the District Illness and Injury Prevention Plan which need to be updated. During the last update in 1999, a number of new OSHA-mandated policies were added, such as the Respirator, Lock-out/Tag-out and Confined Spaces policies. Presently, the District’s IIPP remains current regarding California OSHA standards, and major additions are not required. Team members discussed possibly revising the Emergency Action Plan section. However, MPWMD does not play a great part in the County’s Emergency Action Response Program. We provide them with information about the lagoon and could give other data, if requested, but that is the extent of our role. The District’s plan focuses on its own staff and the maintenance of some level of operation during emergencies. The current plan addresses our needs well, and only requires reinforcement with emergency response training.

2. Review of 2002: Team Safety discussed activities conducted over the past year, including the Confined Spaces Extraction Exercise, inspections of District field offices and the Harris Court facilities, and staff safety training on a variety of subjects. The District’s low accident and injury rate enabled us to change Worker’s Compensation insurance from State Compensation Insurance Fund to the Rural Special District’s Program and avoid the large increase in premiums that other agencies experienced in July 2002.

3. District Storage and Disposal of Surplus Assets: Rick reported that he had received some guidelines from District counsel, David Laredo, on the disposal of surplus assets. He and Cynthia will be working on developing a District policy on that subject for approval by the Board. After the policy is in place, action can be taken on removing unused materials that are crowding the District garage and other storage areas.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Directions for 2003: Team members discussed upcoming training for the next year, including Emergency Response, Fire Extinguisher and Fire Drill training, Ergonomics training, and the annual training mandated by Cal OSHA in Respirator and Pesticide Safety. As a result of the heavy storms in December of this year, there were people stranded on a mid-channel bar in the Guadalupe River in San Jose. Swift Water training was suggested in case we were ever called upon to rescue someone in high flows. Team members felt that training was not directly related to District operations, since we are not an agency responsible for public safety. However, it was further discussed that the US Geological Survey agency has developed a policy for working safely in high flows based upon the depth and velocity of the water. Adding such a Swift Water policy to our IIPP would be very relevant. Darby will do some research on the subject and present his information at the next Team Safety meeting.

II. NEXT TEAM SAFETY MEETING