ITEM:	ACTION ITEMS
15.	REVIEW PROVISIONS AND MAKE RECOMMENDATION REGARDING ORDINANCE NO. 104, MODIFYING THE ADMINISTRATIVE APPEAL PROCESS
Meeting Date:		May 17, 2004	Budgeted: N/A
Staff Contact:		Stephanie Pintar	Program/Line Item No.: N/A
			Cost Estimate: N/A
General Counsel Approval: N/A
Committee Recommendation: The Water Demand Committee recommends no modifications to the ordinance or processes.
CEQA Compliance: N/A

SUMMARY: The Board will review Ordinance No. 104 (Exhibit 15-A), an ordinance modifying the administrative appeal process for Board members. Although the ordinance contained two review dates, February 2003 and August 2003, it did not take place as scheduled. At this time, the Board should review the provisions of the ordinance and direct staff on any modifications or changes.

Ordinance No. 104 allows Board members to call up appealable subordinate decisions for Board review without paying an appeal fee, allows a refund of processing fees for appeals when an appeal provides a significant benefit to the public and/or environment. The ordinance also eliminated an outdated reference to benefit assessments. Since its adoption in 2002, no Board appeals of subordinate decisions have been made. A copy of the staff report from the adoption of Ordinance No. 104 is attached as Exhibit 15-B.

In adopting Ordinance No. 104, the Board also adopted a set of Appeal Processing and Noticing Guidelines (Exhibit 15-C). The Guidelines included 13 Implementation Procedures, including weekly reporting of all appealable decisions, both at the District office and on the website. While staff has been able to post the list of appealable decisions weekly, the process has added additional workload to the Water Demand Division staff who must log each appealable decision in an Excel worksheet that is converted to a web document for posting. The process has also added a record-keeping component for the individual who posts the information: Records must be tracked and removed from the list after 21 days. Until the new database is operational, maintaining and posting information on appealable decisions is a manual process.

RECOMMENDATION: The Water Demand Committee (April 13, 2004) and the Rules and Regulations Committee (May 4, 2004) have reviewed this item. No changes are recommended at this time.

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