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ITEM: |
CONSENT CALENDAR |
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4. |
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF AN INTERAGENCY CONTRACT FOR MPWMD TO PROVIDE
TEMPORARY FIELD STAFF FOR A COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND MONITORING PROJECTS WITH
THE NMFS FOR 2017-2019 |
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Meeting
Date: |
September 18,
2017 |
Budgeted: |
No |
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From: |
David J.
Stoldt, |
Program/ |
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General
Manager |
Line Item No.: |
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Prepared
By: |
Mi Ra Park
& Kevan
Urquhart |
Cost Estimate: |
$35,000 |
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General
Counsel Approval: N/A |
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Committee
Recommendation: The Administrative
Committee reviewed this item on September 11, 2017 and recommended approval. |
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CEQA
Compliance: Action does not constitute
a project as defined by CEQA Guidelines Section 15378. |
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SUMMARY: The District has an opportunity to enter into an interagency contract with National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency’s (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service-Southwest Fisheries Science Center (NMFS-SWFSC) for the purposes of conducting juvenile steelhead population studies. MPWMD will be providing local employees to support two NMFS-SWFSC field crew leaders from Santa Cruz. Field work will be conducted annually for three months in August through October, from 2017 through 2019. The contract is a sole source and renewable annually for three years. Support staff will be hired at one of five levels, depending on increasing skill level, and possession of specific certifiable skills in electrofishing, surgical fish tagging, and red-legged frog identification and avoidance.
The contract is limited to $35,000 per year. The funding for this contract comes from California American Water (Cal-Am) as a requirement of Water Rights Order 20016-0016. MPWMD has an interest in supporting this work to reduce labor costs to our constituents and Cal-Am’s ratepayers by hiring local employees that do not have to travel round trip each day from Santa Cruz, and executing the contract without compensation for the overhead we identify in our budgets as Indirect Labor Costs. This field work will dovetail and complement the fall population sampling that MPWMD already does, and include tagging fish that we sample. The data collected will guide future steelhead management by the NMFS and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and may contribute information needed in a future Water Allocations Supplemental Environmental Impact Report, envisioned for some time after 2019.
Authorization
is requested to hire a combination of limited-term Fisheries Aides, Water
Resources Assistants, Field Biology Assistant, Fisheries Technician, or Fish
Rescue Crew Leader, not to exceed the allocated contract amount for each year. These
positions would prevent the accrual of excessive compensatory time and overtime
for higher level, regular full-time positions.
RECOMMENDATION: Approve the interagency contract and hiring of
temporary field staff for cooperative research and monitoring projects with the
NOAA/NMFS for FY 2017-2018 at a cost not-to-exceed $35,000.
IMPACTS TO STAFF/RESOURCES: The total cost of the limited-term staffing described above would not exceed the interagency contract amount. MPWMD will provide the administrative overhead for onboarding, and payroll administration. The District’s Senior Fisheries Biologist will provide local supervision of the contract employees, and coordination with the contractor. NOAA-SWFSC will provide field equipment such as waders, and transport vehicles.
None
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