Council Meeting

Council central offices and via teleconference
851 SW Sixth Avenue, Suite 1100, Portland
503-222-5161

April 22, 2004, 10am

Agenda: Approval of state coordinator contracts for subbasin planning post May 28th, 2004.

The Council has made arrangements for public participation in two ways:

1. A limited number of telephone conference lines is available. Please call the Council's central office in Portland for the conference line phone number.
    
2. The public is invited to the Council's 11th floor large conference room at the Portland offices where the teleconference can be heard.

The meeting will be audio-taped at the Council's Portland offices.

Agenda materials

Over the past several months the staff have identified the tasks that will be required in the review and adoption process for subbasin plans after May 28^th. The process will call for intensive and focused work from Council members, staff, and Level II coordinators between June 1 and December 31, 2004. It will also require both new contracts and new releases that clearly define the additional tasks. These new tasks are reflected in the statements and work and budgets for items 1-7 below. Item 8 is a cost increase for an existing budget for the Intermountain Province Coordination for work through May 28. 

Staff recommends that the Council authorize the Executive Director to negotiate new contracts with Cogan Owens Cogan for subbasin planning coordination in Oregon and with Alison Squier for subbasin planning coordination in the Intermountain Province and approve new releases for subbasin planning efforts in Washington and Idaho for work to be accomplished between June 1 and December 31, 2004, pursuant to the Council's Master Contract for subbasin planning with Bonneville. Staff also recommends the Council approve a budget increase under the Council's existing contract with Alison Squier for coordination work in the Intermountain Province to be completed prior to May 28. 

Subbasin Planning Budget

The overall subbasin planning budget will be under spent as of May 28, 2004. At that time, all subbasin level and technical contracts will expire. In working with Bonneville staff, we have agreed to continue funding the tasks identified in the above six items, but under new releases and contracts as part of amended Statewide and Regional Master Contracts. Bonneville has not expressed concern with extending the Master Contracts (Regional and possibly Statewide) for subbasin planning through December 31, 2004. 

The table below shows the funding ?released? (allocated) by Bonneville for all work through May 28, from the overall subbasin planning budget of $15.2 million. The amount actually invoiced against the $14,073,738 may be less than that amount but we won't know that until the end of August when all subbasin-level invoices are due. The ?unallocated? column shows the amount remaining in the overall budget that can be spent on necessary tasks after May 28. The ?proposed? column shows the amount that staff recommends the Council approve for the above eight items.  If Council approves these, it will leave more than $760,000 remaining in the subbasin planning budget for potential ?fixes? for plans during the response period, and associated data management.

[Table changed 4/21/04]

Potential Additional Future Costs

In working with state coordinators, the Regional Coordination group and Bonneville staff, we anticipate additional costs associated with the response period. Those costs could include assisting a limited numbers of planners or subbasin coordinators in responding to the key issues identified by the staff at the close of the comment period on August 12. Any work anticipated during this period will go through the normal approval process -- Level II group; Council; and Bonneville; and must be completed within a prescribed, limited timeframe. Funding for this purpose would come forward as a separate release or contract, or under an existing state coordination contract.

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