|
The Commission, after consultation with the Statewide Advisory Committee and Technical Panel, has set aside a portion of each month’s joint meeting in 2022 to have a dialogue with each of the 27 VSP counties about VSP implementation.
Each county is invited to participate however they see fit. Examples of participation methods include, but are not limited to:
- a conversation with the Statewide Advisory Committee and Technical Panel
- a presentation by the county (with or without PowerPoint)
- a tour (virtual or actual) of county VSP projects
Counties are free to attend, or not attend, these meetings, and are free to bring whatever issues they want to bring to the Technical Panel and Statewide Advisory Committee for comment. Issues might include monitoring, data collection, 5YR report data entry, outreach and education, etc.
The time on the agenda for each county will serve as a “check-in” for each county with the Statewide Advisory Committee and Technical Panel as they prepare their next 5YR report. The schedule below is based on when each county’s next 5YR report is due.
The concept for this dialogue time for each county is that each county would have a dedicated time to meet with the Technical Panel and Statewide Advisory Committee on an on-going basis. The purpose of this meeting is to reinforce the communications, focused primarily on issues related to the next 5YR report, between the state agencies on the Technical Panel, counties, county work groups, and technical service providers and the stakeholders represented on the Statewide Advisory Committee.
These meetings wouldn’t replace the interactions between all of those entities at the local county watershed work group level, but to complement it. Some state agencies (WDFW is a good example) use regional staff to engage at the local level, and this scheduled communication wouldn’t replace or supplant that, but is intended to broaden the ability of the entities to coordinate communication with the county watershed work group.
The Commission stresses that the time set aside on each agenda dedicated for each county wouldn’t be the only time that the county work group could come and communicate with the Technical Panel and Statewide Advisory Committee, but each county would receive priority for the timeslot they are assigned. Other counties would be able to be on the agenda, but their timeslot availability would be subordinate to the dedicated timeslot of the assigned county.
The annual meeting schedule begins in 2022 and is based on the final due date for the next 5YR report (now the 10YR report) in 2025:
Again, we stress, that this schedule would not replace communications that are on-going between any VSP entities at the local or state level, but to provide a dedicated “check-in” opportunity for any county that wants to make use of it.
Counties and county watershed work groups are always free to contact the Commission’s VSP Coordinator at any time to see if there is room on the monthly joint VSP meetings for the Technical Panel and Statewide Advisory Committee. Subject to availability, any county can come and present any issue they want at that joint meeting, and are encouraged to do so. Contact Bill Eller at beller@scc.wa.gov or by phone at 509-385-7512 if you have questions or want to get on any meeting agenda.
|
