Agenda - 05-15-2007-7a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dr. Vizithum said that the position should be located in the department that would be relying the most on the position's work products. It would be more efficient for the position to be located within the Health Department, he said, because "the Health Department is going to be the primary user of the information generated by the position." Mr. McIver said that the new position would best be housed in the ERCD. The primary users of the information to be provided by the new position will be Planning and Health, he said, with other departments -- including ERCD -being secondary users. "Since ERCD is responsible for overseeing water resources generally," he said, "and not a primary user of the information, then ERCD could best insure that the work of the new position serves all relevant departments." Placing the position within ERCD would best protect the position against "mission creep," he said. • There appeared to be a consensus that the position always "remain connected," and be in service, to multiple Departments wherever the position is eventually housed. In fact, there appeared to be agreement that the person in this new position should be responsible for "developing a comrnunity of users" for the technical/scientific information s/he will be generating and interpreting. Both the Health Department and ERCD have "interdepartmental infrastructures" through which they initiate and maintain collaboration with others. Where ever the position is placed, "it will require some work" to create a tangible multi- departmental team around water resources management. • Dr. Rimer said that the position should be located where the resources exist to ensure the person can succeed. Different group members had different ideas about which County department would best support the new position, as follows: o Dr. Rimer said that the individual's professional background should match or be complemented by the professional backgrounds of the other employees in the department. In response to a question from Dr. Rimer, Mr. Stanch and Dr. Summers inventoried the backgrounds of the relevant people within their Departments. Mr. Stanch noted that he has been the lead in developing the County's Water Resources Initiative and in coordinating several background watershed protection and water resources studies over the last 18 years that led up to that initiative. He said that his staff includes a biological resources specialist. (Land Conservation Manager), a Cultural Resources Specialist (historic preservation, archaeology, agricultural preservation), a Landscape Architect, a GIS Project Coordinator, and a Resource Conservation Technician (who is the staff person that collected and still processes and enters the .ground water database information). Dr. Summers said that her staff includes the environmental health director, an environmental health supervisor, a doctoral prepared microbiologist, two licensed soils scientists, and 3 additional environmental health specialists. • Dr. Rimer said that the position should be housed within the department in control of the database(s) upon which the position will be working. According to Dr. Surmners and Mr. Stanch, both Health and ERCD share a common GIS database with information on new wells and different aspects of water quality and water quantity.