Inyo County Board of Supervisors
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF INYO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA,
ESTABLISHING LOCAL LAND AND WATER ADVISORY COMMITTEES
WHEREAS, on October 18, 1991, the County of Inyo and the City of Los Angeles entered into an agreement known officially as the "Agreement Between the County of Inyo and the City of Los Angeles and Its Department of Water and Power on a Long Term Groundwater Management Plan For Owens Valley and Inyo County" (Agreement); and
WHEREAS, the California courts having jurisdiction over the groundwater litigation among Inyo County, the City of Los Angeles, and others have subsequently ratified the Agreement, culminating in the Inyo County Superior Court approving and entering, respectively, a Stipulation and Order for Judgment (Judgment) on June 13, 1997, of which Judgment the Agreement is an integral part; and
WHEREAS, this Board now has the responsibility of implementing various aspects of the Agreement, which task will require it to make certain decisions of public concern affecting the lands and waters of Inyo County; and
WHEREAS, in addition to the immediate matters raised by the Agreement there arise from time to time other land and water-related issues requiring a decision of this Board; and
WHEREAS, this Board wishes to receive substantial input and advice from the public to assist it in implementing the Agreement and making other decisions concerning the lands and waters of Inyo County; and
WHEREAS, this Board finds that local advisory committees, composed of interested persons from the communities of the Owens Valley, are an efficient and effective way for it to receive such public input and advice; and
WHEREAS, it is therefore necessary, prudent, and in the public interest to create such local advisory committees and to provide them with operational guidelines to ensure that they not only are formed and act in accordance with State and local law, but perform the functions for which they were created.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Supervisors of the County of Inyo, State of California, that there are hereby created local citizens’ advisory committees in the communities of Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, and Bishop, the latter to include the community of Laws, the purpose of which shall be to develop and provide information, advice, and recommendations to this Board to assist it in implementing the Agreement and in making other decisions relating to land and water in the County.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that such committees shall be known as and called the "Lone Pine Land and Water Advisory Committee," the "Independence Land and Water Advisory Committee," the "Big Pine Land and Water Advisory Committee," and the "Bishop Area Land and Water Advisory Committee," respectively.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that each of the local advisory committees created hereby shall consist initially of seven (7) voting members and three (3) alternates but that, upon its own motion or upon the recommendation of any such committee, this Board may increase or decrease the number of voting members of any such committee to nine (9) or five (5), respectively.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, should the full membership of any local advisory committee not be in attendance at any particular meeting, the chair of that local advisory committee has the authority to designate which alternate members may be allowed to vote at that meeting, so long as the number of voting members at any particular meeting does not exceed the total number of members authorized by the Board of Supervisors.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all appointments to said committees, including those to fill any unscheduled vacancy, shall be made by this Board, upon the recommendation of the Supervisor or Supervisors in whose district the community represented by the advisory committee is located, and shall be made to the extent feasible in accordance with existing County procedures concerning appointments to advisory committees and with the Maddy Local Appointive List Act of 1975, set forth in Government Code section 54970 et seq., which provides for the creation, keeping, and use of a list of appointive positions to which such appointments may be made.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, in addition to the seven voting members appointed by this Board, each advisory committee shall have non-voting ex officio members who shall be the Supervisor and Inyo County Planning Commission member representing the supervisorial district in which the community represented by the local advisory committee is located; in the event that any community represented by a local advisory committee is located in more than one supervisorial district, the Board of Supervisors shall designate which member of the Board of Supervisors and which Planning Commissioner shall be ex officio members of that local advisory committee.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, except for those of ex officio status, members of the local advisory committees created hereby shall serve terms of two (2) years, from the date of their appointment, except that in the case of a committee consisting of five members, one of the original committee members shall serve a term of one (1) year and one of the original committee members shall serve a term of three (3) years, and in the case of a committee consisting of seven members, one of the original committee members shall serve a term of one (1) year and two of the original committee members shall serve terms of three (3) years, and in the case of committee consisting of nine members, two of the original committee members shall serve terms of one (1) year and two of the original committee members shall serve terms of three (3) years.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any committee member who fails to attend three consecutive meetings of their respective committee shall be considered automatically removed and a vacancy shall be determined to have occurred unless good cause is shown. The Board of Supervisors shall be the sole judge as to whether good cause is shown.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that each local advisory committee may from time to time form subcommittees of its voting members to gather information, conduct research, develop recommendations, and perform other tasks as necessary to assist the advisory committee in performing the duties requested of it by the Board of Supervisors pursuant to this Resolution.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that there is also created a committee, to be known as and called the "Inyo County Land and Water Conference Advisory Committee," the sole task of which shall be to consider the recommendations of each of the local advisory committees created by this Resolution with respect to the seventy-five (75) acres of land to be released for sale by the City of Los Angeles pursuant to the Agreement, to integrate and resolve the differences, if any, among those recommendations, and to formulate and present to this Board a single, comprehensive recommendation with respect to the location, use, or disposition of those seventy-five acres.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that said conference committee shall consist of four (4) members, one from the voting membership of each of the four local advisory committees created by this Resolution, who shall be appointed by this Board upon the recommendation of the member(s) of this Board who sits as an ex officio member of the respective advisory committee.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that members of the conference committee shall serve for an indefinite term, at the pleasure of this Board, subject to the expiration of the member’s local advisory committee term.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the local advisory committees and the County-wide conference committee created hereby, and their meetings, shall be subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act, set forth in Government Code section 54950 et seq.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the local advisory committees created by this Resolution are advisory only and shall have no general jurisdiction or authority with respect to land or water issues; the committees shall only have such jurisdiction and authority as is necessary to perform the specific tasks requested of them from time to time by this Board.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Inyo County Planning Department shall assist in the formation, organization, and function of the local advisory committees and the conference committee created hereby and shall act as a liaison between those committees and the County of Inyo.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that members of the local advisory committees and the conference committee created hereby shall serve thereon without compensation, with the exception that they shall be reimbursed for vehicle mileage costs incurred for travel to local advisory committee meetings and conference committee meetings that require a round-trip in excess of fifteen (15) miles. Such expenses will be reimbursed by the Board of Supervisors in accordance with its customary mileage reimbursement rates.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 4th day of October, 1997, by the following vote:
ATTEST: Ren L. Mendez, Clerk of the Board
* Amendments to Resolution 97-68 are shown in bold and italic in paragraphs ten, eleven, thirteen and fourteen. These amendments were passed by the Board of Supervisors on November 12, 1997 in Resolution 97-81, to allow for alternates to the Advisory Committee members, and on October 27, 1998 in Resolution 98-61, to provide for alternate terms of office and continued membership participation.