MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS' MEETING
Feb. 8, 2007
Call to Order/ Roll call – determination of a Quorum
Chair Steiner called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Chair Steiner called roll. Directors present were Arant, Barrett, Bond, Bowersox, Brammell, Croucher, Ferguson, Hilliker, Hogan, Johnson, Knutson, Lewinger, Lewis, Linden, McMillan, Morrison, Parker, Petty, Pocklington, Price, Quist, Saunders, Smith, Steiner, Thompson, Watton, Williams, and Wornham. Directors absent were Dailey, Martin, Muir, Rogers, Tu and Representative Slater-Price. At that time, there was a quorum of the Board. Staff present was General Manager Stapleton, General Counsel Hentschke, Deputy General Manager Lanspery, Assistant General Manager Cushman, and others. In addition, Trudy Sopp, Ph.D. was the facilitator of the meeting.
Consideration of 2007-2008 Board Priorities
Chair Steiner began the meeting by announcing the Water Authority had developed a Strategic Plan in 1995. She stated in 2002 the Master Plan was developed, and Committees had developed Goals and Objectives biannually. A Business Plan was developed which was a good operating tool for staff. She stated all of these documents would need to be linked in a new Strategic Plan, that this would be a huge undertaking, and likely would take one year to develop. She asked the Directors if they felt there was a need to have a Strategic Plan. Director Croucher responded he felt it would be a good idea and it would provide education for the new Board members, and would bring the agency together at all levels. Directors Knutson and Lewinger also spoke in support of developing a Strategic Plan. Chair Steiner stated her concept was to develop a five-year Strategic Plan that would be revisited every year for necessary adjustments.
Director Johnson made a motion to:
1. Develop a Strategic Plan.
Director Croucher seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
Chair Steiner then discussed the variety of methodologies used to develop a Strategic Plan. She asked which of the Board members had developed a plan within the past five years. Several Directors commented they had been involved in developing a Strategic Plan.
Director Petty made the following motion:
2. The Strategic Plan when developed would be revisited each year.
Director Quist stated he would like to see the plan go beyond a five-year period,
Director Croucher agreed.
Director Petty withdrew his motion. The motion to withdraw was seconded by
Chair Steiner. It was decided more discussion was needed before agreeing to a specific timetable.
Ms. Sopp spoke of focusing on two areas: what would be the “outcome”, and
what would be the “process” of a Strategic Plan. She described what typically went into developing a Strategic Plan. She covered the SWOT analysis: strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and the link between mission/vision to goals/objectives and performance measures. She stated scenario planning is often included in a process like this as is “best practices” and benchmarking.
Ms. Sopp facilitated a discussion with the Board on both the “outcome” and the “process.” A list is attached of the outcome and process items provided by Board members during the discussion.
Director Wornham made the following motion:
3. Develop an Ad Hoc Committee to review the options and bring a recommendation back to the Board for consideration.
The motion was seconded by Director Croucher and carried unanimously.
Chair Steiner requested that Board members interested in serving on the Ad Hoc Committee notify her via e-mail of their interest.
Chair Steiner presented a homework assignment to the Board members requesting they begin listing their strategic issues. Director Petty asked a question regarding the cost of a consultant. Chair Steiner responded the Ad Hoc Committee would be looking into the cost component of hiring a consultant.
Adjournment
There being no further business to come before the Board, Chair Steiner adjourned the meeting at 2:35 p.m.
______________________________
Fern M. Steiner, Chair
STRATEGIC PLANNING OUTCOMES
What do you want from a Strategic Plan?
• Brings the organization together
• Helps focus on common goals
• All the plans should be tied together
• Gives us a chance to focus on where we want to be 10 years from now – we need to look at the forest
• Long range thinking
• Time frames - 5 years; 10 years
• Need to help us obtain new water; water supply is the goal
• Need to review it each year
• Set a 20-year goal to accomplish a certain amount of acre-feet
• Never running out of water is the primary goal – how to accomplish this 5, 10, 20 years from now
• 10-20 year goal of water diversification; each year track it
• Don’t want to reinvent the wheel – want to look at the history and other documents
• Look at the strategic areas – start with mission/vision; define our core objectives and the goals under each and the critical success factors
• By the time we are done, we should be able to hand this document off to other agencies (for example SANDAG) so they know what we are focusing on
• Mission statement needs to be updated
• Need a gatekeeper so we do not end up analyzing “our navel”
• What should we be doing to optimize our standing in the water industry; what should we be doing and who should be doing that? Metropolitan Water District? Water Authority? Retail agencies?
• This process should help us clarify who is best to do what to accomplish our goals; what part do we play and what part do other agencies play
• The Master Plan has been very helpful but needs to be updated and rolled into our Strategic Plan
• Provider of water is our main goal; analyzing what restraints come into play to meet that goal
• Be clear what our mission is - reliability and affordability needs to be looked at
STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS
• Needs to include all of us in the process; include the stakeholders
• Hire a consultant in order to do it right
• Conduct a RFP process
• Create an Ad Hoc Committee to look at format options and bring recommendations forward to the Board
• Clarify timeframe and what the consultant will actually do
• Approximately 6 months – one year timeframe
• Board needs to begin thinking about what the strategic issues are so when the consultant interviews Board members they have given the issue some thought
• There will probably be a Workshop to go over the strategic issues the Board identifies
• Board members need to volunteer/submit their name to be on Ad Hoc Committee
• Be sure there is “chemistry” with the consultant selected and that their approach to strategic planning is an acceptable format to the Board
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