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March 2003 Meeting Minutes
PACD Executive Council Meeting
Holiday Inn Harrisburg/Hershey, Grantville, PA
Wednesday March 12, 2003
Welcome (Rohall)
PACD President Ron Rohall called the meeting to order at 9:00 am.
Roll Call (Hildenbrandt)
PACD Secretary George Hildenbrandt called the roll. Twenty-nine counties
were present, which constituted a quorum.
Minutes of October 31, 2002 (Hildenbrandt)
PACD Secretary George Hildenbrandt presented the minutes from the last
meeting for approval.
It was moved by Hildenbrandt (Centre) and seconded by Baker (Mifflin)
to accept the minutes from the last meeting as read. The motion carried.
Ron Rohall announced an addition to the agenda. After the NRCS Report
by Robin Heard, Joanne Nardone will report on the Teaming for Tomorrow
workshops that took place during the PACD Winter Region Meetings
President's Report (Rohall)
PACD President Ron Rohall presented his report, which included the following
items:
• PACD has purchased the building at 25 North Front Street.
Rohall thanked Kathleen Banski, Yvonne Harhigh and Teresa Gaye-Rohall
for setting up and acting as hosts during visits to the new building
during Capitol Day, Tuesday March 11, 2003. The board will create
a task force to review handicap accessibility for the new building
and present suggestions.
• PACD has hired a new Communication Specialist, Shannon Eberly,
who will be working on the PACD newsletter News & Notes and the
website along with other duties.
• PACD will be creating a listserve for directors and also a
separate listserve for Watershed Specialists. Both listserves will
be run through the PACD website (www.PACD.org).
• PACD is planning a forum to be held sometime in July of 2003
to address the role of districts in education. We will be inviting
at least one director and one staff person from each district to come
to a facilitated one-day meeting. The goal is to examine what districts
are doing now in education, both in dollars and hours of staff time,
and to determine the common denominator in conservation education
among districts. This will help PACD to request education funding
that the districts can fully support and that will meet district needs.
• Ron reminded attendees that there will be an election for PACD
President at the next Executive Council Meeting at the Joint Annual
Conference in July, and noted that it is time to revisit PACD's strategic
plan to help guide the organization's priorities. The last strategic
plan was drawn up in 1999 and many goals have been accomplished or
discarded. In the past developing a strategic plan has involved convening
a group in one location for one or two days. This time we are going
to incorporate creation of the strategic plan into the PACD Fall Region
Meetings for 2003 so that we can get feedback from as many directors
as possible. PACD will communicate details about exactly how we are
going to do this in the upcoming months prior to the meetings. A committee
will be put together to create a strategic plan based on the information
gained at the Region Meetings.
• Ron thanked the PACD staff for all of their great work.
• Ron also thanked Barbara Marbain for her many years of work
chairing the PACD Urban Land Use Committee and announced that she
has recently resigned due to the time demands of her successful business.
PACD will be looking for a new chair for that committee.
• Question: What is a listserve? Answer: A listserve is
a communication network. Any director who has an e-mail address can
sign up for the district director listserve. Then any director who
is on the listserve can send an e-mail message to a special listserve
e-mail address and that message will go to everyone on the listserve.
• Question: Why are we creating a listserve specifically
for Watershed Specialists? Answer: We received a number of requests
for a listserve at the last Watershed Specialist training meeting,
so we are going to try to provide this as a service to them.
• Question: What audience are we looking for to attend
the education forum in July? Answer: We would like to see at least
one director and one staff person from each district, preferably the
person on staff who would be most able to answer the questions we
are asking about district education programs and needs. We will probably
be sending out a survey ahead of time.
Executive Director's Report (Fox)
PACD Executive Director Susan Fox presented a written report of her
activities since the last PACD Executive Council Meeting. Highlights
of the report included:
• PACD has continued work on water resources legislation. The
legislation was successfully passed, and uses a regional approach
based on watershed river basins. District directors have a direct
role in the process, with at least two and up to four directors on
each regional committee. Susan expressed hope that districts have
submitted director names to their county commissioners for nomination
to these important committee positions. It will probably be at least
two months before the appointments will be announced. PACD is sending
in nominations for the state committee and will also be sending in
names for the regional committees under the category other conservation
and environmental interests.
• Susan announced that she was recently elected President of
the State Council of Farm Organizations (SCFO), of which PACD is a
member. The SCFO works with legislators to promote agriculture and
agricultural organizations.
• Susan represents PACD at a number of meetings each year. So
far this year, this has included attending and presenting updates
at the PACD Winter Region Meetings, as well as attending the NACD
Annual Meeting.
• PACD is working on the establishment of a certifying organization
for the Pennsylvania Environmental Agricultural Conservation Certification
of Excellence (PEACCE) program. PACD is looking to be part of a corporation
that is being formed by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Penn
State University and PACD. The program will include an on-farm analysis
in which someone surveys the farm operation and provides recommendations.
The farmer will then take a training program provided by Penn State,
and the conservation districts will follow a checklist to make sure
the farmer has met all state requirements. When all of these qualifications
are met, the certifying board will provide an award and a sign for
the farmer to display on his property, recognizing the farmer for
going above and beyond what is required in the areas of the environment
and conservation.
• Meeting planning continues to be a part of staff activities.
The PACD/SCC Joint Annual Conference will be held in Altoona July
20 - 22, 2003; Molly Burns, PACD Administrative Assistant, has been
working on the planning committee. The Legislative Conference next
year will be held in downtown Harrisburg, which will be convenient
both to the Capitol and to the PACD headquarters.
• PACD staff is coordinating one session of Boot Camp in April,
and is also working with DEP to coordinate the Water Reuse and Recycle
Symposium in the spring.
• Training and outreach activities also continue, including development
of materials for use with local governments.
• The PACD website is revised and updated on an on-going basis.
Susan encouraged everyone to visit the site regularly, as it changes
daily.
• PACD staff are working on the 2003 Susquehanna River Celebration,
which will be held June 7th on City Island in Harrisburg.
• As part of our grant activities for DEP, PACD is also working
on the CAFO Roundtable to be held this fall.
• PACD recently announced recipients of the 2003 Mini-Project
grants.
• Two staff members are working on the Big Bay program, participating
on the education workgroup in an effort to promote education about
the Chesapeake Bay as a larger entity.
• Publication of our monthly newsletter, News & Notes also
continues.
• Administration and management has recently included work on
the due diligence process for the purchase of our new building. We
have also been working with an architect on a renovation plan. Renovations
are not major and include carpeting and painting. Our goal is to be
in the new building by July 1.
• PACD has hired a new Communication Specialist, Shannon Eberly.
• Other grant activities continue, including Growing Greener
grant application and management.
• PACD continues to administrate the Engineering Technical Assistance
grant program.
There were no questions about the report.
NACD Report (Sueck)
NACD Director Patricia Sueck gave the following report:
• Sueck reported that she attended the Farm Bill Summit in
November in St. Louis. It was an excellent meeting. There was a good
coalition of people and organizations in attendance. The meeting offered
a good opportunity for communication, a neutral zone where various
organizations could reach a general agreement on what they wanted
for conservation. There will be another meeting at the upcoming NACD
Legislative Conference the week of March 17, 2003.
• Pat urged everyone to visit the NACD website (www.nacdnet.org).
A wealth of up-to-date information is available there.
• Sueck reported that she was in Florida for the NACD Legislative
Conference in February, along with Ron Rohall and Susan Fox. It was
an excellent and well-attended meeting that offered good conferences
and educational sessions and good opportunities for dialogue. There
is a new policy book; if you have an interest in it, just let Pat
know.
• Pat encouraged everyone to sign themselves or someone else
up for an NACD membership to help raise funds for NACD. She noted
that PACD and the districts receive a lot of services from NACD, and
urged everyone to pay their dues on time and to pay them early if
they can.
• Pennsylvania received an award this year for being a top ten
dues-paying state.
• Pat announced that next year's NACD meeting will be held in
Hawaii. She noted that this year's meeting was very well attended
from Pennsylvania and asked that districts notify the PACD office
if they are going to be attending the NACD meeting. It may be possible
to put a package deal together for the counties who are planning to
attend. (Pat took a show of hands, which indicated positive interest
in a package deal for counties.)
There were no questions about the report.
Ron Rohall added that Gary Mast, a farmer from eastern Ohio, is the
new NACD President. Ron said that Mast has a particularly good handle
on issues for western and northwestern Pennsylvania. He also noted that
he will be attending the NACD Legislative Conference the week of March
17th, along with Susan Fox, Pat Sueck, and PACD Secretary George Hildenbrandt.
Treasurer's Report (Duvall)
PACD Treasurer Porter Duvall presented the budget report for fiscal
year 07/01/02 - 02/28/03.
It was moved by Duvall (Jefferson) and seconded by Sueck (York)
to accept the report as read. The motion carried.
Dues certificates were presented to counties present who had paid their
PACD dues in full by the time of the meeting. Ron Rohall thanked them
for paying their dues and included a reminder that these funds are very
important to the work PACD does on behalf of Pennsylvania and the districts.
PACD Building Update (Rohall)
No additional comments were presented. There were no questions.
Report of District Operations Committee (Miller)
PACD 1st Vice President Jarrett Miller presented the minutes from
the District Operations Committee meeting of March 11, 2003.
He highlighted the following items:
- There were no resolutions presented from any of the committees.
- Molly Burns, PACD Administrative Assistant, gave an update on the
Joint Annual Conference.
- In her report Sarah Long, PACD Auxiliary President, stressed that
the Auxiliary is for all spouses and that as more and more women become
district directors, husbands are encouraged to participate in Auxiliary
activities.
It was moved by Miller (Erie) and seconded by Robinson (Wyoming)
to accept the District Operation minutes as read. The motion carried.
There were no questions about the report.
Updates from PACD Committees or PACD Representatives
Ron Rohall reminded everyone that various individuals regularly represent
PACD on a number of committees. These representatives report back to
PACD with information important to the districts.
Ron noted that Bernadine Lennon has been representing PACD on the Forest
Stewardship Committee. She has recently resigned and PACD will be looking
for another representative for that position.
Ron also took this opportunity to introduce Steve Taglang, who is the
new Section Chief for Conservation District Support for DEP. Steve is
taking over for Bruce Holbrook, who recently retired.
NRCS Report (Heard)
Robin Heard presented the NRCS Report. Highlights include:
• Robin reported that the NRCS chief is optimistic that NRCS
employees can compete with others in the competitive sourcing process.
The timing for this is difficult and it is a stressful time for staff.
All support for NRCS staff in the field is appreciated.
• The budget is expected to arrive later in April. This will
include farm bill allocations. It will be a tight timeframe to get
local decisions made and to have staff implement those programs. Robin
wants to push as many decisions down to the local level as she can.
Given the timeframe, we will probably phase in these decisions.
• Although the rules are not in yet, producers need to be signing
up for farm bill programs, including EQIP. A State Technical Committee
Meeting will be held March 27, 2003 to make some final decisions about
the EQIP program. Major areas of concern include grazing, other livestock
manure management issues relating to air and water quality, soil erosion,
soil health, and drought proofing. There will also be ranking to address
wildlife issues, endangered species and forestry issues. There is
also a plan for the Agricultural Management Assistance Program (AMA)
to add an irrigation component to the program this year. A State Technical
Sub-Committee meeting of the AMA is scheduled on March 17, 2003.
• Twenty-three additional counties have been added to the CREP
program, bringing in 100,000 additional acres for a total of 200,000
acres overall. Sign-ups for the first CREP amount to 83,000 acres
of the total 100,000 allotted. The plan is to continue to take sign-ups
for the first CREP counties until they reach 120,000 acres, which
should make up for any dropout.
• Technical Service Providers are for farm bill assistance only.
We can still use them for non-farm bill programs, but the money that
is supposed to come available is for farm bill work.
• The web-based system for Technical Service Providers to sign
up went into effect March 1st. Service Providers are supposed to use
the site to sign up, and producers can also go onto the website to
select Technical Service Providers if they choose to.
• No decisions have been made regarding NRCS office closures.
Robin asked USDA for a list of sites that met tentative criteria and
since then rumors have been flying. However, no decisions have been
made; there are no criteria for office closures set down yet. Robin
said they will probably have to close some offices in Pennsylvania,
but hopefully not more than three or four.
• Question: Elaborate on self certification for Technical
Service Providers. How will this effect districts? Answer: The self-certification
process includes conservation planning, but Robin does not know how
this will effect districts. More discussion is needed. Normally, certification
for conservation planning is a long process that takes years. The
list of Technical Service Providers is there for producers, so that
NRCS can use farm bill money to do farm bill programs. Producers can
go onto the website to choose Technical Service Providers to do the
work, but the work has to be up to par, and there will be a quality
assurance component.
• Question: Can you explain what the CO1 account is and
what it means to districts? Why is it important to keep this fund
in the budget? Answer: Starting in 1985, districts found that NRCS
was spending more and more time on farm bill activities. This was
detracting from work supporting the districts, which has traditionally
been a priority for NRCS. The Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA)
portion of the Conservation Operations Budget Account (CO1) provides
funds for these programs, including acid mine drainage, conservation
planning to support plan protection, growing greener work, dirt and
gravel roads, biosolids, work with watershed groups, general conservation
planning and more. Anything that is not funded through Farm Bill programs
(like EQIP) is funded through the CO1 fund.
• Robin urged everyone: please let your legislators know what
districts are doing for you.
Teaming for Tomorrow Update (Joanne Nardone)
Joanne Nardone from DEP presented highlights from her written report
on the Teaming for Tomorrow workshops that took place at the PACD Winter
Region Meetings.
• Attendance numbers for the region meetings were some of the
highest ever. This is excellent, as more and more attendance means
more and more input from directors. Fifty-five of the sixty-six districts
participated.
• Written comments collated by the session coordinators were
overall very good. There were good comments about the content. There
were some areas identified where participants wanted the training
to do more. There were some negative comments, but mostly that people
wanted more time for the training, which is a good thing.
• The follow-up mailing from the session will include: evaluation
results; the most frequent comments received on what directors need
from managers and staff; the most frequent comments received on what
managers and staff need from directors; sheets listing what needs
to be done back in each individual county; and ideas on how to share
the training with others in your county.
• The number one thing that directors want from their staff is
more communication. This includes communication and education on program
requirements that staff have to deal with; more communication with
directors about issues between staff; and an honest and candid approach
to communication with directors (don't sugar coat it). Second, directors
say they want a clear concise agenda for meetings. Third, they want
good information, not too much or too little, but just what they need
to know to do their job and make decisions.
• The number one thing that staff members want from directors
is: be prepared. Staff want directors to be better prepared regarding
what is going to be discussed at meetings. Joanne noted that directors
and staff essentially want the same thing. The staff is hoping to
get more communication outside the monthly meeting. They want feedback.
Also they want directors to provide vision and direction. They want
to rally around what the board sees as the mission of the district.
Working as a team is primary, and communication is primary to teamwork.
• Joanne thanked everyone for coming out to the region meetings
to participate in the workshops.
Ron Rohall added that the leadership development team is a group of
individuals from PACD, districts, DEP, NRCS, and the SCC. Joanne is
the person who coordinates these efforts, and the Dept of Agriculture
provides funds. Ron stated that it is an excellent partnership.
SCC Report (Brown)
Karl Brown, Executive Secretary for the SCC, provided copies of the
annual report for the SCC and presented the following report:
• Karl noted that districts that have an old right-to-know
policy (from before September 2002) are strongly advised to revisit
and update their policy. Districts that do not have a right-to-know
policy are likewise encouraged to adopt one. He said that the Commission
has a draft policy districts can use. County Commissioners may have
asked districts to adopt a policy. Karl stressed that, whatever policy
is adopted, it is important to be sure that it complies with the new
requirements of the law. If districts are using a county policy, Douglas
Brennan with DEP legal is available to take a look at it. Be pro-active
and make sure that your district's policy is up-to-date.
• Karl thanked those in attendance for coming to the meeting
and also for visiting with legislators during Capitol Visit Day. He
noted that it is a tight budget year, and said that the SCC has put
some money into reserves. Next year will probably not be better. These
budget restraints are painful but necessary. Many other states are
in much worse shape; many counterparts in other states are losing
20% or more of their budget.
• Regarding the nutrient management program, the Commission is
in the process of revising regulations to address key issues, such
as phosphorus indexing and the exporting of manure. Karl asked that
people take time to review and comment on the new regulations. Karl
thanked the districts for the hard work they do in nutrient management
and encouraged them to let the SCC know if they can help, particularly
if a particular plan might be controversial.
• The SCC is in the third year of the nutrient management grants
program. Between the grants program and the Agrilink low interest
loan program, the SCC has put out about 13 million dollars to 283
different participants in the last three years. They anticipate having
at least 3 to 4 million in the next fiscal year (beginning July 1)
for that grant program. The first application cycle has just closed
and a new cycle has begun. From now on applications will be accepted
in January, May and June so that as much grant money as possible can
be in, processed, and committed within the fiscal year. Some comments
have been received that timeliness for payments for these programs
needs to improve. They are working on it, but it is a process. They
will be doing whatever they can to improve the timeliness of payments.
• Dirt and gravel road training will be held in State College
June 2 - 4, 2003. The program has done about 900 projects in the last
four years, which is great progress. Overall, though, that is 900
out of 11000 sites that have been identified as needing work, so there
is still lots of work to do. Penn State provides great support for
this program, and it greatly appreciated. Karl added that some people
have asked why we don't go after new money for this program. The answer,
he said, is that the money for this program comes from a dedicated
fund drawn from the gas tax, which is not updated very often. The
window for obtaining more funds will probably be opening up soon,
and when it does they will be looking for more funds.
• Over the next few months the SCC will be rewriting a five-year
agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. This agreement
governs funds for Ag Conservation Technicians, farmland preservation
support, leadership development, and other programs. Karl asked districts
to please respond to any queries they might receive regarding these
guideline revisions.
• There will be one advanced Boot Camp training course this year
beginning April 28, 2003. The course is funded through the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture. There were not enough applicants to support
a basic session this year, so as many people as possible have been
placed in this advanced session. There will be over forty participants.
Karl said that they will try to work to get the people who need basic
training the instruction they need. There will also be a summer agronomy
session this year.
• Karl stressed the importance of the Leadership Development
Program, stating that it may be one of the most important initiatives
in the last ten years. Districts are growing and this training is
critical to prepare everyone for new things that are coming down the
road. Karl thanked Joanne Nardone for all of her hard work and mentioned
that we need more people to provide support for these programs, not
only on the regional level, but also on the county level. Karl pointed
out that at the Northeast region meeting there were some counties
that had five or more directors in attendance, which is wonderful.
• Karl asked directors to keep attentive to action requests coming
from PACD and others regarding the budget.
• There are two new commission members: Kate McGinty, Secretary
of Environmental Protection and Dennis Wolff, Secretary of Agriculture.
Karl encouraged everyone: invite these new members out to your county.
Get to know them, get your programs in front of them and make that
contact.
• Karl thanked PACD, NRCS, DEP, PDA, the district directors and
staff for all of their hard work.
There was a comment from the audience that Karl's point about budget
reserves was an excellent one; these reserves are very important.
PACD Conservation Awards for 2003 (Rohall)
Ron Rohall announced the recipients of the PACD Conservation Awards
for 2003. They are:
• Conservation Organization of the Year:
Lebanon County, Doc Fritchey Chapter - Trout Unlimited
• Elected Official Recognition Award:
Westmoreland County, P. Scott Conner, County Commissioner
• Ann Rudd Saxman Conservation Award:
Cambria County, Robert Ritchey
• Conservation Farmer:
Westmoreland County, The Graham Family
• Conservation Educator:
Bucks County, Cindy DeMaria
• William Lange Urban Conservation Award:
Pike County, Bernadine Lennon
Ron also announced that the winners of the PACD raffle were Barry Frantz
and Carl Goshorn.
Report from PACD Auxiliary (Sarah Long)
PACD Auxiliary President Sarah Long provided the following report:
• Scholarship information is available via the Auxiliary page
of the PACD website (www.pacd.org/about/auxiliary.htm). Districts
should call PACD or the Blair County Conservation District office
with any questions.
• Sarah encouraged everyone in attendance to bring someone out
to the Joint Annual Conference in Altoona in July.
• She noted that the NACD Auxiliary has asked the PACD Auxiliary
to contact districts who have gotten the stewardship package in previous
years.
• Long also reported that the Auxiliary has tickets for the NACD
Auxiliary quilt. The quilt is currently in Pennsylvania, as Bill Lange
won the quilt this year.
Announcements and Adjournment
A question was asked of Susan Fox: Will PACD be providing districts
with a News Release from the 2003 NACD Legislative Conference? Answer:
We did not prepare one this year, but we can do so if there is interest.
The meeting was adjourned.
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