VIRGIN VALLEY WATER DISTRICT REGULAR BOARD MEETING
VIRGIN VALLEY WATER DISTRICT OFFICE
DECEMBER 1, 2009

Minutes of a Regular Board Meeting of the Virgin Valley Water District Board held on December 1, 2009, at the Virgin Valley Water District Office at 3:00 p.m. Attending were President John Paul, Vice-President Kenyon Leavitt, Secretary-Treasurer Cecil Leavitt, and Board Members Ted Miller and Robert “Bubba” Smith. Also present were Michael Winters General Manager, Michael “Boomer” Johnson Chief Hydrologist, Eric Wilbanks and Bo Bingham District Administrative Legal Counsel and Mary Johnson taking minutes and other interested parties of agenda items.

John Paul called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m.
CPresident ecil Leavitt offered a Prayer and Ted Miller led the pledge.
Public Comment – There was no public comment at this time.

Discussion: Board Comments - None
President of Board Comments – John commented that at the last meeting he had sent notice to everyone that he was out of town on a retreat, but that it was not relayed to the water board.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Kenyon Leavitt made a motion to approve the consent agenda as listed below. Cecil Leavitt seconded this motion and it was unanimously carried. 5-0

1. Discussion & Action - Approve Agenda

2. Discussion & Action – Approve Minutes from 11/17/09 Regular Board Meeting

** End of Consent Agenda**

3. Discussion & Possible Action – Consideration of Vidler Water Company, Inc.’s (“Vidler’) request for certain Virgin Valley Water District (the “District”) documents and records pursuant to the Nevada Public Records laws and of the ongoing Vidler litigation. Issues of discussion and possible action may include, but are not limited to, determining the location where the Virgin Valley Water District will maintain its records, the possible retrieval and return of certain District records and documents from Reno, the handling of the Vidler litigation and the associated records, the manner of review of the District’s documents and records and the disclosure of documents that are properly subject to Vidler Water Company, Inc.’s request

Bubba stated he had a question for legal counsel as they have given the board direction on this and asked if we should go the extra mile and search out other records for general use; not just Vidler records but all records concerning the VVWD. Bo answered stating that NRS 239 requires the District to maintain certain records and also provide those records upon a proper public records request. Vidler has made a request and legal counsel’s recommendation is that the records of the District be maintained in the District office.

Bubba Smith made a motion to direct the District’s general counsel to make arrangements for the District’s previous general counsel, located in Reno, that we make a trip up there and bring any records that we think are pertinent to the Water District’s general business; that our public records be stored here in Mesquite; and that we make available anything that Vidler may not have and may need for their litigation and any other requests that you have as a counsel, any other directions you have given us.

Bo Bingham stated that the one comment he’d make or question on Bubba’s motion is that you mention in your motion that we would make arrangements for the retrieval of those records. Is the motion that we would then either arrange through a shipping company or direct some District staff to go up there and retrieve the records under our direction? Bubba stated that was why he made the motion the way he did. You make the arrangements to bring those here. Bubba further stated that he didn’t know if it was necessary for them to travel up there or if you just need to make the arrangements to get them here so that we can get them either scanned and/or returned and make duplicates of anything we think we don’t possibly have. We’ve been in business for several years so there would be a lot of documents that we already have here on-site. Bo stated, so then your motion would be then that we would be in charge of making those arrangements, how we would want to get them, whether it would be through a shipping company or otherwise? Bubba further stated that you should go that extra mile and provide anything that you think might be pertinent to them and make available to them public records. Bo’s second question was that the motion would include all of the District records that are located in Mr. Benesch’s office? Bubba stated that he thought this was what we would have to do just because of our responsibility per NRS to have those available here; it just doesn’t make sense to come back and say someone else has made a different request, let’s go see if we have those records. Mike asked if it would be proper in Bubba’s motion to request counsel maybe to draft some sort of a record request form that has to be filled out. Bubba stated that this was an excellent point and thought this was only fitting and he would, with permission of the board, that we also make that direction and direct counsel to draft a form for request of public records and a fee associated with that obviously. Ted Miller seconded this motion and it was carried by a vote of 4-1 with Cecil Leavitt opposed.

Mike asked if there was a time certain. John Paul commented ASAP. Bo stated that they would make arrangements immediately after this meeting to have these records transferred.

4. General Manager’s Report

Mike had not included a written report. Mike stated that it seems that we just had a meeting and he didn’t have much to add except that we are progressing with litigation regarding the Vanguard pipe and there would be another deposition on Thursday.

Ted Miller asked if we could direct our legal counsel to investigate this Vidler incident in Lincoln County. He questioned counsel if they were comfortable with what was going on up there and would they like some direction from the board to look into that a little farther? Bo stated that yes, it kind of goes back to agenda item “3” and the handling of the Vidler litigation is one of the considerations and possible action. Bo further stated that they have made effort to come up to speed on this, having discussions with Michael Johnson and Michael Winters and a detailed discussion with one of the opposing attorneys with Vidler trying to get direction that they are heading, and why, and a basis for what they’re doing; but to answer the question, absolutely, we would love to have a better understanding and I think we have expressed this to a couple of board members in the past. Ted questioned if we needed to agendaize that. Bo stated that we could certainly make that an item on the next agenda. Eric stated that the lawsuit was included as part of agenda item #3. Bo stated I don’t know if Ted’s asking us to put that on the next agenda, but as I mentioned previously it was included in item #3 and if you wanted to direct us to get involved in that we would be happy to do that. Ted stated alright, fine that will cover that and that he didn’t have any more. Bo stated when you say that will cover that, you haven’t made a motion to direct us to look at that issue. Bo stated that you could make a motion to do that, but frankly he wasn’t sure that that was completely or totally necessary, as general counsel we should have that right to obtain those records; that we have made effort to obtain those records relative to the Vidler litigation, but we haven’t received them all we’ve requested and thought that it would be wise to make a formal motion in fact if the board was so inclined to do so. Kenyon stated that he thought we were on the general manager’s report. John Paul stated that we were on item four and if we were going to revisit item three, asked if there were any questions for the general manager in his report. John Paul further stated that before we go to item five he would have to address the board on whether or not they want to reconsider revising the motion on item three. Bubba questioned proper procedure since we had already moved on and whether we could open item three back up. Cecil stated that he didn’t think we could officially do it. Bubba also thought that before they voted they should have had an amendment to the motion and to just put it on the next agenda.

5. Hydrologist’s Report

Michael had not included a written report. He informed the board that we were currently doing the AquaGard treatment on well #30. The District is currently operating off of one well and all the reservoirs are full. Last week, RBF Consulting and Boomer drafted a WRDA (Water Resource Development Act) through a representative of Heller’s office for a request for Federal Funding up to 20-30 million dollars for the aquifer recharge project. We would have to complete our feasibility study first and there could be ACOE money also. Boomer also stated that he would be attending depositions beginning tomorrow in Carson City on the technical aspects of the latest Tule Desert Ruling.

6. Public Comment

Don Paff commented on item #3. Erin Russel Hayes a representative with Vidler submitted the letter dated June 8, 2009 regarding the record requests. Morris Workman questioned the Vidler litigation and which litigation this was about and how it affected VVWD. Bo stated that the litigation itself was of public record and that the board could confirm that there was ongoing litigation and that anybody would be free to access public records through the court system, but would caution the board not to discuss any specific aspects of the litigation in an open meeting. Bubba stated that since there was pending litigation he asked the board their feelings of having a closed session again before the next meeting and it was decided to meet one hour before the next regular meeting. Morris Workman asked again what exactly the lawsuit was about. Bo answered that the lawsuit was actually Vidler against the State Engineer and that the District is involved in the State litigation to protect our water.

7. Adjournment

President John Paul adjourned the meeting at 3:42 p.m.

Bo asked that the tape recorder be turned back on and stated that he wanted to be clear that the purpose of item three today was not to determine whether or not the District would comply with NRS 239. There is no formal action required by the board to say we will or will not comply with State law, so Mr. Paff’s comment, I didn’t hear a motion about whether or not we would disclose public records if they’re relevant; but he just wanted to make sure that the motion today was with respect to how the District would go about responding, but it has always been the District’s intention to properly respond.

The minutes of this meeting have been tape-recorded and will remain on file in the District office for a one-year period for public examination.

• Board Meeting Minutes: 2009-12-01 (.pdf 20K)