A contract to bridge four agencies in managing the Santa Ynez River Valley Groundwater Basin’s east sector is one step closer to sign-offs after two years of negotiations.
During its June 10 meeting, the Solvang City Council reviewed a proposed arrangement between the city, the Santa Barbara County Water Agency, the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, and the latter’s Improvement District to form a separate joint powers agency (JPA) to govern the Eastern Management Area (EMA) of the basin.
One representative from each agency currently serves as a board member on the EMA’s Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), which will provide start-up funds to create the new JPA. One key component of the JPA will be choosing someone to fill its leadership role, known as agricultural director.
Solvang City Council Member Elizabeth Orona—who acts as Solvang’s GSA representative—described the agricultural director as “the voice of the property and business owners” in the EMA (which includes Solvang and the Santa Ynez uplands) who rely on the groundwater basin “to sustain their properties, … primarily vineyards.”
Applications for the role will be open to property owners or property representatives within the EMA’s boundaries “involved in commercial agriculture which produces at least 2 acre-feet per year of groundwater,” according to Solvang’s staff report.
Qualified nominees will be reviewed by the GSA, whose board members will vote to decide who’s appointed. Getting the role will require a unanimous vote.
Throughout negotiations on forming the JPA, one major obstacle between the four agencies was agreeing upon how to fund it, according to Orona.
“We did settle on … the final sticking point, and a tough one to overcome,” Orona said at the Solvang City Council’s June 10 meeting. “All four agency participants will contribute to the initial operational funding.”
According to the staff report, each of the four GSA agencies “have agreed to put up $50,000 each to fund start-up costs” of the proposed JPA.
After the Solvang City Council adopted the final joint powers agreement with a 5-0 vote, City Manager Randy Murphy said that Solvang is the first of the four agencies to do so as of June 10, and the remaining three are expected to review the draft sometime before July.
“It’s been a long road,” said City Attorney Chelsea O’Sullivan, who added that the GSA will conduct regular business as usual in the interim before the JPA is finalized and its agricultural director is appointed.
This article appears in Jun 13-23, 2024.