Update from day three of Tulare County Supervisors meetings in Washington, D.C.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tulare County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau provided the following update on Tulare County's meetings with federal officials.

Supervisors Ennis, Worthley and CAO Jean Rousseau met with Mike Holland, Counsel and staff from Congressman Nunes’ office and had a very productive meeting on a number of key issues.  Information gathered from Supervisors’ meetings with ONDCP, Dept. of Agriculture and USFS was shared with Nunes staff who expressed interest, made valuable suggestions as to next steps, and offered assistance with follow up in the area of marijuana eradication efforts.  Mr. Holland assured Supervisors that Nunes would continue to support Lake Success.  Supervisors also took the opportunity to explain some of the options presented by USDA staff for Deer Creek/White River and Frazier Creek and to ask for support to move forward with some of those ideas.  Mr. Holland also discussed some legislation that could potentially assist Tulare County with its rural water needs.

Supervisors Ennis, Worthley and CAO Jean Rousseau met with Ryan Hunt, Legislative Assistant to Senator Dianne Feinstein.  During the discussion of Lake Success and the $18 million included in the President’s budget for the project, Mr. Hunt stated that that the inclusion of the funding in the budget “was absolutely” a result of the meeting attended by Supervisors during their February, 2010 trip to D.C.   After discussing both Lake Success and White River/Deer Creek and Frazier/Strathmore Creek, Mr. Hunt was pleased to learn that Supervisors were meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers later that afternoon and said to let him know the meeting results and offered follow up support.  On the topic of marijuana eradication, Mr. Hunt requested specific information relating to the Supervisors’ request for funding flexibility and an outline of requested changes.

Supervisors then met with Congressman Jim Costa to discuss Lake Success.  Mr. Costa expressed strong support for the project and asked Supervisors to stay in contact with any ideas for continued design work on the project to move it forward.  Supervisors also presented ideas relating to marijuana eradication funding flexibility and Congressman Costa asked to be kept informed of efforts to make any changes to existing rules.

Tulare County Supervisors and CAO Jean Rousseau then met with Steve Stockton, Director of Civil Works, Army Corps of Engineers and Ada Benavides, Deputy Chief of the South Pacific Division, Army Corps of Engineers to discuss Lake Success and White River/Deer Creek and Frazier/Strathmore Creek.  Ms. Benavides explained the current status of the project and was very optimistic about the project continuing to move forward.  The Supervisors very directly questioned intentions to move forward with the project and timeline.  Ms. Benavides assured the Supervisors that appropriate funding would be requested for FY 13/14.  Mr. Stockton described Success as the top 5-10% of projects moving forward within the ACOE.