Meeting since late last year the group indicated that its work is close to completion, but a few more months should lead to a completed product.
Following about 50 minutes of discussion, the board voted unanimously to have the committee bring back a final document at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Committee Chair Marc Hooper told the board that the group formed on Dec. 12, 2008. The committee has 13 members – 10 of which were in attendance – along with six alternates.
The groups members include Victoria Brandon, Lars Crail, Steve Devoto, Melissa Fulton, Jeff Gleaves, Sky Hoyt, Paul Lauenroth, Sequoia Lyn-Franklin, Andre Ross, JoAnn Saccato, Michelle Scully, Liz Weiss and Dr. Broc Zoller. Alternates include Deb Baumann, Dr. Glenn Benjamin, Stephen Grammer, Lori Gray, Larry Heine and Hooper, who despite being an alternate has facilitated the meetings.
He said the committee met 17 times from January through August, and established a definition of consensus for its work that requires “general agreement among voting members with up to two abstentions and none in opposition.”
A seventh draft of the final report is nearly completion but it hasn't yet been approved by the committee, said Hooper.
By the committee's last meeting on Aug. 17, “We had reached no final recommendation for the Board of Supervisors,” said Hooper.
They did have a proposal for the regulation of GE crops in Lake County which is listed as Proposal 11 (which can be found at the GE Crop Advisory Committee page on the county Web site at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Boards/AdvisoryBoard/Genetically_Engineered_Crops_Advisory_Committee/Member_Proposals.htm ) that contains 10 points.
Among those points are allowing commercial growers to grow GE crops with a registration obtained from the agricultural commissioner, the supervisors' establishing a GE Review Committee and compliance audits for approved growers.
“If we had a little bit more time to work on this we might be able to reach consensus on all 10 proposals,” said Hooper.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he met with Victoria Brandon and Broc Zoller on Monday, and they indicated more time would be helpful. “I agree after talking to them that possibly a few more meetings could accomplish that,” he said, noting, “Everyone wants to get it done.”
Brown, who along with Board Chair Denise Rushing sat in on some of the meetings, observed, “The time spent on this was unbelievable.”
Rushing said the committee approached its work with seriousness. “I'm blown away by this work. I think you're so close to having something that we can take forward.”
Brown liked the committee at one point to a roller coaster, but said its members had gotten the group back on track.
In the interest of time and focus, Brown suggested dismissing the six alternates – who could still attend the public meetings. Hooper would remain the facilitator, despite being an alternate himself.
Brandon said she's been on county committees before, and none were like this. “We were basically left to define our own mission on a very contentious subject,” she said.
The group's members “have all learned a great deal from each other,” with a lot of energy and concern put into reaching an outcome, she said.
“We've got specific, defined issues that we know are still in debate,” she said.
JoAnn Saccato told the board that the alternates should be allowed to remain. Steve Devoto asked if the board would leave it up to the committee about whether or not to keep the alternates.
Brown said it didn't matter to him, but that the larger the committee, the more unwieldy. “There have been some struggles here,” he said, adding that one female alternate who wasn't at the meeting had been a “hangup in many of these meetings.”
He believed that the alternates issue needed to be decided during the meeting.
Brandon said a group of 19 can be tough to work with because people tend to make speeches at one another. “If we're planning to go ahead on an expedited basis, a smaller group may be helpful,” she said.
Big Valley Environmental Director Sarah Ryan, who has attended the meetings as a member of the public, said she thinks the alternates should stay, and that the woman Brown referred to was a strong environmentalist who should be head. The alternates have been part of the process since the beginning, she said..
Alternate Stephen Grammer agreed with the idea of streamlining the process, adding, “I'm not trying to get out of it.”
Another alternate, Lorrie Gray, told the board, “ I'm slightly offended that now you want to wipe us off of the committee.”
Brown said it was a suggestion that arose from his conversations with six committee members who contacted him.
Devoto said he found it “highly offensive” that Brown was taking complaints from individual committee members. Brown said he wasn't taking complaints, and that he merely was making a suggestion to “speed this thing along.”
Brandon said one of Brown's comments about how the suggestion came about may have been misleading. She said she had discussed committee dynamics with Brown, who asked if she had suggested it was a good idea. Brandon said she agreed that it was a good idea, but that the suggestion “didn't originate here.”
Supervisor Anthony Farrington, noting he was amazed by the documents the group has produced so far, suggested letting the committee chart its own course, and Supervisor Jeff Smith agreed the committee should decide.
Zoller said he found the discussion over the alternate issue “unfortunate,” and suggested it may be a setback that will cost a few meetings to get past.
“I think it's been counterproductive,” Zoller said. He added that the committee has better things to do and the proposal should be dropped.
Rushing asked if the group's standard of consensus will make it hard to come to a final proposal. Brandon said it's possible. “Achieving that level of agreement is always extremely difficult.”
She said they could use a super majority on deciding their issues, but she didn't know that the resulting document would have the same meaning. The committee adopted its consensus rule so they would talk through their issues and not just steamroll those who disagreed.
The committee might not come back with a unanimous proposal, said Brandon.
In that case, Supervisor Jim Comstock suggested if they can't come to a united decision, that they include in their document why they can't and how the group was split in order to give a fair representation of both sides of the issues. He said the Supreme Court does it that way. Fellow board members agreed.
“This, by the way, is an amazing body of work,” said Rushing, with Hooper reminding the board that it isn't yet done.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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