07-12-1999 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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The District is exploring ways to make the management of the District’s resources more cost efficient. On Friday, March 12,1999, the District hosted a round table discussion with city managers and public works staff. The information which resulted from this meeting should help the District better define its leadership role in policy development and fiscal accountability. the attendees suggested the District should develop cost sharing options, define system-wide versus local watershed functions and develop appropriate cost-benefit analyses to determine whom should pay and how much they should pay. In other words, the District should reexamine its policy of funding all projects on an ad valorem basis. O ther Recommendations The BWSR report also contained two recommendations directed to the Commissioners and the cities within the District. First, the Commissioners should establish, in coordination with cities and other District constituents, a set of “guiding principles and standards” for selecting and . reviewing the performance of District managers. Second, cities, which have not already done so, should designate a technical and policy representative to act as liaison with the District. The District and Cities have largely addressed the second of these recommendations. However, the first recommendation has remains undeveloped. The Commissioners, as the appointing and recalling authority for the District’s board of managers, have a clear leadership role in monitoring the effective management of water and related land resources in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and in the other watershed management organizations in Hennepin County. It was in this capacity that the Commissioners acted, when in September of 1997 they requested the BWSR revdew the District’s activities. The Commissioners would benefit from the establishment of a way to measure the success of the District board or an individual manager. The BWSR again recommends that the Commissioners develop a set of standards and a performance review procedure for the selection, appointment and reappointment of watershed district managers in Hennepin County. Performance measures might include interviews with District, City and County staff that work with the District board or manager on a regular basis, re^^ew of manager per diem and other individual expenses, review of the cost effectiveness of District programs by independent audit or any number of other indices the Commissioners feel would be useful in adding their decision-making. June 15,1999 BWSR Report to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners on the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District Page 4