TITLE
Recommendation to appoint City Engineer Mark Christoffels as the appointed member to the Los Angeles Gateway Region Integrated Regional Water Management Authority, and Parks, Recreation and Marine Manager of Planning and Development Dennis Eschen to serve as the authorized alternate; and authorize City Manager to designate in writing a representative if neither the member nor alternate member can attend. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The State of California, through the State Water Resources Board, has been encouraging regional water management planning through the incentive of grants from State Water Resources development bonds (i.e., Proposition 50 in 2002 and Proposition 84 in 2006). The concept is to integrate water resource planning that has typically been done on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction and function-by-function basis into a unified process encompassing entire watersheds. This would include water supply, storm water runoff, sanitation system, water quality improvements, and habitat restoration in a single plan that proposes multi-use projects that transcend jurisdictions or functions.
Los Angeles County, south of the ridgeline of the San Gabriel Mountains, is the watershed that was defined as the planning group in which Long Beach is located. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has been leading the effort to coordinate and plan with over 200 local agencies, single functional departments within agencies, and special districts. Because of the massive population and number of jurisdictions and special districts in the area, the planning effort was further divided into five sub-regions, with Long Beach included in the Lower Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers sub-region.
On July 24, 2007, the City Council authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement to create a Joint Powers Authority to create the Los Angeles Gateway Region Integrated Regional Water Management Authority (Authority). The Authority was created to develop integrated pl...
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