To: Board of Supervisors
From: Internal Operations Committee
Report Title: PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT POLICY AND ADVISORY COMMITTEE BYLAWS
☐Recommendation of the County Administrator ☒ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and ADOPT revisions to the Integrated Pest Management Policy and Integrated Pest Management Advisory Committee Bylaws.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact.
BACKGROUND:
The IOC reviews proposed changes to the bylaws of various advisory bodies to the Board of Supervisors.
The Integrated Pest Management Advisory Committee (IPMAC) recently reviewed its bylaws in the context of the IPM Policy, and has recommended changes, primarily to remove duplicative language between the two documents, to reflect the IPMAC’s desire to restore the seat representing the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR), and to designate all seats as voting members. Prior to 2009, the IPM Task Force had a designated UC seat.
An ad hoc IPMAC subcommittee was formed on July 21, 2022 to review potential modifications to the bylaws. That subcommittee met four times from September through November in 2022. Since several portions of the bylaws are also written verbatim in the IPM Policy, the subcommittee proposed edits to that document to eliminate unnecessary duplication. The revisions also added clarity by placing previously duplicative phrases into the most appropriate document.
Various membership arrangements were considered, and IPMAC ultimately approved the version that eliminates the following seats:
• Public Member-Alternate
• Public Works Facilities Director or Designee
• Public Works Deputy Director or Designee
• Health Services Department Representative
The following seats are proposed to be added:
• University of California Representative
• Public Works Director or Designee
Other changes include:
• The designation of all seats as voting seats (currently only public member seats and two staff seats can vote).
• Duplicative language found in both documents has been removed from one and preserved in the most applicable document.
• Other minor edits, clarifications and citations have been added to both documents.
Personnel from the County Administrator’s Office and County Counsel reviewed the draft documents and made additional edits. Proposed modifications and other adjustments were approved by IPMAC on January 18, 2024 and proposed to the Internal Operations Committee at a special meeting held on February 2, 2024.
Tracked changes and clean copy versions of the bylaws and policy are attached along with slides that depict the proposed changes to IPMAC membership.
The IOC supports the recommendation to make all seats voting seats because of the past difficulty with regularly achieving a voting quorum, exacerbated by AB 2449, which regulates remote meeting attendance. Achieving a voting quorum under the current construct requires significant juggling and is inefficient. Vice Chair Andersen asked for any history about why some of the County staff seats were originally designated as non-voting. Wade Finlinson, Health Services IPM Coordinator, explained that since the Advisory Committee serves as a resource to County departments in an advisory capacity, operational staff may as well be able to vote. Chair Burgis was concerned about the proposed elimination of the Health Services Department seat since public health is the focus of the IPM policy. Mr. Finlinson explained that Health Services prefers to serve as an informal technical liaison to the Advisory Committee and committed to establish a protocol to keep Health Services informed of issues being discussed by the Advisory Committee so that Health can provide relevant information and advice.
The IOC unanimously approved the recommended modifications to the IPM Policy and IPM Advisory Committee Bylaws and proffers those recommendations to the Board today.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Status quo. Current composition would remain. Challenges in achieving a voting quorum would continue, and duplicative language between the IPM Policy and Advisory Committee bylaws would remain, requiring continual harmonization whenever one document is changed.