City of Santa Cruz’s water advisory committee wraps up May meetings; recommends Stratus as technical advisors

On May 29th and 30th, the city of Santa Cruz’s Water Supply Advisory Committee (WSAC) convened for their second round of meetings. After initially wavering, WSAC elected to move forward with recommending that the City Council hire Stratus Consulting as technical advisors to the process. Additionally, the committee has requested that the Council create an independent review panel (IRP) of 3 to 6 additional consultants to review to the progress and information presented to committee. These consultants will be hired through the formal RFP process via the City’s water department, with criteria to be selected by a subcommittee consisting of committee members Mark Mesiti-Miller, Rick Longinotti, Water Department director Rosemary Menard and SCCBC representative Sid Slatter.

WSAC also agreed upon and adopted a charter, and considered the idea of soliciting water solution ideas from the public, however this was tabled for further discussion. As of now the committee is creating additional criteria for future speakers, and has been asked by the facilitators to suggest potential speaking candidates that can provide insight into WSAC’s areas of focus.

SCCBC will provide WSAC updates on a monthly-basis.