For any business, fundamental and radical change in the nature of the business should bring with it appropriate change in the structure and process of the business.

It is self-evident that the purchase of the Forest will fundamentally change the intensity and nature of the District’s business.  In order to run the expanded business effectively, there will be more questions to answer, more research/evaluation/financial analysis to be done, more decisions to be made and more work to communicate with the community and get their feedback.  The nature of the work will expand to include forestry on top of the existing water utility business.  The nature of this new work will require new skills / competencies of the Board as well as operational staff.

The current 5-person, volunteer, elected Board is in place to manage the utility business and that needs to continue to be their primary focus.  The drain on the Board’s time with the distraction of the forest is having an impact on the utility business.  As an example, strategic planning is falling behind which results in aging infrastructure, increased costs to maintain it and higher rates. 

Ongoing management of the Forest will require even more time of the Board, especially with an increased desire of the community to be kept informed and involved.  Additional skill sets in forestry and financial planning will be required to oversee paid consultants and balance the consultant’s recommendations with the interest and needs of the community.  This increase in time and skill set is too much to expect of the current Board, much less future Boards who are not likely to have the passion of this Board.  (It’s hard enough to fill Board positions as it is).

In the short term, an expanded structure and process needs to be put in place whereby the community can work more directly with the Board to stay abreast of emerging ideas and to offload the Board by interacting with the community and bringing back their preferences to the Board so that those preferences can be effectively incorporated into the decision-making process.  The Ratepayer/Taxpayer Advisory Council is intended for this purpose. 

Over the longer term, the Council can work with the Board to identify and evaluate strategies for transferring management oversite of the forest to an organization that will have continuity over the long term, i.e., not be subject to change at every election, and who will have the relevant experience and skill sets.