MINUTES
(Verified
with meeting transcript)
CENTRAL
INTERSTATE LLRW COMMISSION
ANNUAL
MEETING
JUNE 29,
2005, WEDNESDAY, 9:00 A.M.
In
compliance with Commission Bylaws and Rules, a meeting notice announcing the date,
time, location and agenda availability was mailed to the interested public May
26, 2005.
The
Annual Meeting of the Central Interstate LLRW Commission was held Wednesday,
June 29, 2005, to take necessary action on Reports, Meeting Minutes,
US Ecology Funding fiscal year 2005-2006, Export Applications, Export Fee
Schedule (Rule 1 change), Administrative Budget, Election of Chairman for
fiscal year 2005-2006, presentations and discussion on the future of Compact
roles, and all other business to come before the Commission.
The Chair
called the meeting to order at approximately 9:03 a.m. and roll was called.
Responding to the roll call was: Oklahoma Commissioner, Catherine Sharp; Kansas
Commissioner, Joseph Harkins; Louisiana Commissioner, Michael Henry; and
Arkansas Commissioner and Chair, Laura Gilson.
Also
present were Kansas Alternate Commissioner, Ron Hammerschmidt; Arkansas
Alternate Commissioner, Bernie Bevill; Administrator, Rita Houskie;
Secretary, Terry Davis, the court reporter, and interested members of the
public.
The Chair
indicated that a large part of the meeting would be devoted to fact gathering
to learn what the Commission needs to do to stay in compliance with the federal
mandates and with the wishes of the four member states. The Chair also stated
that the items on the Agenda would be taken out of order due to the flight
departures of the scheduled speakers.
Two
members of the public spoke during the general public comment period. Mr.
Kenneth Reiser called on the Commission to share the settlement funds with the
local project supporters, namely the Village of Butte and their educational
fund. The Mayor of the Village of Butte, Cindy Schroetlin, also spoke. The
Mayor formally requested that the Commission consider compensating the Village
of Butte four million dollars to help with the water system that was overbuilt
in anticipation of the disposal facility completion.
The Chair
thanked the two public speakers for their requests and also for their
continuous support of the project. The Chair then moved to the old business
before the Commission.
Motion (Resolution 1)
by Louisiana, second by Oklahoma, to
approve the January 12, 2005 Mid-Year Meeting.
Motion passed 4-0
Motion (Resolution 1)
by Louisiana, second by Oklahoma, to approve
the March 22, 2005 Special Teleconference Meeting.
Motion passed 4-0
The Chair
prefaced the introduction of the Executive Director, Chairman of the Midwest
Compact and Commissioner from Wisconsin, Stan York, by stating that our
Commission reached a settlement with the State of Nebraska in August of 2004. Since
that time, our Compact has had a new vantage point from which to look at its
duties and responsibilities. The Chair reported that a meeting had taken place
with the Southeast Compact to learn how they were dealing with their
generators' waste and what they felt their mission was. In contrast to the
Southeast Compact, a very active-wealthy compact is the Midwest Compact, a
compact that has taken a different approach.
Mr. York
gave a brief history of the Midwest Compact's siting experience. The State of
Michigan was removed from the compact and the Michigan utilities were required
to pay back the compact. Ohio's designated state status to host a disposal
facility was rescinded after a cost of construction / generator volumes
analysis showed that it would not be economically viable to continue. Mr. York
gave a description of the administrative workings of the Midwest Compact and
spoke briefly on their finances. The Midwest Compact's approach to the federal
mandates is to be alert to possibilities, to ensure that their generators have
disposal availability, and to be active in their supporting role of the compact
system. Mr. York then responded to questions.
The next
two speakers, The Gregory W Group and the Consulting Services Group, were
introduced by the Chair. The Chair stated that the Commissioners had decisions
to make regarding the expected settlement funds and until those decisions were
made the funds needed to be handled responsibility and that an independent
investment advisor could review and make suggestions as to money managers and
safe investments until such time as the Commissioners made their decisions on
what to do with the funds. The speakers each gave an overview of their
respective investment consulting agency and ability.
The Chair
indicated that the two presentations were the result of the Financial Services
Search Committee. The Chair asked for a motion to move forward with choosing an
investment consultant and a two-tier investment approach. For the purpose of
discussion the Commissioner from Oklahoma offered a generalized motion to
continue on track to find the appropriate type of advisor for the Commission’s
assets. The Commissioner from Louisiana seconded that motion. Discussion among
the Commissioners ensued resulting in a restatement of the motion as follows:
Motion by Oklahoma, second by Louisiana, that the Commission continue on
the course of exploring possible suitable investment advisors for whatever assets
that the compact might hold in the future and make no commitments at this
point, that the Commission continue to explore other similar firms.
The Chair
recommended that, in light of the above motion, the information received from
the two independent investment advisors be left to settle rather than to
proceed with reviewing and researching other firms.
Motion withdrawn by Commissioner from Oklahoma
The Chair
introduced the next agenda item to be considered and indicated that an
executive session was desirable to receive legal advice on disposal
negotiations and claims for the distribution of settlement funds.
Motion by Oklahoma, second by Louisiana, that it is in the best interest of
the public served, that the Commission enter into executive session specially
to discuss with outside counsel the status of negotiations for disposal access,
to provide guidance in the negotiations, and to receive advice as to legal
validity or legal problems on the various claims for distribution of funds. The Commission will remain in closed session
until the hour of one p.m. (Amended to 1:30 p.m.)
Motion passed 4-0
The
Commissioners entered into executive session at 11:55 a.m. and returned to open
session at 1:35 p.m.
The Chair
called the meeting to order and announced that the Commissioners received legal
advice regarding the disposal negotiations and claims during closed session,
that the Commission is still in negotiations with Envirocare and that Texas was
still a possibility. No actions had been taken.
The Commission
received oral reports from the Commission Administrator, US Ecology and Legal
Counsel.
The Chair
introduced the next agenda item that related to compact roles and alternatives.
The Chair stated that trying to figure out what the Commission’s role is, at
this point, and what alternatives are out there requires discussion and certainly
the claims play into that. The Chair opened the floor to the Commissioners for
discussion.
The
Kansas Commissioner moved to have a two-day special meeting to be scheduled to
coincide with the July 20th meeting with topics to include the
future role of the Commission, the budget for fiscal year 2005-2006, the export
fee schedule, the executive director position, decisions on the claims,
decision on any financial services agreement that may be necessary, revisit the
disposal negotiations and to handle the export permits.
The
motion did not receive a second.
The Chair
indicated that the Commissioners were in a discussion phase and no motion was
required. The Chair than touched on the
next agenda item as it related to the Kansas Commissioner’s motion, that being
the contracting of an executive consultant.
The Chair stated that the role of the Commission could go from one extreme
to the other or somewhere in the middle and that a consultant would be an aid
in the research required to make informed decisions on the future actions of
the Compact. The Chair made her case
for James O’Connell, former Kansas Commissioner, former Commission Chair, and
Attorney. The Chair indicated that Mr.
O’Connell had been contacted and was interested in a short-term contract to
assist the Commission.
Motion by Louisiana, second by Oklahoma, to open a discussion with James O'Connell
to serve the Commission as a consultant and to enter into a short-term contract
with him for up to six months with a renewal option.
Motion passed 4-0
The
Commissioners than agreed to a two-day special meeting scheduled for July 14
and 15, 2005, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The special meeting was to address some
of the items mentioned by the Kansas Commission as relating to the Commission’s
future, claims, negotiations and budgetary changes that might be necessary.
There
were no export applications for consideration.
US
Ecology submitted two work plans with respective budgets for consideration by
the Commission. The representative
indicated that Work Plan A was essentially the same work as has been performed
over the past several years and came with a smaller funding request than did
Work Plan B. Work Plan B assumed that the full payment of the settlement funds
would be received and that the additional work would be required to bring the
contract between US Ecology and the Commission to a close.
Motion (Resolution 2)
by Oklahoma, second by Louisiana, to approve
US Ecology Work Plan A Funding Request for fiscal year 2005-2006.
Motion passed 4-0
The next
set of agenda items dealt with the Commission’s Administrative Budget. The
following two motions dealt with the need to adjust the fiscal year 2004-2005 budget
to accommodate the unplanned for travel of the Commissioners to attend meetings
necessary to gather information and the unexpected additional charges from the
audit.
Motion (Resolution 3) by Kansas, second by Oklahoma, to ratify the supplemental budget adjustment made by the Chair to
Commission’s Administrative Budget for fiscal year 2004-2005 as governed by
Commission's Rules Article VI(B).
Motion
passed 4-0
Motion (Resolution 4) by Kansas, second by Oklahoma, to approve additional adjustments to Commission's Administrative Budget
for fiscal year 2004-2005.
Motion
passed 4-0
The Chair
stated that the budget for fiscal year 2005-2006 showed increases in travel and
accounting line items with a decrease to legal. US Ecology’s Work Plan B
funding request was used in the calculation of the fiscal year 2005-2006 budget
and the Commissioners agreed that even though US Ecology’s Work Plan A was
adopted the higher figure would be left in the budget for now due to possible
changes to the Work Plan once decisions on claims were made.
Motion (Resolution 6) by Oklahoma, second by Louisiana, to approve Commission Administrative Budget
Option 2 for fiscal year 2005-2006.
Motion
passed 4-0
The Chair explained that the
Commission had a surplus of cash on hand and a portion of the surplus would be
used to supplement the budget for the coming year, therefore, the export fees
had been reduced by 90-95%.
Motion (Resolution 5) by Oklahoma, second by Louisiana, to approve the Rule 1 Export Fee Schedule
for fiscal year 2005-2006.
Motion
passed 4-0
The Chair asked for nominations for Commission
Chairman for the coming year.
Motion (Resolution 7) by Kansas, second by Louisiana, to approve the election of the Arkansas Commissioner, Laura Gilson, as
Chairperson of the Commission for FY 2005-2006.
Motion
passed by acclamation (Arkansas
abstaining)
The
commissioners set the date for the
Mid-Year Meeting of the Commission as Wednesday, January 18, 2006 in Little
Rock, Arkansas.
The Chair called for a motion to go into executive
session to discuss personnel matters at approximately 3:13 p.m..
Motion, by Kansas, second by Louisiana, to enter
into executive session for personnel matters and administrative review for
approximately 15 minutes.
Motion passed by acclamation
The Chair called the meeting to order at 3:40 p.m.
and stated that no actions had been taken or business conducted.
Motion, by Oklahoma, second by Louisiana, to adjourn the
meeting
Motion
passed by acclamation
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 3:41 p.m.
