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August 27, 1999Agenda Finalized for Fall Leadership/Board Meetings
The agenda has been finalized for the Fall Leadership Retreat & Strategy Session (September 23-24) in Washington, DC. A memo dated August 10 was faxed to all Board members and special committee leaders with a draft agenda and hotel reservation information. A follow-up memo, highlighting the hotel reservation cutoff date of September 1, and providing Board members and Committee leaders with a final detailed agenda was faxed today. We look forward to productive meetings, including an informal, in-depth discussion session with EPA's Assistant Administrator for Water, Chuck Fox, and EPA's Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, Steve Herman. We have also invited representatives from the Administration's Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget to discuss clean water infrastructure needs and concerns regarding the costs of current regulatory initiatives. We encourage you to make your plans to attend as soon as possible. AMSA's Board of Directors will meet on Friday morning, September 24. We look forward to seeing you in Washington in late September.Competitive Management Initiatives Target Vital Services
AMSA's Competitive Management Committee is actively involved in two near-term activities — review and publication of the new competitive management handbook and the kickoff of the AMSA/Water &Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA) Procurement Dialogue. These initiatives will significantly add to AMSA's already impressive range of public agency management tools.Members of AMSA's Competitive Management Committee met August 20 with the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) and representatives of Hagler Bailly Services, Inc and EMA to provides comments regarding the initial draft Creating High-Performance Business Services . . . A Public Sector Handbook. Member comments focused on adjustments to the text that will aid the “buy-in” of municipal support services, emphasize teamwork, clarify the target audience, provide useful, “real world” examples and improve the quality of the publication. The handbook is scheduled for release at AMWA's Annual Meeting October 17-20, in Norfolk, Virginia and will be featured at AMSA's 2000 winter conference, Utility Leadership in the New Millennium.
The Committee will launch another cooperative effort on August 31. AMSA will begin discussions with WWEMA on ways to streamline public agencies' procurement procedures. In addition to members from AMSA and WWEMA, the Procurement Dialogue will include a representative from the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing. Current plans call for three day-long meetings, the results of which should be available by late 1999 early 2000.
Progress Continues on AMSA's New National Office
Work on our new building at 1816 Jefferson Place, NW is continuing, and we are hopeful that the leadership will have the opportunity to view the substantial work in progress in late September. The exterior work is nearly complete, with some roof, electrical and painting work remaining to be done. Interior work has begun and we anticipate its completion by the end of September. Despite this significant progress, our move-in date will more likely be mid-October than late September. The primary reason for this delay relates to the later than anticipated departure of our tenant, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and delays related to the repair of the elevator. Americans United has agreed to reimburse us for most of the additional current location rent AMSA will incur. For this reason, any additional costs associated with the delay will be minimal.AMSA's Membership Continues to Grow
We are pleased to report that five new members joined AMSA in August — three new member agencies and two new affiliate member. AMSA's newest member agencies are: the City of Sunnyvale, California (population: 365,553); Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Sanitary Sewers in Lexington, Kentucky (population: 250,000); and Boxelder Sanitation District, Fort Collins, Colorado (population: 8,300). AMSA's membership roster now boasts 232 public agencies from across the nation. Kelly & Weaver, a Washington, DC law firm specializing in municipal clean water issues, and ECS Underwriting, Inc., an environmental insurance provider located in Exton, Pennsylvania, are AMSA's newest Affiliate members.We are continuing to provide potential members with information on AMSA's programs and initiatives, including sample publications and a complimentary password to the Member Pipeline to give them a sampling of what AMSA membership can offer their agency. The National Office anticipates increased membership development this fall with the publication of the new membership brochure. We are planning to offer a membership incentive program in conjunction with the brochure.
Kick-off Meeting for Clean Water Central Scheduled for September 8-9
AMSA and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) continue to work together to develop an Internet-based wastewater agency and treatment plant database containing detailed information on the processes, process metrics and benchmarks, research conducted and equipment used at facilities within our membership. When complete, the fully searchable database should give AMSA members and WERF subscribers the ability to rapidly identify other agencies having similar processes, treatment plants, and research interests. Queries on this database may help in identifying trends, forecasting future research needs and identifying members to assist in targeted regulatory and legislative efforts. A technical review team comprised of AMSA members and WERF subscribers recently chose a proposal submitted by EMA Services, Inc. to provide contractor support on this project. A kick-off meeting for this project has been scheduled for September 8-9 at the WERF headquarters in Alexandria, VA. At this meeting, EMA plans to provide AMSA and WERF with preliminary web site designs as well as a revised project timeline. The web site will be featured at AMSA's booth at WEFTEC in October. Members should receive survey forms in October. AMSA plans to launch Clean Water Central at our 2000 Winter Conference in Albuquerque, NM.Over 110 1999 AMSA Financial Survey Forms Received
The National Office has received over 110 responses to the 1999 AMSA Financial Survey forms distributed to the membership in June 1999. This number of responding member agencies surpasses the level of response to the 1996 survey. Our consultant on the project, Black & Veatch, is currently compiling the survey results and plans to deliver a draft report to AMSA in early October. The final report is scheduled for publication late in 1999.AMSA Counsel Appears Before Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Stormwater
On August 11, AMSA counsel presented oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Defenders of Wildlife v. Browner, No. 98-71080. The issues in the case have national implications for the municipal stormwater program as it will likely determine the limits of EPA authority over stormwater runoff. AMSA is participating in the case in order to support the issuance of five Phase I stormwater permits for the cities of Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe, Mesa, and Pima County, and, more specifically, to oppose the potential inclusion of numeric effluent limits in the permits. The original stormwater permits were challenged by two environmental groups on the grounds that no effluent limitations were included. AMSA believes there is no evidence either in the Clean Water Act or in the original intent of Congress to justify the use of numeric effluent limitations in NPDES permits.In March, an AMSA-led municipal coalition filed an amicus brief in support of the original stormwater permits. The court accepted the municipal coalition's request to participate in oral arguments as an outside party. Counsel for the municipal coalition argued the need to account for the tremendous national impact of this ruling on municipalities. According to counsel, the court during oral arguments was notably receptive to the municipal position, and appeared to be less accommodating of the environmentalists' viewpoint. Counsel believes that the chances are good that the court's ruling, expected sometime in November or December 1999, will be in AMSA's favor.