Conaway partners get to work
Davis Enterprise - June 04, 2004
By Elisabeth Sherwin

WOODLAND - With the membership not quite jelled, the county went ahead Thursday morning and held the first meeting of the Conaway Ranch Joint Powers Authority.

"We're supposed to be running in the Indy 500, but we're still tuning our engine," said Mike McGowan, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

That was McGowan's way of saying the county and its partners have to move quickly to seize the opportunity to buy the Conaway Ranch, more than 1,300 acres of undeveloped land northeast of Davis.

The JPA is being formed for the purpose of buying the property. Current members are the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, the Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, UC Davis and the cities of Winters and West Sacramento. The 17-member governing board will be made up of the five supervisors and two representatives each from the cities, the university and the flood control district.

At present, the university is a nonvoting member of the JPA. The University of California Board of Regents must approve its membership; this could take place at the regents' meeting in July.

The cities of Davis and Woodland held out for a different membership mix, asking that the Board of Supervisors' representation be reduced to two members, equal to the cities. Nonetheless, representatives of the cities and the university sat in on the meeting in the supervisors' chambers at the County Administration Building.

At the conclusion of the morning's meeting, Woodland Mayor Matt Rexroad and Davis Mayor Ruth Asmundson met with McGowan and Supervisor Helen Thomson and resolved their differences.

Thomson said Asmundson and Rexroad asked that future JPA meetings be held at night, that the JPA chairman and vice chairman be elected by the members, and that each member body have an alternate. All three requests were approved, Thomson said, but the supervisors would not budge on the question of county membership.

"We are elected by districts and have broader land use authority (than cities)," Thomson said, explaining why it was important to retain all five supervisors on the JPA governing board.

"There is a JPA under the county's terms," Rexroad said later Thursday. "I'd prefer it to be different, but it's more important that we acquire the parcel."

On that, the importance of the acquisition, Rexroad and the supervisors are in agreement. Yolo County wants the land, but so do a number of other parties.

"Sacramento developers would love to have this piece of property," Thomson said.

"And people from (water-starved) Las Vegas are interested in it, too," McGowan added.

In mid-May, an advertisement ran in a local newspaper encouraging people interested in bidding on the property to make themselves known. However, no bid packets have yet been released by the property owner, National Energy and Gas Transmission in Maryland. County Counsel Steve Basha also said it was not clear whether NEGT is involved in a bankruptcy action.

The supervisors also do not know what the assessed value of the property is, so no price can be put on it.

But Thomson and McGowan said the asking price will certainly be more than the $68 million paid for the ranch in 1996. McGowan said one factor skewing the current value of the land is the increasingly valuable water rights attached to it.

Despite the difficulties involved with organizing such a large expensive purchase, Thomson said it's "very likely" that the deal will take place.

"We have the cities, the university and the state lining up behind us on this one," she said.

Thomson also is looking for public support and encouraged people who would like to see the county buy this land to make themselves heard, whether by mail, e-mail or phone calls.

Representatives from the offices of Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa; state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden; and Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis; offered their support at Tuesday's meeting.

Lori Raineri of Davis, president of Government Financial Strategies Inc., is being hired by the county to crunch the numbers.

Raineri said she wasn't concerned with what the JPA will do or why.

"My job is to keep the JPA in the black," she said. "We don't yet know the appraised value, but long-term management will depend on short-term financing. We are identifying potential grants and discussing financing options with Wall Street players. It's a little large for locals."

Raineri said if a business plan is developed that is acceptable to the JPA, the plan could certainly find financing.

Rick Landon, Yolo County ag commissioner, said 20 percent of the county rice crop is grown on Conaway Ranch land. He said the value of all the commodities grown on that land is approximately $10 million a year. Multiple that by 3.5 on labor, seed, equipment and associated businesses, and the Conaway Ranch generates an estimated $35 million a year in sales and related businesses.

"We should also look at the significant negative impact on the environment that would occur if it were purchased by developers in Sacramento for ag mitigation or by water purveyors," Landon said.

Water engineer Fran Borcalli said whoever buys the Conaway Ranch and the water and water rights that come with it will have a "priceless opportunity" to become a player in the Yolo County water landscape.

"Up to now (the owners) have been absent from any discussion, unfortunately," he said. The ranch has water rights from the Sacramento River, from the Central Valley Project, and from Cache Creek and the settling basin.

"The purpose is to acquire that land and have those discussions," McGowan said. For instance, he said, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments has predicted a doubling in the county's population by the year 2050.

"They will be looking for water," McGowan said.

Davis resident Chris Unkel of The Nature Conservancy said the Conaway Ranch will bring benefits without conflicts to the county, from restoration sites for threatened fish populations to ag wetlands for wintering water fowl, from Swainson hawk habitat to research opportunities for UC Davis researchers.

"It's a wonderful opportunity and I pledge my efforts to help make it happen," he said.

A brief discussion also took place about the availability of Proposition 50 funds. West Sacramento City Councilmember Bill Kristoff said he didn't want to be put in the position of fighting for funds for the Conaway JPA, only to have the money come out of the same pot that might have supported River Walk upgrades in West Sacramento.

Linda Fiack of the county staff said an appraisal team has been retained to look at the value of the ag land, water rights and mineral rights on the property.

"We are moving along as rapidly as we can and hope to have figures in the near future," she said. That includes hiring a project manager and organizing a meeting schedule.

"We have work to do," McGowan said.#