Amador County – The Amador Water Agency’s new board of directors selected its officers Thursday, and saluted outgoing President Bill Condrashoff and Vice President Debbie Dunn with resolutions.

The board selected its new leaders on recommendation of staff, naming District 3 Director Don Cooper as president and District 2 Director Gary Thomas as vice president.

The board also heard a brief update on its finances, which Finance Manager Mike Lee said is ahead of forecasts, of $730,000 to end October.

They voted 4-1 to not hire an outside consultant for an efficiency and agency organizational study, instead opting to have General Manager Gene Mancebo continue an internal study he had started. Mancebo said he was about one third of the way through interviewing employees about their tasks and time spent on work.

Several people spoke in support of keeping the reorganization and efficiency study in-house, including former Director Paul Scott, who said the board has expertise and a legal counsel, so “why send it out to sugar coat it?”

The board agreed to form an ad hoc committee, with new Directors Paul Molinelli Senior and Robert Manassero to work with Mancebo on revamping the internal organization agency. Thomas said he wanted to emphasize that the work was a high priority, noting that consultants had agreed to finish by February 1st.

Mancebo told the board they could reorganize the agency without a study, and enact layoffs, negotiate with workers, and make structural changes. He said that was not staff’s recommendation. His first recommendation was the external study, and his second recommendation was to do the study internally.

The external study was estimated to cost $18,300, with about 200 hours of work in a “transparent, open evaluation of the agency management,” Mancebo said, and it “shows the willingness of the agency to be reviewed.”

Manassero said he had an outside efficiency expert look at his company and it didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know. Scott said he had seen 100 efficiency studies and never agreed with any of them.

Manassero said the agency by June 2011 expects to have a $387,000 cash problem, and spending $18,000 on a study kind of bothered him since they don’t have the money. He said with Mancebo’s 20 years’ experience at the AWA, the management knows best, and “each agency is its own animal.” He said the ad hoc committee also might be able to help with the efficiency study.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.