ISDRA TRT Conference Call – 11/18/03

TRT Members Present
Jerry Seaver
Larry Jowdy
Jim Bramham
Harold Soens
Mike Cuff
Nicole Gilles
Glenn Montgomery
Roy Denner
Others Present
Mike Warford
John Barraga
Chuck Mobley
Chris Seaver
John Stewart
BLM
o Neil Hamada
o Bob Zimmer
o Larry Caffey
o Greg Thomsen

Meeting opened shortly after 1:00

1 – ISDRA Survey: Glenn reported on draft survey. Was suggested to use both the internet & hard copy version of survey. Consider providing an opportunity to win a season pass as an incentive for people to fill out the survey.
Motion (by Mike, second by Nicole): Provide an incentive for people to fill out the survey. Passed 7 to 1.

Seek sponsors to pay for the season pass (or passes) to offered in this contest. Chuck offered DUNERS as a potential sponsor provided DUNERS name appeared on the survey.
Delete survey item #10 re: Dust Abatement, because providing dust abatement is required.

2 – Halloween Review: Neil and Bob summarized the Halloween Closeout Report that had been emailed to the TRT. Greg stated BLM in the future would provide holiday weekend closeout reports early in the week after the holiday, to be more timely. Bob reported on the fee machines that had been stolen and/or vandalized. The stolen machine and internal computer/s has been recovered. Special software is needed to retrieve credit card info. from the computer. This should ease concerns by those visitors that had used their credit cards in the machine. The reward money offered for finding the machine thief is funded by a special BLM law enforcement account.

3 – Fee Compliance: Neil and Bob summarized the Fee Compliance Strategy dated October 24, 2003, that had been emailed to the TRT. BLM mentioned that fee compliance this season has been a top priority for BLM recreation and law enforcement staff on non-holiday and holiday weekends, and that fee compliance has increased considerably to an average of 60-80%. Greg discussed the 2 ideas suggested at the past TRT meeting to go beyond using BLM staff to increase fee compliance, i.e. (a) hire more uniformed personnel, law enforcement or non-law enforcement, and (b ) use an Imperial County modified camping ordinance. (a) BLM has discussed the concept of using “rent-a-cops” with the BLM national director of law enforcement. This idea is not consistent with BLM’s national Law Enforcement General Orders. There was considerable discussion amongst the TRT and interest in having a greater visible presence of personnel near the fee machines. Greg mentioned that, in addition to the previously BLM recreation and law enforcement staff focused on fee compliance, BLM has already paid several other staff from the El Centro and Yuma offices, (BLM and BLM contract staff), to work at fee compliance checkpoints. Also, at BLM’s urging, Central Parking has doubled its field staff. An additional suggestion of having a non-law enforcement person wearing some kind of an official uniform to act as a "greeter" and assist visitors with the purchase of weekly or annual passes

Motion (by Jim, second by Glenn): Recommend Bureau increase presence of personnel at fee machines and augment the current presence as much as possible. Passed unanimously.
Greg stated BLM will inform the TRT of the number of additional staff that has already been provided for fee compliance, will work with Central Parking to further increase its staffing, and will look into other ways to increase presence at fee machines.
(b ) County camping ordinance – Greg stated BLM and county staff and a county board of supervisor member have discussed this option. BLM has also discussed it with its national law enforcement office. This option looks promising. Roy noted that a benefit of this is that the penalty fees collected would go back to the County to pay for their non-law enforcement staff would be implementing this ordinance. It may not be able to be implemented in time for this season, though.

4 – Central Parking: Neil said BLM has notified Central Parking on items that were unsatisfactory over Halloween, including the need for improvements in the fee machines and staffing, and increasing the number of vendors who sell passes. Currently there are 3 vendors in Brawley who sell passes. Some groups have declined to distribute passes by internet. Central Parking must make more passes available, and provide them through additional vendors and over the internet. Hopes to have passes available on-line by 12/1/03.

5 – Budget: Neil reported that fee collections are up substantially from last season. $102,000 was collected in September, and an estimated $342,000 was collected in October. Fee amounts collected so far, though, appear to not be high enough to reach the season target of collecting $4.8 million. There was considerable discussion about tracking fees collected in a timely fashion and reporting them to the TRT, including the number of weekly and season passes sold. Mike noted that BLM needs to develop a regular tracking and reporting system. $56,000 has been collected so far from Dunes vendors. The TRT brought up that 8,000 annual passes have been sold, based on the fact that the BLM ran out of annual passes and is in the process of having them re-printed. Using a low figure of $85.00 per pass, that equals $680,000. Neil stated that Central Parkings is 1 month behind in giving the BLM sales data and due to that, the fee collection data may not be accurate..

6 – Law Enforcement/Thanksgiving Preparations: Bob stated there were some concerns from Halloween, particularly re: the crowd at Oldsmobile Hill. BLM and Imperial County Sheriff met the week after Halloween to devise new tactics for Thanksgiving. The objective is to prevent RAVE-type party activities. Several in the TRT suggested more use of pinchpoints into Olds. The San Diego County Sheriff will be deployed with its air support over Thanksgiving. Bob said citations have been issued for reserving camp spots and exceeding the 14 day rule. Rangers are enforcing this as time permits. Bob defined an “occupied” camp site as one that has someone there each day. Otherwise it could be considered abandoned. Bob also stated that there would have to be someone for each rig or camp site, not one person watching several rigs. Bob and the TRT also discussed removal of burned vehicles.

Meeting adjourned at 3:25.