Steve Couture welcomes members to the meeting.
Members Present: Steve Couture (NH), Charles Reulet (LA), Jill Andrews (GA), Patty Snow (OR), Lisa Engler (MA), Ronda Wuycheck (MI), Brian Lynn (WA), Edwin Reyes (GU), Kim Cole (DE), Leo Asuncion (HI), Amber Westerbur (MN)

CSO Staff Present: Bradley Watson, Mike Molnar, John Ryan-Henry, Rachel Keylon, Shelby Butz, Brittney Parker, Norma Longhi

Approval of minutes from October 14, 2020 – Minutes from October 14, 2020 approved as submitted.
Vote – Jill Andrews Motion, Leo Second, Approved Unanimously.

Hiring Committee Update – (Mr. Couture)
Mr. Couture provided brief background on the Hiring Committee. Second interviews included some Ex Comm members and partners. Partners were appreciative of the process.
There are two strong candidates, but, Sara Gonzalez-Rothi is the preferred candidate.
Hiring Committee recommendation is to authorize Mr. Couture to negotiate with Ms. Gonzalez-Rothi, and if those negotiations fail, to enter into negotiations with Derek Brockbank.
Vote – Steve Couture Motioned, Brian Lynn Seconded. Motion passed Unanimously.
CSSF Updates – (Mr. Watson)
Mr. Watson presents a list of new CSSF Board member recommendations. He provided some background regarding the process and purpose. Per CSSF Bylaws, CSO Executive Committee needs to approve the new membership.

1. Mike Friis: Program Manager, Wisconsin Coastal Management Program
2. Tancred Miller: Policy and Planning Section Chief, NC DEQ Coastal Program
3. Fran Castro: Associate Director, Operations and Development for University of Guam Sea Grant
4. Ryan Orgera, Ph.D.: CEO, Sanibel Captiva Conservation Association
5. Jessica (Jessie) Ritter: Director, Water Resources and Coastal Policy at National Wildlife Federation
Vote – Steve Motioned, Kim Seconded, No discussion, Approved Unanimously

Treasurer’s Report – Budget v. Actual
Jill Andrews presents an overview of the budget v. actual report and highlights the following items:
INCOME
• Line #4005 – state dues are short by $79,575. We are hopeful to see some final state dues come in over the next month and a half, otherwise, there may be budget impacts – more to discuss on that later.
• Line # 4782 – This line is higher than budgeted because work that was supposed to be performed last year has been completed this year. Please note that this project was completed in October.
• No other significant changes to report at this point.

EXPENSES
• All expenses are on track and there are no significant changes since the last Ex Comm meeting.
• Note: Net Income (at bottom of document) is negative $22,425.95. If we are able to receive expected dues, this will not be an issue at the end of the year. If we do not, we may be looking at the need to access the carry forward funds.

Member request to receive notification if their dues were not paid. Mr. Watson stated that he has reached out to programs that have not paid.
Question regarding date of 2021 invoice. Mr. Watson asked if invoices can be emailed as an attachment due to inability to print and mail. All members online stated that an emailed PDF is sufficient.
Announcements
Pacific Islands: Edwin Reyes (GU) –
Planners Symposium postponed to August or September 2021. Silverjackets charter remains active. All partners at the table regarding flooding. RiskMap and NFIP discussions. Started work on NFWF CRST.

America Samoa – village based wetland monitoring program. Coast Week is scaled back due to COVID.

Hawaii – continues to work towards approval of 6217. Continued focus on hazards exacerbated by SLR. Complete state ocean management plan in 2020 and tied in Section 309 strategies.

CNMI – Completed NFWF CRST Tool. In Phase 1 of public access project – ADA boardwalk.

Federal Consistency remains active among members of the region.

Northeast: Lisa Engler (MA) – Lisa Engler shares that she does not have updates from the region.

Mid-Atlantic – Kim Cole (DE)– Continuing their regional federal consistency meetings and current Administration continues in Delaware.

Southeast – Vacant – Ernesto Diaz retired and is now the SE and Caribbean lead for Tetratech.

Gulf of Mexico: Charles Reulet (LA) – Gulf is looking forward to end of hurricane season. December 3 is working group meeting with BOEM.

Pacific Coast – Patty Snow (OR) – OR and CA received NFWF NCRF grants. Derek Brockbank did podcast on mouth of Columbia River project. Continue Quarterly Fed Con regional calls. Continue to work with BOEM with offshore wind. OR and WA working on GLDs using Fellow funded by Pew. Pew will also be helping provide match for an OR grant. WA followed up with Congressman Kilmer’s office.

Great Lakes: Amber Westerbur (MN) – Ms. Westerbur stated that water levels are still a big issue. Moving into winter the Lakes are going into seasonal period of decline. Levels still above normal levels but below all-time highs.

Great Lakes coastal and nearshore habitat E&D project is moving forward. Three projects moving forward – one in Minnesota and two in New York. Michigan is completing a communications plan and launching some videos for inclusion on a webpage.

CSO Staff Updates

CSO-NWF Natural Infrastructure and Underserved Communities – Mr. Molnar – Full version of Proposal shared as part of meeting materials. Project concept was spurred by member input and GCC workshop participation. Create a program that CSO and NWF seek out philanthropic/outside funding to create program to support and gap fill CZ programs and appropriate communities. Planning, E&D, and Project implementation. Mike Molnar provides a brief overview of the proposal. Asks states to email their thoughts and questions.

Knauss Fellowship 2021: Mr. Molnar states after almost two weeks of effort by the CSO staff and Federal partners during the first ever virtual placement “week”, we are proud to announce that CSO will have two shared Knauss Fellows in 2021. Continuing the partnership with FEMA and renewing our connection with USACE Institute for Water Resources.
Cadijah Walcott will work with the FEMA and CSO team and continue the work started under the shared fellow position by Brittney Parker in the coastal hazards, planning, and adaptation space and look to incorporate some aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice as well. Cadijah was nominated by the Maryland SG Program and has a Masters is Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her course of work included – Relating sociological data and flood claims to flood prone areas to understand vulnerabilities.
Matt Smith will work with CSO and our partners at the USACE Institute for Water Resources and reestablish the connection with the National Shoreline Management Study and Systems Approach to Geomorphic Engineering, among other potential topics. We are thrilled to continue the work with our Federal partners and to have these excellent future Fellows joining the team. We will share additional information about each Fellow and their portfolio of work in future newsletters. Matt was nominated by the Florida SG Program. He has a Ph.D. in Urban Resilience to Extremes.
Both of these Fellows are highly qualified and we look forward to working with them in the years to come as they start with us and hopefully continue in the field.
Hill Report –
Coastal Management Fellowship
Bradley Watson kicks off with note on Coastal Management Fellowship – referred members to the letter linked under item #13. Had good conversation with Jeff Payne and OCM. Looking forward to improving the program. Mr. Watson discussed the talking points in support of Digital Coast partnership.

Rachel Keylon states we had a call with the Digital Coast Partnership to discuss coordination on the FY22 appropriations request for the Coastal Management and Services budget line, which we discussed at the CSO Member Meeting in September.

She shares that the FY22 approps request is a $3.75M increase request with three prongs: The first prong is $2M for critical products and services and technical support. This would include enhancing support for Digital Coast Products and Services with state and local budgets stretched post COVID; Preparing for potential passage of Dig Coast Act – filling critical data gaps in underserved areas (Alaska); and Developing and maintaining easy to use decision support tools related to resilience and adaption.

The second and third prong combined are the remaining $1.75M. The second prong is developing the next generation of coastal science managers. This includes: Funding for NOAA OCM administrative support for the Margaret Davidson Fellowship – Congress has designated funding for the fellowship itself under the NERRS ORF line ($2M in FY20 and tentatively $2M in FY21) but this does not include the costs for the administration of the grant (staff time, etc.); and Funding to improve the Coastal Management and Digital Coast fellowship programs. The request is to increase the salaries for the fellows to make the programs more competitive; expanding the programs to have more fellows; Improvements to professional development opportunities for the fellows; expanding successful fellow projects to national level; and outreach – expanded recruitment outreach and alumni engagement.

The third prong is funding to support the expansion of the NERRS System. In FY22 Connecticut will be added (FY21 funding requested to support pre-designation). Future site additions including LA, WI, USVI are in the pipeline and need pre-designation support. NOAA requires funding for sustained liaison support and national program support for all of the components associated with the program (monitoring, training, admin, etc.).

For FY21 Appropriations, the Senate has released their FY21 appropriations bills.
• A quick summary:
o CZM Grants: $78.5M (+$1.5M from FY20; +$0.5M from House)
o Coastal Zone Management and Services: $46.5M (+$1.5M; $3M of which for regional ocean partnerships/data portals; -$1.2M from House)
o NERRS: $29M (+$1.5M; $2 of which for Margaret Davidson Fellowship; +$0.75M from House)
o NERRS PAC: $5.371M (+$0.871M; above NERRA request which was $4.5M; +$3.371 from House)
o NCRF: $33M (+$0M; -$3M from House)
o Corals: $32M (+2.5M; -$2M from House)
o Sea Grant: $76M (+$2M; +$5M from House)
o USFWS Coastal Program: $13.36M (-$0.015M; -$0.174 from House)
o GLRI: $320M (+$0M; -$15M from House)
o NEPs: $30.873 (+$1.05M; appears to be +$10.473M from House)
• Congress has indicated that they are motivated to get appropriations bills finalized prior to the expiration of the Continuing Resolution on December 11th.

The Coastal Management Grants match waiver language is in the most recent House Covid relief bill (the Heroes Act)
• However, Covid relief got sidelined with the Supreme Court nomination, election, etc.
• Senate Democrats this week have pushed McConnell to restart talks on a Covid relief bill and some Senate Republican’s including Portman from Ohio have shown interest in moving forward a bipartisan bill.
• We are continuing to work on advancing this request. To that end, in the newsletter today there is a request for ALL members to please provide an update on their need for the match waiver. Please make sure to respond to this as we want to make sure we have accurate and up to date information for our full membership as we work to advance this request.

Questions regarding what years the match waiver covers and funding Sections. Ms. Keylon stated it covers FY20-22 and section 306, and 306A for CZ programs, and the NERRS section.

The Senate version of the Digital Coast Act passed the House on Monday, however there were minor amendments that were required so it has to be sent back to the Senate for them to vote on it again. The sponsors are hopeful that it will get another vote in the Senate and will pass as amended.

CSO has been asked to weigh in on the COASTAL and OFFSHORE Acts (Cassidy, R-LA and Whitehouse, D-RI respectively) which amend GOMESA and OCSLA and has provided the Offshore Energy Infrastructure Work Group with a summary of the legislation and a draft support letter for review. The deadline to submit input is Monday, 11/23. So far input provided has been supportive of both bills and the submission of the support letter.

The House recently introduced the Ocean-based Climate Solutions Act recently which is a bit of a hodgepodge of various existing ocean and coastal bills and new content to include a section amending the CZMA. The House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on that bill plus a handful of other related bills (National Ocean and Coastal Security Improvement Act, Regional Ocean Partnership Act, Strengthening Coastal Communities Act – the House partner to COASTAL and OFFSHORE, etc.)
o The hearing made clear that the sponsors see this legislation as a starting discussion point. As such, we are doing a substantial review of the legislation with the intent of providing the House Natural Resources committee with constructive feedback to help guide the legislation to align with our organizational policy positions.

We are working with ASBPA on finalizing the intro language for the full Beach and Inlet Management Policy and the shorter summary 1-pager (front and back) – once the language is finalized we will put into final polished PDF format

With the election behind us we are now looking forward to the new Congress that will be coming in in January
• We will be working up various strategies for engagement with new members and reengagement with continuing members
• We will also be working through a March Madness strategy around our member meeting, appropriations, etc.
• We will also be considering strategies for advancing CZMA reauthorization as we get a better picture of what the congress will look like and committee assignments

Presidential Transition –
• We are engaged with NOAA and the NOS round table partners in the development and review of partner transition materials, in particular we are working with this group to review a NOS wrapper that was developed during the 2016 transition
• We are also submitting the CSO transition materials to the relevant Biden-Harris Transition Agency Review Teams (Commerce, OSTP, CEQ, DHS, EPA, DOI…there is no one for USACE on the DOD team that we can identify at this point…)

2020-2022 Chair’s Initiative –
• We are looking forward to kicking off the new chair’s initiative and have scheduled the first call for December 1st. Materials for the call will be sent out soon.
• We are pleased with the work group participation, but want to flag that there is no one participating from the Caribbean or the Pacific Islands – Regional reps, we would urge you to coordinate with the other members and see if anyone from these regions can participate as we do not want to be missing your voice in this important initiative.

Work Group Updates
Coastal NPS Work Group – Shelby Butz provides the update on the Nonpoint Work Group.

The next full WG call is on December 14, at 2:00pm ET. We chose to re-schedule this call to accommodate the Federal Team’s schedule as EPA had the National Nonpoint Workshop this week and because the topic of this call is Coordination and Integration Between CZM and 319 Programs. We will work to prepare with the federal team and states to identify speakers starting next week

The next Conditionally Approved States call is on Jan. 26 at 3:00pm ET. The call topic will be another deep dive into states’ remaining MMs. The last deep dive on new development was very productive so we are going to continue on with these deep dives. This time it will be the Watershed Protection MM.

As always call agendas, meeting materials, and notes from past calls are available on the CNPS work group page. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to Shelby.

Coastal Hazard Planning and Adaptation Work Group – Brittney Parker
Provided updates on:
FEMA Hazard Mitigation Planning Guidance Update Comments: https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/fema_mitigation-planning-policy-update-summary-feedback.pdf

Next Work Group call will be December 8 with FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Planning team.

Communication Work Group Update – Ms. Keylon: CZMA Fact Sheet was discussed at the last Work Group call. Great Lakes High Water Level Fact Sheet was sent out to the full GL delegation with deadline of November 20. No responses received as of this time. Next Call is January 11, 2021.

Offshore Infrastructure & Energy Work Group – Mr. Ryan-Henry: Work Group call tomorrow.

NCRF Briefing on December 8 – Mr. Molnar

What do CZ programs want to hear in this briefing? Mr. Couture respondes that we should inquire whether they foresee any additional changes or tweaks to the competitive process.

Regulatory Update – Mr. Ryan-Henry: Most of the information is included in the attachments.
• USACE and EPA VIDA will finalize after change of Administration. Nationwide permit comments are closed.

• VIDA comments are still open. Had a membership call yesterday and invite feedback from Members regarding procedure used for Consistency.

• Consistency appeal in NY was resolved. Electric Boat was overturned by the Administrator.

Mr. Lynn stated that one of his staff spoke with Kerry Kehoe regarding the VIDA. He stated that the Federal Statute pre-empts state statutes from applying. However, EPA did send out a Consistency Determination to the states and did not cite that preclusion in their letter.

Adjourn – Mr. Couture thanks the Executive Committee and adjourns the meeting at 4:31 pm Eastern. The next EC Meeting is scheduled for November 11, 2020.