The Stantec facilitators presented at the Indian Wells Valley Water District (IWVWD) February 13, 2023, regularly scheduled Board meeting. During the session, they discussed the conditions necessary for a successful collaborative process and recommended the next steps. Their recommendations were based on the stakeholder assessment and follow-up outreach conducted by the Stantec facilitators from July through December 2022. During the assessment, they gathered community input on the groundwater management challenges being faced in the groundwater basin and potential options to support the community in finding common ground. Stantec had previously presented a first round of assessment findings at a IWVWD publicly noticed workshop on October 4, 2022, and later provided an augmented presentation during an Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority (IWVGA) Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) special meeting held November 30, 2022. Additional feedback on the collaborative conditions for success was gathered during the IWVGA PAC meeting and via a survey distributed to the IWVGA PAC, DWR FSS Planning Committee, and through the IWVWD Facebook and listserv.

During the February 13th presentation, Stantec summarized the final findings, highlighting the gaps that would inhibit progress. In the final presentation, they recapped the work they had conducted during the course of the project and focused on a discussion of the conditions needed for a collaborative process to be successful. They then offered potential next steps. The facilitators recommended not moving forward with a formal collaborative effort at this time but suggested the basin revisit the potential for collaborative processes as conditions change in the future. This presentation concluded the tasks associated with the Department of Water Resources Facilitation Support Services work plan. The facilitators expressed appreciation for the IWVWD staff and Board as well as the Planning Committee and many community members that contributed to the assessment.

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