The negotiation process involved numerous steps expected to take place over a 3-year period. The process actually took 5 years. The process included outreach to hear what members of the public had to say.  Five public workshops were held.  They focused on identification and discussion of the issues that should be addressed in the new agreement.  First the public presented their issues.  The various parties reviewed and discussed these and from this a comprehensive list of "framework" issues of the parties evolved. The end result of this process is summarized in the document entitled Revised Framework Issues List. This list is not meant to be all-inclusive but rather a useful tool in focusing negotiation effort.  The WAC hired a consultant to assist it with the negotiation and public outreach process. After refinement, this list became to be known as the "List of 56".

Initially the WAC had planned to have the consultant prepare a draft agreement after the framework issues were identified.  At the July 1, 2002 meeting, the WAC decided on a different course, namely to employ an Interest Based Negotiation (IBN) process to guide negotiations by the parties.  The IBN process is designed to focus on interests - not positions, review options for mutual gain, and rely on use of objective criteria to reach a consensus on issues and agreement provisions while maintaining respectful relations among parties.  The WAC agreed that for IBN negotiation purposes, each party would:

• Identify one lead negotiator and at least one alternate
• That each party would have one vote on IBN issues
• That each party could cast their votes in one of three ways
• Thumbs up (approve)
• Thumbs to side (don't prefer but can live with it)
• Thumbs down (can't live with it, i.e. a "deal breaker")

As for agreement drafting it was decided the consultant would recap the decisions of the negotiators and that SCWA staff would respond with legal language with the consultant assisting as called upon.

Training in IBN was held in August and the first IBN negotiation session was held on September 23, 2002.  The parties took up framework issues dealing with water conservation at that meeting.  The timeline for the negotiation process was revised several times.

At the January 26, 2004, Negotiation Session, the WAC voted to undertake the following two parallel actions:  (1) That the parties to the MOU negotiate extension of the MOU re Interim Impairment with the goal of completing negotiations by July 31, 2004 and (2) That the parties continue negotiation of a new agreement using the SCWA's January draft of the what had by then come to be known as the Restructured Water Supply Agreement as a beginning point with the goal of completing the negotiations by July 31, 2004.   Disposition of the items noted on the Framework Issues List (List of 56) were summarized in April, 2004. Work on the new MOU was essentially completed by November 2005.  Work on the Restructured Agreement continued until July of 2005.

The negotiation sessions were open to the public and were attended by representatives of various organizations.  Additional public input will be afforded at hearings that will be held by the individual parties to the negotiation at the time they consider the agreements.