mr. strickler. i am going to address you first. in your testimony, you noted that the federal government use their department scientific information and will use it so long as it references the best available data. can you explain why this is the best available science, and describe how this bill might negatively impact the way the u.s. fish and wildlife service is uses fake data? >> thank you for the question. the importance of using the best available science is because these species are critically imperiled. we may not have another chance to get it right. in many cases, the chairman and others have noted the best available science is science being produced by state agencies. in other cases, the best available science is being produced by research organizations, or nonprofit groups. elevating fig produce data above data produced that was science produced by organizations that have just as much care of the endangered species act, runs the risk of marginalizing a potentially good science and may put us in a situation where a listed

and teresa strickler is reaccusing herself. thank you. mr.el. >> i just want to give you an update of the proposal for lafco public services. i have a draft r.f.p. that will be sent out in the next week or so. since the contract language for legal services hasn't been updated in many years, i've just needed a little time so review the duty so that i can be thorough in the r.f.p. i should have a significant update at our next meeting on sept 21 as the r.f.p. would probably have been issued by then and we probably would have received submissions, and i expect the whole process to be completed by november . >> supervisor fewer: thank you, mr. gobel. commissioner pollock? >> commissioner pollock: thank you so much for working on this. i know we have been long overdue to take a look at our legal services. in the last meeting that we had, i had made some comments that in past years that our legal services specifically with ms. miller, that it was hard to know if there was a conflict of interest, and i just wanted to clarify my comments from the las