Mr. Wise distributed to the Council a letter from DEC Commissioner John Cahill in which the Commissioner commits the Department to filling two vacant technical positions, a bacteriologist and a lab technician, needed to monitor Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Commissioner Cahill wrote that his agency was committed to filling both positions in the shellfish monitoring laboratory to allow monitoring for Vibrio parahaemolyticus without compromising other programs, e.g., routine shellfish sanitation surveys. Mr. Colvin followed up,reporting that the bacteriologist classification must first be approved by Civil Service; the laboratory technician position was already approved and the hiring process started. To date, routine shellfish growing water certification sampling has been cut only slightly, but the danger is to conditional openings, which may take serious cuts in the future. Mr. Colvin stated that this matter would be discussed at the next meeting of the DEC Shellfish Advisory Committee.