Napa [California] flood control officials are about to mount another lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., to try and wring more money from a cash-strapped government.

Elected leaders and project managers have been going back twice a year for a decade, but never have the stakes been higher, said Heather Stanton, the flood project’s local manager.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to award a contract worth $40 million or more this summer to relocate Napa Valley Wine Train tracks near downtown.

This rail work was to have been done in less than three years, but now, with federal support lagging, it could bog down for years more, Stanton said.

Local leaders have polished their talking points for when they visit offices of legislators, the Corps of Engineers and White House.

“We’ll say, we’re now in the heart of downtown,” said Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht, who chairs the flood board. “The longer we stretch this out, the more impact on downtown.”

“Piecemeal will just cost everyone more,” said Napa Mayor Jill Techel, a flood board member who has made more than a dozen such lobbying trips over the years.

It’s important to reconnect with legislators and praise corps officials for their good work so far, Techel said.

With the occupant of the White House to change next year, dealing with the executive branch will be “kind of a wild card,” Techel said.

In recent years, the Bush administration’s annual budget proposal has included about a third of what the Napa project needed to stay on schedule. For 2008/09, Bush is seeking $7.4 million, while the corps said it could use $22.8 million.

The Napa delegation will ask Congress to bump up that $7.4 million to something closer to what the corps needs, Stanton said.

Officials will hand out a map of the flood project, with red lines slashed through the many completion dates that were never met because of funding shortages.

For example, the map will show flood walls between Imola Avenue and downtown originally scheduled for completion in 2003, followed by 2005, 2008 and 2011, each with a red slash, Techel said. The new completion date is 2014.

Traveling to Washington for two days of lobbying will be Techel, Wagenknecht, St. Helena Mayor Del Britton, who is the flood board’s vice chair, and Bob Peterson, the county’s public works director.

The cost should be $6,000 to $8,000, said Stanton, who is not going. Local leaders will be guided in D.C. by representatives of Carmen Group, a lobbying firm well-connected on water resource matters, she said.

The flood district retains Carmen Group at cost of more than $160,000 annually to advise on how to get the largest federal allocations, she said.

While the district never gets everything it wants, these lobbying trips “are never a waste of time,” said Supervisor Bill Dodd, who serves on the flood board. “If you don’t go, there will be someone from Arkansas or New York going.”

Britton, who is making his first trip on behalf of the Napa flood project, said he was originally opposed to spending money for advocacy in Washington. Now he realizes this is how the game is played.

“If it weren’t for lobbyists, we wouldn’t have the foggiest idea of how to present to staff,” Britton said.

The message this year is a simple one, Stanton said: “We need more money than you’re giving us.”

It should help that the corps will be awarding a multi-year contract for the railroad relocation. By late summer the federal government will be obligated to do the rail job, estimated to cost between $39 and $45 million.

Then the question becomes how many years will it take, Stanton said.

The contractor will be able to start work in September with $8 million from the 2007/08 federal allocation, plus whatever Congress adds to Bush’s proposal for $7.4 million in 2008/09, she said.

Local officials try to put a human face on the flood project, showing the federal bureaucracy how much has been accomplished and how much remains to be done, Techel said.

When the New Year’s flood of 2005 was fresh, locals showed video of downtown’s flood damage. On another trip, Exhibit A was a petition signed by more than 800 residents and business owners in the Napa Creek neighborhood.

The Napa Chamber of Commerce is urging its members to write letters to California legislators in support of greater federal allocations. The city’s economic viability hinges on flood control, the chamber states.

As far as Dodd is concerned, the federal government’s flood control process is “broken.” The government keeps adding new projects when it doesn’t have enough money to complete the ones already started, he said.

Napa continues to get more money than many competing projects from low-population areas, Stanton said. It helps that Napa has been a poster child for a new approach to flood control, combining flood benefits with environmental enhancements, she said.