It’s seems there is not a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask me what we are going to do about the Water Utility. It’s a frustrating question. First of all because of the state law that sets up the Water Utility takes away the Council’s ability to do much at all:
Wis. Stat. 66.0805 Management of municipal public utility by commission.
(1) Except as provided in sub. (6), the governing body of a city shall . . . provide for the nonpartisan management of a municipal public utility by creating a commission under this section. The board of commissioners, under the general control and supervision of the governing body, shall be responsible for the entire management of and shall supervise the operation of the utility. The governing body shall exercise general control and supervision of the commission by enacting ordinances governing the commission’s operation. The board shall consist of 3, 5 or 7 commissioners.
We are required to have a Water Utility that is responsible for the “entire management of” and is supposed to “supervise the operation of” the utility. However, we are supposed to still have “general control and supervision of the governing body”. So, we have adopted chapter 13 of the Madison General Ordinances.
MGO 13.01 says:
BOARD OF WATER COMMISSIONERS.
(1) Board of Water Commissioners . There shall be a board of five (5) water commissioners, whose duty shall be the management and operation of the City Water Utility. One (1) commissioner shall be a member of the Common Council. Pursuant to Sec. 66.0805(2), Wis. Stats., commissioners shall be appointed on a staggered basis for a term each of five (5) years. In case of vacancy the Common Council may at any regular or special meeting elect a member for the unexpired term. In addition, the Director Public Health under Sec. 7.02, M.G.O., or his or her designee shall serve as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Board in order to provide advice and information to the Board on health issues related to the Water Utility. The Director of Public Health shall not vote, may not make motions, and shall not be counted as a member in determining quorum or majorities.
So, the only thing we do is appoint people for 5 year terms. (Most other City appointments are 2 or 3 years.) That, too, is controlled by State Statute
66.0805(2)
(2)The commissioners shall be elected by the governing body for a term, beginning on the first day of October, of as many years as there are commissioners, except that the terms of the commissioners first elected shall expire successively one each year on each succeeding first day of October.
Anyways, on Tuesday night, I introduced a resolution co-sponsored by Satya Rhodes Conway, Robbie Webber, Marsha Rummel, Tim Gruber, Brian Solomon, Michael Verveer and Tim Bruer that would add one or two seats to the commission as well as ask for formal reports to the Common Council. I’m asking that we consider adding an additional alderperson to the Board so that we have more representation. After all, the public and the media want to hold us responsible for what is going on, we may as well have more representation.
The second thing this resolution does is to request the Common Council Organizational Committee to consider requiring additional formal reports to the Common Council so that we are informed and have the ability to ask additional questions and discuss issues with the Water Utility in a public forum on a regularly scheduled basis.
I know its not much, but its all I could think of to try to address the on-going concerns that I keep hearing about nearly every day and feel pretty powerless to impact. Meantime, if you are looking for Council action, you’ll have to work through Alderperson Lauren Cnare.
