Milwaukee Water Privatization Study Ends; Issues Still Alive

Milwaukee Common Council members put the kibosh on city Comptroller Wally Morics' water system privatization study process, and Dan Bice notes the end of the process. 

I don't think Morics, an elected official who advises the council and Mayor from an independent perch, was holding back information about the bidders and their potential scenarios with nefarious goals in mind.

Rather, I think Morics took the permission he was granted last October by the Council to study water privatization and literally applied - -  to the letter - - confidentiality procedures about financial bids and proposals routine in the Comptroller's dollars-and-cents line of work, like the reviewing and letting of bids for bonds, for example.

Problem is that water is different - - it's life itself.

A few days ago, I suggested that Morics get out the information.

Because when it comes to water,  and especially in a city more or less at the center of the Great Lakes region's water politics for the last few years - - just about anything dealing with water is bound to be a hot topic that needs as open a public discussion as possible.

As awareness spread about the possibility that the water utility might be leased for 99 years, the Comptroller's Office held too much of the information about the bid proposals it had in hand far too closely, and that led to suspicion that something bad was about to happen.

The council, sensing an approaching political storm in an era of transparency, wisely deep-sixed the plan.

But that's not to say that fiscal issues are resolved, such as:

What will the city charge for water?

Where will that revenue will go?

What is the true value of water - - a key issue now the subject of separate request for proposals by the city, and important as suburbs seek Milwaukee water shipments from Lake Michigan?

How will all city services will be financed in an era of falling revenues?

I said earlier that people who were raising the alarm about privatized water needed to keep the discussions going and help find solutions, and I include myself in that group.