Milwaukee Water Official Asks Waukesha Water Official For Great Lakes Legal Information

Two months ago, as Milwaukee's Common Council was debating whether to approve a letter of intent to sell water to Waukesha - - thus beginning the negotiation process between the two cities once Waukesha actually applies for Lake Michigan water - - the Milwaukee Water Works manager Carrie Lewis had a question:

"What exactly does the state statute require? Willingness to negotiate only, or "support for and willingness to negotiate" as stated in the Waukesha resolution," asked Lewis in a Thursday, November 5th email to Waukesha Water utility manager Dan Duchniak.

The email exchange is part of an open records release provided to me by Waukesha. (I will post more items this week, so stay tuned.)

Duchniak had earlier that day sent Lewis some materials, including Waukesha's city resolution asking various cities to submit letters about possible water sales negotiations.

"Please let me know if you need anything else from me," said Duchniak by email at 2:19 p.m.

Lewis' question is a good one, but wouldn't the better party to ask be Milwaukee's City Attorney, and not the potential water buyer?

Thirteen minutes later, Duchniak replied, sending Lewis a citation for a state atatute and "relevant section," by page.

I'm not saying the information is right or wrong, or that Duchniak wouldn't or didn't know.

My question is: shouldn't these questions raised by Milwaukee officiala be answered within Milwaukee City Hall?

I worked for both Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, and for Madison's Paul Soglin, and I cannot imagine those offices or other depaartments getting a key legal question answered by the other side in what would be a multi-million dollar, long-term and precdent-setting national and international discussion and contract.

More questions:

* Does the Milwaukee Common Council have a greater willingness to exert control over contacts in these preliminary discussions?

* Does it even know how key information for its use is being obtained?

* What will happen when preliminary discussions lead to formal negotiations, and perhaps contract drafts and final agreements? Will email chatting between the parties' technical staffers continue, or will Milwaukee officials take greater control over who is communicating with whom?