Waukesha's Water Utility And Commission; Accountable To Whom?

As I disclose beneath my blog's title, I've worked as the senior staffer to the Mayors of Madison and Milwaukee.

And been around government in other positions, and also as an independent writer, then columnist, reporter, editor, and now a writer again, with a blog.

More than 40 years, all told - - about which I have two observations.

1. I'm getting old.

2. And never have I seen an unelected branch of a government in Wisconsin get away with such unrestrained and self-defined freedom- - at the expense of a Mayor (and mind you, I concede to a soft spot for the people who take on those jobs) - - as has been carried out by Waukesha's Water Utility Commission and staff on behalf of an application for Lake Michigan water the Utility's staff drafted.

The staff reports to the Commission, and the Commission, with a long-time chairman reports to the rest of Waukesha's government, but as this newspaper account indicates, the Commission and staff are also bluntly dictating - - and publicly - - to the city's new Mayor.

It's unimaginable that the Mayors for whom I worked would put up with that.

I have had a good relationship with the utility's staff though I have been a thorn in its side with Open Records requests, blog posts and articles dating back to my discovery in its files that there had been two confidential requests by Waukesha to Governor Jim Doyle (and set aside) in 2006 for a back-door Lake Michigan diversion approval.

But I continue to be amazed that the Water Utility Commission and staff keep charging ahead with the Lake Michigan diversion as they see fit, including:

* Trying to bludgeon the Mayor into line - - though he is resisting.

* Continuing to assert that crucial cost data in the application will remain confidential.

* Refusing to provide to the public an easy-to-follow guide to changes in the diversion application that were inserted after it was approved in April by the Common Council.

* Saying they would not send the edited application back for a public, Council review.

Will the Commission and staff take that same position when it completes more editing sought by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources?

Maybe the tradition in Waukesha is that the Commission is virtually autonomous, and that tits power arises in part from its revenue-producing ability, along with something approaching a monopoly on information and data gathered by consultants the utility can finance from rate collections without spending taxpayer dollars.

You tell me: how does a commission acquire so much power?

And why has the rest of the city government ceded it?