Probable Waukesha Water Comish Blocked Diversion Plan Public Input

Continuing the Waukesha tradition of insider network controls, it looks like long-time Waukesha Water Utility Commissioner Dan Warren's replacement will be former Waukesha Common Council President Paul Ybarra.

If that name rings a bell with those of you following the Waukesha water diversion application's years of torturous delays, you could be recalling Ybarra's help in approving a draft application in 2010 and also his cancellation of a key, 2010 diversion meeting between Waukesha and DNR officials to which citizen and environmental groups had been invited.

Ybarra didn't want what he called third-party interests at the meeting, even as observers. At the time, I wrote:

Documents I obtained under the Wisconsin Open Records statute indicate that Common Council President Ybarra wrote the DNR - - his November 16th letter is posted at this DNR website - - to say that the meeting was off....

[Utility general manager Daniel] Duchniak told the Mayor [Jeff Scrima] of the cancellation and Ybarra defended the communications end-run to Scrima, the records show.

Here is a link to Ybarra's letter to the DNR.

Maybe that application could have used more third-party input, since what got delivered by Ybarra's Common Council to the DNR in May, 2010 after work by the utility and its consultants is still being rewritten by the utility and its consultants - - consultants who have worked with Ybarra in the past:

Waukesha Ald. Ybarra: Waukesha water will not add to flooding concerns
5/13/2010