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Pomposity and Hypocrisy in Wisconsin

Pomposity and Hypocrisy in Wisconsin

July 19, 2010 | Permalink

Comments

Does Tom Barrett have that kind of control over the MMSD? That's a multi-jurisdictional board. Certainly Barrett has no control over the decision to dump out of the Deep Tunnel, does he?

Posted by: Nick | Jul 19, 2010 9:59:05 AM

Also, I don't think he was even involved in the decision to build the damned thing, was he?

Posted by: Nick | Jul 19, 2010 10:01:34 AM

He can get rid of Milwaukee's combined sewers that are the source of the problem.

Posted by: Tom McMahon | Jul 19, 2010 11:56:33 AM

Can he? Or is that something only the MMSD has jurisdiction over? Certainly he can apply political pressure, but can he do anything other than that?

Posted by: Nick | Jul 19, 2010 1:02:24 PM

The Milwaukee mayor appoints the majority of the members of MMSD (and as Barrett's been mayor the last 10 years, the 6 spots that are currently filled are his appointees).

As for the Deep Tunnel, the project was started in the 1980s when Henry Maier was mayor in order to get the suburbs to pay for mitigating Milwaukee's (and Shorewood's) combined sewers precisely because those combined sewers are owned and operated by the city of Milwaukee (and Shorewood). Further, it was Barrett's appointees that oversaw the latest two expansions of the Deep Tunnel.

Posted by: steveegg | Jul 19, 2010 1:34:32 PM

From WisPolitics in 2004:

"Rains Bring Flood of Troubles For MMSD
As the saying goes, if the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District didn't have bad luck, it wouldn't have any luck at all.

The timing of the heavy spring rains couldn't have been worse for Kevin Shafer and the other MMSD officials

Tom Barrett campaigned with a pledge to clean up MMSD. For the agency to have a crisis in the new mayor's first month in office potentially is a disaster for Shafer, other top officials and the MMSD board. That's because Barrett appoints seven members.

Heads could roll. Plenty of them. So goes the speculation around City Hall."

.......

"Meanwhile, Barrett has made decisions on what he wants to do with the seven members of the MMSD board he controls, Curley said. The new mayor, though, wants to contact current board members to tell them of his decisions before going public with his plans, Curley said."

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