Politics & Government

Committee Turns Down Mayor's Automatic Referendum Request

Great Lakes water application major discussion point between Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima and some aldermen during meeting.

The Finance Committee decided to not recommend that the Common Council mandate referendums on any expenditure of capital improvement projects that exceed $50 million.

The committee made the decision Tuesday night during a somewhat tense meeting as committee members drilled Mayor Jeff Scrima about specifics of what he intended his referral to look like.

Joe Pieper, a Waukesha alderman and Finance Committee chairman, said all the aldermen are elected to make decisions for the community. While Pieper stays informed on the issues and understand what is facing the city with major projects, as do some of the neighbors, not all of the area residents are going to put forth the effort to research the projects, he said.

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It’s the alderman’s responsibility to research expenditures and make those decisions, Pieper said.

“There is a referendum on all of us every three years. There is a referendum on the mayor every four years,” Pieper said. “… That’s your job. Every aldermen does it at different levels and different ways, but it is your job. … If you don’t do a good job your constituents vote you out next election.”

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Alderman Eric Payne voted to recommend Scrima’s referral, as did a very hesitant and apparently conflicted Alderman John Kalblinger. The request is also supposed to go before the Ordinance & License Committee.

“The consensus was if they have a problem, they are going to tell me,” Kalblinger said about speaking with his constituents who elected him into office during a recall. “They are going to kick me out of office  – one way or another.”

Scrima said during the meeting that no one knows better about how to spend money “than our citizens who are paying the bills.”

 “In these economic times, I believe our citizens deserve financial stability,” Scrima said.

Wisconsin state law already provides an opportunity for citizens to ask for a referendum by presenting petitions of 15 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

Seeking a Referendum on Future Water Supply?

There currently is only one project in the works that would be affected if the council approved Scrima’s request – the plans for a Great Lakes water diversion as the city is facing a June 2018 deadline to reduce radium levels in its water supply. Scrima requested Tuesday during the meeting that water deals negotiated with Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Racine be placed on referendum, but because that discussion item was not on the agenda, the committee could not talk about it.

Waukesha is considering purchasing water from the three Lake Michigan communities. It currently is going through the steps to pipe water from and to return water to the Great Lakes.

“This referral is not project specific but rather to get the discussion going,” Scrima said. Scrima views a referendum as “a way to demonstrate to our citizens that they are in fact control.”

Alderman Paul Ybarra, who is the Common Council president and on the Finance Committee, asked Scrima pointed questions about his referral, including how he arrived at the $50 million threshold to put an item for referendum.

“It seemed to be a number that if we went over it, the citizens that live in our community would start feeling it with their individual budgets,” Scrima said.

Ybarra noted that the city spends more than $50 million a year on its budget, which has an impact to the resident’s finances, and rhetorically asked if the mayor would also ask for the city’s budget to be placed on referendum each year. Any expenditure that the city makes affects residents’ budgets, Ybarra said. 

“I know you mention it is not aimed at water, but it sure seems like it is aimed at water,” Ybarra said. “You actually alluded to water.”

Ybarra then asked Scrima if he had read all 3,000 pages of the city’s application for Lake Michigan water – which has to be approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and all Great Lakes states.

“I don’t know that that is pertinent to this agenda item,” Scrima told Ybarra. Ybarra asked the question again, to which Scrima responded “yes.”

“All 3,000 pages?” Ybarra clarified.

“Most of it, yes,” Scrima said.

Ybarra asked Scrima how long it took to read through the application to prove a point that it would take dozens of hours to read through the entire application.

“I struggle with this. I think I understand the intent of it is to take a look at this differently,” Ybarra said. “I think becomes challenging and almost unfair to the citizens when we have got 3,000 you have got to read to really make an informed decision on this. … We have elected officials that are paid to do that. … We raised our hand and said, yes we are going to invest time to that.”

While a Lake Michigan water diversion from Milwaukee is projected to cost $164 million in capital construction costs, other options presented for the city are significantly more costly and would not be as sustainable as Great Lakes water, according to the city’s application documents.

“What happens if everything is voted down and we have no options? Where does that leave us? We have to be in compliance by 2018,” Ybarra said. “… Those are the kind of things that stick in the back of my mind.”

Scrima said he wants to have the discussion because soon Waukesha will be the city with the highest water bills in the county. Ybarra was quick to point out that is going to be true no matter where the city gets its water from and that estimates for what Scrima has suggested the city pursue as its water supply would cost more than $300 million.

“OK. Circles,” Scrima said while drawing a circle in the air with his fingers.

Even Payne, who typically votes toward the interests of the mayor and his supporters, said there were a lot of different ways of looking at the mayor’s referral. Payne said he didn’t necessarily think the future water supply should be automatically placed on a referendum.

“I don’t know that I could do that,” Payne said.


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