Waukesha Mayor's Referendum Request Being Discussed Tuesday

The Finance Committee is taking up Mayor Jeff Scrima’s referral to place any city project expenditure that would cost citizens in total more than $50 million to be placed on a referendum at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

The Ordinance & License Committee also is being asked to review the city policy but that item has not recently appeared on a O&L agenda.

The request from Waukesha’s mayor includes that the two committees – formed of Waukesha aldermen – include supporting rationale for their recommendation in writing.

The request was delayed in June after the to research the information.

“In these times, the citizens in Waukesha deserve financial stability,” “I believe that the citizens know best how to spend their own money. … In these economic times, the citizens deserve financial responsibility.

“If the city is going to do a project that in total costs over $50 million, which will cause the citizens significant extra expense, they should be able to weigh in on that specific project, since they will be paying the bill.”

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.

If Scrima is successful with putting projects of $50 million or more on the referendum, it would be his intention to have the city’s future water supply project go to referendum.

The Waukesha Water Utility is estimating that capitol construction costs to receive Lake Michigan water is $164 million. As the city is under at June 2018 to address the radium levels in its water supply, Lake Michigan is the least expensive alternative identified by the city.

“There is no cheap alternative,” Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said in June. “… Any other option is more expensive than that.”

Duchniak said if the proposal moved forward, he would be prepared to ask for an exception to the future water supply project.

The issue of public health and welfare is too important to politicized, Duchniak said, and creating a referendum would become costly. Duchniak noted the future water supply has been studied in depth for more than eight years.