Wausau Water Works Commission Discusses Future of City's Utility Commission

Thursday, February 29th, 2024 -- 9:00 AM

(Thomas Schumacher, WSAU) The Wausau Water Works committee met on Tuesday night to discuss the future of the city’s Utility Commission.

According to Thomas Schumacher with WSAU, the committee members met for almost an hour and laid out how they felt about what direction the body was heading, how much value the committee was providing to ratepayers, and legally where duties under the commission could go if abolished.

A topic that was discussed at length and received broad support was bringing an extra member to the council, which could include someone with HR or finance experience.

City Attorney Anne Jacobson was asked by alderpersons Doug Diny and Tom Killian about the legal issues surrounding the committee and what it could mean for HR processes usually handled by the body.

“It puts the city in a tough spot; the city is going to have to make a decision: do we want to let the utility manage their own employees and set their own wages and we’ll budget for it, or are they going to budget for it, or should we restyle the Utility Commission and maybe take back some of that authority and retool it?”

Diny and Killian referenced a state statute that was initially referenced by Mayor Katie Rosenburg that would send all employee issues to the director of public works as well as the Human Resources department for the city to be resolved if the commission were abolished.

Several members, including Alderperson Rasmussen and Alderperson Gisselman, agreed that the legal issues surrounding the body needed further study by council members before a formal decision could be made, and City Attorney Jacobson would provide those details at a later date.

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