CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Gross mismanagement of Wausau’s water works will likely lead to another rate increase next year.
Watch how quickly Mayor Katie Rosenberg is trying to wash her hands of it.
The mayor is the chairperson of the Wausau Water Works commission. The chair sets the agenda and is the most powerful voice on the commission. It is under Katie Rosenberg’s tenure that Wausau built a new, expensive water treatment plant without accounting for the personnel costs of operating it. There is a surprise expense of re-training some staff and, perhaps, hiring more people. The mayor is scrambling to make sure her fingerprints aren’t on any additional rate hikes next year. Under her “leadership” Wausau already has some of the most expensive water in the state.
One of the mayor’s creative ideas was to have the city’s Human Resources committee look at the staffing problem. If any new staff could be folded into the city’s budget, they wouldn’t be the direct cause of a rate hike. Salaries and benefits would still have to be covered, but with tax dollars not ratepayer dollars. So, water rates might stay the same but property taxes would go up. It’s a clever sleight of hand.
The mayor’s other idea of avoidance is to create a Utility Committee. It would be made up of elected city council members instead of the current appointed water board. If people are furious about high water rates, and they are, then can vote out the rascal committee members. This is a crafty proposal from the mayor, since she knows full well that the new committee and then the full city council would vote on future rate hikes. The mayor does not have a vote, only a veto. So she can sheepishly argue, “I didn’t have anything to do with the new rate increase.”
Don’t believe it. The buck stops with the mayor. She’s a big spender. The only way to get it to stop is to vote with your wallet, and to choose someone else to lead the city.
Chris Conley
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