Cheney calls for municipal majority on DuPage Water Commission

With 97 percent of the DuPage Water Commission customers coming from municipalities, Democratic county board chairman candidate Carole Cheney believes those towns should have more representation within the embattled agency.

"I haven't heard a nonpolitical explanation why the county has a seven-to-six majority on that board," she said. "No one has explained why municipalities aren't entitled to a simple majority."

Her view runs counter to her Republican opponent State Sen. Dan Cronin who pushed for legislation earlier this year that would have turned operation of the commission over to the county. His efforts fell short, and Cronin settled on compromised legislation that calls for all current 13 commission appointees to resign by the end of the year and the elimination of a quarter-cent sales tax that goes to the commission's coffers.

"I welcome any support for my efforts to reform the water commission," Cronin said. "The goal of reform is to bring new leadership and more accountability to this agency."

The commission is responsible for delivering Lake Michigan water to more than two dozen municipalities in DuPage. It purchases the water from Chicago and then sells it to municipalities that set prices to residents and other customers.

The water commission came under fire late last year when officials there discovered all of the agency's $69 million reserve fund had been spent. Commissioners had been misled by faulty financial reports that indicated they had $40 million more in reserves than they actually had. The agency's financial administrator was fired in the in wake of the debacle and the commission's general manager and treasurer resigned as well. A costly forensic audit blamed the mistakes on poor accounting procedures and lax oversight by the top administrators and the commission as well.

Cheney argues that Cronin's proposal for a full county takeover of the commission is flawed because the majority of the board at the time of the financial mess was appointed by current county board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom. Legislation needs to be introduced to reverse majority control, and appointments should be based on qualifications, Cheney said.

"I will appoint commissioners who are competent to manage the tax dollars that citizens of DuPage have entrusted them with instead of appointing commissioners who fit a certain political criteria," she said.

Some current municipal members of the commission agree with Cheney.

"Cronin keeps throwing all of us under the bus like we're nothing," said Carol Stream Mayor Frank Saverino. "This guy's a loose cannon. We work hard as mayors to do the right thing, and he's coming from Springfield that's billions of dollars in the hole and telling us how to be better connected to the people."

Cheney also took swipes at the two county board members who are also water commissioners, Jim Zay and Tom Bennington.

"They did not effectively oversee the finances of the water commission, so how can they be capable of overseeing the finances of a county with a budget of nearly half a billion dollars?" Cheney asked.

Zay said Cheney needs a history lesson because he said neither he nor Bennington were on the commission when the financial issues began. He also argued that he does represent municipal residents' interests because he's elected by voters who live in both incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county.

"You'd think someone who was running for the highest office in county government would know who she is being elected by," Zay said. "She's just trying to get political points on an issue that Sen. Cronin has been out in front of for months. She's just late to the dance."

Despite both sides of the political fence calling for an overhaul of the way the agency is governed, it doesn't appear the legislature is ready to make that happen.

Woodridge Mayor William Murphy has been around since the inception of the commission and remembers the legislation that set up the governance of the agency. That, too, was a compromise, he said. Longtime DuPage GOP legislators and power brokers Lee Daniels and James "Pate" Philip orchestrated the legislation to appease the municipalities and former county board Chairman Jack Kneupfer. Daniels was a state representative and Philip was a state senator.

The duo's bill gave municipalities power to appoint six members and the county the ability to appoint six members and the chairman. But Murphy said the linchpin to all this was the "supermajority" vote rule for all financial and employment issues. That provision requires that at least three municipal appointees and at least three county appointees plus one more appointee must vote in favor all financial and employment items in order for the measure to pass, he said.

However, Murphy now believes it is time to change the way the commission is governed.

"Cheney's plan is an excellent idea," he said. "A board that better reflects the reality of our customer base would be more appropriate and mirror some of the other metropolitan water agencies."

Cronin believes the public has lost faith with the current structure and the current batch of appointees.

"We need to restore the public's trust on this issue and ensure the best interest of the taxpayer is the top consideration," he said.

The forensic audit noted the divisiveness between county appointees and municipal appointees on the commission. It suggested those tensions - whether perceived or actual - may have had a hand keeping the financial mistakes from being discovered sooner.

The most notable instances of that division in the commission relate to the $75 million state-authorized cash grab the county took from the commission's reserves seven years ago and the hiring of the commission's now former General Manager Bob Martin. Municipalities fought the reserve fund raid, but eventually lost the battle when the legislature authorized it. Municipalities would later divide a $40 million rebate that also came from the commission's reserves.

Municipal appointees also favored hiring Martin for the commission's top post, despite concerns that the engineer by trade lacked any financial expertise. This issue is often cited by supporters of the initiative to have the county take over the commission. However, Murphy argues the county had enough votes to halt Martin's hiring, but didn't.

"The actual vote to hire Martin was unanimous publicly," Murphy said. "In closed session it might have been a different story, but all the commission had a vote on that, and the vote was to go forward with him."