MMSD Commission Chair Proposes Third-Party Audit

Jones Island Reclamation Facility. Photo by Urban Milwaukee staff.

The chair of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s public oversight board plans to begin an audit of Veolia, the private contractor running the district’s two wastewater facilities. The move comes after Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin has launched and ramped up a campaign around Veolia’s performance.

Corey Zetts, chair of the MMSD Board of Commissioners, plans to bring a resolution to her fellow board members in June initiating a third-party audit overseen by the board of commissioners. Her announcement followed a public statement by members of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors requesting an audit by the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau.

“I want to thank the Milwaukee County supervisors who called for an audit of Veolia and MMSD by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau,” Zetts said. “In the meantime, I’ve directed MMSD staff to bring a resolution to the commission in June to initiate an independent, third-party performance audit of Veolia Water Milwaukee to investigate allegations that Veolia is not properly maintaining MMSD infrastructure and, by doing so, created unsafe working conditions. This performance audit will be overseen by the MMSD Commission.”

Common Ground launched a campaign in April based on a number of alarming allegations from whistleblowers who have worked at the sewerage district’s wastewater treatment facilities at Jones Island and South Shore. The group alleges Veolia is mismanaging the sewerage systems to save money, letting equipment fall into disrepair to increase profits on replacements and running the facilities under capacity during heavy rainfall, increasing the risk of sewer overflows and basement backups.

Veolia has held the contract to operate the MMSD facilities since 2008. The sewerage district is in the middle of a public procurement process for the next 10-year contract, which begins in 2028 and is valued at about $700 million. The contract will be awarded in September. Veolia is up against Jacobs Solutions, a Dallas-based engineering services company.

“MMSD is in the second year of a procurement process to select one of two companies to operate and maintain the district’s infrastructure for 10 years,” Zetts said. “Both companies are qualified. The winner has not been predetermined. MMSD’s commission will be making the final decision.”

This is the second audit proposed by MMSD representatives. Initially, the sewerage district attempted to launch an investigation of the allegations with a consultant, Lake Effect HR & Law, but Common Ground called it a “sham” intended to identify the confidential whistleblowers.

Common Ground Backs State Audit

Common Ground responded to Zetts’ announcement Monday by backing county supervisors’ call for an audit by the state Legislative Audit Bureau.

“While we appreciate that Corey Zetts and the MMSD Commission finally announced an independent audit, we have several concerns,” the organization said in a statement, outlining five points of concern.

First, Zetts’ statement lacked detail, according to Common Ground.

Second, Common Ground believes public trust has already been damaged. “First she attacked Steve Jacquart (whistleblower #1) after refusing to meet with him. Then MMSD Director Kevin Shafer said he was “totally confident in Veolia.” Then, last week, in response to the latest whistleblower, MMSD said they could not comment due to the procurement process. Now this?”

Third, Zetts released her statement one day before a hearing where members of the Milwaukee Common Council will consider her reappointment to the board, as well as that of four other commissioners. Commissioners are paid $10,000 for their service.

Fourth, Zetts sat and the board during the period when the alleged mismanagement has occurred.

Finally Common Ground has 26 whistleblowers so far, “and the severity of their claims have intensified.”

“Given these concerns, we believe the circumstances call for a higher authority, in particular, the State Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), with its auditing power, technical expertise, independence, and credibility to conduct a full review of our wastewater treatment plants as run by Veolia and overseen by MMSD,” Common Ground said.