Authorization for Community Green Infrastructure Funding delayed as MWRD Board Fights for Stormwater Services for all Cook County Communities

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
​November 19, 2020 
Commissioners absent:  Morita

The Board approved all but one of the day’s agenda items.

Stormwater Management
Agenda Item number 53 (20-1022) was deleted by Commissioner Deborah Shore following a pointed discussion with staff about making policy without Board involvement or approval.  The discussion illuminated MWRD’s difficulty accepting stormwater responsibilities in communities outside the MWRD’s corporate boundaries, where it does not have a mechanism to collect revenue.

• Item 53 would have authorized MWRD staff to negotiate agreements with 16 local governments to assist with green infrastructure projects to improve drainage and prevent flooding.  Among the larger beneficiaries are the City of Evanston for its Main Street Improvements Project, the Village of Kenilworth for phase 2 of its Green Streets program, and the City of Berwyn for its Green Alley’s program.  The Evanston project would benefit 38 homes and buildings; the Kenilworth project 58 and the Berwyn program 114.   Documents provided did not offer a total dollar contribution by the MWRD, but costs of the 16 projects exceed $16 million.
• Commissioner Shore pulled the item to ask if all the communities in the MWRD’s Stormwater Management area (all of Cook County) had received letters seeking project proposals.  Dr. Catherine O’Connor, Director of Engineering, replied that letters were sent to all rate-paying communities, schools, etc.   On further questioning, Dr.  O’Connor said the 5 additional communities within the stormwater management area did not receive letters “because they don’t pay in.”
• Commissioner Shore asked by what authority staff could decide to deny stormwater funding to those communities, noting the MWRD’s stormwater service area is defined by legislative authority.  
• Commissioner Marcelino Garcia noted the MWRD gets funding for stormwater projects from State and Federal Government, and there are no grounds to distinguish between the District’s corporate boundaries and its stormwater boundaries for green infrastructure projects.
• “This should be a small issue, but it isn’t,” Garcia said. “Wastewater treatment, fine (keep within corporate boundaries), but stormwater is completely different.”
• Executive Director Perkovich suggested the best approach to resolve the situation might be to go to Springfield and ask that the MWRD’s stormwater and wastewater boundaries be identical.  
• President Kari Steele requested a sense of the board but didn’t specify if that meant going to Springfield or following the District’s already defined legislative authority.
• Commissioner Cameron Davis noted this was a will of the Board question, and invited Commissioners Shore and Garcia to consider making a motion to reflect the will of the Board. He suggested that they articulate a motion that could allow the Board to move forward on this issue.  Instead the motion to delete was unanimously approved.

Note:  There are 102 Cook County communities within the MWRD’s corporate boundaries and 27 partially within District boundaries. East Dundee, Frankfort, Park Forest, South Chicago Heights, and Barrington are the only five within the district’s stormwater authority that do not have a rate-paying wastewater treatment relationship with the MWRD.

Other Agenda Items:
Item 10 20-0974. Commissioner Garcia asked that Item 10 be pulled for discussion. 

• The item authorizes the District to advertise for bids on a $2.6 million hauling contract to transport the District’s biosolids.
• Included in the bid request is a form called an “Assist Agencies List,” which gives names and contact information for minority contractors who could be invited to assist the bidder in completing the work.  These smaller partners can help bidders meet minority and women-owned business goals set by the MWRD.
• Commissioner Garcia noted the “Assist Agencies” list was from 2019, and does not reflect the hard work he and others have done to include a wide range of minority contractors in MWRD contracts.  
• When he asked when to expect an updated list, staff replied they “were working on an update;” that contact information on the list is constantly changing, and “they want to make sure they get one good list, are trying to do the list only once a year, and don’t want to be doing changes one at a time.”
• Commissioner Garcia replied that the list is on the website, and it is easy enough to update there.  He reminded staff that he has contact information for many organizations if it is needed.
• The item was returned to the agenda and eventually approved.  

Item 41 20-1018   Commissioner Shore pulled this item because it funds in part additional personal protective gear for workers.

• Commissioner Shore questioned staff about the relatively high numbers of MWRD workers becoming infected, and asked, with rising COVID-19 numbers in Illinois, if the MWRD was making plans to lock down further.   She and nearly every other commissioner expressed concern for the health and safety of the agency’s workers.  
• Commissioner Shore, referring to decisions that may need to be made, said “I think the District needs to be a leader in this,” and noted that she worried the District wasn’t taking the virus seriously enough.
• Executive Director Perkovich agreed it was a fluid situation and said he was always balancing twin goals: Protecting the workforce and protecting our communities with ongoing wastewater treatment.  
• President Steele said they were all concerned, and speaking for the Agency, said all the organization’s leaders need to be standing by, and be prepared to have the conversation about how to move forward if the situation intensifies.  
• This item was returned to the agenda, and eventually approved. 

New Business

• Commissioner M. Frank Avila received personal greetings and praise from fellow members as he retired from the MWRD Board.  Commissioner Avila was hired as a professional engineer by the MWRD in July 1962.  After running his own engineering business for many years, he was elected Commissioner in 2002, and put in 18 years of service as a Board member, re-elected in 2008 and 2014.  
• The MWRD announced it will name the Stickney treatment plant’s administration building after Commissioner Avila.

Observer’s Name:  Laurie Morse                                         Length of Meeting: 2 hours