Water Reclamation Board Continues to Discuss Method of Selecting an Inspector General

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
  MWRD Study Session on Board of Commissioner Meeting Rules and Committee Structure
February 7, 2019

What the Board Discussed:
​Comm. McGowan requested a status report relative to the intergovernmental agreement (“IGA”) between the MWRD and the Cook County Inspector General (“IG”). 

• The General Counsel reported that the Cook County IG’s final edits of the draft IGA would be arriving soon, noting later in the discussion that there had been back and forth in the interim. 
• Commissioner McGowan suggested an RFP (Request for Proposal). 
• Commissioner Shore stated the route of an IGA had been unanimously agreed to by the Board last year while preserving the right to pursue hiring its own IG in the future.  
• The MWRD Legislative Liaison was asked to address the Board.  He stated the current route pre-dated the new Board, and if the Board now wanted its own IG, it would take time to evaluate legislative models, but recommended against taking the issue to the state legislature.  The General Counsel noted that a statutory change was needed for the MWRD to hire its own IG, and that using the RFP route would not give the IG subpoena power, but that subpoena power would probably not be needed often given other information gathering methods existed.  

Requests Made by Commissioners Relative to Selecting IG:

1. Comm.Kari K. Steele requested the timeline for an RFP for an Inspector General position
2. Comm. Justina Morita requested the Board receive information from the past Study Session on Inspector General.

Study Session Discussion: 

• There was a PowerPoint presentation on statutory responsibilities, types of MWRD board meetings, governance, and committee roles in practice.  
• The PowerPoint raised a consideration point relative to transmittal letters to the board for inclusion with the agendas.  Commissioner Davis requested that the letters not be issued over Committee Chairs’ names since the Executive Director was, in practice, the proponent.   Others proposed this procedure be limited to letters not circulated with the draft agenda since Commissioners had time to review those before publication. 
• There was also discussion of larger substantive issues relative to committee roles,  
• The MWRD Summary of Requests: (1) the Board consider removing the Chair person from letters; and (2) no new items be added to the draft agenda unless labeled an emergency.  

Items to watch for in the Future: 
Further discussion of:

• the IGA for an IG, 
• RFPs relative to the IG, 
• transmittal letters to the Board
• Board committee roles.

Observer - Marjy Gilbert                Meeting Length: 1.5 hour Board Meeting; 1 hour Study Session (