The management of the Milwaukee region’s two wastewater treatment plants has been under scrutiny for months.
Whistleblowers have raised concerns about Veolia, the company that has run the plants for 18 years.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District needs to decide whether to renew Veolia’s contract, or award the wastewater management job to a different company.
An ad hoc committee has been studying proposals from both companies, and announced its recommendation Monday. It recommended Jacobs Engineering Group for the next 10-year contract, starting in 2028.
Chair Dennis Grzezinski says the committee deliberated long and hard on its assignment.
“And we also conducted a public hearing on June 11 of this year, which included a summary presentation regarding the proposed contract, followed by substantial input from members of the public. The committee also accepted written comments during a 30-day comment period,” Grzezinski says. “In total, there were over 30 hours of presentations and meetings.”
The committee is made up of five former MMSD commissioners. Grzezinski says each applicants’ strengths and weaknesses were scored following a point system.
“On price: up to 60 points. On the company approach: up to 25 points. On staffing, training, corporate culture and workforce development: 10 points. And on regional partnership: up to five points,” Grzezinski says.
In the end, Jacobs came out on top, over Veolia.
“Awarding the contract to Jacobs will provide the district with, one, a significant price or cost advantage estimated at $54 million in savings over the 10-year contract. Number two, an operator with a much more systematic approach and considerably greater experience with implementing and using data-driven real-time tools and technology in operations and maintenance, which is crucial to achieving the district's goals for the next 10 years,” Grzezinski says.
The Jacobs contract would cost about $625 million.
Grzezinski emphasized that the committee’s decision was not influenced by the whistleblower complaints against Veolia, or an audit that’s underway looking into the allegations.
He also made a point of saying Jacobs would not be contracting with Palantir, the controversial software company associated with ICE's deportation of undocumented immigrants.
“When a question was raised about Palantir by district staff, Jacobs responded that similar services are available from other vendors, and that they would replace Palantir with another contractor if the district wished,” Grzezinski says.
After the briefing, Veolia spokesman Adam Lisberg addressed media outside MMSD headquarters.
“We’re surprised and disappointed by the recommendation announced today,” he said.
But Lisberg added the MMSD commission has the final say. He also noted that the committee gave Veolia a high score on community outreach.
“The work that we've done and we've been doing to support the community, to support workforce development, to support organizations around town and the long-term commitment we've built with environmental and educational organizations in town have been helpful. And I'm pleased to see that that appears to have been recognized,” Lisberg says.
Bob Connolly is with Common Ground, the group that rallied around whistleblowers who raised concerns about mismanagement of the wastewater facilities.
Connolly says Common Ground is focused on the independent audit triggered by those concerns.
“We praise the commission for number one, doing the audit and number two, directing the auditors to come talk to us right away,” he says.
Connolly says the audit results will be vital – no matter which company is ultimately selected.
“Because this is bigger than one company. This problem is deeper than that. And this problem has to be addressed regarding what changes need to be made in the contract — what changes need be made no matter who is running the facilities,” Connolly says.
The MMSD commission’s operations committee will dig into the ad hoc recommendation at a Sept. 14 meeting.
The full commission will vote on Sept. 28.
It’s not yet clear when the independent audit process will wrap up.
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