City council member responds to news coverage

In your report of the council’s discussion of the Badger Power appointment, a number of important points were omitted.

1. My reasons for objecting to the Badger Power Board asking the mayor to appoint another person from the Industrial Park. Bylaws state that each community makes an appointment. I requested a representative of the citizens, not just the large users of electricity. Mr. Supanich recently retired from Walker Forge, Mr. Krueger’s firm is in the industrial park.

2. The “circus” resulted because the acting mayor did not check into our city ordinances or prior appointments to the board, made the appointment and told Mr. Kell the appointment did not require council approval. He pointed out that all committee appointments require council approval. The candidate had been submitted to Badger Power and the city even received an inquiry as to the size jacket he needed. I did not “claim” the appointment had been made. Mr. Kell informed me it had been made. The acting mayor apologized for making the appointment without confirmation.

3. Although I regret trying to paraphrase what Mr. Supanich said about having a residential representative on the board perhaps it would have been worth the time to contact Mr. Supanich to verify what your notes said.

4. Prior to my inquiries, no one in the city including the chair of the utility board had a copy of the bylaws of Badger Power. Your readers may be wondering just what Badger Power is and what it does. That may be a good follow up story.

5. Persons appointed to this board historically serve a very long time. The position is a three-year term but seems to have been an automatic renewal for many years. I handed out my resume of electric utility experience to show my qualifications for the position. I would be able to hit the ground running to serve our community.

I doubt I will be appointed due to the political nature of such appointments. However, I urge that a citizen, preferably an elected official, be appointed to represent the residential users of electricity. We have a rate case going before the Public Service Commission and large users have already met with the people preparing the rate case and have asked publicly, that industrial users not be asked to bear the brunt of the rate increase. I say I hope the aging population of Clintonville does not have to bear the brunt of any rate increase.

As you know, the city electric utility lost money last year. After months of this an audit was ordered and it was found that due to a lower charge for “off peak” use and Walker Forge using a large amount of power on a second shift, each kilowatt was causing a loss. A rate case is being filed to correct this.

Mary-Beth Kuester
District 4 Alderwoman
Clintonville