FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
City of Pewaukee, WI
Oct 2, 2006
On August 3, 2003 former City of Pewaukee Mayor Jeff Nowak signed Ordinance 03-12 into law giving the Common Council a “$10 Million” blank check to contract for the construction of any individual building project.
Nowak tried to sell this to the community as a protection. However, the ordinance removed the right of citizens to bring forth a petition under State Statute 9.20 to limit the cost of any capital building expenditure by the City.
“The $10 Million Blank Check Ordinance was passed on the heels of massive overruns during the renovation of City of Pewaukee City Hall,” stated PBG Spokesperson Debra Kohler, “It paved the way for Nowak to spend up to $10Million of taxpayer money on any other capital project without citizen input.”
“There are good arguments to rescind the ordinance and good arguments to reduce the limit to between $1Million and $3 Million. In no case should the limit remain at $10 Million,” continued Kohler, “ and in every instance the entire scope of a project should be included and brought before the taxpayers prior to Common Council approval.”
On Thursday October 5th a committee to study the spending limit will convene for the first time at 7:00pm at City of Pewaukee City Hall.
Pewaukeeans for Better Government is a watchdog group that monitors the actions of local government and disperses information via an email network.
http://www.pbgnetwork.org/article.php?story=20061001231346633