SB 548

This bill expands the area under the jurisdiction of the Southeastern Wisconsin

Fox River Commission for the Illinois Fox River basin (commission) and makes

changes to the make-up, terms, and fiscal year of the board of commissioners.

Current law establishes the commission and grants to it the authority to

develop and carry out certain plans, projects, and programs to improve water quality

and recreation in the Fox River system between the northern boundary of the city

of Waukesha and the point immediately below the Waterford Dam (planning area).

Under current law, the commission has under its jurisdiction Waukesha and Racine

counties, the two counties covered by the planning area, and eight cities, villages,

and towns adjacent to the Fox River system within those counties (river

municipalities).

The commission is governed by a board of commissioners consisting of the

county executives of Waukesha and Racine counties or their designees, the mayors,

village presidents, or town board chairpersons of each river municipality or their

designees, two residents of the town of Vernon, two residents of the town of

Waterford, one resident of the village of Big Bend, a nonvoting representative of the

Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SWRPC), and a nonvoting

representative of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

This bill extends the planning area through Kenosha County to the

Wisconsin-Illinois border and designates six cities, villages, and towns in Kenosha

County as river municipalities. The bill designates the Kenosha county executive

and the mayors, village presidents, and town board chairpersons of the new river

municipalities, or their designees, to the board of commissioners and removes two

residents of the town of Vernon, two residents of the town of Waterford, and one

resident of the village of Big Bend from the board of commissioners. The bill also

authorizes the commission to extend the planning area and to designate new

counties, towns, villages, and cities within the planning area as being under the

commission's jurisdiction by an affirmative vote of the majority of voting

commissioners.

This bill also allows an elected official who is a member of the commission to

authorize a resident of the river county to attend a meeting of the commission and

exercises his or her duties if the elected official or his or her designee is unable to

attend.

Under current law, nine commissioners constitute a quorum for the transaction

of business. This bill changes a quorum to a number equal to a majority of voting

commissioners, not including a voting commissioner who does not participate in the

commission and does not appoint a designee or alternate.

Under current law, if a commissioner is appointed to the commission by an

elected official as the designee of the elected official, his or her term on the

commission begins on the third Tuesday in April of the year in which the