PROJECT SUMMARY
The 10-year contract between Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and United Water Services (UWS), the country's largest wastewater public-private partnership agreement has already begun paying dividends for Milwaukee-area residents and has set a new standard for municipalities across the country considering public-private partnerships.

As a result of this contract, the MMSD Commission was able to reduce user charges by an average of 16.5 percent when it adopted the District's 1999 Operation and Maintenance budget. This action will result in significant savings for the District's customers. The District's six-year forecast projects user charges to remain steady for the next four years and to increase thereafter at the rate of inflation. The United Water contract allowed the District to give its customers an immediate, significant rate decrease, while at the same time offering stable rates for the foreseeable future.

A unique component of MMSD's contract is a no layoff guarantee from UWS for the entire term of the contract, the first of its kind to be included in a competitive contract. The contract also included a requirement that USW compensation benefits packages would equal or exceed current District programs.

A second unique component is the contract's pension agreement. UWS proposed to have District employees remain part of the City of Milwaukee's public employee pension fund. This required the District, UWS and the City of Milwaukee to request that the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Department of Labor allow the employees to remain in the plan without compromising its status as a government plan. A favorable IRS and Department of Labor ruling was received in May 1999 and many observers predict it will ease local labor concerns about privatization by providing a way for tenured municipal workers in other cities to keep their public pensions if they become private-sector employees.

During the first year, United Water Services and four union locals representing 210 employees signed a unified collective bargaining agreement in January. The five-year labor agreement was the first to be negotiated concurrently with all four unions. In the past, each union negotiated separately with MMSD and signed individual collective bargaining agreements. The agreement is one of the first of its kind in the country to include four labor organizations and a private operator.

Workplace accidents decreased 60 percent over the year following the startup of the contract, while grievances dropped 33 percent. Employees also became eligible for bonuses and training opportunities at other UWS' operations throughout the country.

Under the United Water O&M contract, the MMSD's two wastewater treatment plants have received AMSA awards for the past five years. The South Shore and Jones Island Treatment plants received the AMSA Platinum Award in 2001 and 2002, respectively, for four consecutive years of Gold Awards (awarded to plants with no permit violations).