Hannah Mohelnitzky, a spokeswoman for the city engineering department, declined to make Greg Fries, the administrator who runs the stormwater program, available to answer questions from the Wisconsin State Journal, but she said that members of the public could contact him with their questions.

Mohelnitzky provided a recently created document that includes an account of “illicit discharge detection and elimination” program activities. The report describes a Starkweather Creek sampling program similar to one in a 2014 report, except testing results weren’t included in the recent version. The IDDE information is required to be filed with the state, but it wasn’t included when the city filed its 2018 stormwater report.

Mohelnitzky acknowledged the city hasn’t promptly posted meeting minutes. The city should hold itself to a standard of making meeting minutes available to the public every three months, she said.

Commenting on other MEJO findings of shortcomings, Mohelnitzky said the DNR hasn’t cited the city for noncompliance with its stormwater permit and it believes itself to be in compliance.

The city’s DNR stormwater permit expired five years ago. The state recently began work on issuing a renewal. A public comment period for the new permit ends May 3.