5th Ward Decorah City Council member Steve Zittergruen will be the liason to the Sustainability Task Force study

The Decorah City Council voted earlier in December to create a nine-member task force to look into the possibility of holding another referendum on establishing a municipal electric utility in Decorah.

The task force will meet beginning in January.  It will then make a recommendation to the city council about whether and when to hold a second MEU referendum, which could come as soon as May of 2022.

At a work session Monday night, Decorah City Council members expressed their hope that the task force and the city council will stay in regular contact during the task force's study.  City council member Ross Hadley said the regular reports to the city council from the task force will allow the city council to explain the steps that might be taken.  Hadley says some Decorah residents didn't realize the city council's involvement in the last municipal electric utility campaign.  Constant communication between the city council and the new task force would make it clear to the public that any future referendum, in Hadley's words, "is a city initiative and not a task force initiative."

Fellow city council member Steve Zittergruen then volunteered to attend meetings of the task force as the city's representative.  Zittergruen said the pulibc was evenly divided during the first MEU referendum, but he's hoping "we have a clear decision next time."