June 11, 2026

Over 60 Common Ground leaders packed Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s public meeting room to present their own report, containing the allegations of 20 whistleblowers—all of whom are current or former Veolia or MMSD employees. “Listen to the employees if you want to know how our wastewater treatment plants are being run,” urged Jennnifer O’Hear, Common Ground’s Executive Director.

Additionally, CG called on the Ad Hoc Selection Committee, to halt the contract process until a full audit has been conducted and released publically. “Pause the contract process,” demanded O’Hear. “Do not make a recommendation about choosing Jacobs or Veolia until the audit has been completed and you and the public have read it. Given the allegations in our report, anything else would be irresponsible.“  

Thus far, CG has had 2 whistleblowers come forward publicly, Steve Jacquart and Greg Gryskiewicz. Tonight, however, CG released the testimonies of 20—including 5 more who are publicly identifying themselves. The report is damning—confirming and widening the concerns raised thus far. The biggest new allegation? That Veolia is falsifying reports.

“Nine different, credible whistleblowers report some sort of record destruction, lying, falsifying, ‘pencil whipping,’ or fudging the numbers by Veolia,” said O’Hear, “on everything from equipment records to sewage dumps to water quality reports.”

Broadly, the whistleblower report exposes 7 major concerns:

1. FALSIFIED EQUIPMENT RECORDS: Equipment is not being properly maintained and maintenance records and work orders are being falsified or deleted.
2. FACILITIES BELOW CAPACITY: Equipment is being allowed to deteriorate and fail; thus facilities cannot operate at peak capacity—-even during rain storms when it’s most needed—-and millions of gallons of untreated sewage are dumped needlessly into Lake Michigan and people’s basements.
3. FALSIFIED WATER REPORTS: Water quality reports are being falsified. Milorganite quality control reports are also being “fudged.” Veolia has reduced testing for PCBs in Milorganite to save money.
4. SEWAGE DUMPS INACCURATE: The amount of sewage being dumped into the lake or diverted into the Deep Tunnel is not being reported accurately. 
5. UNSAFE CONDITIONS: Workers are made to endure unsafe working conditions.
6. LOW, UNQUALIFIED STAFFING: Proper staffing levels are not being maintained.  Unqualified persons are employed, compromising safety and efficiency.  
7. NO OVERSIGHT: MMSD staff are not properly monitoring Veolia’s management of the facilities.

The five newly-named whistleblowers each make similar allegations: 

• Pam Schultz (18-year treatment plant operator, retired 2021) reports Veolia “lying about their performance numbers” and not reporting all sewage dumps in the Lake. Pam also filed an unsafe worker condition report with MMSD and Veolia but received no response.           
• Jacob Holbert (Solids Processing Supervisor and former treatment plant operator, 13 years, left in 2020) says Veolia’s commonly-used management phrase is “FIFO” (“Fit In or Fuck Off”) and also says Veolia is “fudging the numbers” on the quality control for Milorganite.
• Robert Patterson (17-year powerhouse operator, 14 at South Shore, retired 2019) and Robert Blake (20-year handling piping, controls, and pumps, retired 2015) say Veolia does not maintain equipment.
• Jim Robertson (13-year machinist at Jones Island, retired 2020) says MMSD lets Veolia get away with “everything,” and Veolia is incentivized to replace (not fix) equipment because they received a 10% mark-up fee under previous contracts.  
• More than a dozen other anonymous whistleblowers report that Veolia destroyed records, “back dated” reports to falsify maintenance, reduced PCB testing to save money, and oversaw an abusive and retaliatory management culture.

The hearing, which started at 5:30 pm, was the only public hearing in the lengthy process for awarding a 10-year, $700 million operations and maintenance contract for MMSD’s wastewater treatment plants. 

The hearing was held by the Ad Hoc Contract Selection Committee, whose members were chosen by MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer and charged with reviewing the bids and making a recommendation to the MMSD Commission in August. Committee members are five former MMSD commissioners: Kathy Ehley, Dennis Grzezinski, Kris Martinsek, John Swan III, and Michael A. West.

Just yesterday, Urban Milwaukee reported that MMSD was in talks with Veolia in 2023 for a no-bid contract extension; and the Journal Sentinel reported that Joseph Tackett of Veolia Municipal Water Contract Operations asked MMSD to “cancel this procurement and conduct a fresh re-procurement on a clean record” in the wake of CG going public in April.

Common Ground first went public on April 30th, 175 Common Ground leaders requested an audit of Veolia’s management of the wastewater treatment facilities. Initially, MMSD attacked whistleblowers, expressed “total confidence” in Veolia, and tried to hire an HR attorney to investigate. However, soon after, nearly a dozen County Supervisors and several Common Council members echoed Common Ground’s call for an audit.

On Monday, the MMSD Commission finally responded to CG’s and whistleblowers’ calls for an audit by passing  a resolution allotting $100,000 for an audit.  CG leaders say that the audit must be truly independent, public, comprehensive, robust, and protect workers’ confidentiality.

Common Ground (CG) is a powerful, non-partisan, non-profit, organizing alliance of 45 member institutions across greater Milwaukee—including congregations, schools, non-profits, small businesses, and neighborhood groups.