The DuPage Water Commission Finally Gets a Seat at the
Negotiation Table with the City of Chicago

CLIENT’S CHALLENGE

For more than four years, the DuPage Water Commission (DWC) has been trying to sit down with the City of Chicago to determine how to proceed when its 40-year contract with the city for water services ends in 2024.  Presumably, the size of the annual payments ($113 million in DWC’s 2022 fiscal year) and the prominence of DWC as the city’s “largest customer” (which provided approximately 30% of Chicago’s water-related revenue from suburban customers) warranted at least a call back. 

“Not so,” expressed one DWC administrator, with frustration. Complicating matters was recent news that Chicago had given a smaller local customer, the City of Joliet, a “sweetheart” deal for water services billed at a rate nearly 50% lower than the fee DWC had been paying for years.

THE STRATEGIA SOLUTION

As a long-time partner of DWC and a firm with extensive connections to policymakers at all levels of Chicago’s municipal government, Strategia had been working for several years on behalf of the commission to raise awareness among policy makers and the general public alike about the DWC’s mission and commitment to provide “safe, pure drinking water” that “meets or exceeds all Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulatory standards.” As an extension of this engagement, DWC asked the Strategia team to find a way to bring the city and DWC together at the negotiating table. 

“We knew that the Chicago Tribune was planning an extensive investigative piece on the matter,” explains Strategia CEO and founder Lissa Druss. “We also knew that story would likely place the city’s administration in a difficult light – and felt that key decisionmakers on the City’s side would benefit if they addressed this matter head-on. And soon.”

IMPACTS + OUTCOMES

Strategia’s outreach worked. Key policymakers “took the firm’s call.” Communication channels between DWC and the City warmed up and meeting appointments filled the calendar. “We were pleased with this outcome,” says Druss. “Sometimes it takes an outsider to help make a difference, and both parties have significant outcomes at stake here.” Is the matter entirely resolved? No. That requires further, ongoing dialogue as the 2024 deadline approaches and both the City and DWC explore various alternatives to their original arrangement. But at least the obstacles to these critical discussions have been eliminated.