Nixon gone, then back on Water Commission By Sarah Riley News-Chronicle After a brief leave of absence and strongly-worded letter to the mayor, attorney Tim Nixon is back on the Green Bay Water Commission. And he's got lots of ideas about what the commission's role should be. In early November, Nixon was appointed by Mayor Jim Schmitt to replace commission member Carol Greenwood, but Nixon later resigned when the mayor fired the rest of the commission. He sent a fiery letter to the mayor as his resignation. On Tuesday, he and the mayor worked out their differences and Nixon agreed to come back. He had already spent two weeks researching the issue and visited Green Bay water facilities. "This is just way too important to the community," Nixon said. He said the mayor's apology for the way commission members were removed was important in his decision to return. On Nov. 17, Schmitt sent letters to the remaining Water Commission members telling them they were no longer on the commission. The letters were delivered by police officers. "I could have handled this much better," Schmitt said Tuesday. Schmitt said he was happy Nixon was back on the commission. The appointments will be voted on by the City Council on Dec. 2. "The fact is he's the right man for the job," Schmitt said. Pending his approval by the council, Nixon said he has some ideas for the direction of the board. First of all, he'd like the commission to be the sole negotiator with the suburbs over the drinking water issue. By dealing directly with the suburbs and reporting to the mayor and City Council, the negotiations will be free of political interference, he said. "The Water Commission will be the lead negotiator," he said. "(We will) sit down with the suburbs as soon as we can and we're going to talk this through." Nixon said the process has been "hijacked by consultants" and now the commission and suburban Central Brown County Water Authority members should talk about the sale of water. Consultants and lawyers are there to advise, not control the talks, he added. "I think it's about time that the people of the city and the suburbs take control of this process," he said. He expects to hold more open meetings instead of the routine closed sessions held on both sides. The reasons the boards cite for closed sessions is to allow them to talk about negotiations without the public or members of the media in the room. "I hate closed meetings," he said. Nixon is an attorney with Godfrey and Kahn and is the former village president of Waunakee, near Madison.