A Common Council committee recommended Monday morning to change voting procedures regarding the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority.

The Judiciary and Legislation Committee amended a proposal that suggests to the Wisconsin State Legislature that it do away with the RTA's supermajority rule.

Under current rules, the RTA must have six of its seven members in agreement to make recommendations to the state. Additionally, RTA members are not allowed to discuss their decisions with each other outside of their meetings. If the proposal is adopted, the RTA would just need a simple majority.

Fourth District Alderman Bob Bauman introduced the recommendation and said the current rules affect RTA members' ability to talk with one another.

"In the process of making policy and looking at the transportation field, you need to have a certain amount of dialogue," said Bauman, who expects the recommendation to pass the full council. "They're basically in a straitjacket."

Bauman sponsored the recommendation and the committee did not spend long discussing it.

"I understand the frustration that they can't get anything done," said Alderman Michael Murphy of District 10.

Many city and state officials lamented that trying to fund county transit under RTA voting rules is difficult. Bauman said the RTA is stalemated on recommending almost anything.

"I thought if they go to a simple majority, they can at least get something out the door," Bauman said.

One transit project that ran into trouble was the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter line, which would provide a rail link between the three counties. The RTA recommended in January that a fee on rental cars fund the project. An additional funding source – a sales tax – was put on the table, but quickly taken off when the board realized it could not get a supermajority if the tax was included.

Phil Evenson, spokesman for the RTA, said the board's voting troubles are less about the supermajority rule and more about the board members' inability to talk to each other.

"It was an unintended result of the original proposal," Evenson said. "But most people would agree that you should be able to talk to your fellow board members."

Evenson also said getting rid of the supermajority rule might make the board's voting easier, but the state Legislature is more likely to respond to a recommendation from a large majority. To make improvements in regional transit, every county would need to agree on the proposal, Evenson said.

"As a practical matter, the removal of the supermajority would ease deliberations and improve the ability to communicate, but it wouldn't change the dynamic of what it needs to do when it comes to authority," Evenson said. "Politically, we've got to be together on this."

Bauman disagreed. He said state legislators do their own assessment of the RTA's recommendations and whether the recommendation was voted on unanimously is irrelevant.

The recommendation to rid the RTA of the supermajority rule will go to the full council May 8.