MONROE, Wis. (WKOW) – The City of Monroe is taking its next step toward removing fluoride from its municipal water supply. The community’s Judiciary and Ordinance Committee met Monday evening at city hall to consider a draft ordinance repealing the current requirements for fluoride in the community’s water.
The body will workshop the resolution and then deliver its recommendation to the Common Council on whether to pass the ordinance at a future meeting.
The Common Council voted 5-4 in favor of removing fluoride from the drinking water supply at its Oct. 21 meeting.
Mayor Donna Douglas told 27 News in an interview she never expected the discussion to make it this far when she placed it on the Common Council agenda.
Now she says she is weighing a potential veto, the first of her term.
“I do have veto power,” Douglas said, unprompted in an interview with 27 News.
When pressed if she would use the power, she played coy.
“I’m not saying that I would ever use it, but if I felt very strongly about something that came before us, … then I probably would,” she said, “but I’m not saying that I will.”
Her grounds for vetoing the measure would be her belief that the council should represent the citizens of Monroe. At the Oct. 21 meeting, 25 people registered in support of keeping fluoride in the water (though Douglas acknowledged some of those were from people who lived outside the city) compared to two against.
Monroe Alder Richard Thoman voted in favor of removing fluoride. He said he based his vote largely on wanting to give Monroe residents a choice as to whether they use fluoride or not. He argued that it’s cheaper for people to opt-in to fluoride through mouthwashes and toothpastes compared to opting out via bottled water or purification methods.
The Wisconsin Dental Association, a professional association of dentists, has lobbied the council to keep fluoride, saying it is a matter of public health. The organization believes the city should protect the dental health of citizens by providing fluoride to those who cannot afford dental care, especially children.
Original article online at: https://www.wkow.com/news/health/monroe-takes-new-step-toward-removing-fluoride-from-water-mayor-teases-veto/article_5dd35160-a08b-11ef-be3f-9f77d5ed15c7.html