Mayor William Peduto named a Blue Ribbon Panel in March 2017 to advise the city on a possible restructuring of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. The panel of community, environmental, academic, plumbing, drain, professional and business leaders was tasked with studying ways to improve and optimize Pittsburgh’s publicly owned water and sewer asset, and to advise the Peduto administration on the hiring of an advisory firm to help guide those efforts. The independent Blue Ribbon Panel released a report of its recommendations in December 2017. As a result of these recommendations, a mayoral Executive Order was issued in January 2018 that calls for a new resolution that will change PWSA’s governance in order to eliminate the role of elective politics—and the unavoidable conflicts of interest it creates—in the management of the water system.