Jim Brooks Elected To Serve As Chair Of APPA’s Policy Makers Council

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 25, 2022

Jim Brooks, chair of the Evansville, Wis., Municipal Services Committee and president of the City Council, was elected this month to chair the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Policy Makers Council (PMC).

“The PMC brings together about 40 elected officials from across the country whose main task is to call on Congress and policy writers in Washington to present the concerns of public power communities with a single voice,” Brooks said in a Q&A with Public Power Current published earlier this year.

Members of the PMC meet twice a year in Washington, D.C., and at least once a month by Zoom. The group advocates on issues such as climate policy, grid security, energy infrastructure investments, and preserving local control for public power communities.

Evansville Water & Light is a public power utility and member of the APPA. The utility is also a member-owner of WPPI Energy, a not-for-profit, wholesale power supplier located in Sun Prairie, Wis.

In addition to his other duties, Brooks serves as the chair of WPPI Energy’s Policy & Communications Leadership Council, the committee responsible for counseling staff and the organization’s executive committee on the best means of increasing policy-making influence and strengthening grassroots capacity for legislative, regulatory and policy initiatives.

Brooks is the second public power leader associated with WPPI Energy to serve as chair of the APPA’s Policy Makers Council. Paul Fisk, previously the mayor of Lodi, Wis., was also active with the joint action agency and was elected to chair the Policy Makers Council in 2016.

As chair, Brooks also serves on the national APPA Board of Directors.

His chairmanship will last until July 2023.