Meet Our Commissioners

President Tom Hovel

Appointed: 1992
Term Ending: Fall 2026

Appointing authority: Dane County Cities’ and Villages’ Association

Commission President Tom Hovel, McFarland, is a retired city planner. Planning is a field that requires system-thinking and to anticipate, and help mitigate, impacts of human interaction with the environment. Educationally, he is trained as a geographer, which involves the examination of human interaction with the environment.

President Hovel has served on the District’s Commission for nearly three decades.

Vice President Ezra Meyer

Appointed: 2009
Term Ending: Fall 2025

Appointing authority: City of Madison Mayor

Ezra Meyer joined the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in 2023 as Climate Resilience Outreach Specialist, a position focused on making the most of the substantially increased federal water infrastructure investments in the 2021 Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). In this role, Ezra conducts outreach, assists Tribal and local governments across the state and coordinates with partners to identify how Department funding programs, principally the Clean Water Fund and the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program, and other sources of funding, can support projects that make wastewater, stormwater and drinking water infrastructure, communities and watershed ecosystems more resilient to present and future impacts of climate change. Prior to joining the Department, Ezra worked on water policy, green infrastructure programs and education and outreach at nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations for over 20 years.

Commissioner Meyer received a Bachelor’s degree in economics and an undergraduate certificate in environmental studies and later Master’s degrees in urban and regional planning and water resources management, all from UW-Madison.

Commission Secretary Brad Murphy

Appointed: 2015
Term Ending: Fall 2024

Appointing Authority: City of Madison Mayor

Prior to his retirement in 2012, Commissioner Brad Murphy, Madison, was the planning division director for the City of Madison. He started his career in urban planning in 1980 with the City of Janesville and became Janesville’s Planning Director in 1987 prior to leaving for the City of Madison in 1989.

During his 23-year career with the City of Madison, he was responsible for the management of the City’s Planning Division and led a 27 person staff that prepared the City’s long-range Comprehensive Plan, the Downtown Plan, many sub-area plans for existing and new neighborhoods, the new Zoning Code, and intergovernmental agreements with eight of the City’s neighboring cities, villages, and townships. The Planning Division provided staff support to the Plan Commission, Landmarks Commission, Urban Design Commission, Long Range Transportation Planning Commission, Downtown Coordinating Committee, and the Mayor and Common Council on planning and development decisions.

Commissioner Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree in geography from the UW-Eau Claire and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Tennessee.

Beth Bookland

Appointed: 2020
Term Ending: Fall 2025

Appointing Authority: City of Madison Mayor

Commissioner Beth Bookland, Madison, has served as the director of global clinical operations for global consumer product companies and has led global environmental fate and effect studies for consumer product ingredients. As such, she has managed multi-million dollar budgets, keeping human health, environmental safety, and environmental fate and effects as top priorities while maintaining return on investment for company shareholders.

Over the years, Commissioner Bookland has worked as a scientist, small business owner, and she has been a technical leader in global corporations. She received her Ph.D. in environmental toxicology at UW-Madison in 1991. She currently serves as chairperson for the Committee on the Environment and as a member of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

Ken Clark

Appointed: 2015
Term Ending: Fall 2025

Appointing Authority: Dane County Cities’ and Villages’ Association

Commissioner Ken Clark, DeForest, is president and chief operating officer of Total Water Treatment Systems Inc., an employee-owned business based in Madison. His responsibilities include business operations, annual budgeting, strategic planning, acquisitions and financial reporting.

Commissioner Clark served as a trustee for the Village of DeForest for seven years. He was a member of the DeForest Redevelopment Authority, DeForest Area Library Committee, Planning and Zoning Committee, and the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Committee.

Gregory Fries

Appointed: 2023
Term Ending: Fall 2026

Appointing Authority: City of Madison

Commissioner Greg Fries, Madison, oversees Storm and Sanitary utilities for the City of Madison. During his over 30 years of employment with the City, he has worked on projects in stormwater quality, flood control, erosion control, utility reconstruction and bioretention, as well as the City’s WPDES Stormwater Discharge Permit. He enjoys the challenges that come with designing, operating and managing effective, efficient and functional sewer systems for the City.

Commissioner Fries received both his bachelor’s of science degree in civil and environmental engineering and his master’s degree in business from UW-Madison. He has been a registered Professional Engineer in Wisconsin for more than 25 years.

Patrick Lytle

Appointed: 2024
Term Ending: Fall 2027

Appointing Authority: Dane County Cities’ and Villages’ Association

Commissioner Patrick Lytle is the Director of Project and Client Management with McKim & Creed, a mid-sized engineering and surveying company. As a professional engineer for over 25 years, he understands that complex challenges like aging infrastructure and water quality require a combination of technical and non-technical solutions. In his professional life, he has provided consulting services to water and wastewater organizations in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East drawing upon lessons learned over the course of his career.  More locally, he has served as a plan commission member, school and non-profit volunteer, and, most recently, an elected official with the City of Verona.

Commissioner Lytle holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and music from Hastings College, Nebraska, a Master’s of environmental engineering from Oklahoma State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Daniel PalTZ

Appointed: 2024
Term Ending: Fall 2027

Appointing Authority: Dane County Cities’ and Villages’ Association

Commissioner Daniel Paltz is the current Manager for the Town of Dunn Sanitary District #1, where he has served as a Commissioner or a Manager for over 25 years. He is a retired Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with 30 years of experience and brings a wealth of knowledge of public accounting and private company accounting to the District Commission.

Commissioner Paltz grew up in the Town of Dunn and has spent most of his life in the area, except for a few years in his twenties when he explored the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. He has been involved as a volunteer for a variety of organizations including Easter Seals of Wisconsin, Boy Scouts of America, sports teams in the Oregon School District and various non-profits in the Madison area.

He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Upper Iowa University.

Marsha Rummel

Appointed: 2023
Term Ending: Fall 2025

Appointing Authority: City of Madison

Commissioner Marsha Rummel was elected to the Madison Common Council for District 6 in April 2023 after serving as Alder for District 6 between 2007 and 2021. She sits on the Finance Committee, Madison Arts Commission, the Public Market Development Committee and the Urban Design Commission for the City of Madison.

Commissioner Rummel served as a Revenue Agent for the Department of Revenue until her retirement in 2022. Prior to that, she worked in a cooperatively owned and managed progressive bookstore in downtown Madison for over 20 years. 

She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from UW-Madison.