The peer test

A board that never splits could be efficient, or it could be a rubber stamp. The way to tell the difference is to watch comparable boards. So the investigation coded peer water boards the same way it coded Pittsburgh Water, and let the contrast do the arguing.

Method. Pittsburgh Water is the full census: every vote at all 24 board meetings, October 2023 to September 2025. For the peers, a random-number generator picked three meetings from each board over the same window; every vote in those meetings was coded on the same four variables, producing 29 votes across six peer meetings. Pick a peer to see the head-to-head.

Peer minutes: Niagara Falls Water Board (Apr 28, 2025, archived and hashed in this repository) and North Harris County Regional Water Authority (Oct 7, 2024). The combined peer figure, 20 of 29 votes unanimous, is the published comparison; per-board vote splits are a pending archiving item. This tool carries no coin-flip probability; the published story cut that framing, correctly. To extend the test to another board, add it to the BOARDS array. Reporting by Brian Nuckols for Public Source.