Even if I were in favor of the city buying the water company, which I’m not, I would still think this was a fool’s errand:

The City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to spend up to $50,000 to hire Clark-Dietz, a Champaign-based engineering firm, to represent all of the entities in discussions with Illinois American . . . Though [the franchise agreement’s] buyout option will resurface in 2008, some Peoria officials believe there may be a chance to buy back the waterworks before then and perhaps for less than the $220 million pricetag set by appraisers.

Note to city council: do a Google News search on “RWE American” and see what articles come up. You’ll find that cities in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and elsewhere have all looked into the possibility of buying a piece of RWE’s American Water Company. All have been rebuffed by RWE.

Lexington, Kentucky, has a familiar story. Back in December, their city council “approved setting aside $50,000 for the city’s water committee to do its work in examining the possible purchase of Kentucky American Water from RWE AG . . . Last week, the water committee decided to hire Coady Diemar Partners, an investment bank that provides strategic financial advice and corporate finance services, to guide the committee through the process.”

And for that money, they got this response from RWE: “The record is clear, that neither RWE nor American Water have expressed any interest in selling Kentucky American Water.”

Now, wasn’t that worth $50,000?

Not to be outdone, Peoria is also poised to spend $50,000 — perhaps up to $113,000 — to be told essentially the same thing.

I just don’t understand the council. Can’t they get it through their heads? RWE is not going to sell American Water Company in pieces. I think RWE has made that abundantly clear from the beginning. What part of their stance doesn’t the city understand?

I guess after dozens of years of ignoring Peoria residents on this issue, they’ve just become deaf to water-buyout opposition.