Mini public procedures often result in the production of a recommendation to citizens supposed to enlighten public decisions. How are such recommendations manufactured? Is deliberation really taking place as part of such initiatives? Based on the study of a mini public debate over the governance of a public water utility, this ethnographic study considers the normative bases of deliberation. It describes the uncertain trajectory of recommendations described in the final report and sketches out the outlines of a set of operational criteria of collective productions in such procedures.