The city of Chester Makes the Next Move to try to Sell the Chester Water Authority
To the Honorable Members of the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives that represent ratepayers in the Chester Water Authority service area
Because of the rapid developments that will occur concerning the Chester Water Authority and the effect the developments will have on many of your constituents, CWA will provide you with updates on the situation involving the CWA as the developments occur. Please feel free to inform your constituents as you wish. This is Update No. 3.
Attached is the Chester City Council Agenda for its Deliberative Council Meeting tomorrow. This is Item No. 4 on the Agenda:
“4. Authorize approval to commence bid process negotiations for CWA Assets;”
The City’s RFP process is a sham. CWA filed a Delaware County lawsuit in March against the City to stop it. There is an existing Court Order not allowing the City to sell CWA’s assets. The interesting part of the story is the attached Widener agenda which references a “private meeting” on Widener University’s campus between Aqua, the City and unknown others, two business days before the RFP responses were due to the City. CWA has been asking about the meeting but no one is talking. Perhaps some of you could ask the questions for us. Who was there? What was discussed? Were any promises made? Why did the City hold a private meeting with a for profit company, a company that has been engaged in a three year hostile takeover attempt of CWA two business days before the City’s RFP responses were due? Sound odd?
It looks like the City is working from the Rahm Emanuel playbook, “never allow a crisis to go to waste.” But the question to ask is who is designing and calling the plays for the City?
Based on the advice of the Pa. DCED, Governor Wolf declared a fiscal emergency in the City on April 13th, so under the law the DCED must develop and release an emergency action plan for the City no later than this Thursday April 23, 2020. Here are some questions that our ratepayers and your constituents would like to have answered:
• In this fiscal emergency process, is the DCED and the Act 47 team the City’s “partner” or does the DCED and the Act 47 team have fiscal oversight responsibilities? What are they?
• If the DCED and the Act 47 team have fiscal oversight responsibilities under this fiscal emergency process are these responsibilities different than what the DCED and Act 47 team have failed to exercise since the Chester City’s Act 47 process began in 1995?
• The DCED has the option of asking that a Receiver is appointed for the City. What process was used to select the Receiver? What were the selection criteria? Did the City or any of its officials have input in the process of selecting a Receiver whose task it is to over the City’s fiscal operations?
• Does a Receiver, if appointed, report to the DCED? The City Government? Or do they operate independently as professionals with duties and responsibilities set forth in the Act 47 law?
The DCED should be providing fiscal oversight for the City. DCED has not and there is no reason to believe that it will. Item 4 on tomorrow’s City Agenda would not be there without the full knowledge and approval of DCED.
It is clear that the DCED plans on taking action either alone or through the City against the interests of your constituents. Why are the DCED and the City allowed, during a life-threatening pandemic to legally snipe at the CWA and require the CWA to divert any of its time, energy, and resources to dealing with a financial mess, not of its own creation?
Please help CWA devote all of its efforts to its daily mission of providing clean safe drinking water to your constituents whose lives depend on CWA’s water.
The structural financial problems currently plaguing the City of Chester have existed in the City for many years and have long been ignored by the Act 47 Team. The current problem in the City is a cash flow problem caused by the DCED’s closing of Harrah’s casino. The cash flow problem could be easily addressed by the State with a small portion of the federal stimulus money that the state received in the first stimulus package. The DCED is ignoring this and trying to achieve its long-standing goal of selling off the CWA, an award-winning and fiscally solvent water authority.
Any questions or comments should be directed to Francis J. Catania, Solicitor, Chester Water Authority. During the pandemic, it is best to communicate with CWA via email, info@chesterwater.com.
To the Elected Officials in the Townships and Boroughs that represent ratepayers in the Chester Water Authority service area
Because of the rapid developments that will occur concerning the Chester Water Authority and the effect the developments will have on many of your constituents, CWA will provide you with updates on the situation involving the CWA as the developments occur. Please distribute this to all of your elected officials. Please feel free to inform your constituents as you wish. This is Update No. 3.
Attached is the Chester City Council Agenda for its Deliberative Council Meeting tomorrow. This is Item No. 4 on the Agenda:
“4. Authorize approval to commence bid process negotiations for CWA Assets;”
The City’s RFP process is a sham. CWA filed a Delaware County lawsuit in March against the City to stop it. There is an existing Court Order not allowing the City to sell CWA’s assets. The interesting part of the story is the attached Widener agenda which references a “private meeting” on Widener University’s campus between Aqua, the City and unknown others, two business days before the RFP responses were due to the City. CWA has been asking about the meeting but no one is talking. Perhaps some of you could ask the questions for us. Who was there? What was discussed? Were any promises made? Why did the City hold a private meeting with a for profit company, a company that has been engaged in a three year hostile takeover attempt of CWA two business days before the City’s RFP responses were due? Sound odd?
It looks like the City is working from the Rahm Emanuel playbook, “never allow a crisis to go to waste.” But the question to ask is who is designing and calling the plays for the City?
Based on the advice of the Pa. DCED, Governor Wolf declared a fiscal emergency in the City on April 13th, so under the law the DCED must develop and release an emergency action plan for the City no later than this Thursday April 23, 2020. Here are some questions that our ratepayers and your constituents would like to have answered:
• In this fiscal emergency process, is the DCED and the Act 47 team the City’s “partner” or does the DCED and the Act 47 team have fiscal oversight responsibilities? What are they?
• If the DCED and the Act 47 team have fiscal oversight responsibilities under this fiscal emergency process are these responsibilities different than what the DCED and Act 47 team have failed to exercise since the Chester City’s Act 47 process began in 1995?
• The DCED has the option of asking that a Receiver is appointed for the City. What process was used to select the Receiver? What were the selection criteria? Did the City or any of its officials have input in the process of selecting a Receiver whose task it is to over the City’s fiscal operations?
• Does a Receiver, if appointed, report to the DCED? The City Government? Or do they operate independently as professionals with duties and responsibilities set forth in the Act 47 law?
The DCED should be providing fiscal oversight for the City. DCED has not and there is no reason to believe that it will. Item 4 on tomorrow’s City Agenda would not be there without the full knowledge and approval of DCED.
It is clear that the DCED plans on taking action either alone or through the City against the interests of your constituents. Why are the DCED and the City allowed, during a life-threatening pandemic to legally snipe at the CWA and require the CWA to divert any of its time, energy, and resources to dealing with a financial mess, not of its own creation?
Please help CWA devote all of its efforts to its daily mission of providing clean safe drinking water to your constituents whose lives depend on CWA’s water.
The structural financial problems currently plaguing the City of Chester have existed in the City for many years and have long been ignored by the Act 47 Team. The current problem in the City is a cash flow problem caused by the DCED’s closing of Harrah’s casino. The cash flow problem could be easily addressed by the State with a small portion of the federal stimulus money that the state received in the first stimulus package. The DCED is ignoring this and trying to achieve its long-standing goal of selling off the CWA, an award-winning and fiscally solvent water authority.
Any questions or comments should be directed to Francis J. Catania, Solicitor, Chester Water Authority. During the pandemic, it is best to communicate with CWA via email, info@chesterwater.com.
To the Honorable Council of Delaware County and Commissioners of Chester County that represent ratepayers in the Chester Water Authority service area
Because of the rapid developments that will occur concerning the Chester Water Authority and the effect the developments will have on many of your constituents, CWA will provide you with updates on the situation involving the CWA as the developments occur. Please distribute this to all of your elected officials. Please feel free to inform your constituents as you wish. This is Update No. 3.
Attached is the Chester City Council Agenda for its Deliberative Council Meeting tomorrow. This is Item No. 4 on the Agenda:
“4. Authorize approval to commence bid process negotiations for CWA Assets;”
The City’s RFP process is a sham. CWA filed a Delaware County lawsuit in March against the City to stop it. There is an existing Court Order not allowing the City to sell CWA’s assets. The interesting part of the story is the attached Widener agenda which references a “private meeting” on Widener University’s campus between Aqua, the City and unknown others, two business days before the RFP responses were due to the City. CWA has been asking about the meeting but no one is talking. Perhaps some of you could ask the questions for us. Who was there? What was discussed? Were any promises made? Why did the City hold a private meeting with a for profit company, a company that has been engaged in a three year hostile takeover attempt of CWA two business days before the City’s RFP responses were due? Sound odd?
It looks like the City is working from the Rahm Emanuel playbook, “never allow a crisis to go to waste.” But the question to ask is who is designing and calling the plays for the City?
Based on the advice of the Pa. DCED, Governor Wolf declared a fiscal emergency in the City on April 13th, so under the law the DCED must develop and release an emergency action plan for the City no later than this Thursday April 23, 2020. Here are some questions that our ratepayers and your constituents would like to have answered:
• In this fiscal emergency process, is the DCED and the Act 47 team the City’s “partner” or does the DCED and the Act 47 team have fiscal oversight responsibilities? What are they?
• If the DCED and the Act 47 team have fiscal oversight responsibilities under this fiscal emergency process are these responsibilities different than what the DCED and Act 47 team have failed to exercise since the Chester City’s Act 47 process began in 1995?
• The DCED has the option of asking that a Receiver is appointed for the City. What process was used to select the Receiver? What were the selection criteria? Did the City or any of its officials have input in the process of selecting a Receiver whose task it is to over the City’s fiscal operations?
• Does a Receiver, if appointed, report to the DCED? The City Government? Or do they operate independently as professionals with duties and responsibilities set forth in the Act 47 law?
The DCED should be providing fiscal oversight for the City. DCED has not and there is no reason to believe that it will. Item 4 on tomorrow’s City Agenda would not be there without the full knowledge and approval of DCED.
It is clear that the DCED plans on taking action either alone or through the City against the interests of your constituents. Why are the DCED and the City allowed, during a life-threatening pandemic to legally snipe at the CWA and require the CWA to divert any of its time, energy, and resources to dealing with a financial mess, not of its own creation?
Please help CWA devote all of its efforts to its daily mission of providing clean safe drinking water to your constituents whose lives depend on CWA’s water.
The structural financial problems currently plaguing the City of Chester have existed in the City for many years and have long been ignored by the Act 47 Team. The current problem in the City is a cash flow problem caused by the DCED’s closing of Harrah’s casino. The cash flow problem could be easily addressed by the State with a small portion of the federal stimulus money that the state received in the first stimulus package. The DCED is ignoring this and trying to achieve its long-standing goal of selling off the CWA, an award-winning and fiscally solvent water authority.
Any questions or comments should be directed to Francis J. Catania, Solicitor, Chester Water Authority. During the pandemic, it is best to communicate with CWA via email, info@chesterwater.com.
