To the Honorable Members of the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives who represent ratepayers in the Chester Water Authority service area
RE: Chester Water Authority (“CWA”) Update No. 15
October 12, 2021
TITLE: As predicted the attempted looting of CWA’s assets is in progress.
In their recent Commonwealth Court dissenting opinion (page 13) Judge Wojcik and Judge Jubelirer correctly predicted the DCED and Receiver’s actions that are being voted on by Chester City Council tomorrow:
“Thus, contrary to the Majority’s assertion that the Authority’s assets may hypothetically come up for sale by the City based on our holding in this case, the City has already started the RFP process to “monetize” the Authority’s assets, and there is already a Court-approved plan inplace for the use of the proceeds of the City’s sale of those assets. It is patently unconscionable to permit the City to pay off its own municipal debt by selling the Authority’s assets that were paid for by its ratepayers, the vast majority of whom reside in the Counties and elsewhere. In fact, the General Assembly granted the Counties “seats at the table” to prevent the City from looting the Authority, and using the sale of the Authority’s assets as its own municipal piggy bank, by enacting Section 5610(a.1).”
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) continues its open and hostile take-over attack on the Chester Water Authority (CWA) and tries to make it look like the City Council is to blame.
Attached is a resolution to be considered by the Chester City Council tomorrow and discussed by them today. DCED’s hand-picked City Receiver has demanded that the City Council give him the sole power to sign the Agreement of Sale with Aqua/Essential. The Receiver has been secretly negotiating this agreement with Aqua/Essential for at least the past year, while publicly denying that he has been doing so. The Receiver has adopted the “results” of an illegal bidding process. He does not care what the Legislature or the Courts say or do.
CWA immediately asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to take jurisdiction over the case after the Commonwealth Court decision because of its past experience with DCED and the Receiver. CWA knew that the DCED, its Act 47 consultants and the City Receiver are trying to cover up the disastrous past 25+ years that the DCED team has mismanaged the Act 47 program in the City.
From inception the DCED and the Receivers plan has been to sell the Chester Water Authority. No other option was ever considered.
Questions that need answering are:
· Why does the Legislature allow itself to be ignored by it’s supposedly co-equal executive branch of government (DCED)?
· Why does the Legislature allow your constituents’ needs of the highest quality water at the lowest price be ignored by the DCED and Aqua/Essential?
· Are the constituents entitled to rely on the DCED team being required to follow the rule of law?
We will advise you when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decides if it will take control of the case at this time.
Until then the struggle continues.
Any questions or comments should be directed to Chester Water Authority. It is best to communicate with CWA via email, info@chesterwater.com
