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. 18
February 9, 2022
TITLE: Wolves Hunt in Packs
How Wolves Hunt
It is during a hunt where co-operation between wolves within a pack is most apparent. A wolf pack may trail a herd of elk, caribou or other large prey for days before making its move. During this time, they are already hunting, assessing the herd, looking for an animal that displays any sign of weakness, and this is just the beginning. It is much safer to harass the prey and let it tire out before moving in close. Far from being a mob scene, a hunt is a masterfully coordinated group effort, ……
See the rest at https://www.livingwithwolves.org/how-wolves-hunt/
Recent developments in the state sponsored hostile takeover attempt of the Chester Water Authority
DCED recently revealed emails dating from the spring of 2020 through the fall of 2020 that show the Governor’s Office, the DCED, the City, the Chester Receiver and Aqua, during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, were working to sell the Chester Water Authority out from under the ratepayers. Here is what the emails show these parties did:
· Ignored Judge Angelos‘s April 2020 Order and negotiated an agreement to sell the CWA to Aqua in the summer and fall of 2020. The Commonwealth Court Order reversing Judge Angelos’s Order and remanding the case to him, to allow him to address the issue of whether the City could sell the CWA, was issued on September 16, 2021—16 months after the parties negotiated the sale agreement.
· Denied that they were in fact negotiating a sale and allowed Aqua to publicly message that if Aqua was allowed to buy CWA, Aqua would freeze water rates, establish a rate stabilization trust to protect the immediate higher rates that would ordinarily result from a sale, and preserve the Octoraro reservoir.
· The attached group of emails titled Promises, What Promises? (redacted by DCED) show that these parties knew that those publicly made Aqua promises were not in the proposed asset purchase agreement between Chester and Aqua thus rendering those publicly made promises not legally binding on Aqua.
· The news media has reported that an asset purchase agreement with Aqua was voted on by Chester City Council in October 2021 but neither the DCED, the Governor’s office nor the City or the Receiver have released the agreement that was voted on. Want to know what they are hiding? Go back and read the two paragraphs before this one.
· Apparently the DCED and the Governor’s office were so excited by the amount of money that Aqua offered in 2020 to complete a hostile takeover of CWA (including the $12 million “upfront payment” in exchange for the City Council vote to sell the CWA) that the DCED under the supervision of the Governor’s office developed their plan to sell the water and sewer municipal authorities under the control of Act 47 communities to for-profit businesses thus dooming the ratepayers/customers of these municipal authorities to permanent higher water rates. (These emails are set forth as attachments to CWA Update 17 which can be found at: https://chesterwaterfacts.com/elected-officials-updates/ )
Allow CWA ratepayers and other Pennsylvanians, to continue to benefit from what they now enjoy – clean, safe and affordable drinking water.
Do not allow these State sponsored predatory pandemic practices to continue.
Was the encouragement of these predatory pandemic practices the legislature’s intent in establishing Act 47?
NEXT UPDATE: The Receiver negotiated a $12 million “upfront payment” in exchange for the City Council to vote to sell the CWA and the Receiver’s plan to speak to the Chester City pensioners, the pensioners that the Receiver and DCED have taken as financial hostages.
Any questions or comments should be directed to Chester Water Authority. It is best to communicate with CWA via email, info@chesterwater.com
