From the article: The Receiver and his team seem to be manufacturing a story to justify their own pre-determined attempt to sell the CWA to Aqua. Aqua has been negotiating a purchase agreement with the City of Chester at the Commonwealth’s direction since at least the summer of 2020. Drafts of the agreement were shared with the Receiver, DCED and McNees Wallace but not revealed to the public.
The facts are as follows:
- CWA has had a $60 million dollar settlement offer open to the City of Chester since January of 2019. This offer is not a bid for the CWA to buy itself, but a settlement to make cash available to the City of Chester and keep the CWA in public hands.
- CWA is the only entity other than the federal government that has stepped up to make such substantial funding available to the City of Chester. The Receiver’s employer, the Commonwealth, has a massive budget surplus in 2021, yet has not made material sums available to the City of Chester.
- CWA’s revenues are invested back into its operations, for the benefit of all ratepayers. It does not pay dividends to shareholders, such as foreign investors.
The CWA has been in litigation since 2019 defending all of their ratepayers and their right to keep the CWA under public control. The Receiver’s Chief of Staff allegation that the CWA is stonewalling efforts to keep the CWA in public hands is nonsense. Why has the Receiver and his colleagues at the Commonwealth been involved in back-room discussions with Aqua to sell the CWA for years? Why the lack of transparency? CWA has consistently been forced to go to Court to defend their ratepayers and to obtain orders to bring much needed light on the subject forcing real information to be turned over.
The truth is out. Ratepayers are watching and voicing their opposition to the sale and taking their displeasure to the ballot box. The Commonwealth and the DCED must stop the siege against the City of Chester attempting to force them to sell the CWA.
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