Commissioners endorse CWA’s decision not to sell
Chester Water Authority rejected a purchase offer from Aqua America
WEST CHESTER » The Chester County Commissioners have endorsed the decision made earlier this year by the Chester Water Authority not to sell its system, which covers southern Chester County as well as Delaware County, to a private water provider.
At their recent work session meeting, Commissioners’ Chairwoman Michelle Kichline read a two-page statement outlining the three-member board’s support for the vote by the authority’s board not to accept a $250 million offer to purchase the system from Aqua America.
In addition, Kichline’s statement attempted to clarify the limited role that the three commissioners play in the authority board’s deliberation process. And the board unanimously voted to reappoint two of the county’s three authority members who had joined the vote to reject Aqua’s offer, and to appoint a new third member who is a Chester Water Authority ratepayer.
“To be very clear, we, as the Board of Commissioners, cannot authorize a sale of the Chester Water Authority,” said Kichline to a crowded meeting room at the county’s office building in West Chester. “We have the power to appoint three of the nine members of the CWA Board to represent the interests of CWA customers who live in Chester County. That is all.”
Explaining that the commissioners, however, had attended a meeting earlier this year with representatives of Aqua at which its proposal for purchasing the authority was outlined, Kichline said that all the commissioners did at the time was “look, listen and learn.” They took no formal position on the proposed purchase, although Kichline said the trio “noted that the proposal included a significant rate increase.”
“We believe that our Chester County CWA board members acted appropriately in making the decision to reject Aqua’s offer, based on the information we had seen,” Kichline said, reading from a prepared two-page statement as her colleagues, Vice Chairwoman Kathi Cozzone and Commissioner Terence Farrell, listened.
“We do not see any reason to sell based on the service record, affordability and environmental stewardship of CWA,” she continued. “We have not heard from our current CWA board members that there are significant infrastructure repairs or any structural issues that may warrant the consideration of a sale.
“So based on those facts — while it is not up to us as county commissioners to vote on whether or not to sell Chester Water Authority — we believe that privatization is not the right decision for southern Chester County ratepayers,” Kichline said. Cozzone and Farrell both said they concurred with her statement.
The issue comes at a time when the whys and wherefores of a possible sale of the approximately 44,000-customer water system that was founded in Chester in 1866 but has expanded its coverage area to Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster counties since the 1950s continues.
Last month, the authority board members received a twoinch thick internal analysis evaluating the feasibility of selling the company – even as the authority has received 11 resolutions from member municipalities who support their decision to stay private.
On May 8, the authority received a hand-delivered offer from Aqua America, the behemoth in the local water business, seeking to buy the system for $250 million. Nine days later, the authority unanimously rejected the offer while simultaneously approving a study to be completed to determine if a sale would be in the best interest of its customers.
Also at the May 17 meeting, Pennsylvania American Water presented letters of introduction to Chester Water Authority board members. Since then, the Chester Water Authority has been receiving letters of resolutions from member municipalities supporting their decision to reject the Aqua bid.
In addition, the board approved having CWA staff gather information for the board to determine if the sale of the customers and assets would be in the best interests of the rate-paying customers. It imposed a deadline of 60 to 90 days for that information to be presented to the board.
“I just went through the information but I believe ... that I would be hard-pressed to change my mind at this time,” said Cynthia F. Leitzell, board chairperson last month.
On Wednesday, Kichline said that the commissioners had begun receiving calls from worried residents who are customers of the authority in August when a mailing from the authority went out to ratepayers alerting them of the possible sale and advising them to contact the commissioners. The mailing, a copy of which was provided to the Daily Local News, did not explain the limited role the county commissioners have in authority business.
Instead, it laid out the case against having Aqua take over the system, noting the number of times that company has raised its water rates versus the nine times in 30 years that the authority has done so. The mailing noted that even though Aqua’s offer was rejected unanimously in May, the three Chester County members’s terms were expiring and new appointments would be forthcoming.
“If you have an opinion on these issues, now is the time to be heard,” the mailing urged ratepayers, including the telephone number of the commissioners’ offices and the email addresses of the individual commissioners.
On Thursday, the commissioners formally re-appointed board members Paul Andriole and Thomas Chimento and named engineer Christopher Burkett to replace member Leonard Rivera, who stepped down.
After Kichline read her statement, an employee of the authority, who identified himself as Fred Blair, rose to thank the board personally. “Hopefully, the Chester Water Authority will remain the Chester Water Authority for many years to come,” he stated,
In accepting Blair’s thanks, Kichline noted that a lot of concern could have been avoided by CWA personnel with a simple telephone call.
“We’re pretty transparent here in Chester County,” Kichline said. “This should never have happened. We do pick up our phones.”