Chesco leaders back CWA Board

The Chester County commissioners have reiterated their support of the Chester Water Authority board in its battle against a sale of its assets to a private water service provider, Aqua America, as they search for a replacement to fill a vacant position on the authority’s board.

“In 2017, the CWA board, including the three Chester County representatives on the board, voted unanimously to reject the offer by Aqua to purchase the CWA,” commissioners Chairman Michelle Kichline said Thursday, reading from a prepared statement after the board’s voting session. “At that time, we noted that we believed the CWA Board acted appropriately in making that decision.

“That determination forms the basis of pending litigation in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas,” Kichline said. She and fellow Commissioner Terence Farrell declined further comment on the matter, however, citing the ongoing lawsuit filed against Chester City and Aqua by the authority, in which they may be called to testify. Vice Chairwoman Kathi Cozzone could not attend the meeting.

Kichline’s statement came in reaction to a letter the commissioners received Wednesday from the chairman of the Penn Board of Supervisors, Curtis A. Mason Sr., urging them to fill a seat on the water authority board recently vacated by Kennett Square engineer Christopher Burkett

with a former board member, attorney Leonard Rivera, who had previously voted against a sale of the authority to Aqua.

“Leonard Rivera had the courage to vote against the sale of CWA to Aqua and has a proven track record

representing the CWA ratepayers and others,” the letter from Mason, on behalf of the five member township board, reads. “The preservation of CWA is a priority for this township, this board of supervisors, our taxpayers and it should be a priority of the Chester County commissioners. It is simply good business.”

A similarly worded letter was sent to the commissioners on Friday by Richard Scott Harper, chairman of the London Grove Board of Supervisors on behalf of that board.

On Thursday, Kichline said that the county had begin the process of filling the vacancy left by Burkett’s resignation earlier this month. Applications are being accepted for any county resident who lives or

owns a business within the authority’s service area, she said. The deadline for such applications is Aug. 31, with the commissioners intending to vote on a new appointment at a subsequent commissioners’ meeting.

“In all decisions that we make as commissioners our intent is to best servcie Chester County citizens,” the statement dread by Kichline states. “Our decision in selecting the new CWA Board member is no exception.”

Burkett sent a letter announcing his resignation to the commissioners on July 19. In it, he noted that the firm he works for as senior executive vice president, Gilmore Associates, had in the past worked with Aqua on a number of projects. Because he had not worked with representatives of Aqua or overseen work on the projects, he previously saw no conflict of interest in serving on the board, he wrote.

However, with the initiation of litigation by the authority against Aqua and Chester, Burkett wrote that his position had changed. “It is clear to me that I must resign to avoid the appearance of a conflict,” he wrote, adding that he had worked “with my fellow board members to exercise my fiduciary duties and loyalty to the authority and its ratepayers.”

Coincidentally, Burkett was appointed to the board in 2017 to replace Rivera and serve alongside fellow Chester County appointees Paul Andriole and Thomas Chiomento III. His term was set to expire in 2022.

Kichline said that Rivera, of Kennet Square, had already

sent in his resume and application for the appointment.

Two years ago, in September 2017, when the sale of the authority to Aqua was first being discussed, Kichline told a roomful of authority supporters that the commissioners do not have the power to order or halt a vote to sell the authority’s assets. “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.”

She acknowledged that the commissioners, however, had attended a meeting earlier that year brokered by former county Controller Val DiGiorgio at which Aqua’s 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 at the time. “We do not see any reason to sell based on the service record, affordability and environmental stewardship of CWA. 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.

In the letters sent by Mason and Harper, the commissioners’ meeting with DiGiorgio and Aqua in 2017 suggested, “ethically questionable and suspicious contact.” In supporting Rivera’s appointment, the pair wrote,

that “t stands to reason that … appointing an unbiased, experienced, and knowledgeable former CWA Board member would demonstrate the commissioners’ commitment to the communities they were elected to protect.”

The CWA provides public water service to about

7,300 customers in 16 municipalities in souther Chester County along the Route 1 corridor.

In June, the authority asked a Common Pleas judge in Delaware County to grant an injunction against Chester City and Aqua halting a proposed sale. The CWA complaint alleged a “corrupt bargain” between the city and Aqua. In early July, Judge James Bradley granted the injunction.