A dispute remains between Chester’s receiver, Vijay Kapoor, and Chester’s retiree committee over who should be buying the city’s water assets, writes Kathleen E. Carey for the Daily Times.
The receiver wants the water assets to remain in public hands to protect customers from for-profit companies that might want to raise rates, and wants asset bids only from the public sector.
The Retiree Committee believes that’s a flawed approach, and that all bids, public and private, should be considered as a way to revitalize Chester.
“In contrast, the Receiver has excluded stand-alone private sector bids and assumes water rate increases for the residents of the City would be more significant than public-sector increases. This is speculation, and there is simply no harm in opening the sale process and allowing all bids to be submitted and considered,” stated a spokesman for the Official Committee of Retired Employees.
It’s better to maximize the sale of the water assets, which could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars more and “make a world of difference for the City and its residents.”
The Chester retirees filed a complaint over the issue in June. On July 14, the receiver filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.
Read more details about the dispute in the Daily Times.
