In an effort to protect county taxpayers, the new Delaware County Council today took action to block the formation of an illegal trust created by the former Republican majority as part of their no-bid deal to sell the Delaware County Regional Water Authority (DELCORA) and privatize its operations.
The complaint filed by Delaware County can be found here: https://www.delcopa.gov/publicrelations/releases/2020/pdf/CountyVsDelcora.pdf
In 2019, the Board of DELCORA, appointed by the former Republican majority on the Delaware County Council entered into an agreement - using a no-bid process and allowing no meaningful public input - with Aqua Pennsylvania to sell DELCORA and privatize its operations. Additionally, in the final days of their terms, the former Republican majority illegally created a trust to distribute assets from the sale directly back to Aqua Pennsylvania, and not to ratepayers.
The new Delaware County Council vowed to make county government more transparent and to protect taxpayers, and today their action to block the formation of the illegal trust created by the former Republican Majority is another step in that direction:
“From the beginning, I’ve said this deal stunk and the fix was in,” said Brian Zidek, County Council Chair. “It was nothing more than a give-away to a political contributor and the hardworking taxpayers of Delaware County deserve better. With the action we took today, we are advancing our goal of transparency and putting people over politics.”
“When we took office, we vowed to make county government open and more transparent,” said Dr. Monica Taylor, County Council Vice Chair. “Today is another step forward in our efforts. We are seeking to block a shady entity that was created solely to protect patronage jobs. The days of political deals are over.”
“This entire deal was murky and sloppy, and never in the best interest of Delaware County residents,” said Councilmember Kevin Madden. “There was no meaningful public input, and today we are moving forward on our promise to Delaware County by reversing this egregious deal and putting taxpayers first.”
“The sale of DELCORA was never necessary - it was a political gift to Aqua PA, a campaign contributor,” said Councilmember Christine A. Reuther. “Taxpayers built the system and ratepayers maintained it, but sadly DELCORA evolved into a patronage pit controlled by machine politicians who were looking out for their friends’ jobs. To preserve their empire, Republicans tried to subsidize a campaign contributor and future customers with taxpayer dollars. It is our job to protect Delaware County taxpayers, not political insiders. Today, we reaffirmed that we will always side with taxpayers over campaign contributors.”
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