Submitted to the Mirror by Loraine Huchler, P.E., CMC®, FIMC, huchler@martechsystems.com. This comment was read into the record at the last Town Council Regular Meeting
I am an Eastern Shore resident and a licensed professional engineer specializing in water and wastewater. I’ve been following the Town’s progress evaluating the option to sell the Water & Wastewater assets and outsource the services. On September 3, 2020, the town adopted and posted the local Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002 (PPEA guidelines). The Town accepted an unsolicited conceptual proposal from Aqua on October 9, 2020 and accepted a finalized conceptual proposal from Virginia American Water (VAW) shortly after receipt of clarifications on January 8, 2021.
There’s a requirement to post-conceptual proposals for public access. “Why aren’t these two conceptual proposals currently available to the public on the Town’s website as required by the PPEA guideline?” Section V.B.5.a. of the local PPEA guidelines reprinted below, requires that solicited and unsolicited proposals shall be posted to the Town’s website within 10 days of acceptance.
Today’s agenda includes a request for the council to move from the Conceptual Phase Review to the next phase. Is it appropriate for the Town Council to approve advancing these conceptual proposals to the Detailed Phase when the Town Manager has failed to comply with the PPEA requirement to post the two accepted conceptual proposals to the Town’s website within 10 days of acceptance? Why would you violate the PPEA guideline and deny stakeholders their legal right to access these documents in a timely manner?
In tonight’s request for deliberation, the town manager has stated that “it would appear to be in the Town’s best interest to continue this investigation to determine if the sale of our utilities could be in the best interest of the Town.” ”What constitutes “best interest in the Town?”
Water and sewer rates and fees are a critical issue for stakeholders. The submissions in the Detailed Review Phase requires bidders to define rates and fees (Section D.1.iv.); however, there’s no requirement to disclose these fees and rates to the stakeholders.
Numerous studies have documented the high probability that the rates and fees will increase after privatization because corporate profits, dividends and income taxes can add 20 to 30 percent to the operation and maintenance costs – and these costs are passed on to the ratepayers.[1],[2] “How important is the issue of the projection of rates and fees in Town Council’s decision?”
On February 5, 2021, the Town of Cape Charles released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for PPEA Utility Consulting Services. There are seven (7) tasks: Background research, PPEA processes & procedures, asset appraisal, rate forecast & capital investment strategy, evaluation and contract monitoring metrics, meet with Cape Charles staff, and participate in town hall meetings & assist with PPEA agreement. This is a significant amount of work: “What is the budget for these consulting services? “How will the town pay for this work?” “Shouldn’t the appraisal of the assets and the financial analysis – defining the capital investments and forecasting the rates – be done first to understand what is a fair purchase price?” “If the town decides not to complete a deal with either bidder, does any of the expense for the consultant’s work have tangible value?” There’s no sense in spending money to conduct intensive due diligence if the Town determines part-way through the process that the deal is not “in the best interest of the town”
Finally, I’ll continue to ask the questions that I’ve asked for the past six weeks, “Why? Why does the town want to sell the water plant?” and “After paying off the current debt, how does the Town plan to spend the proceeds of the sale of these assets?” As ratepayers and stakeholders, we deserve transparent actions and timely answers to our questions.
[1] https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/Public%20Private%20Water%20Service%20FS%20Apr%202010.pdf
[2] https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/qa_public_private_water_fs_june_2009.pdf
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Excellent letter
Good to see a P.E. standing up for the people for once instead of lying to them as they do here to the north of you with impunity.
Up here to the north of you, they would have already trotted out one of their pet PE’s (political engineer) to tell the unsuspecting public what a great deal this was and how they should jump on it now, since who knows when a deal like this might come along again.
Unfortunately the town will never give you honest answers about anything!
You will never know what they do with the proceeds from the sale.
Bob Panek is the project manager. Try getting a honest answer from that slimy worm. Now you have Katie Nunez too.
Bob and Katie are both very sneaky!
Go to a town meeting and ask how far in debt the town is. YOU WILL CHOKE WHEN YOU GET THAT NUMBER.
GOOD LUCK!
Hmmm. The town’s debt is just over $4 million from the construction of the water and wastewater plant 10 years ago. The town has 10 more years of this mostly interest-free debt; the annual debt payment is $250,000 (or slightly less). With about 2700 ratepayers for water and wastewater services, the monthly debt service in your water and sewer bill is less than $10. That’s not much to pay for clean water and a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant that protect the Chesapeake Bay from off-spec discharge of treated wastewater from the wastewater treatment plant.
CLEAN WATER?
NOBODY DRINK S THAT NASTY SHIT!
Toe stomping is needed from time to time to keep big local government in check . Katie is a land and homeowner on the Shore , I worked with her on some issues and the good old run out of town on a rail comes to mind . She will clean house be it good or bad and most local folks don’t like it and a lot of times I don’t too .
Cape Charles was a dying waste land for the lower shore , but now it’s blooming like some of the local flowers are trying to do . So keep your ears open and your eyes even wider open . The changes and shadow games are there to stay , play the game use your game piece and beware . It will soon be checkmate time
Good letter…..looks to me like the town doesn’t want to manage anything! What’s next on the chopping block??