Number of Days Chester has been in Receivership:

Number of Days Chester has been in Bankruptcy:

Receiver’s Financials: Follow the Money 💰

Chester has been under the oversight of DCED since 1995 when it entered the Act 47 program. Chester has never exited Act 47, over 30 YEARS LATER. In fact, the DCED has watched the City decline into financial ruin, culminating in the filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in 2022. You might be wondering, how much money has DCED spent on the “Chester Problem” over the past thirty years. Well looking at the money spent on contracts just by the Receiver since his appointment in 2020, the numbers are staggering. You can search the PA Treasury Contracts E-Library to find these contracts we are presenting below.

DCED is spending SO MUCH MONEY and has come up with exactly ONE idea, to monetize the CWA (and other water assets, CWA being the most valuable). Why not invest in some other options, since Plan A might not work out if the PA Supreme Court rules in CWA’s favor?

Chester’s financial disaster has become a full-time employment project for consultants and lawyers, all on the backs of PA taxpayers.

Over $21,000,000 since entering Receivership in 2020.

Can you imagine how much has been spent over the past 30 years? Why hasn’t DCED solved this already?

Exhibit A: Receiver Vijay Kapoor’s salary

$179,698 per year. Michael Doweary started in May 2020 at $150,006 and got 7 raises in 5 years. Total for taxpayers by June 2025 (when he left): $836,447.58.

Exhibit B: The Kapoor Company – Vijay’s company when he was chief of staff.

He is allotted $385,000 per year – that’s more than the Governor’s salary! Contract is now up to $1.68M. Is he double dipping now that he is Receiver too?

(Notice they are redacting the signature blocks now. They did not do that prior to our exposure of these contracts.)

Exhibit C: Ballard Spahr (Attorney)

contract now up to $3.8M

Exhibit D: Campbell Durrant (Receiver’s Attorney)

contract now up to $1.7M

Exhibit E: Foxchase Advisors (Consultant)

contract now up to $2,056,528 —”Vendor to assist Receiver for the City of Chester on operational audit matters in the development and implementation of a recovery plan for the City of Chester.”

Exhibit F: PFM Group Consulting (Consultant)

contract now up to $3,015,705 – “Assists the Receiver on financial advisor matters in the development and implementation of a recovery plan for the City Chester.”

Note: PFM is often the consulting firm contracted by municipalities to do assessments of water/sewer systems when they are slated to be sold.

Exhibit G: Shilvosky M. Bufffaloe (Consultant)

contract now up to $2,147,000 – “Assist the Receiver on economic development matters in the development and implementation of a recovery plan for the City Chester.”

Exhibit H: The Quarks Group (Consultant)

$405,000 – for public relations/community engagement

Exhibit I: Conrad M Siegel Inc.

$200,000 – for actuarial services

Exhibit J: Fourth Economy Consulting,  Inc

$129,450 – for economic competitiveness action plan

Exhibit K: Econsult Solutions (Consultant)

$1,549,405 – this firm had the first “idea” to sell CWA in a 2017 memo uncovered by RTK requests

Small Settlement Amounts

Why Monetization of water assets is not the answer that helps Chester City residents.

Recently the Receiver and his team have referred to “Monetization” of water assets as the answer to their financial woes. They are doing this because the word “Privatization” has become a toxic word because of recent activism against privatization efforts across Pennsylvania. Monetization will have the same effect as privatization for ratepayers. The ONLY source of income for any water utility is their customers. That means any payments made to Chester upfront and ongoing in order to “monetize” the asset, HAVE TO COME FROM RATEPAYERS. This is the same if the utility is kept in “public hands” or not. A public or private operator would have to charge this additional monetization cost to customers. We are their only revenue source. Private operators will also add in profit, so it’s even worse. Monetization is simply a shift of financial burden from the state (DCED) to ratepayers, both within Chester and outside of Chester. Those ratepayers will pay tens of millions of dollars extra per year for their water services for no added benefit. We have learned that privatization disproportionately affects the poor and people of color. This will be the same under “monetization.”