Rulings impact on Readings water-lease negotiations is unclear By Don Spatz Saturday May 17, 2014 12:01 AM Should a Berks County judges harsh criticism of Reading Area Water Authority policies and practices affect Mayor Vaughn D. Spencers controversial push to reach a new water system lease with RAWA this year? Authority Chairman Raymond F. Schuenemann III doesnt believe it should have any effect. RAWA does not believe that the judges opinions about occurrences in 2007 and 2008 relating to the city billing system, which is no longer used, and RAWAs customer service department, which has changed policies and procedures since then, have any bearing on any current discussions seven years after the fact, he said. Spencer said he cant speculate on how the ruling might impact a new lease with RAWA, but said all valid concerns will be part of the negotiations and no proposal will be agreed to without ensuring the matters have been resolved. Berks County Judge Jeffrey K. Sprecher ruled Thursday on a suit against the city and RAWA, stating that the authority uses its monopoly power to bully customers, has poor or nonexistent customer service, and violates state law and its own rules. The water authority disputes the ruling. City Council President Francis G. Acosta said the ruling gives credibility to councils demand that any new lease of the water system come from a full request for lease proposals from any potential bidder, including RAWA. From councils perspective, it doesnt change anything, Acosta said. It only shows the need for us to fix this problem and to fix RAWA. If we ended up doing a lease agreement with anyone but RAWA, those problems would not exist, he said. I feel confident that what were doing is what the majority of the citizens want, but its draining. Acosta said within the next few days council will discuss whether its request-for-proposals process can help fix the problems. Reading needs a new kind of water system lease with most payments up front, allowing the city to cut its debt and ease its annual budget. But the mayor and council are bitterly opposed in the way they want to seek that lease. Council wants the open proposal process as the only way to know its getting full value; the mayor now is negotiating directly with RAWA. In the court case, Sprecher ruled in favor of Metropolitan Management Group of Wyomissing, from which RAWA was seeking $500,000 in back bills, fees and penalties. Some of those came from an August 2007 bill claiming an apartment complex meter showed it used 30 times more water than normal. The meter was changed in March 2008 and readings went back to normal, but RAWA would not waive the errant bills.
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 13:37:04 +0000
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