Citizens plan to sue
Two Towamencin citizens released the below statement on July 12, 2023.
They are also raising funds to support their lawsuit. Contributions can be directed to Kofi and Jenn via their GoFundMe site or Venmo (details in comments on this post).
Over the past two years, residents of Towamencin Township have communicated to the Board of Supervisors their deep reservations and opposition to the sale of the municipal sewer system to a for-profit company. Throughout this process, four of the five supervisors have refused to consider their constituents’ concerns, disregarded the deleterious impact this could have on residents, and have engaged in behaviors that have called into question the transparency surrounding this process.
In April 2022, despite public dissent over the course of multiple board meetings and two well-attended town halls, four of our five Township Supervisors voted to sell our sewer system to Nextera. After Nextera notified the Township of their desire to exit the wastewater business, those same four supervisors voted to sell the system again, this time to PA American Water. The supervisors did this knowing that the Towamencin Government Study Commission, a citizen-elected body, had already sent a proposed Home Rule Charter prohibiting the sale to the May 16th ballot. This would allow Towamencin citizens the opportunity to weigh in on this major decision. Through several Right to Know requests, it was discovered that two of our supervisors had been in discussions with Nextera and PA American as early as late November 2022 without public disclosure until their vote in March 2023.
On July 1, 2023, the Home Rule Charter, adopted by the majority of voters, became the governing document for Towamencin Township. We are now a Township of the Second Class, governed by a Home Rule Charter. This charter prohibits the sale of water, wastewater, and stormwater to private entities. We have urged both our Board of Supervisors and PA American to invoke the termination language in the Asset Purchase Agreement to no avail. We believe that the decision to continue with the regulatory process is in direct violation of the law.
When the citizens were prepared to vote on the prohibition of the sewer sale, rather than waiting for the outcome of the election, the supervisors sold the system again to the next highest bidder, without any due diligence. Now that the citizens have voted, they refuse to honor the will of the people they serve.
While we had hoped it would not come to this, we, as residents of the Township, have no choice but to take legal action. Our goal is to ensure the sewer sale is terminated, as well as to uphold the legitimacy of our Home Rule Charter. The Board had the opportunity to walk away from this, or at the very least pause, when Nextera backed out of the agreement in March. To that end, any legal action rests squarely on the shoulders of Supervisors Wilson, Marino, Smith, and Warner.
Kofi Osei, Former Towamencin Government Study Chair
Jenn Foster, Former Towamencin Government Study Vice Chair