| From SaveCWA.org: Last Thursday, DCED proposed Vijay Kapoor be appointed as Chester’s New Receiver on July 1, with no hearing. Michael Doweary is officially out, and his Chief of Staff, Vijay Kapoor (of the Kapoor Company), is in. But let’s be real—wasn’t Kapoor running the show all along? Kapoor has been Leading MFRAC meetings and calling the shots while Doweary sat in the background or appeared in scripted videos. |
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| Right-to-Know Revelation In a Right-to-Know Request, CWA obtained Vijay Kapoor’s “audition tape” email regarding his initial interest in becoming the Receiver of Chester in April of 2020. It is abundantly clear from Vijay Kapoor’s email to Rick Vilello, DCED’s Deputy Secretary for Community Affairs and Development, and Kim Bracey, DCED’s Former Director of the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, that Vijay Kapoor very much wanted to be the City of Chester’s Receiver in 2020. If he was rejected then, why is he being proposed now? Yet, Vijay Kapoor’s email leaves us with a lot more questions than answers! Questions below relate to Mr. Kapoor’s email. 🔹 Instead of making Kapoor the Receiver, why was it decided to make his company a consultant for more than double the salary of the actual Receiver? 🔹 Why would the Receiver’s Chief of Staff (at the time) make more money than the Receiver himself? 🔹 Was this part of Kapoor’s negotiations with Kim Bracey and Rick Vilello? 🔹 Once he is appointed Receiver, will Mr. Kapoor cancel his lucrative $1,683,720 contract with DCED? 🔸 Who is the Receiver’s actual boss? 🔸 Is his boss Rick Vilello who hired the Receiver in the first place? 🔸 Is his boss Governor Josh Shapiro? 🔸 Who does the Receiver report to/answer to besides “the Act 47 legislation” and asking the Commonwealth Court to blanket approve his plans? 🔸 Where is the oversight of his office? 🔸 In the email, Mr. Kapoor states that he can develop tools for DCED, and therefore it stands to reason that DCED is the reporting agency, is the Secretary of the DCED, Rick Siger, the boss of the Receiver? (Note: Rick Siger was appointed by Governor Shapiro.) 🔸 What is the real role of the Receiver? 🔸 Is the goal to push the City of Chester to the brink of desolation in order for them to accept any solution offered, even those not in the residents’ best interest? 🔹 Who benefits financially if the City of Chester stays in Act 47 receivership? (has been there for 30 years) 🔹 Who benefits financially if the City of Chester stays in bankruptcy? In the above email, Mr. Kapoor mentions that he has many contacts and professional colleagues in the Philadelphia area who can be called upon to help. 🔸 Has the City of Chester become a full-time lawyer and consultant project in the Philadelphia area, all on the backs of PA taxpayers? 🔸 Doesn’t this require further investigation? 🔹 As Mr. Kapoor asked in his email, “Why doesn’t the City of Chester have a ‘better relationship’ with Delaware County?” 🔹 Why has Delaware County allowed the City of Chester to languish, unable to help itself? 🔹 Why is most of Delaware County’s low income housing in Chester? 🔹 Why is the environmentally toxic trash incinerator in Chester—both a health hazard and reducing housing prices? 🔹 Why was the waterfront not developed fully? 🔹 Why didn’t Delaware County lift up the City financially when the County had a surplus? 🔹 Why didn’t the state lift up the oldest city in Pennsylvania financially when the state had a surplus? 🔸 Why is Chester being seen as a “test city” for the Commonwealth to try out “solutions” for financial problems that include selling off vital municipal assets? 🔸 Doesn’t this require serious further investigation? 🔹 Where is this “Marshall Plan” Mr. Kapoor speaks of in his email? 🔹 If it’s truly a Marshall Plan, where is the state and county’s funding for rebuilding infrastructure, factories, and essential industries, allowing the City to prosper? 🔹 Instead of a Marshall Plan, why has Mr. Doweary and Mr. Kapoor’s only solution in FIVE years of receivership been to follow an outline designed by EConsult Solutions in 2017? Note: EConsult Solutions’s idea was to overtake and sell Chester Water Authority, as found in a memo from 2017 (This detail was discovered in another CWA Right-to-Know Request.) 🔸 Does the Receiver have a Plan B beyond the sale of vital resources? 🔸 What have the PA taxpayers spent their money on to this point? 🔸 What is Big Water’s involvement in the Receiver’s plan? 🔸 Doesn’t this require further investigation on behalf of PA taxpayers? 🔹 Mr. Kapoor asks in his email, what support is there for Chester in the General Assembly? The public would like to know this answer too. 🔹 What monies could be gotten for the City of Chester from the Commonwealth that would eliminate the need to sell invaluable public assets? It’s time to ask ALL of these questions to your elected officials NOW! Why aren’t they asking these questions themselves? |
| BE THE SQUEAKY WHEEL! CWA Needs You! What can YOU do? Make noise! Demand action! CWA ratepayers should NOT be forced to pay for financial mismanagement they had nothing to do with. Selling off public water is the WORST possible solution. We need action—NOT asset stripping! DCED is SOPM (Spending Other Peoples’ Money)—transferring the state’s burden to the residents of Chester and the ratepayers of CWA. 🐷 CWA RATEPAYERS ARE BEING TREATED AS PA’s PIGGY BANK!!! Time to say NO! |
| Contact Proposed Receiver Kapoor✅ Why hasn’t the Receiver released financial records, kept under your supervision, so the public can see what has been going on for the past 5 years? ✅ Demand a report card on the last five years, with proof. School children have to show their work, why don’t you? ✅ Demand a forensic accounting and management evaluation report. Without records, the only logical conclusion is: you don’t know how much money you have, you don’t know how much money you don’t have, you don’t know how much money you need. ✅ You and your team have been paid $16M since 2020, what does Chester have to show for the taxpayers’ money? Phone (717) 720-7304 |
 Call/email Gov. Shapiro – Tell him:✅ Call a special legislative session to solve Chester’s financial crisis.✅ DCED’s Receivership is already costing taxpayers a fortune. Privatization will cost ratepayers even more. ✅ The legislature must step up and pass a REAL budget solution for the City of Chester. Call: 717-787-2500 Text: 717-788-8990 |
| Contact your elected officials They MUST TRACK calls/emails from constituents. Make those calls daily. Ask your elected officials: ✅ Ask the Receiver’s office for detailed financial statements and forensic accounting of the last five years. ✅ When will they reintroduce past bills to Save CWA? ✅ Will they put financial aid for Chester in the 2025 budget—with the condition that NO public assets are sold? |
| Flood Shapiro with Postcards Let’s send hundreds every week! Host a postcard party in your community to amplify our voices. Postcards are almost here. Let us know if you would like to send and host a postcard party. |
| Engage Local Business & Community Leaders Are you part of a local club or organization? Water impacts all life. Invite CWA board members to chamber meetings, rotary clubs, and business gatherings. Business owners must speak out about the impact—letters, calls, and postcards matter! Now is the time—let’s mobilize! |
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| Get Your Yard Sign NOW! Display your SAVE CWA sign with pride! Get your yard sign now. We have enough for your entire neighborhood! Let’s blanket the area with them—a sign in every yard! That’s our goal! Is your sign beaten up and you need a new one(s)? Let us know. We are happy to replace your old signs with fresh ones! |
