06/22/16
Mayor
Passes off Water Works Management to
Violia North America Company. No further info
available.
editorial
by Jim Gerrish
Mayor
Taylor to make presentation on EOWC during U.S. Conference of
Mayors’ Water Council
East Orange, NJ, June 22, 2016: Mayor Lester E. Taylor III, along
with Jonathan Carpenter, Director of Business Development, Veolia
North America, will be delivering a presentation “Leveraging
P3 to Transform the East Orange Water Commission” during the
84th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Water
Council Meeting on Friday, June 24, 2016 in Indianapolis,
Indiana.
The presentation will focus on best practices and the East Orange
Water Commission’s partnership with Veolia North America to
improve and enhance services for the once-beleaguered water
utility.
Taylor is one of two mayors presenting. Mayor Jerry Willey of
Hillsboro, Oregon will also present “Municipal Program
Management Partnership for Regional Water Supply
Development,” which focuses on Hillsboro’s 100+
year-old water system.
East Orange has seen dramatic changes to its own water utility
within the past two years. After inheriting an EOWC that suffered
from aging infrastructure, fiscal and technical mismanagement,
and a damaged reputation due to ethical and criminal misconduct
by former employees, the Taylor administration overhauled the
Board of Commissioners, which later entered into a contract with
Veolia North America to help provide short-term management
solutions to getting the utility back on track.
East Orange’s partnership with Veolia has produced hundreds
of dollars in cost savings, closed a $4 million shortfall, and
maximized productivity.
To download a copy of the case study for East Orange’s
partnership with Veolia, please visit http://veolianorthamerica.com
Don't
bother: No such case study exists on the Veolia Web site. Instead
the Veolia site rehashes the same "news":
E.
Orange Mayor Discusses Fiscal Management
In a recent interview during the New Jersey U.S. Conference of
Mayors meeting, city of East Orange, NJ Mayor Lester E. Taylor
III discussed the ways his administration is applying different
ideas to responsibly manage taxpayers’ funds, while
providing outstanding service to residents and business owners.
One area Mayor Taylor and city leadership felt required attention
was the city of East Orange Water Department.
Mayor Taylor said, “When I took office, there was a $3.5
million deficit at the (Water) Commission and we didn’t have
experts in running a utility at the Commission. So, through a
fair, open, competitive bid process Veolia was selected—one
of the number one companies in the world. They are operating and
maintaining the system for the short term.” Veolia was
recently awarded a contract to provide interim operations,
maintenance and management services to the city of East Orange
Water Department.
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Given
the mayor's poor track record for transparency and
accountability, I note the following:
This
(6/22/16) is the first public mention of Veolia's name in
connection with OUR City Water Works.
Upon
examining the most recently posted approved budget for Calendar
Year 2016, I find NO MENTION of Veolia's involvement with OUR
City Water Works.
I
have seen no evidence of a fair, open, competitive bid process
for locating "experts in running a utility" for the
Water Works.
Knowing
that since October of 2014, the mayor
has had ambitions to run for governor of New Jersey in 2017, we have seen a
surge in his appearances at various mayoral events around the
state, and this is an opportunity for yet another mayoral
"schmoozing" session.
One
would think that this “Leveraging P3 to Transform the East
Orange Water Commission” presentation OUGHT to be made to
the taxpayers and water customers footing the bill for all the
mayor's shenannigans BEFORE running off to present it at some
U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Water Council. I'd like to know
what the heck "P3" has to do with our water supply and
why it has to be "leveraged".