THREE WESTERN MASS RESIDENTS TESTIFIED FOR BAN ON PRIVATIZING MUNICIPAL WATER AND SEWER PLANTS BEFORE STATE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE

Monday, October 24

Ward Morehouse, a co-founder of Shays 2, a Holyoke city councilor battling a multinational water company, a Lee town meeting member who helped keep a water corporation out of her town, and a public interest lawyer who has worked with both Holyoke AND Lee, testified on behalf of a bill to ban privatization of municipal water and sewer systems in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at a Public Hearing Monday, Oct. 24 at 1:00 in Room B-1 of the State House.

Morehouse, now of Northampton, a co-founder Holyokce Citizens for Open Government, joined with Holyoke city councilor Helen Norris; Lee Town meeting member Dierdre Consolati; and Mark Siegars, public interest attorney (who has worked with citizens groups in Lee and Holyoke)--all of Western Massachusetts— at the Statehouse in Boston to support the "Act to Preserve Public Water and Sewer Systems" House Bill 1333) bill that would:

• Make all future “public-private partnerships” illegal , in which cities contract out the operation and maintenance of municipal water or sewer departments;
• Provide a buyback clause and timeline for communities that are currently under corporate contracts;
• End the ability of any private company from tapping into municipal taps and/or private aquifers in cities/towns.

Western Mass. Co-sponsors of the bill are State Rep. Ellen Story (D) Hampshire County; State Rep. Benjamin Swan (D) Hampden County; and State Rep. (D) Denis E. Guyer , Berkshire County.

Western Mass. Legislators sitting on the Joint Committee include; State Sen Stephen Brewer (D) of Hampshire and Hamden counties; State Rep. Peter Kocot (D) of Hampshire County; and State Rep. (D) Denis E. Guyer , Berkshire County.

Holyoke Councilor Norris has been --for more than a year –leading a battle against the Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan who last month signed a public-private partnership between the city of Holyoke and Aquarion Water Services Inc., a subsidiary of a British-owned company, Kelda Inc. without a city-council approved sewer rate. Sullivan’s controversial decision-- to sign the contract by borrowing funds from the company at 6%--will be up for referendum by the city’s residents in the upcoming Nov. 8 election.

Ward Morehouse, a former Holyoke resident who co-founded Holyoke Citizens for Open Government that kicked off the public battle a year ago for Holyoke to abandon the one-bid contract and seek bids for a city-run plant, joined Norris in supporting the bill that would outlaw such contracts.

“This bill has the added benefit of stopping the mischievous use of ‘Special Legislation’ to circumvent state rules and regulations designed to protect tax payers from misuse of public funds,” Morehouse said, referring to state legislation that removed the requirement of multiple bids for public contracts and permitted single-bid contracts.

“Had such a law been in place, the current Holyoke Mayor could not have signed a deeply flawed 20-year $176 million contract,” Morehouse, who now lives in Northampton, said.

Some fifty Massachusetts communities have privatized their water or sewer systems since the Massachusetts legislature approved what is called “special legislation.” In the cities of Lynn and Taunton, former mayors who shepherded the privatization process ended up as employees for the private water companies.

Lee town meeting member Diedre Consolati reported on her successful campaign in Lee, last year, to defeat a proposed contract between Veolia Water Co., a French-owned multinational, and Lee, for operating the town’s water department. In Lee, the town moderator was a full-time employee of the Veolia Water Company throughout the political process and openly lobbied for the contract.

Holyoke’s mayor is one of 30 mayor’s across the country to sit on the Urban Water Council of the U.S. Conferende of Mayors.http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/urbanwater/, a group that has lobbied for and won Congressional legislation permitting municipalities to lift the cap on the amount of money it can borrow at 2% interest to lend private companies contracting with them for projects.

The “Act to Preserve Public Water and Sewer Systems" was sponsored by Mass Global Action, an Eastern-Mass. Organization working against corporate privatization of public sector services.

Shays2, The Western Mass Committee on Corporations & Democracy is a grassroots organization also using the nickname, Shays 2, in spirit with the populism of Western Mass. in the days of Shays rebellion. The Western Mass- helped launch the Holyoke Citizens for Open Government and serves as a watchdog over threats to local democratic process in region-wide municipalities.