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WILKES-BARRE — Residents expecting to hear from the company handling the proposed sale of the city’s sewer system will have to settle for answers from council and the administration Thursday night.
PFM Financial Advisors LLC originally was expected to give a public presentation at the city council meeting. But after providing preliminary details at the work session Tuesday night, council tasked PFM with gathering additional information about the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority leasing the system and asked them to come back for the next work session on Dec. 17.
The meeting agenda for Thursday did not list PFM as a presenter and City Administrator Rick Gazenski confirmed the change in plans.
“They won’t be,” Gazenski said Wednesday when asked whether PFM would make a second presentation this week.
“It was not the administration” that told PFM not to return, Gazenski stressed.
Gazenski said after the work session he asked PFM representatives if they were coming back for the public meeting. “They said, ‘No, council said come back on the 17th,’” he said.
“We’ll be as equipped as we possibly could” to answer residents’ questions, Gazenski said.
Council Chairman Mike Belusko expressed surprise with the turn of events.
“I was told they won’t be there,” Belusko said. “I don’t get it,” he said.
Residents are concerned about what happens to the rates as a result of either a sale or lease, Belusko said. “That’s what they’re going to want to know,” he said.
In either case, PFM said they would increase, but could not provide specific numbers as the process is ongoing.
Council gave its assurance that it won’t make a decision before Mayor Tony George leaves office in January. George has pursued the sale as way to stabilize the city’s finances and shore up five underfunded pension plans for employees and retirees.
Mayor-elect George Brown, who attended the work session, asked PFM for more information about the rates.
Without the hard numbers, council will be hard pressed to respond to residents, Belusko said.
“We’ll be as equipped as we possibly could be,” Gazenski added.
