Residents ask City Council to vote against sale of PGW

A small group of Philadelphia residents went around City Hall today distributing copies of signed petitions asking City Council to keep Philadelphia Gas Works public.

"I'm trying to make sure I don't get pushed out of my house between real estate taxes and Philadelphia Gas Works," Madeline Shikomba, of South Philadelphia, said. She had a sign hanging from her neck that read: "Yo Nutter: Citizens & Safety, Not Sale!.... Don't sell PGW."

Shikomba and about eight other residents, mostly seniors, walked to the various council offices to request council members vote against the sale. They said the have 4,000 signatures on their petition.

Mayor Nutter wants to sell the 176-year-old utility to use the proceeds to reduce the city's underfunded pension obligations. The deal, which must still be approved by City Council and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, is opposed by the gas workers' union, low-income advocates, and opponents of private ownership, all of whom have been putting pressure on Council to say no.

Shikomba and the eight other activists, organized by  consumer rights group Food & Water Watch, made their first stop Tuesday at Council President Darrell L. Clarke's office.

Clarke greeted the group in his office waiting area and chatted with them for 10 minutes. Clarke said that while he doesn't support privatization, he will make a decision after he reviews an analysis done by a hired consultant.

"We want to make sure that whatever decision we make, it's an intelligent decision," Clarke said, calling the sale of PGW: "This will be the most significant transaction in the history of the City of Philadelphia."

Council is paying a Boston-area consultant $425,000 to review the PGW deal.

"We hope to have a preliminary draft of Concentric's reports and recommendations within eight weeks of the date Concentric received the first tranche of documents," Clarke's spokeswoman Jane Roh said later. Concentric started receiving data on April 11.

The Nutter administration is hoping the deal can be sealed before end of June. But they are at the mercy of City Council.

"We hope that shortly an ordinance will be introduced," to approve the sale, city spokesman Mark McDonald said.

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