The City of Chester is going to get a new Receiver, but critics of how the state is handling the city’s finances fear it’s a case of “same as the old boss.”
The city’s state-appointed Receiver, Michael Doweary, announced last week that after five years on the job, he’s returning to York, Pa., this summer to serve as Chief Financial Officer at York College. “This was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” he said.
Doweary’s chief of staff, Vijay Kapoor, has been nominated to take his place. If approved by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Kapoor will become the City of Chester’s Receiver on July 1.
Chester’s mismanaged finances have been a headache for years. The city was placed under Commonwealth oversight in 1995 through Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Financial Recovery Act (Act 47), but the troubles continued. In 2020, when the city was nearly broke and in danger of not making payroll, then-Gov. Tom Wolf declared a fiscal emergency, and Doweary was appointed to take control.
Doweary put the city into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, one of only a handful of U.S. municipalities to do so, and just the second city in the state’s history to enter receivership under Act 47.
In a statement, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) celebrated the successes under Doweary and Kapoor, among them:
- The Police Pension Fund is projected to end the current fiscal year with $19.5 million, enough for 35 months of checks.
- The 2025 City budget had no layoffs or service cuts.
But the city’s fundamental fiscal problems remain, and one group that has repeatedly butted heads with the Receiver’s Office is the Chester Water Authority (CWA). It says the track record isn’t a good one and Kapoor’s appointment is unlikely to mark a change in direction.
“Since 2020, Mr. Kapoor has been the public face of the Receivership. He has worked under the direction of DCED and with guidance and support from the highest levels of Pennsylvania government,” said Frank Catania with CWA.
“The Receiver’s team has not produced a financial statement for the city since 2020. Amazingly, no elected or appointed state official in Harrisburg has even complained about this. Sure, the city government had problems, but at least they produced financial statements, bleak as they were.
“Now the DCED has suggested to the Commonwealth Court that the court does not even need a hearing to allow the court to review the unsubstantiated ‘accomplishments’ set forth in Mr. Kapoor’s petition to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Doweary’s resignation — which doesn’t occur for another 107 more days. What is the rush? How about releasing all five years of financial records right now?” Catania added.
“The residents of Chester suffer, the CWA gets attacked and the DCED and their team of consultants get paid. Looks like business as usual in Harrisburg.”
The utility maintains they have “complete autonomy” over its affairs, citing Pennsylvania law. It cites Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) guidelines saying authorities are “not the creature, agent, or representative of the municipality.”
The city’s previous administration under then-Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland argued that it owned the CWA and wanted to use its sizable assets to balance its books. It solicited bids for CWA in 2020, months before Doweary was named Receiver. The Commonwealth Court sided with Chester and ruled the city could sell the utility.
A $410 million sale to Aqua Pennsylvania was put on hold when the CWA board appealed to the state Supreme Court in 2022. That case was put on hold when Doweary put Chester in federal bankruptcy court.
Last fall, CWA and Doweary asked the federal bankruptcy judge to let the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decide CWA’s fate.
Tensions between Doweary and city hall eventually boiled over into a legal battle, as Kirkland and the city council opposed the bankruptcy plan. It was later discovered the mayor used a racial slur against Doweary and allegedly threatened him. Now-former Councilwoman Elizabeth Williams suggested the receiver was a “slave master.”
In court documents, Kirkland’s administration accused the CWA board of usurping the city’s authority over the decades. And it claimed “the City was surreptitiously stripped of control over the board of the CWA against the City’s will and without compensation.”
Doweary won the court battle and was given more power by a Commonwealth Court judge.
Chester voters tired of the Doweary-city hall drama and replaced Kirkland with current Mayor Stefan Roots in 2023. Roots and Doweary’s relationship is more civil. However, the clash over Chester Water continues.
Both Doweary and Kapoor vowed to keep CWA a public entity following a sale without revealing details. However, Catania believed the receiver remained in favor of privatization. “(Corporations are) all publicly owned. They’re publicly traded,” he quipped.
CWA officials also want more transparency regarding Doweary’s resignation. When CWA Vice President Livia Smith pressed Roots for details about Doweary’s future at a March 12 city council meeting, he simply responded, “We’re not aware.”
However, court documents filed with the Commonwealth Court show Roots endorsed Kapoor’s appointment on March 5 in a letter.
Roots defended his comments at the public meeting on his “Chester Matters” blog. He wrote the city’s relationship with the receiver and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office “would implode” if he leaked confidential information. “Nobody wins in that situation,” Roots declared.
The mayor added he couldn’t talk about bankruptcy procedures because he signed a nondisclosure agreement.
“I Ain’t No Snitch,” he added.
