PHILADELPHIA, PA — The City of Philadelphia released a comprehensive list of the most commonly asked questions and answers about the agreement of sale between the City of Philadelphia and UIL Holdings Corporation.
The Mayor issued the following statement in connection with the list:
“We believe it is extremely important to respond proactively to the questions we’re hearing so that everyone in Philadelphia can see how the sale will benefit taxpayers, PGW customers, and employees and how it will protect their jobs and pensions. The questions included in this document mirror those raised by consumers, businesses, government officials and City workers.
“Unfortunately, some who oppose the sale have distributed misinformation with the intent of frightening citizens. There is simply no place for those kinds of tactics on an issue this important to the future of our city.
“As City Council continues its process of evaluating the terms of the sale, I urge all Philadelphians with an interest in this topic to access as much real, true and correct information as possible, including the list of questions and answers we are providing today.”
The Nutter Administration announced today that it has signed an agreement to sell the assets of the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to UIL Holdings Corporation for $1.86 billion. The sale, which would inject at least $424 million into the City’s pension fund, must still win approval from City Council and then the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), prior to closing.
“When I announced nearly two years ago that the City would begin exploring the sale of PGW, I pledged that I would sign an agreement only if the terms benefited Philadelphia taxpayers and PGW customers,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “This agreement accomplishes those goals and much more. UIL submitted the highest bid for PGW and agreed to contract terms that were important to the City. Our agreement keeps rates frozen for three years, maintains PGW’s discount programs for low-income families and seniors, safeguards PGW employee and retiree pensions and positions PGW to take full advantage of the abundant supply of natural gas in Pennsylvania to make our city and region a prime energy hub.”
Headquartered in New Haven, UIL serves approximately 706,000 electric and natural gas customers in Connecticut and Massachusetts and has combined total assets of more than $4 billion. Its holdings comprise The United Illuminating Company, The Southern Connecticut Gas Company, Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation and The Berkshire Gas Company.
“We are very excited about coming to Philadelphia and getting involved with the community,” said UIL CEO James P. Torgerson. “Energy is our core business and UIL is well suited to operate the natural gas utility business in Philadelphia and make substantive investments in its infrastructure. UIL has substantial experience running an urban natural gas utility and being an engaged civic partner in the communities we serve. We also see this as a great opportunity to explore strategic growth opportunities that will benefit the customers and citizens of Philadelphia. We look forward to working with the City Council and PUC through the approval process.”
Once the sale is complete, UIL plans to operate dual corporate headquarters in Philadelphia and New Haven. PGW will become UIL’s largest operating company, and UIL officials say it is very important to them to become part of the Philadelphia community, including personal involvement in civic activities and financial commitments to charitable organizations.
“PGW will become a bigger, stronger company under UIL’s ownership and that will create more opportunities for us,” said PGW President and CEO Craig E. White. “Our company has made major strides over the past several years, but there are constraints as a city-owned utility that prevent us from realizing our full potential. The ability to react quickly to market opportunities and a greater investment in developing markets will result in a win-win for both the company and its customers and will result in a greater demand for jobs.”
The contract signed by UIL and the City requires that all PGW employees be offered employment at UIL. If an employee decides to retire or accept a job elsewhere, that position may go unfilled, but total employment may not dip below 1,350 employees for at least three years. A privately-owned PGW will require highly skilled employees to maintain and operate the gas company and will ensure that the system continues to deliver gas safely to customers, while improving the gas infrastructure. Like PGW, UIL has strong relationships with the Utility Workers of America. Also like PGW, UIL has a highly diversified workforce and places an emphasis on contracting with minority and woman-owned businesses in selecting its vendors.
The sale will provide substantial support for the City’s pension fund, helping address one of the most pressing financial issues facing the City. After paying off all of PGW’s bond obligations and putting aside funds for other liabilities, including fully funding the PGW pension plan and prudently reserving for residual risks, the City expects to have between $424 million and $631 million remaining, based on current stock and bond markets and reasonable assumptions. The Administration will then deposit the sum into the City employee pension fund. With the pension fund now less than 50 percent funded, this contribution is one part of a strategy to provide additional resources to the fund, while lowering its costs in order to improve that funding percentage.
The Administration proposes other measures to preserve the value of this contribution so that the benefit to the City pension fund will be protected over time without any negative impact on the City’s general fund. The pension funds’ low funded percentage is one of the greatest concerns mentioned by rating agencies, so the deposit should be a credit positive for the City.
Interest in buying PGW, which remains the largest city-owned gas company in the nation, was overwhelming. Thirty-three entities submitted indications of interest last fall. Through a series of bidding rounds the City whittled the field to a handful before finally selecting UIL.
“We thoroughly vetted all bidders and chose UIL for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it provided us with the strongest contract terms and value. But beyond the numbers, UIL has an outstanding safety record, excellent employee and customer relations, credibility, a commitment to infrastructure improvements, and is a valued corporate citizen in the communities it now serves. I am confident that City Council and the citizens of Philadelphia will arrive at the same conclusion as I have: that UIL is going to become a great addition to our City,” Mayor Nutter said.
PGW is the nation’s largest municipally-owned gas utility, with annual revenues of more than $600 million, more than 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers, and more than 1,600 employees. Read more about the sale process and submit questions or comments at www.exploringasale.com.
PHILADELPHIA – February 24, 2014 (Reprint of WPVI story featuring our PhilaNet.com reporter) — We’ve heard horror stories of people’s cars being moved into illegal spots by tow truck drivers, vehicles held ransom for hundreds of dollars, and major damage done in the towing process.
In the city where the reality show ‘Parking Wars’ was made famous, we’re exposing the unwritten rules for parking in Philadelphia. Here’s what you should know before you snag what you think is that perfect parking spot.
“They (George Smith Towing) started towing it down the street. There were sparks flying, it was a crazy loud racket,” said Daniel Brouse.
Brouse is a freelance photographer who has been tracking one of the city’s top tow companies on candid camera.
“When I started filming them, they threatened my life,” said Brouse.
His go-to spot was behind the Piazza at Schmidt’s in Northern Liberties.
“I thought he was a car thief the way he was breaking into the car,” said Brouse. “And then I saw him hook up a tow truck to the vehicle.”
Theft is exactly how Philadelphia Councilman Jim Kenney describes towing in the city.
“They should be arrested because they’re stealing the car. There’s no difference between a tow truck operator taking a car from the curb illegally and a guy hot-wiring it and stealing it,” Kenney said.
The history of aggressive and illegal towing is notorious in the City of Brotherly Love.
“Clearly there are no city signs that say that you cannot park here,” said Jadi Gonzalez.
Surveillance video shows within 14 minutes of Gonzalez parking her car on a city street, a private tow truck driver picks it up – and, she says, doing thousands of dollars of damage to the vehicle.
“They said, ‘You have pictures, you have surveillance. So just take us to court,'” Gonzalez said. And then, she said, they “hung up on me.”
“I mean, it’s really hazardous to park here even legally,” said Mike Williams.
Williams says his car was not just illegally towed, he says it was moved from his permitted spot in Center City Philadelphia.
“Basically they just lied about where we were parked, since we were in a convenient spot for towing. They just decided to tow us,” said Williams.
Action News obtained a list from the Philadelphia Parking Authority of the places where the most tickets are issued for towable offenses.
We’ve created this interactive map, to alert drivers about the hot spots for aggressive towing in the city.
Third on the list is the 1600 block of Market Street, where nearly 3,000 tickets were written for towable offenses in the last 14 months.
The corner of 13th and Walnut Street comes in second on our list for towing violations.
The top spot in the city is the 100 block of Chestnut Street in Old City, where nearly 5,500 towing tickets have been issued since January 2013.
While the majority of these tows may be legal, Councilman Kenney describes the entire towing system in Philadelphia as “the wild West. There’s an industry out there that thinks they have the ability to take advantage of people and steal their cars and hold them hostage for a ransom to get them back,” said Kenney.
The councilman says there are some important things drivers should know:
Only the Philadelphia Parking Authority can tow from a city street. The only place private companies can tow from is private property.
Your car DOES NOT have to be ticketed to be towed.
Towing companies can only charge you $175 for the tow, and $25 for each 24 hours of storage. It is illegal for them to charge any fees on top of that.
A private towing company has to take a picture of your car before they tow it, and provide a copy at no charge
“Unless the government is protecting them in some way by locking up the guys who stole their car, or by shutting the business that stole their car, nothing’s going to change,” Kenney said.
The biggest problem is there is really little recourse for drivers. Councilman Kenney says no one, not the police or L&I which regulates towing, is cracking down on illegal towing in Philadelphia. He is trying to change that.
Councilman Kenney says for now all a driver can do if his or her car is missing is call 9-1-1 and report the vehicle as stolen – or sue the towing company.