Illinois-American uses sneaky tactics to fight buyout

January 28, 2006
By Billy Dennis

The mayors of Champaign and Urbana issued this joint press release:


City officials in Urbana and Champaign complained that Illinois American Water Company is using under-handed tactics in trying to steer public opinion away from exploring a proposed purchase of the local water company by the cities.

Champaign Council Member Tom Bruno explained, “My friend, Larry Wingate, informed me on Wednesday evening that he had received such a call on Tuesday while we (the Champaign City Council) were meeting. He immediately knew it was IAWC but the survey taker said he didn’t know who put him up to it. Larry claimed he was shocked by the content which mentioned Mayor Jerry (Schweighart) and me by name and asked whether the citizen thought the City Council should be spending our time working to improve education for children or (impliedly) wasting our time exploring the purchase of the water company.”

The other topic on the Council agenda last Tuesday was a lengthy discussion regarding whether or not the City of Champaign should hire additional police officers to serve as school resource officers. Bruno commented, “It is clear that RWE has little knowledge of how local government operates in Champaign where the school district is managed and operated by a separately elected board. The City government has little direct control over education in Illinois. Maybe they do things differently in Germany.”

A delegation of IAWC staff attended Tuesday’s Council Meeting. They were accompanied by another individual they introduced as a “public relations” person for the company. They made no comment at Tuesday’s meeting.

Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing was clearly angry about the push poll. “They are trying to intimidate the wrong community. Urbana citizens understand the value of clean water and clean elections. RWE is the ENRON of Europe. They have picked off American communities one at a time and won. They have asked not to cooperate with other cities but we are determined to act in a coalition to obtain legislation that gives us the right to pay them a fair price and send them packing back to Germany.”

Urbana Alderman Charlie Smyth echoed the Mayor’s sentiment. “For a company that is for sale you would think they would want to work to put things right with their customers instead of this insulting disservice”.

Champaign Mayor Gerald Schweighart was especially upset when he heard the news about the push poll. “It is clear to me that Illinois American Water Company would rather spend their revenues in Champaign County on dirty tricks like rigged polls rather than trying to address our concerns about the pending sale of the company by their parent company, RWE of Essen, Germany. They had an opportunity to address the Council Tuesday night and chose to remain silent. It seems that they were only there to collect data for their smear campaign. This is very similar to their campaigns in Peoria, Pekin and Lexington, Kentucky. Is this what our citizens deserve from our water company? Is this the kind of behavior citizens expect from the company providing an essential public service? Who is wasting citizens’ money here? Who will Champaign citizens trust, a City Council who discusses these issues openly and solicits their input – or a foreign company who resorts to these kinds of tactics to preserve their profits?”

Council Member Bruno was equally angered. “The least that we can expect is for our utilities to act openly. To sit quietly in the audience and pass up an opportunity to discuss these issues openly while at the same moment conducting a secret telemarketing campaign to tamper with public opinion is very troubling. I am afraid their secret plan will backfire.”

Mayor Schweighart went on to say, “Our issues with the water company are issues about ownership, not the local management and staff. They are in a situation they did not choose, and the pending sale of the company is something they have no control over.”

Illinois American,water company,buyout,champaign,urbana

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3 Responses to “ Illinois-American uses sneaky tactics to fight buyout ”

  1. Ryan Johnson on January 28, 2006 at 2:56 pm

    Champaign and Urbana….Bloomington already controls it’s own water

  2. Bill Dennis on January 28, 2006 at 3:15 pm

    Ugh. Thanks for the correction. I was up late last night.

  3. C. J. Summers on January 28, 2006 at 5:35 pm

    I see. Since it’s the off-season in Peoria for water-buyout-fever, you’ll be providing the Champaign-Urbana Smackdown for our entertainment in the interim.

    Not a bad idea. I wonder if I can find another city that’s replacing a viable rail line with a trail to write about inbetween STB decisions….