From left, city clerk Joyce Lanier, City Council President April Gaunt-Butler, Mayor Dwayne Warren and at large Councilwoman Donna K. Williams answer questions about switching water management companies at a meeting on Monday, March 14, at Lincoln Avenue School.
ORANGE, NJ — Derrick Henry, founder of the Protect the Orange Water Supply organization, said he finds it interesting that the Pennoni water management company was included in the subpoena the Federal Bureau of Investigation served Orange City Hall with on Friday, July 22.
Henry’s organization galvanized the Orange community to oppose Mayor Dwayne Warren’s attempt to hand management of the city’s water supply over to the Pennsylvania-based Pennoni earlier this year.
The Warren administration tried to switch the management of the city’s water utility from Suez, formerly known as United Water Company, to Pennoni, saying the latter company had submitted the lowest bid for its services.
“From the beginning, I had questions about the administration’s determination to award this contract to an inexperienced bidder,” said Henry on Tuesday, Aug. 23. “Both the city’s legal department and Pennoni continued to self-destruct in their desires to make this successful. Pennoni continued to morph their presentations, trying to appease our public at large. Moreover, the Warren endgame to award Pennoni this contract was supposed to be assumedly easier than this, before my involvement and public outcry about illegal process and misinformation from both parties.”
There was an outcry from Orange residents, who expressed concern that the deal was happening for political reasons rather than for their betterment, and the deal was eventually derailed.
“No one was awarded the contract,” said current Orange City Council President Donna K. Williams on Tuesday, Aug. 30. “The administration is preparing a new RFQ.”
West Ward Councilman Harold J. Johnson confirmed Williams’ comments, adding that he too had noticed the Pennoni name on the F.B.I. subpoena.
“The council voted down the resolution to award Pennoni the water contract; the city has yet to rebid for a new water contract,” said Johnson on Tuesday, Aug. 30. “I saw where Pennoni documents were called out in the subpoena. I can’t comment or speculate on why.”
According to Henry, questions have not yet been answered about the out-of-state company’s ties to the Warren administration.
“Pennoni is on the ELEC report for Friends of Dwayne Warren at December 2014, 11 months before the RFP process started in Orange in November 2015,” said Henry on Tuesday, April 5. “Pennoni business development consultant McKinsey … made a contribution to Friends of Dwayne Warren in November 2015, both fairly recent, before Pennoni’s alleged objective selection by Gracia Robert Montilus.”
Montilus is the member of the Warren administration’s legal department tasked with handling the changeover of the city’s water management from Suez to Pennoni. He told the Orange City Council he had personally vetted Pennoni after it responded to the city’s RFP, saying it was selected as the lowest bidder, providing the greatest savings to Orange water customers, while also improving water supply service.
Water management company targeted by F.B.I. subpoena added by Chris Sykes on
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