Cluck, left, whose term on the board of Capital Region Water expired in 2015. City Council will consider whether to replace him with a mayoral nominee later this month.
Capital Region Water is poised to mark the end of an era this month, as the Papenfuse administration seeks to replace board member Bill Cluck, an environmental lawyer and city activist who oversaw a turbulent time in the authority’s history.
At a hearing next week, City Council will consider two nominees, Garvey Presley, Jr., and Charla J. Plaines, to the water and sewer authority’s five-member board.
Presley would fill a spot left vacant by Westburn Majors, who surrendered his seat after being elected to Harrisburg City Council last fall. Plaines would replace Cluck, whose five-year term expired in January 2015.
Council will not cast a final vote on the nominations until April 27, the first legislative session after next week’s hearing. But Cluck did not waste time in objecting to his replacement, urging council at a meeting Tuesday night to meet with him and review his record before agreeing to oust him.
Council members “have absolutely no idea” of Capital Region Water’s achievements during his tenure, he said, nor did they fully appreciate how the authority had fought to maintain public ownership in a period of financial crisis.
“We saved this city from privatizing the water and sewer systems,” he said.
He also said he was disappointed by the way he learned of his replacement from Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “There was no communication other than an email,” Cluck said. “I feel disrespected.”
Papenfuse, for his part, said the decision was not personal and that he was grateful for Cluck’s years of service on the board. “I’m a huge fan of Bill’s,” he said. “I consider him an inspirational model to me personally. I think he’s played just an incredibly important role in bringing accountability to Harrisburg and in the city’s recovery.”
He said the nomination was motivated by his goal to bring greater diversity to the city’s governmental agencies and by a desire “not to burn people out” with too many years of service in any one role.
Even if Cluck’s plea finds favor with some council members, it is unlikely he will be able to hold his seat indefinitely. Papenfuse is empowered by law to nominate members to the boards of city authorities with the advice and consent of council.
“This is my decision for sure,” Papenfuse said.
As a board member, Cluck helped the authority weather a period of crisis and profound transformation. He helped usher it through the transition from the Harrisburg Authority, an all-purpose financing vehicle best known for the spectacular incinerator-related debts that pushed the city nearly to bankruptcy, to a service-focused water and sewer authority with stable finances and a new name.
Since the transition, Capital Region Water has earned a series of affirmations, including a top-five ranking for best drinking water in the country from the American Water Works Association and the 2015 Catalyst Award from the Harrisburg Regional Chamber. Most recently, in March, it secured an investment-grade rating on its municipal bonds from Standard & Poor’s.
In 2011, Cluck also helped initiate a forensic investigation into the Harrisburg Authority’s disastrous borrowings to retrofit the city incinerator. At the time, he was one of only three board members, along with Majors and Marc Kurowski, a civil engineer who is currently the board’s chair.
The findings of that investigation have resonated through Harrisburg politics ever since, drawing citations from the city’s first state-appointed receiver, playing a key role in state hearings on the city’s debt crisis and making a cameo in the 2015 grand jury report approving corruption charges against former Mayor Steve Reed.
“We collectively fly under the radar,” Kurowski said Tuesday night, in reference to the board’s accomplishments during his and Cluck’s tenure. “There was a lot of stuff happening in the last four or five years. It was very intense, and for a long time there it was just Bill, Wes and myself.”
Kurowski said he didn’t know either of the mayor’s nominees and was reluctant to inject himself into the city’s politics. But he said that, if Cluck were replaced, he would miss his skills as an attorney and his dedication.
“Bill’s pretty committed,” he said. “He does his homework. I mean, he reads every single word of every single document. We’d miss that. It’d be a shame to not have that aspect on the board.”
Kurowski also said that he thought Presley, an equipment operator at the Derry Township Municipal Authority wastewater treatment plant, might be able to bring “boots-on-the-ground operational experience” to the position.
Papenfuse said that, in addition to seeking fresh energy on the board, he hopes his nominees will further his goal of bringing diverse voices to city entities.
He hoped that Plaines, a reentry coordinator at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, would be instrumental in Capital Region Water’s community outreach during a series of important projects in the coming months.
“I think she can be an excellent community advocate and can perhaps assist in the outreach which CRW is inevitably going to need to do as it upgrades its systems,” he said. “I think we need to have people who connect the community in different ways.”
As for Cluck, Papenfuse added that he hoped he would contribute to other city efforts in the future. “I wouldn’t hesitate to appoint him for something else,” he said.
