Panek Resigns PSA Chairmanship, Remains on Board

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

February 3, 2014

After Northampton County Board of Supervisors voted January 27 to “stop all future funding until there is a change of leadership in the PSA,” the County’s Public Service Authority was scheduled to meet the next night – the night of the “blizzard.” PSA Chairman Bob Panek said he thought it was important not to cancel the meeting, but not enough members made it through the snow to obtain a quorum.

Panek wrote a memo to the PSA board members the next day, announcing his resignation as chairman. He did not, however, resign from the Board.

Vice-chair J.T. Holland will assume Panek’s duties until the Board elects a new chairman.

In his resignation memo, Panek said he found it “curious” that the County Board of Supervisors chose to end his leadership the way it did. “A simple phone call would have achieved the same thing,” he wrote.

According to a report in the Eastern Shore News, Panek told a reporter that he had no [advance] knowledge of what the Supervisors were going to do. Panek later wrote in his memo that he discussed the action January 28 with Board of Supervisors Chairman Larry LeMond, who he said told him that the “perceived conflict of interest was due to my close association (part time employee) with the Town of Cape Charles.”

Cape Charles Town Council appointed Panek to serve on the PSA in his capacity as a private citizen, even though he is also the Assistant Town Manager, with oversight responsibility for the Town’s water and wastewater facilities. With dual responsibilities, Panek worked to obtain an agreement between the Town and the County to pipe sewage from Route 13 to the Town. However, when the County sought a rate structure from the Town, the Town’s expert, Panek, had to recuse himself. The County is still waiting for a rate structure.

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Panek’s memo may be read by clicking here. He recommends that PSA “pay a wholesale connection charge, but not a retail charge calculated on the basis of each business to be connected.” Previously, Panek had advocated that County wastewater customers should pay no connection fee whatsoever. Town customers pay a “retail” connection fee that can exceed $50,000 for a commercial customer.

“I recommend that the Town Council negotiate an agreement to provide services to the PSA. If Council is unwilling to do so, there is no benefit in remaining a member of the Authority and the Town should withdraw,” Panek wrote.