Leaked Memo Reveals Agenda of N.O. Water Privatizers
by Vivendi Universal Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003 at 1:13 PM

A secret memo, published by Public Citizen and reported on by the Urban Conservancy, reveals the opinion of the leading bidder on New Orleans' water system on the democratic process and the media.

download PDF (146.0 kibibytes)

When's that Fat Lady Gonna Sing?
The bidding process for the privatization of the Sewerage and Water Board is all but dead. One of the three bidders, United Water, has quietly bowed out. The remaining bidders are the employee group and US Filter. US Filter, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, the media conglomerate based in Paris, is the last remaining outside bidder in the process. In an internal memo released to the media by Public Citizen, US Filter outlines its strategy, which includes meeting the "peculiar governmental barriers," i.e., a democratic process for the decision and even suggests helping the city find additional bidders to compete for the contract. The latter statement was brought to our attention by an observer of the process who questioned why US Filter would try to recruit additional competitors for the contract, when the preparation of a bid is such a laborious and expensive process. Why indeed?
There are also plenty of other gems of corporate antagonism in the memo. The CEO of US Filter, Andy Seidel, blasted the Times-Picayune's coverage of the issue, including the listing of the US Filter dream team of "consultants" Bill Hines (a close ally of Mayor Nagin), Nagin campaign contributors the Erhardt Group, and an associate of city councilmember (and member of the Sewerage and Water Board) Eddie Sapir. The CEO states: "...we need Fox TV to take over these crappy little newspapers that usually only can report on last night's house fire, the weekend's Rotary bake sale or the local homeless man that ended up in a windshield." Who says these guys don't have compassion? In another part of the memo, he describes a "pissing contest" between Nagin and the VP of United Water as "absolutely precious."

It sounds like US Filter is pretty disappointed with its attempt to take over the water system of New Orleans. Many observers of the entire privatization fiasco thought that US Filter had a lock on the deal. Now, that deal has all but dried up. When's that fat lady gonna sing?


To see the memo, visit: http://www.citizen.org/documents/vivendinola.pdf

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Urban Conservancy


info@urbanconservancy.org

www.ucno.org/swb/fat_lady082703.html

add your comments