We, the undersigned, call on Mayor Rich David and the Binghamton City Council to immediately cancel their plan to contract with Veolia for a maintenance audit of the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant.

Veolia - having been involved with the construction at the plant, and having an active bid in to privatize the management of the facility - is incapable of conducting an independent audit of the facility. They have both a vested interest in ensuring that the results of any audit casts the work they did installing their equipment at the facility in a positive light, and an interest in ensuring that the outcome of the audit moves the facility closer to privatization.

Further, we demand that The Mayor proceed by consulting with the workers at the plant in a transparent "team-based" approach, and ensure that any future request for proposals or qualifications are listed on the NYS Contract Reporter in addition to the other usual methods. Any firm chosen to carry out an audit should not have any current or past involvement with rehabilitation and construction at the plant, or a clear stake in the current proposal for plant privatization.