In April, the PaCEO was honored to be selected to testify in front of the Philadelphia City Council about how Employee Ownership could be an important part of the future of the city.

We are very pleased to report that the hearings were an absolute and unmitigated success.  The Council Members used words like “blown away” and “astounded” to describe what they heard about ESOPs and what they believe it can do for the City of Philadelphia.

With the exception of our sponsor, Councilman Derek Green, none of the Council Members were familiar with ESOPs. But as Chairman Curtis Jones said, “You are most definitely on our radar now!” 

We have attached an Op/Ed that appeared in the Philadelphia Business Journal after the hearings and a clip from the hearing. In addition, City Council blasted the information out on Facebook.

We would like to express the sincere thanks of the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership to the large number of employee owners who attended the hearing. Your presence made all the difference: Pennoni Associates, ESOP Economics, Praxis, Waste Gas, The Graham Company, NewAge Industries, Stockwell Elastomerics, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, SES Advisors

Many thanks to our volunteers who testified, or submitted testimony, including: Mark Celoni, Pennoni Associates – John Dolan, WasteGas – Ken Liszewski, NewAge Industries – Ken Baker, NewAge Industries – C. R. “Chuck” Pennoni, Pennoni Associates – James Steiker, SES Advisors – William Stockwell, Stockwell Elastomerics

We asked 4 things of Council:

1.) We asked the Council to put the full weight of their PR engine behind supporting ESOPs.
2.) We asked the Council to connect us to City Departments that can assist to get the word out.
3.) We asked the Council to connect us to their partners to get the word out.
4.) We are asking each Council Member to help identify the businesses in their district that will benefit from learning about employee ownership, and assist us to connect with educational programs or private meetings.

We are enthused by these developments and feel we have a great opportunity to make Pennsylvania an “Employee Ownership State.” None of this has been possible without the support and dedication of our volunteers and our ecosystem.