[T]he Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a bill that seeks to change the oversight structure of broadband buildout and Enhanced 911 services.
The bill will be read for a third time Wednesday before going back to the House, which can approve the Senate’s changes or call for a committee of conference.
The major provisions of the bill would replace the independent Vermont Telecommunications Authority with a Division of Telecommunications and Connectivity within the Department of Public Service.
The Vermont Telecommunications Authority’s board of directors was already scheduled to mothball July 1. But Act 190, passed last year, would have created a six-person Division of Connectivity within the Agency of Administration.
H.117 is a cheaper option that requires three new employees to run the connectivity program within the Department of Public Service. About $8.3 million in assets from the VTA would go to the department, and the management transition is already underway.
Another section of H.117 would create a new legal structure called a communications union district to let towns join together to provide municipal broadband service.
The measure came as a request from ECFiber, whose governing board members have been attending the Statehouse as citizen lobbyists to push for more broadband buildout in rural areas.
Several of ECFiber’s 24 member municipalities have approved the concept as a way for ECFiber to secure multimillion-dollar loans, instead of borrowing in $2,500 increments from local lenders.
If the communications union district language becomes law in its current form, ECFiber would ask its members to vote again to become a union district.
Enhanced 911 governance may change
Three other sections added in the Senate Finance Committee seek to dissolve the independent Enhanced 911 board and put the duty to provide E-911 services into the hands of the Department of Public Safety, which includes the state police.
The bill does contain fallback language in case the Shumlin administration does not transfer the duties, but the Senate’s version of the bill approved Tuesday would permanently change the E-911 structure either way.
If the administration doesn’t transfer E-911 to the Department of Public Safety, the bill says the administration would need to come up with $300,000 and eliminate one position on the current board.
Currently, the E-911 board is functioning with interim executive director Barbara Neal since David Tucker retired last month. Neal is working with a consultant to help her with day-to-day management duties.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, faced questions on the E-911 consolidation from Sen. Anthony Pollina, D/P-Washington, who said he wanted to make sure that the Legislature was not deciding unilaterally to dissolve the board.
“The administration has until the first of July to decide whether to make the transfer,” MacDonald said.
The bill’s language says it will not take effect until the secretary of administration determines E-911 “should be transferred to the Department of Public Safety not later than July 1, 2015.”
That means Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson would ultimately decide whether to cut a position in E-911 or pull the entire quasi-independent board into the administration.
Mike Smith’s consulting duties in question
The Agency of Administration entered into a $70,000 contract on May 7 with Mike Smith, a former secretary of administration and former Vermont president of FairPoint Communications, to study the issue.
Smith is working with Neal in the event she has day-to-day management questions since Tucker retired. But Smith’s main duty is to study and produce a report on the ideal operational structure for E-911 in Vermont.
At a Senate Finance hearing on April 20, Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, questioned whether Smith’s work was needed. Ashe said dissolving the E-911 board had been a discussion since at least last year. He said dissolving the board was the best financial option, but the E-911 board simply didn’t like what it heard in 2014.
“I believe that there could be operational savings, especially on the administrative support side,” Ashe said of the potential consolidation. “That’s sort of the most glaring opportunity for operational savings.”
Smith told Ashe on April 20 that he needed until August to perform an adequate report on the ideal structure of E-911 services. Smith’s contract runs from April 13 to Oct. 15 and directs him to produce the report on or before Aug. 14.
That’s six weeks after the current bill says the administration should decide.
“I would never, ever question the wisdom of the committee, but I think the amendment is fraught with a couple of dangers,” Smith said. He said there are “a lot of ramifications” of “trying to ram this all together in a quick fashion.”
“Let me look at it — give me some time to look at it — and let me come up with the best organizational structure,” Smith said. “I’ll abide by whatever your decision as a Legislature is.”
Smith said Tuesday that he is still waiting to see what happens.
