City leaders in Burlington are geared up to sell Burlington Telecom, but community media groups are concerned the sale will hurt public access and local control.
The coalition of public access channels is not fighting the proposed sale, but Vermont Community Access Media, Channel 17 and the Regional Educational Television Network want more public involvement in determining the utility’s future.
In February, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger announced that the telecom, the city and the bank had come to an agreement that could bring a five-year saga and $33 million lawsuit to a close for just $10.5 million. The city-owned utility offers cable TV, Internet and phone service to Burlington residents.
The deal entailed $6 million in bridge financing — secured in late March from local businessman Trey Pecor and Merchants Bank — and the eventual sale of Burlington Telecom. And it side-swiped some stakeholders.
Lauren-Glenn Davitian is executive director of Channel 17, one of the Burlington Access Management Organizations that were party to Burlington Telecom’s certificate of public good in 2005.
“When we found out that the city had made a deal with Citibank and that that deal involved selling Burlington Telecom in three years, we were all pretty surprised and upset,” Davitian said. “Because given the public process that involved building BT, the discussions to dispose of (it) were made relatively quietly.”
Burlington Telecom Advisory Board and City Council member Vince Brennan, P-Ward 3, said he’s comfortable with the decision-making process to date.
“There were many meetings that we had to have under executive session because the litigation was underway,” Brennan said. “Now that we seem to be under agreement, I think we can put together a viable resolution that speaks to the concerns.”
The board moved its meetings to City Hall to make them more accessible to the public, Brennan said, and Channel 17 was invited to film the meetings.
The meetings, including the one at which the access organizations brought their concerns to the advisory board, are archived online by Town Meeting Television.
“So, it’s not like we’re not trying to be transparent,” Brennan said.
Davitian said the public access representatives appreciate the work the advisory board and city have done to negotiate a settlement to get Burlington Telecom out of its financial hole and legal bind. And she understands the need for discretion in business negotiations.
“Now we need to get some other people involved,” Davitian said. “Even now, the city talks about finding a ‘partner’ for Burlington Telecom, when in fact they’re required to sell it. And it isn’t really clear that the city will retain an interest.”
Although Davitian said the advisory board appears responsive, she said the access organizations had not been consulted about the terms of the sale.
“They reached out to us when they saw that we had something to say,” Davitian said.
Advisory board and City Council member Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, said she was not aware of the advisory board’s coordinating any discussions with telecom stakeholders once the settlement was reached.
Now that the board is aware of concerns, Paul said, members are open to a public discourse about them — though specific deliberations about the sale likely would be closed to protect a potential buyer’s trade secrets.
In a letter on behalf of the public access organizations to the Burlington Telecom Advisory Board on June 4, Davitian said Burlington Telecom’s nature as a publicly owned entity has facilitated innovations in public access that may not be possible with a private interest.
Without clear criteria for public access and continued local control, she fears Burlington’s public programming will be pushed to the margins.
Brennan said he and other advisory board members were receptive to the concerns the public access organizations raised.
“We do not want this asset to be gobbled up by a large conglomerate. So that’s the bottom line,” Brennan said. “There will be some type of local control.”
He anticipates drafting a resolution to address them for consideration after the mid-June city council meeting.
Paul said the sale, while urgent, is not about finding the “highest bidder.”
“It is about finding a buyer or a partner who embraces the values that we feel are important in our local telecom,” Paul said. “That was the reason that Burlington Telecom was started in the first place. And we’re not going to abandon those values.”
But the settlement laying out a future sale, however, makes no such stipulation.
Davitian said she understands the telecom and city leaders are working hard to close a tender and expensive chapter in the city’s history. But she doesn’t want the sense of urgency to undermine what Burlington already has invested to create a state-of-the-art information infrastructure.
“This is a legacy asset that is probably the most valuable asset the city owns other than the waterfront,” she said.
Davitian added that Burlington Telecom’s public nature has allowed access organizations to do more with the estimated $50 million infrastructure.
Comcast is the only other cable provider in Burlington, she said. Both Comcast and Burlington Telecom are required by state law to provide public access to their technologies.
But comparatively, Burlington Telecom “has just proven to be much more flexible and nimble in their ability to respond to requests,” Davitian said. She attributes it to more robust technology and the distinct philosophy of its ownership structure.
“Because unlike private companies, Burlington Telecom sees public access as an asset, a benefit to subscribers and a competitive advantage,” she said. Comcast is less flexible and more concerned about setting precedents to which the company may be held by public access channels in other markets, she said.
And though it’s possible the city may find a suitable buyer within three years, Davitian underscored that consolidation is the nature of the telecommunications industry — which means another entity could end up owning Burlington Telecom down the road.
“So we’re concerned about who the next buyer of BT (may be), because the community and economic potential of the gigabit network is enormous,” she said. “And you want to have a buyer that understands … this is a utility that has incredible value to drive economic development in the city and to drive public applications.”
A public hearing will be held by the Public Service Board in Burlington on July 8 to hear from citizens and other community groups about Burlington Telecom’s pending settlement and proposed sale, which will require PSB approval. The time for the public hearing is not yet set.
A technical hearing will follow July 22 in Montpelier.
