The relationship between VTel and Vermont Telecom Authority (VTA), the state entity in charge of expanding internet and cell service is experiencing a lack of clarity, some static, and maybe a dropped connection. VtDigger.com has the play by play about it and a $5 million grant now at stake that was previously thought settled.
The grant’s status was thrown into uncertainty after a subgroup of the state’s Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) failed to reach agreement with Springfield-based VTel on a final contract on Thursday.
And in the it-can-happen-to-anybody department, the problems include an recent awkward “pocket dial” incident in which a current VTA member was overheard by a VTel executive complaining about frustration with the company. This shouldn’t be confused with an earlier phone exchange involving a VTel executive and a state telecom official.
At a ceremony in December, Governor Shumlin announced that VTel had received a state grant of $5 million dollars for broadband/cell expansion. Now it turns out the grant was never finalized and is still under negotiation between the state and VTel. According to Vermont Telecom Authority head Chris Campbell, this situation is not unusual.
“It’s not final until you actually sign on the dotted line” [of a contract]
In January, shortly after that grant announcement, the state’s in-house telecom Czar Karen Marshall left her job in the Governor’s office to work for VTel. Marshall had worked extensively with VTel during grant negotiations.
The principals involved are pledging that it will all work out in the end and Vermont will ultimately get its high speed broadband. But the limits of this public /private relationship are being laid bare. They are characterized perfectly by Lawrence Miller, the state’s economic secretary:
“All the contracting, all the installation, all of the work is in the hands of private companies,” said Miller. “The state has created a set of incentives, and granted out funds for some work, and we’re working to make sure that permitting and access to state land is done … But yeah, in the end, it’s up to the private providers to meet the challenge.”
Was that a shrug? Hello,did I hear shrug, you’re breaking up! Oops, we’ve been cut off. But it sounds as if Secretary Miller thinks all the state can do is “grant out funds” and hope the private providers meet the challenge. In the end it’s our tax dollars at work, five million of them, and “it’s up to the private providers to meet the challenge”?
The very definition of laissez faire government, and a serious disconnect.
Because if the state did the construction and managed the assets, that would be COMMUNISM!!!!
Definition of Communism (Conservative Dictionary): Any commercial enterprise that benefits the public in which a CEO didn’t get $1M in pay or bonus.
The Republicans, in their set procedures to halt the growth of Communism(!), would grant out $5M and expect, nay demand, that $4M be given to the executives, board of directors and shareholders to hoard in offshore, tax-free bank accounts as profits, with no more than $1M going toward actual construction.
The TeaBircher/Ayn Rand faction would say that $1M on construction would be wasted because it would ‘Create Jobs’, you know: pay salaries of people who do actual work (parasites and moochers) and not enrich the already wealthy (job creators). The LAST thing any Republican wants is the creation of decent paying jobs, as is evidenced by the last 32 years of Republicanism.
the Owner/President/Boss of VTEL is the guy who decided to move a few burrial sites so that he could improve the view from his new megamansion and didnt want the kids to have to look at the gravesite of some Vermont Veterans that were in a family plot a century or so ago….
The family member who objected, oddly enough relented after some persuasion….. no mention of cash… Another situation where the smell of fishes prevails…