Provo's Decision Tonight
Tonight, Provo’s Municipal Council will likely make a decision on the proposal from Veracity to float part of the bond payment for upwards of 10 years. I’m not going to delude myself or any of you: the meeting and vote is mere formality. The Council will, amidst some grumbling, approve the proposal. Steve Turley will vote against it knowing it will pass so if something goes wrong later, he can wash his hands of any responsibility. (Prudent politics, Steve, but how about owning something for a change?) Given the options that have been presented by the mayor, I don’t know that the municipal council is being given much of a choice.
Yes, there are options. Provo could take the network back with many different avenues for running it differently. That said, there exists no political willpower or stomach for doing so. If Provo doesn’t have its heart into running the network, it will be at least as badly mismanaged as it was before if not worse. They’re still in “run and hide” mode, willing to accept any moderately reasonable deal to keep the thing away from the city.
Several companies have expressed to me an interest in participating in an RFP process for the network. Provided that such an RFP process leaves enough time for companies to submit applications and the city to review them before having to make a “do or die” decision regarding Broadweave, it should be encouraged and acted upon to make sure that the Council is truly evaluating all of the possibilities before them. There’s nothing to lose by asking for more options.
Even with options other than approving the sale, I don’t think the council is going to consider them. Veracity has thrown Provo a decent pitch with a decent chance of success and this Council has already shown a tendency to vote with the mayor. (Despite their recent pushback, I doubt there will be any serious resistance.) Unless another party comes along with a better concrete proposal, it would appear that the best choice is what the council was going to do anyway. How’s that for the world’s most tepid and lame endorsement?
Delayed: Provo Punts For Now
Just a head’s up that Provo’s Municipal Council had to delay the vote and discussion on the proposal from Veracity and Broadweave until another day. Some of the language in the final resolution needed a bit of tweaking and I’m sure it didn’t help that a council member was absent. I’ll be sure to let you know when it gets rescheduled.
UTOPIA Open House in Layton, March 17
According to a flyer that a friend of mine received, Layton Mayor Steve Curtis and UTOPIA will be holding an Open House Tuesday, March 17th 2009 from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. Layton Mayor Steve Curtis and UTOPIA CEO Todd Marriott will be making brief comments at 11:00 AM. This open house will be held at the “Woody” Woodland Park, 1505 North 25 East, in Layton Utah.
Update: Just got ahold of this flyer, and it says “Please join us in welcoming UTOPIA to Layton. Come see the UTOPIA Mobile Command Center and enjoy a live demonstration of the incredible capabilities of the UTOPIA Network”.
Liveblogging the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee: Feburary 20, 2009
As I normally do when attending government meetings, I’ll be liveblogging the entire affair. Today the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee will be considering SB205, a bill that makes modifications to redevelopment agency funds.
Upon a closer examination, it looks like it will do two things that can affect UTOPIA: network infrastructure can only be paid for via RDA through tax expendetures and not by bonding and the infrastructure must remain open to any service provider’s use. I disagree that it is necessary to take away the ability of the city to bond RDA funds for such projects (especially since they are very capital-intensive) and the “open” provision might be interpreted to mean that services such as transparent LAN can be provided directly by the city as wholesale transport. Obviously these changes can be quite troublesome. I’m going to speak against both changes and voice my concerns when the time presents itself.
Keep on refreshing as the meeting begins to see what’s going on.
3:00PM Movement to pass with favorable recommendation has passed unanimously with the note that the bill will be amended. The meeting is now adjourned. I’ll keep an eye on the amendments.
2:51PM UTOPIA cities are working on some amendments to improve the language in the bill. This may not be as bad as initially thought.
2:41PM Yeah, this is a direct response to Centerville. Sen. Bramble is concerned that RDA funds could be used to pay off UTOPIA’s bond debt. That’s why they’re looking at closing the bonding option for telecommunications.
2:38PM Sen. Bramble is taking the floor to discuss SB205.
2:28PM Sen. Bramble has arrived. I still don’t see any Qwest or Comcast reps that I recognize.
2:27PM SB205 isn’t going first as originally planned since Sen. Bramble isn’t here yet. Instead, we get to hear about uniform fees on canoes. This is the kind of legislative stuff that’s good for a nap.
2:25PM Looks like we’re up to 5 senators. With a quorum established, they can finally get started.
2:22PM Re-ordered so that the latest updates are at the top. Don’t know why I was doing it the other way.
2:20PM Looks like the committee chair got tired of waiting. He just left to go find some of the other senators that should be here right now.
2:18PM Okay, I know Senators are busy. But, seriously, it’s almost 20 minutes past when this was supposed to get started. And I’m here on my own dime.
2:07PM I still don’t see any of the usual suspects from Qwest or Comcast here today. It’s entirely possible they don’t yet have a hand in it. If we stay on the down-low, it may stay that way.
2:01PM As with most committee meetings, this one is going to start late. Looks like there’s still at least 3 members not here yet including Sen. Bramble and Sen. Stephenson.
1:55PM It’s still a pretty empty meeting room. I’ll bet the Senate has been pretty busy with today’s media circus. I’ve also heard that the bill is likely to be modified.
UTOPIA Open House in Brigham City This Friday
UTOPIA will be holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house this Friday February 20th to officially open Brigham City. The event will take place from 1PM to 3:30PM at 100 N 600 W. The rumor mill says that a new provider may be announced at this meeting.
Centerville to Vote on RDA Funds for UTOPIA Tonight
The Centerville city council will vote tonight on using RDA funds to spur UTOPIA construction in business areas. The meeting is at 8:30PM at 250 North Main St. Qwest is still rattling its saber on this one, so having supporters present is going to be really important.
U-CAN Meeting for November
The U-CAN Meeting for November will be held at the Ruth Vine Tyler Library (8042 Wood St. in Midvale) on Tuesday November 25 at 7:30PM. We’ll be discussing the new service providers, FuzeCore and Fibernet, as well as some of the new pricing models used in Tremonton.
Liveblogging: UTOPIA Board Meeting, October 27, 2008
This is a liveblog of the UTOPIA Board Meeting on October 27, 2008.
10:43AM The meeting is now adjourned.
10:42AM Sorry about the hiccup. Looks like my hosting company had to do another emergency reboot.
10:36AM UTOPIA is also working with RUS and has finally been able to open a dialog. The head-end is also nearing completion and there was mention of video production services. Could this mean that public access is in the works like on iProvo?
10:33AM The plan is still to bring in business providers and more business accounts.
10:29AM Todd Marriot is delivering an update on the network status. They plan to have 4-5 new triple-play providers Real Soon Now™ and are still working with Tetratech and PacketFront. They’ve also been doing upgrades to the core to make it “carrier class”. The current plan, however, is unwritten. As I’ve found on my own, they have been visiting city councils to give them updates and have been doing so in groups of two to avoid having to make them open meetings.
10:26AM The motion to create Finance, Construction and Membership committees carried.
10:23AM The topic at hand is the lack of data available to evaluate. Marriott’s position is that they still need to carefully guard a lot of data. Amazingly enough, he had a meeting with Royce Van Tassell and the UTA now supports UTOPIA’s success as best for the taxpayers. It’s good to heard that UTOPIA is working with one-time rivals to bring good ideas in-house.
10:21AM Todd Marriott is now presenting an update on UTOPIA’s status.
10:20AM The motion carried for reform the executive committee without Centerville.
10:19AM Paul Cutler has asked that Centerville remain on the executive committee since they would normally have another year of service. Brent Grotegut of Payson has spoken strongly against this as he believes the current executive committee membership is responsible for the problems UTOPIA has experienced.
10:18AM The executive committee has also been reorganized, but I’ve had a hard time following just who was asked to fill which positions. Hopefully those changes will be posted on the website along with the meeting minutes. Reps from Layton, Tremonton, Orem, and Brigham City will all be part of the committee.
10:13AM Kane Loader of Midvale has been elected as the new chairman of the board. He replaces Alex Jensen of Layton.
10:12AM The meeting is getting underway now.
10:10AM Unsurprisingly, reps from Comcast, Qwest and the Utah Taxpayers Association are on-hand to see things unwind. Steve Oberbeck from the Salt Lake Tribune also came into the room.
10:01AM Looks like we’re starting a bit late today. I’ve already noticed that several of the board members have changed including the reps from Murray (who is now Jeff Dredge) and Centerville (who is now Blaine Lutz).
UTOPIA Update Planned in Centerville
The City of Centerville has posted a memo on their website that they expect an update from UTOPIA Executive Director Todd Marriot at the city council meeting on November 5. Council meetings are typically held at 7PM in the city council chambers at 250 N Main St. Anyone looking to glean some more information on what UTOPIA is up to should be at this meeting.
(And UTOPIA guys? Hook me up with your meeting schedule so that curious supporters like me know in advance. I stumbled across this while looking for something unrelated. Seriously.)
UTOPIA Board Meeting Moved to October 27
The next UTOPIA board meeting will be held Monday October 27 at 10AM. The address is 60 E S Temple, Suite 1800 in Salt Lake City. Hopefully we’ll find out some more details there.