Burlington City Councilor Karen Paul (D-Ward 6) announced on Thursday that she had quit her job so she could vote on the Burlington Telecom sale.
Paul, a staff accountant with the accounting firm McSoley McCoy & Co., announced the decision in an email to other councilors and Mayor Miro Weinberger. She resigned three days after she recused herself, citing a professional conflict, from Monday’s vote about BT’s future. Her recusal forced the council to reschedule a vote on a winning BT bidder — either the co-op Keep BT Local or Canadian company Tucows — until next Monday, November 6.
“This morning, effective tomorrow, I have resigned my position with my employer which was the source of that professional conflict,” Paul wrote in the email sent around 4 p.m. Thursday. “I intend to vote on the sale of BT assets on Monday evening.”
When Paul recused herself during Monday’s meeting, she said little about her conflict of interest. She did say it had come to light over the weekend and that the issue “has nothing whatsoever to do with the parties interested in purchasing Burlington Telecom.”
Paul was expected to cast her vote for the Toronto-based Tucows and was part of a contingent of five councilors that visited the company’s headquarters last Friday.
Councilors, too, were unsure about the nature of the conflict, council president Jane Knodell (P-Central District) said on Thursday morning, before the news had been released.
“It’s hard to know how serious the nature of the conflict is,” Knodell said. “The timing of the discovery of the conflict is hard for me to understand.”
According to Knodell, councilors are not required to specify what the conflict is in order to recuse themselves.
Later Thursday, it didn’t matter.
“After eight years of working to address Burlington Telecom’s challenges … I never imagined that I would find myself in a position where I would not be able to cast a vote on this most important decision,” Paul wrote in her email. “I have worked to identify ways to resolve the conflict and have determined that there is only one way I can resolve the conflict,” she said, referring to the resignation.
City attorney Eileen Blackwood “informed me that I may join the debate on this agenda item,” Paul added.
Mayor Miro Weinberger lauded her decision. “Karen is an extremely hardworking and devoted City Councilor,” Weinberger said in a written statement to Seven Days. “Her resignation shows just how committed she is to Burlington.”
Paul has worked at the accounting firm since January 2016, according to her bio on the company website. Partners at the company declined to comment. Paul did not respond to requests for comment.
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How conveen-ient…
Such great news to know the dedication of our city councilors. I pray they’ll vote for Ting so all Burlington taxpayers will be able to enjoy state of the art internet service. I’m so grateful to the mayor and council for bringing a huge mess to a wonderful conclusion. A vote for KBTL is a vote to kill BT and force taxpayers into funding huge lawsuits. It’s not local if I have no choice but Comcast. BT needs to serve all of Burlington! KBTL won’t and this taxpayer is tired of paying for internet I cannot have. Thank you to Karen Paul for choosing to put Burlington over her career!
She effectively mis-represented her constituents during all these months with her political power given to her by those living in Ward 6, and suddenly now she quits a job and everything is just fine? She should be brought up on an ethics charge and considered by her fellow councilors for a reprimand and possible removal from office. And if she votes for the monied interests, will there be a big financial bonus by these very interests to ‘further her career”?
Karen Paul obviously has another job already lined up, or at least in the offing. Her nobility (?) in quitting her job may endear her to some, but it smacks of political gamesmanship and suggests she may think this will boost her to higher office. She ought to think again. It looks like nothing more than grandstanding, and I’m only sad I don’t live in a place where I could vote against her. That’s okay. I have two targets in my own ward.
I applaud Karen Paul for recognizing a conflict and recusing herself, and then making a tough decision because she wants to continue to try to right BT. Public ownership alrwady robbed Burlington taxpayers of 17 million under Kiss. A 14% interestvrate sure points to a poor chance of success. But hey Barb and Mark are all for spending taxpayers money on a poor business plan. I for one am sick of paying for the mistakes and fiscally irresponsible decisions of others
@Barbara Alsop
“It looks like nothing more than grandstanding, and I’m only sad I don’t live in a place where I could vote against her.”
So buy a house in her ward and vote against her. Sounds pretty easy!
Democrats rigging system, (again.)
Down to Councilors Wright and Hartnett.
Think long term – Vote KBTL!
Councilor Paul’s supposed “resignation” may in fact be just temporary.
No notice?
Very strange.
Does she have another means of income?
If she had a job conflict, why was she so coy during her recusal? Why didn’t she simply say so from the start?
Councilor Dave Hartnett is right – she should have disclosed this alleged conflict a long time ago.
If she “just became aware of it,” as she claims, how did she so learn? Who brought it to her attention, and when?
So many questions, so few answers.
The history books will look kindly on the Councilor who went so far as to quit her job so that she could ensure the firesale of priceless infrastructure to a private bidder.
More and more everyday I wonder how I ever voted for a Dem, local or national. It seems that Dems only develop spines when it’s time to vote against the public interest. I can’t wait until March
@ BradD – most of us in Burlington would love to buy a house in Ward 6. But thanks to policies passed at a local and federal level by centrist Dems and their GOP allies, most of us will never be able to afford owning a home.
Lest anyone think Councilor Karen Saba will become destitute after quitting her job, rest easy.
Did I say Karen Saba?
For sure, she is married to big money, as in Mark Saba, who has his entrepreneurial fingers in several businesses.
In fact, she uses the surname Paul only for political purposes, apparently. For instance, she lists her name as Karen Paul Saba on the couple’s annual $21,762.56 property-tax bill. (Their house at 171 Crescent Road is assessed att $839,800.)
So shed no tears for Karen Saba. She will get along financially just fine, thank you, even for lack of a day job, so to speak.
The bigger question, perhaps, remains on the table: Why did Karen Saba renounce her voting interest in the local cable-TV brouhaha?
The answer?
She knows, if and when she decides to share it with the many taxpayers and voters in this city.
Did she quit so she can vote for Ting and kiss Miro’s ass?
I just keep coming back to the fact that after living and working in Burlington for 17 years, I can’t personally imagine having the financial resources to just up and quit any of my jobs (because even with a college degree I have to piece together multiple jobs to afford my less than extravagant lifestyle) for a conflict of interest at what is essentially a volunteer job. I have no idea what that kind of freedom would be like. Must be nice.
Thank you Councilor Paul. To all councilors: think long term. Vote Tucows.
Lets not get too distracted by the WTF-quality of Karen Paul’s actions. What is astonishing is that KBTL continues to be considered at all. The facts remain:
1. Of the eight bids received, the KBTL bid ranked 8th (worst) by City-appointed Advisory Board.
2. Financial review prepared by City-appointed CPA characterized Ting’s economic metrics as “strong” and KBTL as “weak”
3. $30.5MM Ting purchase offer optimizes City’s ability to recover payments to City taxpayers for past mismanagement. KTBL $12MM offer; not so much.
4. “Local” KBTL is highly leveraged, ironically relying on $10MM debt (at 14%!) to out-of-state entity.
5. Ting is a respected internet provider with 25 years of operational experience in various markets throughout US and Canada. KTBL has none.
6. Ting has offered the City a significant (up to 25%) equity stake in the operation; KBTL has offered 12.5%
7. Current BT management and staff unanimously support Ting proposal, not KBTL.
Against this backdrop, a few otherwise reasonable Councilors appear willing to suspend their intelligence and sound judgement and select KBTL. The big Q is why (to maintain Progressive “cred”; settle old political scores?). Simply supporting KTBL because it is the local option is just that: simple. Sounds like something Donald Trump might think up.
If council conflict rules allow nondisclosure of the interest, then council President Knodell should avail her constituents of its existence.
Knodell says the policy requires no additional transparency. If so, it’s a policy in name only.
Councilor Karen Paul Saba needs to disclose her conflict, second, explain why she quit her job, and third, why suddenly now she has no conflict after having been voting for years on issues governing the city’s cable-TV franchise.
Our friendly Ting CEO Elliot Noss (who appears to be a really nice guy) says “The Ting bid values Burlington Telecom nearly three times higher than the other offer. It puts misappropriated money back where it belongs.”
The first statement is approximately true, but the second sentence is not true. What our state auditor (not in exercising the duties of his office) suggested we NOT get “the impression that the City will get the difference in the top line of the bids. It would not. Instead, it would get only 25%, or $7 Million, minus expenses, period. That would in fact lock in a loss of $10 million.”
Taking the Ting bid will LOCK IN $10 Million loss of the infamous $17 Million from 2010. We take that Ting bid and we will get $7 million back, but we will never ever see that other $10 million come back and BT will be totally privately owned and that $10 million will be out of reach of recovery forever.
It has become a juicy asset, which is why Ting is willing to pay as much for it as they have. But if we keep it, if we keep it local, we can direct the blessings of this juicy asset toward the residents of Burlington rather than the shareholders and execs of Tucows
We took this hit. We took this $17 million beating. Let’s not discard the pain and investment we put into this venture together and give to an outside private concern all of this fiber-optic infrastructure that *we* built and lives above and below *our* streets. Let’s allow our descendants who remain in Burlington reap the benefit of this investment rather than give it to the shareholders of Tucows at a net and irrecoverable loss of $10 million to ourselves.
Either way, I support our councilors Ali Dieng and Dave Hartnett. And, while I am not Ward 4, I must also express appreciation to Kurt Wright.
all too often integrity of public service falls victim to short-sightedness and self-serving interests, it’s repulsive and sickening to see this egregious behavior unfold in our small city. burlington deserves better than this, we vote-out bad actors.
a public apology, and continued recusal from the BT proceedings would be a good start for council member karen.
do what’s right.
As of 1451 hours today, Karen Paul Saba’s Linked-In page shows she is still employed by the CPA firm she allegedly resigned from!
@Ted Cohen
As of 1451 hours today, Karen Paul Saba’s Linked-In page shows she is still employed by the CPA firm she allegedly resigned from!
From your way of thinking Bernie Sanders should be Bernie Sanders O’Meara!