City officials have called two special meetings in the next two weeks to discuss the ongoing financial issues at Burlington Telecom.

They are also taking issue with comments made this week by Department of Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien about BT’s viability and use of city pooled cash to fund its operations.

As first noted in “Fair Game” three weeks ago, BT is violating two key conditions in its certificate of public good. First, it hasn’t completed wiring the city so all residents have a chance to buy the service; and secondly Burlington has essentially loaned BT $17 million from the city checkbook. Under its CPG, Burlington Telecom is supposed to repay any borrowed money from the city within 60 days.

BT has been borrowing the money, without repaying it, since early 2008.

City Council President Bill Keogh told Seven Days that the forums are meant to both give councilors a better understanding of how to proceed, and to give the public a chance to weigh in on the controversial topic.

Mayor Bob Kiss has called a special meeting of the Burlington City Council. It will take place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in City Hall’s Contois Auditorium. The second meeting will take place 7 p.m. on Oct. 22 in Contois Auditorium and has been called by the city council.

This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2009.

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Shay Totten wrote "Fair Game," a weekly political column, from April 2008-December 2011.

5 replies on “City to Host Special Meetings on Burlington Telecom”

  1. Go, O’Brien, go. King Leopold and his assistant Bob Kiss knowingly broke the law. Blatantly. And hid it. They should be removed from office.

  3. Nice deflection there, OFGS. Are you saying Kiss’s administration didn’t knowingly violate the terms of BT’s permit and illegally use $17 million of Burlington taxpayer funds on BT (which there’s a possibility some or all of which might never get paid back)?Either Kiss knew about it, and therefore either participated in or condoned illegal activity. Or he doesn’t know what’s going on in his own office, which is incompetence and negligence.Which is it?This isn’t fixing a $10 parking ticket, my friend. This is $17 million worth of illegal activity.

  4. started with 34 g to wayne gross and now it grows to 17 m for b telecom. the kiss administration is more negligent than the nixon administration. sounds like kiss has agnew in charge of finances. kiss and leopold must go and now.

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