Burlington City Council President Bill Keogh Thursday formed two special panels to look into various aspects of Burlington Telecom, the first step in trying to get a handle on how it came to be that the city loaned the fledgling utility as much as $17 million without explicit public knowledge.
That loan came without explicit approval from the city’s Board of Finance or the City Council, and because none of the money was repaid within 60 days it’s also a violation of BT’s certificate of public good.
Mayor Bob Kiss and Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold have said the loan was both appropriate and necessary. Leopold apologized to councilors last week for not being clear in his presentations that money from the city’s so-called “cash pool” was funding BT, and said it was a mistake to keep them in the dark about the CPG violation. Leopold said he first became aware of the violation in November, but didn’t disclose it to the council until May.
The panels were approved during a long and contentious council meeting that began Monday night and ended early Tuesday morning. Despite the acrimony over whether to put Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold on paid leave, the resolution calling for further investigation into how money was approved and spent on BT’s behalf passed unanimously.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2009.
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“That loan came without explicit approval from the city’s Board of Finance or the City Council, and because none of the money was repaid within 60 days it’s also a violation of BT’s certificate of public good.”Forget the CPG for a minute. The real violation is three-fold:A) the taxpayers and citizens of Burlington were sold on BT with the idea that this would not be taxpayer funded (long term…I understand the notion of float loans, lines of credit etc.)B) the city charter explicitly forbids the use of taxpayer funds for BTC) the public trust has been violated by not only the 2 vioations above but also by the fact that Leopold moved 17M clandestinely onto BT’s books (the audit, if done forensically, will show whether the 17M actually went to BT expenses). This is a high crime in my book. And I’m not even mentioning whether it makes sense to determine how a company such as BT can survive with 50 M in debt under the current management. Leopold has proven over 2 years that he is clearly not a good steward for BT. Is it too late?Leopold said in front of council the other night that the moeny was used for capital expenditures. What? First, define capital expenditures. This is a pretty exclusive category. They are not operational expenditures nor debt service expenditures. Okay so let’s have that audit. I hate to believe the worst about people, but in this case there’s all kinds of stink around this.
To burlap city officals:theres this funny thing called “Federal Law” itsgobbldee gook which 4 most part nobody understands(callme nobody thats Mr.Nobody2u)true story: ya know VPOUS Biden then senator Biden in 1988AKA gafr joe well he sponsored a bill: (cmchoatelaw.com)”…honest services fraud is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1346:…includes a scheme or artifice to deprive anotherof the intangible right of honest services..”joe sez:”..a new public corruption statute that will beused to bring charges against anyonewho attempts to deprive the citizens of the United Statesor of any State of the honest servicesof a public official,or against anyone who attempts to corruptthe election process..”all ye trekies out there in cyber space:PLESES send emails to:usavt.ContactUs1@usdoj.govAskDOJ@usdoj.govsenator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov ask the US attorney to get his grand jury ON!Theres no crisis until its time..prosecutor has ta wait until train wreckhits the fan& j q public feels facial do-dootherwise ya hav 1000 progs in the streetsflagellating thmselves(with ed flanagan)yelling“they’r killing jesus all ovr again”leoTheLyinStealr er leo the venture capitalist pighas whats calld in VC circles a burn rate 4 the $17Mas long as the 14 dwarfs& the bumblin staties look theothr way while sausage is being made he’s got 2-4 yrsof easy living dependin on how $17M ”loan” is srvc’dDPS is callin 4 repaymnt but they’d haf ta go c agavel banger(court) and play heavies but theres nobig payoff in that& the 14 dwarfs runnin round withthey’r rubbr axes er stamps (this being halloween)maya kissMaGrits threw watr on em& they’r melting(what do we need drawfs 4?)anyways if they burn an effigythey’r burning themselveshow much fun can that b?