evening everybody i think we are ready to get started and for those of you who do not know me my name is daniel burke and i'm an attorney at the department of public service and i will be representing the department in this case which involves a proposed transfer of all the assets that are currently oh and by  telecom to a company known as champlain broadband l l c which is a new company for those who are unaware the department of public service is an agency within the executive branch of state government our role is to represent the interests of rate payers in proceedings before the public utility commission the public utility commission is a separate agency and in regulated proceedings they act like the judge and the department of public service we act like attorneys and advocates on behalf of ratepayers we will be participating in this case we will have witnesses and we will ultimately be making recommendations as to whether or not this proposed transaction should be approved tonight the purpose of this meeting is twofold the first session which is starting now the information session is for us at the department of public service to answer any questions from members of the public that are procedural in nature or any information about what we do you how we get involved in cases or any information we can give you as members of the public and how you can have your voices heard or how you can participate in the proceedings before the public utility commission we are also hosting the joint petitioners in this case who are going to be making presentations to discuss what the actual transaction involves their representatives from the city of burlington who are going to give a brief presentation and then representatives from sure communications who is the parent company of champlain broadband l l c so you can use this opportunity to ask me any of the other staff in the department of public service we have carol and christine peterson from our consumer affairs director of consumer affairs division clay pete purvis who is our director of telecommunications and brian pretty who is in our finance division we are more than willing to discuss any aspect of this transaction with you and we are certainly help certainly bill will that help you walk through the process and procedures and proceedings before the public utility commission and if you have any questions on the substance of the transaction you should feel free to direct those directly to the petitioning parties they're here today to answer those questions  and then finally the second half of this meeting tonight will start at seven when the members of the public utility commission will be here the role for that or the purpose that meeting is for you to be able to voice your opinions directly to the public utility commission members themselves who ultimately will decide whether or not to approve this transaction your comments will not become part of the evidentiary record in the case but they will help us at the department form our review of how we're going to review this case and we'll help the public utility commission members understand any issues that have not been raised through testimony that's already been filed so thank you very much everyone for coming out it is very helpful from us at the department to hear from all of you miss flynt put together an information she that is sitting in the door in front of the door on a chair i would encourage you to take that before you go has helpful information and how you can file comments electronically either with us or the public utility commission and again if you have any questions feel free at this point you can ask us anything that you'd like when the public utility commission members are here they really because of their role as a judge in the case cannot answer a lot of substan questions so this is your opportunity to really kind of dive into any information you'd like to hear about the proposed transaction and now i think i'm going to ask mr phillips who's an attorney for the city to come into your presentation unless anybody has any immediate questions i have a short power point so it's ok i'll sit right here with the microphone well good evening and thanks everyone for coming out my name is paul phillips and i am outside regulatory counsel for the city of burlington doing business is brought into telecom in this proceeding and i am joined by my law partner ralph you meantime i just have a short review of the transaction for you and that's an important number because if you want to file any written comments with the commission you need to reference that number the joint petitioners are comprised of the sellers and the buyer the sellers are the city of burlington and bluewater holdings l l c and those two petitioners have been operating burlington telecom for the last several years the buyer is champ broadband l l c which is the vermont subsidiary of shuras communications as stan burke mentioned the department of public service is serving as a public advocate in this case representing the public a full three member public utility commission is hearing the case and they will be here later this evening at seven  owner and then we've asked the commission to authorize the city to exercise its rights under the asset purchase agreement to purchase a membership interest in champlain after the closing occurs so just a review a quick review of the city's existing certificates a public good and a sort of a certificate of public good is a an authorization from the public utility commission to operate a utility in the state of vermont back in two thousand and three the other is a c p g to operate a cable television system and that was renewed in last year in docket number eighty seven  that was issued jointly to the city and to bluewater holdings as part of this transaction the petitioners are asking for new c p g both in telecom and cable television to be issued to ship  plane the city also has an existing federal lifeline designation this is a designation that's issued under federal law by the state utility commission it was granted last year in p u c case number eighty service under the asset purchase agreement as i mentioned the city has a right to purchase membership interest in champlain his would be a post closing a vent it's expressly included as part of the a p a in section eight auto nine  it allows the city to purchase a minority interest in champlain broadband l l c what the a p a actually does is it caps that membership interest at thirty three percent on february twelfth two thousand and eighteen exploring that purchase right they have not yet defined what level of purchase would occur or when it would occur the city charter burlington requires the p u c to review any investment in a telecom or broadband venture and so part of the transaction that's before the p u c right now is a request for the p u c to make a finding under the city  charter the city is obviously supporting approval of the transaction we've asked for that to be done as quickly as possible so that the employees of brunton telekom don't have to work and live under the cloud of who's going to be in charge we think it's important for them to have certainty as quickly as possible with that it's important to note that this transaction satisfies both the terms of the mediated settle settlement agreement with citibank as well as the blue water management and sale agreement both of which were entered into with the city in two thousand and fourteen the transaction maximizes the city's portion of the sale proceeds and that's because the asset purchase agreement was signed before the end of this year and so the blue water management and remit required that in order to get the highest possible level of proceeds for the city champlain and you'll hear more about this in engine planes presentation will maintain all the existing local benefits of burlington telecom while allowing the new owner to make new investments in both the network and the services and again the transaction allows the city if it elects to after the closing to acquire i know minority ownership interest which can include up to two seats on cham process is also accepting written comments and titian to any oral comments that you might want to make tonight and there are three ways to do that one is by going to the commission's website which is up there you can also email the commission's clerk  or you can you snail mail and write directly to the commission in montpelier and again it's important to refer the by the refer to the case by its number so that they can properly file those comments comments to your heart's content and submit them and they will then go automatically to all the parties in the case so thank you again for coming out this is an exercise in democracy  europe you're exercising good citizenship by coming out tonight and i want to thank you for that i see that david provo has come into the room and so i would like to have david come up and if you can stand at the podium if you'd like and continue the city's presentation so thank you so good evening i'm david provo i'm the executive vice president of finance and administration at middlebury college and i'm currently the tab chair and have been sense the b tabs inception and prior to that excuse me i was chair of the blue ribbon commission so i'm going to take you back to two thousand and nine how i got involved i was working at champlain college at the time champlain college was a customer barone telecom probably one of its top three customers  and burlington telecom was a critical part of our infrastructure at champlain with programs in cyber security digital friends it's game in the requirement for high speed bandwidth and having a local on fiber company was a great asset to us so i was called at that time and distance of member two thousand and nine while the city was contemplating taking what was fifty one million dollars in total debt related to burlington telecom and refinancing it to sixty one million dollars and was asked to serve for three months to try to figure out what was going on the blue ribbon commission was formed at that time it was for public representatives volunteers to serve on this and three city councillors and so we set out our work in that three month period and we found due to zinn due from the financial statements of the city and burlington telecom and it was then identified that sixteen point nine million of taxpayer dollars had been used from the pooled cash fund to help with the expansion of brawn telecom so the blue ribbon commission was charged with recommending a path forward that recommended recommendation that came in and february of two thousand and ten to the city council suggested that the burlington telecom fiber system was a significant value to the citizens of burlington but at the time we could place nowhere near any value of the sixty one million that was being asked to leverage this asset so we had a recommendation that and at the time citibank was looming and wondering what the deal was on the appropriation of the payment to citibank so fast forward after the recommendation which was to figure out a way to find a partner or a buyer of burlington telecom to work to try to pay back the taxpayers as much as we could find and bring in an interim manager to run burlington telecom to maximize in really focus on increasing the people that were buying the services and over the last eight years that has happened the company remains very strong now subscripts of describers have increased every year during that period and we set out a course to be tab was formed which tending mal includes for city councillors  and five citizens and players have changed other than to city councillors and i are the only original ones that started this now almost what will be nine years ago in november and we began a process to establish criteria to find a buyer partner for bronson telecom that work including a lot of public forums and really soliciting the public on the criteria what was important telecom including sure's including seven others the b tab narrowed it down to five through the review of the proposals and we invited five firms to come in and make presentations in public for m and we then narrowed it down to three sure is ultimately was selected as what was recommended to the city council was a few buyers that could meet the criteria that we sent to city council this decision was ultimately the city council's decision and not be tabs city council did end up selecting on sure's based on our evaluation and our due diligence i and a few other team members did visit sure's out in the midwest and we visited one other of the finalists which was telling him we were in communications with b t l through that process we both from the original charger blue ribbon commission and the b tab feel we have found the right partner given sure's background and we're being in small communities family owned business we think it's a very good match for burlington to allow burlington telecom to continue and be the resource that we see the value in that is this fiber to the home grown sin was ahead of its time what we probably didn't do appropriately is the due diligence on the cost to pull that fiber to every residence but we have it and it's here and we wan capitalize and use that fiber to the home for the next few decades so finding a partner who has the financial capacity and the telecom experience was really critical to our criteria ideally we would have found a local owner that was the one criteria that we probably fell short on we felt sure came to the table with a proposal and a background that most of wind with what we were looking for so i wan just talk a little bit about the numbers so we owed fifty one million dollars sixteen point nine of the tax payers and thirty three point five million to citibank and we had less than four thousand customers that made me very nervous and i fear was that the exposure to the taxpayers would only grow so the workout was citibank of taking the thirty three and a half million and settling for significantly less and bringing in fossett allowed us the time to prop up their own telecom and get a fair value for it insurers and the other finalists gave us what made offers of what prone to telecoms is worth it  well short of the sixty one million that was contemplated back in two thousand and nine but it is what burlington telecom is worth today who could ever get to that value if burlington had not been in the position where it had was forced to do this by by the citibank agreement possibly but we're not in a position we weren't in a position in this last eight years to gauge and make that make that decision so we were searching someone who would pay that value would pay a fair value would align well with their criteria and what the mission of bronson telecom is and represents to its businesses and it says citizens and it residents and we believe we found the right partner i know there's been a lot of discussion about but david the deal that you're proposing doesn't fulfill the goal of returning the sixteen point nine million dollars to the taxpayers  and they can't and that would have to be a number in the sixty millions to be able to achieve that and it's time that we move to the next chapter burlington telecom with this right partner who does  align well with with what we think in view is burlington telecom in the value we believe the work of the b tab in the work of the city council and the team at brawn to telecom prevented the tax payers liability from growing from sixteen point nine to a number much larger if we had to settle with citibank at thirty three and a half million that would have been catastrophic to burlington and its citizens so i'll stop there as i like i said i've been involved in this eight going on nine years so i am available for questions through this process and would be glad to entertain i've committed to to the city that as long as i'm in vermont i'm committed to seeing this thing through and right now i'm in vermont just a little further south than in addison county thanks yeah yeah let me let me begin that a lot of what you'll be seeing in the slide deck is consistent with the testimony we filed with p c as well as the b ten criterion if you go to the burlington telecom site there is a there's a lot in there about the sales their commitments to public good which is to multiple stakeholders really what we want to do is we want to keep the best of the local burlington telecom and then provide the assets and the expertise and really the collaboration of a larger group that is the way we like to work alignment of vision and values by multiple stakeholders financial strength will cover and the other key elements of the petition next like chris so how do we get interested in burlington consulting for bt highlight the reached out to us and said we think you might be interested in bt and they're about to start a process we've long admired hiwatt that and actually in the middle of this process ended up acquiring them and we think it's that we're actually enhance the value of bt we look we look at that we are impressed by the staff were impressed by the technology we're impressed by the community there's passion around burlington telecom and we think that is a very good think we think the local brand name has tremendous goodwill and so we as we look to more into this we liked it and we think the public private partnership with the city we found that to be very attractive as well and let me just  last cold point we know that there's much that we can learn from burlington telecom and so we're looking forward to that we also think there are things that building to telecom can learn from our other local operation so we see this as mutually beneficial excellent so here are the commitments and we've got a number of these sites so we commit to operate burlington telecom as a turnkey business will utilize and build upon the technical technology infrastructure and to provide  high quality cable television telecommunications internet services as well as p g access we've made a commitment told employees that we want them to continue with the company that we  make commitments to customer service in the area it will also provide affordable broadband internet access including edge and net and internet essential is to decrease the digital divide and then we're also asking or last couple trips for me to meet with those stakeholders and we have great conversations and these are the commitments that bt has made to those groups and the existing c p g and we have basically said we will honor and continue all those commitments and our application next one we're also committed to sixteen months of no rate increase for broadband service that was a question that came up in the process and we made that commitment happy to do it we're also looking to expand and launch more advanced services i specifically mentioned the home life i experience what we find in all of our companies is there are many more devices now attached to the internet and the national average is about twelve to fourteen you can count on your i had own head what it is in your household and this is a key issue across the industry and we were looking a lot of things week because we want to make certain that that is fairly addressed and we've given the city an option to purchase up to a third membership interest with the right to appoint one to two board members depending on the amount of interest that the city chooses to purchase and we will fully support them that new prout net neutrality principles of transparency not discriminate nondiscrimination and no blocking of internet services are paid prioritization let's do the next one so let me tell you who is this company that champlain is going to be a part of because we haven't had a  lot to do it and those are the four operating and indies that we have today and the different communities and locations where we are today and let's do the next slide two and you can see that with seven hundred fifty thousand homes passed seventy one thousand high data customers fifty five thousand video voices thirty five thousand you can see the customer relationships and of plants and fiber so we have some expertise in the organization and our companies collaborate a great deal so the decision making will be here but they all have access to this expertise and that's really what our goal is and if i could just summarize what we're really trying to do is let's combine the best of the local and the best of these shared resources to provide the best for the customers and community so that's really the committee we have a decentralized management and local decision making is a key value and i will run through the company's value shortly  great reputation for service we don't want to lose that and so we've made some commitments to to continue things as they are as well as to look at ways to enhance that and so that is what we're trying to do we've made a commitment team and the bt team they've already started conversations and they've been constructive and we're delighted by that and will retain the name burlington telecom let me just stop and say none of our local companies has the corporate name and that's because not because we're saying to the corporate name that's because we believe in the primacy of the local brands and add to best serve customers that's in the next so quick history of the company website is fairly dry  not going to go through all that but we begin in one thousand and seventy two with a newspaper in south bend indiana those are the two brothers in law who are the original entrepreneurs and then we got into radio when radio began in television when it began and we've been in broadband and cable for bet fifty years what's not on the side as we actually built the original system in south bend indiana so we've been around this for a long time in twenty fifteen twenty sixteen we sold  got out of the broadcasting industry we didn't like what was going it was hard for a company our size to do the things that we wanted to do and we said we're going to spend more time in broadband and really are committed there today we still own ten daily and six weekly papers so we're still in publishing and content creation would have probably been systems in four markets a hybrid cloud services provider and multiple digital properties so we have a very broad view on media and telecommunications as a result of that and we're still a family business so i'm fifth generation the business we have for three members of the fourth star and members of the sixth generation engaged so it is still a family business from the heirs of those two guys and that  and kind of that's what we look like today as we've grown and we're still privately held in a family business and i want to talk a bit if there's a place for public companies it's very important there's a place for private equity that's very important we're family business and it operates a little differently and when we talk about maximizing value we use the word maximizing pal use because there's multiple things that we want to  do and so i'll get to the values later and the mission there is really all about next generation and it's not just next generation of owners it's customers it's employees it's communities so it's melty stakeholder and multigenerational by its very nature and we have we're patient capital with a long term investment horizon what does that mean for local management it means that there's less pressure on a quarterly basis i don't have to do earnings calls and things of that nature and they also have more access to top leadership so that's kind of how i would describe that so here's a company vision statement i'm not going to spend a lot of time there since i can spend let's go next one this if i have to spend a slide this is what we really care about and our company we talk a lot about the values the employees know that they can hold me accountable to their values and these are the things we're trying to do and stay true to  within the organization and everything we do and so let me go to the second from the bottom are richer in journalism so where now business is other than journalism but the values of integrity and honesty everything goes the next two days focus on the employees and what kind of environment we want to provide provide for them i think we want to be you could corporate citizen we that's one of our core values and we tried to do that in all of our communities and we know that hard for us to thrive as a company in a community that's struggling so we want to have shared success how do we work together we help each other out we hold each other mutually countable we collaborate and we think many decisions are made best when made closest before the offer for bt is no financing contingencies we are over seventy five million in capital available so we are ready as soon as that regulatory approval is done we are ready to complete the transaction  of this city as part of this process had an independent c p a assess the number the bidders and they found us to be a very strong financial organization and we provided a three year historical as well as at eleven your projection to the p c and are in a sound financial position to fulfill all of the financial commitments that we've made next one how are we doing on time yeah let me just say that the  elements which were also there be to have criteria this document become public and we have slides that really address all of those more specifically the ones that are really here let's go to last li and we try to address those in summary that's that's a good life flight let's start there we meet all the criteria sought by the city bt will join a larger localized and family owned business with fifty years operating experience in these industries bt will make closely affiliated with h b c and i think that that will be very important as we finish the bill but in burlington in the next year or two as well as come up with solutions to meet the people words more difficult to reach them we are firmly committed to net neutrality and support the local public access elements really there was the original vision of bt and as we got into this process we like that original vision very much and so our goal is to finish that the finish the bt build in burlington by twenty nineteen or below cle based company with the local employees local decision making and we have a financial resources to make certain that bt meets its commitment i'm going to stop there and let that set and we'll provide the deck in public but i think now's a good time for q and a is that so for those of you showed up during this presentation i'm dan barrack an attorney from the department of public service this point i'd like to open this session up to questions either for me or any of the presenters from the city or shuras communications and if you have any questions i'd ask that you cannot see the table to the microphone c c t v is currently broadcasting this live so if you're up here anyone who's watching at home would be able to hear your question and responses we might anybody would like to ask a question or feel free to come on alluded to the pressure that the they were under with the city to sell between you talked about the recent sale process and the seven or eight bidders but you didn't talk at all about where the ted fit into the selection of blue water and that's really rather here that's the pressure when if you do you sort of skip that piece of the history when if you talk about that a little bit yeah so upon the recommendation from the blue ribbon commission to really  pieces to one find a partner and to bring in someone who could stabilize beattie and manage it for some period of time while we did that search for the partner as we came out of that process and started having the city start having conversations with citibank it was clear that we needed a interim solution to help finance and bridge the financing from the time of settling with citibank into where we are today finding a partner in its shores so we had conversations with two maybe three through doormen and fossett who was the chosen group to help us navigate through this be tab reviewed those choices and what the deals would  be blue rider was chosen at the time because it was it was believed to be the best deal compared to the other bridge financer is that we met with so that was how the process and city council ultimately chose made that selection of bluewater and that agreement bt plus whatever the city holds well we've done with zero f as we have a partnership on the community investments and the technology and the entrepreneurial ecosystem and th commitments and the job training so that's really c r s position but in terms of being an equity holder they do not have any equity they will not have any equity in bt and i would just clarify that z r aff was one of the other potential bidders of the eight that i mentioned earlier point five or the four point five million dollars come from i i have that answer not in front of me but i can get that information i don't want to miss speak to the actual and i would just act mr good kind of that you're a party in the case and so it's adjudicated proceeding before the public utility commission and then you'll have an opportunity further on in the case to make formal discovery requests and get answers under oath from the parties so that that might be a better way to to answer that question are you all able to provide this line sir thank you everybody on the commission staff should be here within the next few minutes and there will be an opportunity for anybody to make comments directly to them about their opinions on this  transaction and one thing i do want to address because you before we go i know there is mr philips just mentioned party status in the case if you would like to be participating in this case as a party meaning that you would have the opportunity to present testimony cross examine witnesses you will need to file a motion to intervene in the deadline to file those as a week from today otherwise the other option participate is been discussed already feel free to file public comments i would encourage you to learn to use the eco system and file and  participating sees the comments also if you want to follow what is going on in the case you can sign up for the e book system you can track this case to any vehicle filings that are made you'll get an e mail and they're made and you'll be able to download any of the filings and you tend to commission issues an order which they did today you'll get an instant notification when that order is out so you'll be able to follow the case in real time if you have any questions about how to use the system you can feel free to contact me my information is available on our website carol flanges from our consumer affairs division and she also has a lot of experience helping customers through a system through all of our utility systems including the system so here is a great resource if you have any questions and do not hesitate to get in touch with me or other departments so again thank you  coming out tonight it's helpful for us to hear from all of you i think the commission staff here so all but them know that we're done good evening welcome this is a public hearing in case number eighteen dash is zero for nine one day p t which is the for approval for approval pursuant to thirty sections one zero nine two thirty one and five zero four and forty seven us c section t fourteen he and section four thirty eight c one of the city of burlington charter of a transaction in which champlain broadband proposes to acquire burlington telecom assets and they'll be a test later if you can read back the title of this case my name is anthony reisman and i am chair of the vermont public utility commission with me today our commissioners margaret cine on my right and sarah huffman as well as members of the commission staff there also representatives of the joint petitioners here as well as representatives from the vermont department of public service they conducted an information session just prior to this public hearing and are available for questions late breaking news this afternoon the commission granted the petition to intervene filed by sandra baird jared carter dean corps stephen good kind solve a over b and shape so they are now parties to this proceeding tonight's hearing is for the purpose of non parties to raise issues that you would like the commission to consider in the course of making its decision in this case we want to make sure that any member of the public who has something to say has an opportunity to say it to see vinnie and these public comments do not become part of the formal evidence in this case but they're helpful in raising new issues or perspectives that the commission should consider this hearing is being transcribed by court reporter and it will be available when we get the transcript on the electronic database maintained by the commission called e p u c it's the commission's electronic case management system we've passed out information to all of you that describes how you can participate in this proceeding by watching through e p you see every piece of paper that's filed by any party in the proceeding copies of transcripts of this proceeding and of any hearings that are held in this case if you wish to speak please write your name on one of the sign up sheets that circulating around the room this will assist the court reporter with the correct spelling of your name and to help make the process more orderly today's hearing is not the only opportunity to submit comments you can provide written comments using  by mail or e mail to the commission at our offices and montpelier the contact information is also provided on the handout available to you please reference the number of the case eighteen dash zero four nine one dash p e t you need not repeat the full title of the case in addition to submitting public comments certain persons may wish to intervene in this case so that they may participate as formal parties and as i mentioned at the outset a number of individuals working together as a group have petitioned to intervene and their intervention has been approved but further petitions to intervene may be filed with the commission and the procedures for doing that are also set out in the commission's website where you can go to get information or even call the commission's office the deadline for filing petitions dinner being is made the sixteenth at four thirty in the afternoon and you can file that in paper or if you prefer and we do prefer you can use the e c system to file electronically if you use that electronic system it automatically takes care of providing notice of any piece of paper that you file in the case to all the other parties in th case and you don't have to make a service of them through the mails or email the procedural schedule for this investigation is printed on the back of the commissions handout that is a tentative schedule that we have set based upon the participation so far of the parties and and proposed parties that appeared at a pre hearing conference that we held several weeks ago that schedule might be changed based upon him put from others or new petitions to intervene or both over the course of this investigation the commission made directed petitioners to perspire to respond to the issues that you raise at this hearing at various points in this proceeding the commission will also ask questions that may be based on your comments when the commission rules on whether to approve the proposed transaction we will issue a written opinion that addresses the issues raised by the public and that explains the basis for the commission's ruling will now open the florida public comment if you would like to speak please step forward to this microphone and i'm in order that you will be recorded properly you should speak close to the microphone here all right and we have two names already we do have two names already but if you'd like to sign up elizabeth schilling over here has a clipboard that you can sign on all right so barbara is that why ross we're both ok thank you very much burlington telecom is really a part of the wealth of this city and to ignore that is to be a deficit to our city we'll lose it i have just moved about a week ago and i had burlington telecom for a year i was very happy with it and i wanted it to stay that way and i know that it won't if a corporation takes over because i've seen it many times over the many years for example i just called up comcast to try and get a land foam and whoever answered it said oh yes we have that it's  flirtin dollars a month and i said fourteen dollars and she said i'll never wait a minute because i have to ask something from someone here so she's gone for quite a while comes back and says oh i'm terribly sorry but i quit wearing it's forty fella dollars a month and i said ok the way i explained it be fair or is this the same as my explanation oh sorry wait a minute i have to speak to someone else then she comes back and she says well it takes a member to do that and there will be forty four dollars plus ten dollars a month plus taxes and elementals to seventy two dollars a month and so this was not the first person i spoke to because  didn't know too much about technology it because i was a askin for a land farm and so this is the response i got then i called another consolidated which is going to be down the street here i couldn't even get through the doors were locked so i couldn't go over and present myself personally and then when i finally did they had no such thing so anyhow and i even said well this happening here in burlington where we had something that was really good i'd like to see it come back and to have it as a co op so that we can all have a chance for something good and they simply will have someone their wealth back by that thank you very much thank you our next speaker is stuart hi i'm a resident of burlington i am a customer burlington telecom the only thing that i would love to see is a current set of financial statements of burlington telecom that has seemed like nobody can really has seen what the earnings are what the power  or what the financial condition of the company is the other thing is it would be great if in looking at this you take a look at the value of burlington telecom relative to the rest of the market value of a comparable company today and also consider what's happening today and what its future value could really be because it is an incredible asset and it is great to keep it in this city and then there is the issue of net neutrality and i think that this city of burlington certainly cares any normal amount about keeping its ends so that's my only request as you go through this process thank you thank you next fish dollar figure that needs to come back to the citizens of paramount or i'm also a burlington telecom customer highly satisfied when you call them up with any complaint or anything that needs fixing they have answers right away there is a to reach and i've been quite impressed with them i also am concerned about utilities becoming monopolized across the united states that's happening everywhere there are bigger and bigger companies and we have a general right here and bro and we have a real two we own our own telephone company an internet company and to let that go for a song is a shame we need to keep growing to telecom local thank you very much n the burlington community ownership of burlington telecom that i do with the co op bowing to electric department local control was really important and i agree with the previous speaker terms of being concerned about the combining of companies a concern me a little bit with a presentation earlier that while they say they are local they like to work with local companies and keep the local names well that's been the shell game for many years in terms of companies you know having one name big company and all these other small names to find out belong to the same monopoly so i think i'm very upset that my ownership was given away and i didn't have a say thank you to have any other people who would like to speak to people just scream in which you just check and see if either of them want to speak have been a resident of burlington since two thousand and two and a burlington telecom customer for as long as i been able to i just wanted to say that when i talk to friends and family members and people about the benefits of living in burlington i do i say you know the lake is beautiful the mountains it's beautiful it's walkable it's wonderful but one of the top things i mention is how lucky we are we were i suppose to have a m telecom and people loved ones and friends and family from other places are astonished that we have or had a local broadband company and didn't have to deal with a do awfully or terrible customer service from a giant company and i'm going to mourn the loss and it really does feel like a fundamental law and i wish that there was something we could do to keep it local to keep in useful telecom and if not get real lasting assurances that principles like net neutrality will be will be preserved i've read a number of number of what comes to mind as an op ed written by i don't know exactly the official it in concord massachusetts speaking about how the best bowl work to preserve net neutrality is local ownership and municipal telecom and i when i read that i really did mourn because that is something that burlington has and not many places do and really is a fundamental benefit to living here and i just i don't know if anything can be done to preserve battling telecom of that is and if there is anything that can be done i would just love to see some assurance that the values the municipal telecom are still held going forward in whatever form this takes but i really am in mourning for the loss of the municipal telecom that has been wonderful i think to the citizens of thank you for this opportunity to speak before you i think that i was one of the very first subscribers to burlington telecom and our part of the city and we eagerly waited for the fiber to come down our street and and once fiber was installed we slowly became prouder and prouder that burlington had its own telecom company we have an electric department why shouldn't we have local telecom services and and so it was later a shock when the city council made the decision that it did it didn't seem to be a very well motivated or even proper decision to be sort of made behind or of side or something of that sort and so and what led up to that i found very disturbing that people were talking about cooperatives as being unreliable and that if it didn't fall into the hands of a for profit company perhaps the city would be sued and all sorts of stuff like that was floating around it seemed to me from reading the press at the time of the decision i would hope that the public service board would be very judicious in defending the idea that vermont residents should have the prerogative to to configure their affairs with utilities with local utilities other towns have local utilities why shouldn't burlington have a local utility i strongly urge you to make that kind of the situation and to help prepa it in my mind from reading the press was a bit of flawed process that got us to this point thank you thank you do you have anybody else who'd like to speak thank you all very much for coming and for the comments that you have made this evening as i mentioned at the outset the comments that you've made will be factored into the issues that the commission explores they will be addressed in any final decision that the commission makes we may pose questions to the petitioners in this proceeding to ask them to address the concerns that you've raised we take the public's point of view very seriously we we put great emphasis on the first name of our organisation public utility commission and so we will take everything that you've said to us very much to heart there will be a summary of your comments that will be posted on our website shortly that you can and that you can see and show to others and as i mentioned at the outset if you have additional comments you we're still welcome to provide those comments to us in writing either by mail email or using the  just mind you that all of the details on how to do that are on that sheet that andrea p d has over there and andrea does that also have the remaining of the remaining steps in this case yes the schedule is on well thank you again we will have hearings in this case as you will see on the schedule and you're welcome to come to those hearings thank you to this public hearing is a