good how are you sure please please join us in the pledge allegiance so this is a continuation of the adjourned session from monday october thirtieth and this time i seek to participate in the debate and i am going to pass the gavel to keelson right for the remainder of this item and president of del so as we remember from the last me i think pretty much everybody was here that we recessed the previous meeting in a way that we were going to begin right up where we left off in terms of the debate so we have a resolution in front of us in terms of the voting method but i will recognize cancer tracy have a point of order  established that they had accounts a conflict of interest and now say that the conflict of interest has been resolved and we still don't as far as i know have a full explanation of what the conflict of interest was and that would seem to be crucial to understanding how if and how it has been resolved and so i'm wondering if we might be able to get a further clarity on not only that but then also the legal framework that allows a counselor who's declared a conflict of interest at the beginning of an item to enter in because i've received some vermont statute that really talks about the grounds for recusal but it doesn't establish a path back into debate were there to be you know a resolution of that conflict attorney black would thank you so when a counselor declares a conflict of interest all they have to do is declare to you a conflict of interest and the way that the city council generally works when we've dealt with conflict of interest before is that they talk to me about what the conflict of interest is because they have an attorney client privilege with me and can reveal information but i can't reveal to you necessarily to the rest of you all of the information that i know but i do look at it and say and and help them determine do they have a conflict of interest or do not and in this situation i did look and talk to the counselor and determine that yes there was a conflict of interest that was legitimate and that the counselor needed she has now resigned her position once once the conflict of interest goes away the conflict of interest has gone away and the counselor is free to to engage in whatever proceedings then occur from then on so that's  situation that we have right now may just ask counselor counselor paul or counselor block would be willing to clarify what exactly the conflict of interest was and how it's been  resolved i've i've told you what i can tell you which is it's a professional con conflict that was connected with her job and that she is resolved by no longer being employed at her job which would counsel paul care to offer any explanation as to the nature of the conflict ok thank you all right thank you so next up we have the resolution council needs to vote on it that deals with the voting method and the crux of the resolution is basically that we have two finalists not to read the whole resolution when it's on board and actually let me go to present a dell yes thank you acting president right i would move adoption of the resolution really or attorney i do think that you actually technically have on your agenda first the a pending motion to postpone to a date certain that you need to do something with either amend or resolve in one way or another apologize for interrupting so recognize you for that so i think that if just the floor is open on the motion to postpone and i would argue that this was a reconsider ation just remind the council that we we successfully voted to reconsider we consider that that succeeded and then we immediately went to adjourn or to recess the meeting and to resume tonight  but the motion to postpone has not been dealt with so we are back on the motion to postpone and we know from previous meeting so i would vote against a motion postpone so that we can proceed with the voting tonight any further discussion on that all right all in favor of voting to postpone please raise your hand and all those opposed raise your hand so we have disposed of that ok and now i will go back to present  o'dell for the next motion that's great so we made a unanimous decision that just and that was good yeah ok maybe the maybe maybe the idea the last one tonight so i would move adoption now of the resolution relating to adopting a council voting process for choosing bt the bt buyer looking for a second culture of seconds thank you so i just like to to i think read into the record the steps of the process that we've laid out and the purpose of this is just so we all know how it's going to unfold unlike one the president or acting president of city council will present to the council the question of whether it should authorize the mayor to sign the letter of intent with k b t l or with teaching each city council or will vote for one or the other bitter consistent with section seven of the council rules which requires each councillor to cast a vote on each motion unless that council has a conflict of interest three if one or the other bidder receives the majority of votes cast the president will declare that the council has authorized the mayor to sign a letter of intent with that bitter for if however there is a tie the council will recess for a brief period and another vote will be taken five if the tie continues after the second vote the council will continue the process of recessing and voting until one of the bidders is selected or until the president asks the council if it is ready to declare that the voting process should end because the council cannot break the tie and the majority of the councillors then present vote to end it if the majority of the councillors then present have voted to end the voting process the president will declare that the action to authorize the mayor to sign one of the two proffered letters  failed and the president will entertain a motion about how to proceed with this matter thank you president of del ok so we have that on the floor it's been moved and seconded is there discussion on this resolution from all right all those in favor of the resolution to pass what president just described as our voting procedure today on this issue please raise your hand if you support this and anyone opposed that it is a little bit long i'm going to not read it but the kind of walk through through the high points we have been forced to potential but i am warning this will may take a little time we have been forced to potential buyers bt that are in many ways opposite of each other taking is a wholly is wholly owned by a publicly traded corporation based in toronto called two cows and k b t l is a new consumer cooperative based in burlington  there's a stock trade of here chain is reasonably well capitalized although not the strongest on this count that we have seen the burlington loses control of the asset altogether k b t l offers total local ownership and control of the asset but it lacks an upfront equity base on which to run the company now over the course of this process of selecting a new owner for bt i think it's been well understood that bt is now a very profitable company due to a number of factors including its affective and hard work working management and staff many of whom are here tonight with us and also the reduction in debt servicing cost compared to the pre the city days but another key driver of the profitability of bt is the fact that we made a very large upfront capital investment in this infrastructure yes we overbuilt in the past we suffered losses others suffered losses as a result but at this point the next buyer is going to be the one that earns the attractive returns for managing the build out without having the incremental capital costs they would have had if we hadn't overbuilt in the first place so the question i keep coming back to his will burlington taxpayers get a fair share of the use of these returns and what is the model that's really going to get us the fair share now i think that given some more time and some creative thinking model could morph into one that does blend local ownership and control with adequate upfront equity that would take time it would take some creative thinking it would take the community will and leadership will to do that but for me the problems with the tng model can't really be fixed through any conflict contract language because they really flow directly from the fact that it is a publicly traded corporations want to walk through two main problems that i see here i think that in the tng proposal the financial returns from the future growth of bt are disproportionately garnered by shareholders and not by burlington taxpayers now team has offered to buy bt for a multiple of about eight times the f y seventeen earnings of the company which are three point five million dollars teaching has its own multiple as a publicly traded corporation which is called its price earnings ratio and team stock has been has been on an upward trend it jumps around a lot but it's been it's trending up and at the beginning of twenty seventeen for example it acquired a company and its stock price increase about thirty thirty percent as the market recognized all that earning growth associated with an acquisition so although it's multiples moved around a lot say between twenty and forty let's be conservative here in this memo and just say to say it's twenty or so bt is multiples eight and to cow has a multiple of twenty and that means that creates a tremendous opportunity for two cows to buy b t s earnings for basically eight dollars for a dollar of morning and then have the stock market value those earnings at twenty dollars for every dollar of earnings so while two cows is is valuing bt at twenty eight million dollars eight times three and a half million they can leverage instantly turn that into once it's part of two cows into a market value of states seventy million dollars so if for example after this acquisition two cows stock increases by something like five percent which is it could well rise more than that but just to be conservative the new shareholder wealth that would be created to be on the order of thirty million dollars now this is a large number compared to what burlington would receive if we cash out under the teens model which is six million dollars now the city could potentially do better than six million dollars if we take our share of the net proceeds as a carried interest in the new company buy a dollar of bts earnings from us for eight dollars today but would they only they would only buy a dollar of earnings back from us in the future at a price at a value less than eight dollars at a discount multiple that they are offering today as if the asset value would actually deteriorate over time instead of being enhanced through its integration into the chain into class enterprise so i did bring this let the this this this i think very unfavorable language to the city to the attention of the mayor on the morning of october twenty ninth and that this language was subsequently removed and and representative to let me know that they had intended to remove it so even though the language was removed it deeply concerns me that it was ever proposed because it is patently unfair to the city patently unfair and it's important to note that this language was not revised and improved on terms that acknowledge the burlington taxpayers fair right right to a fair return the l y is simply silent on this point so if we were to vote for team tonight we would be saying i guess we'll work it out later but we have no bargaining power at that time and under this model no one's going to buy this share from us except for taking so we have zero bargaining power in this transaction to show the importance of the carried interest terms let's just play out a little scenario let's say the bts earnings double in five years to seven million dollars which is not an unreal realistic trajectory at all because we know that we have new residential units coming on on line at cameron rise in that city place and we know that bt is market share will continue to rise as long as the management keeps on track with a good product a good price  fifteen in five years if you apply that more multiple of eight to seven million dollars the value the company is worth in five years fifty six million dollars at it if they were there were to be a discount applied to that multiple of say four and that this is an extreme example not saying it would be four but if they were to discount us heavily then and if we were to take our twenty percent share in five years we'd get five point six million dollars which is less than what we'd get today we would obviously would never do that as the multiple increases the return to the city gets better and better but it takes of it i would argue that we should get a multiple like teens multiple on that future transaction and if chain were to do that and i don't think that they will because this is not really you know part of  the model for them then we would get a return in five years of twenty eight million dollars now i do think that there are proposals this council has received that would give us this kind of return they're not in front of us to tonight but  there are other bidders that would be have would have been willing to share their returns of future growth with us getting close to the if so that's one problem the second problem is that t well be purchased by another company through a friendly acquisition or through a hostile takeover so that same logic where two cows does well by buying us at a lower multiple there are other companies out there who have higher multiples than tings and they will see mutual benefit in offering to changing to buy them at an attractive price and there and it is a win win situation for both the acquiring company and required company and two cows cannot they're of publicly traded they have a few dushan responsibility to the shareholders so when we've been hearing in the debate this this this concern it means that they wouldn't be able to walk away from a great deal like and so this that means that over time under the tin proposal i think it is very likely that burlington will become a smaller and smaller part of  larger and larger multinational corporation and we will completely lose any ability to have a partner that owns and operates manages our telecom infrastructure to work with to achieve our economic and social goals and that for me is a very very high price to pay indeed now the revised letter of intent we were reminded multiple times last week that there is this improved language about a repurchase divests there are some defined events that have to happen within the first five years it's a five year window that that would offer us the ability to  repurchase the telecom business at a price equal to the earnings times the purchase price multiple ok so going back to my example of where it's worth fifty six million dollars that means that they're offering two to bias for twenty eight to thirty million dollars and in five years later we could buy it back from them for fifty six million dollars and it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the city would actually exercise the option at that price and i want to add that this offer is only extended through the city council vote on november sixth twenty seventeen so it expires after tonight so i back combined that with the carry the initial offer on carried interest and it gives me an m i just have to say i am not feeling the love i am not feeling the l is that under the ting proposal before us today i think the burlington is in adequately compensated for its past investment and we are in adequately compensated for the loss of local control and the loss of the burlington based telecom entity now clearly tonight we are a divided council we are a divided community and i believe the best path for us is to work towards a solution that is somewhere in between these two options that we have before us and we may come to a decision tonight we may not i think we need to find a solution that pervert preserves bt as a burlington based company but that also adds the upfront equity that the current proposal of keeping the local before us does so tonight i will be voting for keep it to look because the can see the problems i see with that bid can be addressed team cannot change itself from a publicly traded six to six and that's ok with me because unfortunately neither one of these were my top two choices and i feel there is a better partner out there for braun to telecom and hopefully there might be a path to that partner ship and maybe we can get there later tonight but it comes down to two things for me one in the bt committee one of the things we talked about when the most important things we talked about was local control not local ownership local control taking takes all local control way it doesn't happen and i just can't get there brought in telecom their financials have improved from day one and are really almost impossible to get to is doomed for failure at the current financial status they're in now and so that puts us in a very tough spot moving forward and that's why i'm looking for compromise tonight and i said hopefully will get there this is kind of where i was thinking about a lot over the last week we've been through a lot together we're brought in telecom bad times and good times no question about that the mayor spoke last week about all the hard work he's done to put us in this position tonight the deal with citibank the bluewater deal and he's absolutely right without those deals in place we wouldn't be here tonight there's no question about that and the work he did was phenomenal it was amazing and i give him credit for that but let's not forget why he was able to do that that we had thirty eight hundred oil bt customers that never left us they stood strong when times were bad when comcast and dash and directv were breathing down their necks to switch over for a lower price this town said no we're going to stick it out we're going to stick through this and when i say that it's not me i'm burlington telecom now but i wasn't back then and i look around this room now and i see a lot of familiar faces that were with us back then happy with me but there's no doubt in fact the unfortunate thing about tonight and last monday is that the hiatus one of the most highest thought offers coming out of bt was shores when b tab finished their work shores was considered the top offer unfortunately shore's isn't in front of us tonight and that's because we stopped listening to each other the ting side told the k b l side you've got to bring shores along with us the mayor was on record saying shores is a great company i could live with shores or tank aside don't take shores don't take tang because we don't think we can get there but if you take shores we think they could be a great partner for the see your bro and hope we'll be able to talk a little bit about shores later i don't want to get into that what they can offer but it's pretty amazing and a lot of things that count so no del mentioned that they bring with them all right we can get to a better place we can compromise tonight we can get to a better place we can stay within the timeline and we can do the right thing for everybody so be patient and i hope we can get there but for tonight i'll be supporting thank you council hartnett other councillors who want to speak on this round know i i'm hearing from prison and from council hartnett that they see an alternative path forward other than the two options that are in front of us tonight and it seems like they they plan on discussing that more later on and i'll partake in that part of the debate when it comes i think i will i promise i will for me i came said this last week i came prepared to vote tonight and then i guess similar to the way that others have seen taking as a nonstarter against my best effort to to be patient with and to to help that team see what concerns i had in very concrete and distinct definitions they did not meet they did not meet that for me and and those concerns in short were an offer price that was less than half the value of the asset and interest rate that was more than double what the industry standard is and an operating cash reserve of less than one month if those items were addressed i've been clear and consistent and fair that they could have earned my vote those those things did not come those things just didn't they did not come and and for me like i said maybe similar to my colleagues on the other side of this that is a nonstarter for me and and over those that same time over the last couple of weeks thing has made substantive improvements to their bid they've increased their their price by two and a half million dollars up to thirty point five they have committed fifty million dollars over ten years i have become confident that they will be they would be a irresponsible and committed community partner not just through kind words and dollars but through real infrastructure and jobs for the long term as they would say forever and i know that many in this community shake their head at that and  i understand why i understand the logic and reasoning that professor no dell laid out in her remarks they're not falling on deaf ears i promise you they're not falling on deaf ears my my concern here is that key b t l is a nonstarter you're hearing it from all the other side of the table the concerns are real they're shared with many around this table and many in the community and so tonight i've come prepared i've talked with we've all talked with hundreds of constituents and staff over the last weeks here and and i'm going to be voting i'm a be voting for thing i'll stop there thank you cancer of just before i go to another actually do not want to speak tonight i do want to say that i know many of us are on the table here took the opportunity to afford to us to meet with braun telecom employees and we had great meetings with them and i would just like to take a second to actually thank the burlington telecom employees for all of them for taking a company that was in financial distress many years of several years ago and building it up to where we are today w valuable asset with serious bids on the table that's going to help this city move forward into the next decade going forward thank you you and lastly just in case this vote goes deeper than i think it might and i have really no idea i want to thank everybody for coming tonight this is unusual we don't have a public forum we have heard you many times in public form we continue to get your e mails and your contacts or calls i know i did many times today and we appreciate them all and we appreciate all your your participation and your contacts with us and we know the passion everybody has on both sides of this so thank you very much really do appreciate that and with that i will go to turn the floor over to cancer shannon thank you acting president right i have a question for the city attorney if that's permissible absolutely does the council get to vote again on the final contract will that come before us yes as i thought thank you so i just wanted to  make note of that because there were some issues raised by president no dell that i do believe could be addressed as we go to final contract because we do get a vote on that again and that certainly gives us some leverage sorry running over my own own wires here my bias throughout this process has been in favor of keeping burlington telecom local and it was my hope that i could be here and now and see my support for the co op despite that bias i agreed with my fellow be tab members including president no doubt councilor hartnett councilor paul former g m of david provo that the offer from the co op is not viable the tab was created for the purpose of bringing the expertise of the community to the table and to help the council solve this crisis in a non political environment i appreciate their service and respect the work and input of the group over the last eight years as a group we have followed this issue from beginning to end under the skilled leadership and impartial leadership of david provo and my deepest thanks go to david as president no del stated at our narrowing vote we should be picking the bid that will present us with the most powerful partnership with b t v ignite a federal initiative to foster good jobs in the tech sector and innovation across the economy she also made comments about the pro forma and at the end noted that offer is not there yet i agree while some changes have been made they have not addressed the major concerns raised unanimously by the b tab putting them in last place of eight  those concerns or heavy reliance on expensive debt financing the fourteen percent interest rate has not changed despite a press conference to the contrary there is no eight percent interest rate and the board has now acknowledged this i thank them for that clarity and honesty no management depth beyond the existing team this hasn't changed and was raised as a serious concern when i talk to the current employees concern about ability to get a required certificate a public good due to debt structure lack of capital and lack of management experience in the industry this issue has actually gotten worse not better since the bid was reviewed by the due to the letters we have subsequently received from citibank virtually assuring that the city will be in litigation if we accept the bid from k b t l was only advanced because of public interest and was advanced without recommendation while moving the offer forward to the council the be tab stated however unless they can address the concerns of the b tab we do not believe this to be a viable offer given that these concerns have not been addressed i cannot support the local offer because it remains not viable in other words does not have a reasonable chance of succeeding i don't need a sure thing but i do need a reasonable chance of succeeding to support my own to support any offer that means no matter how i vote this is not an offer that has a path to success moving forward will mean either it is vetoed by the mayor vetoed by bluewater or vetoed by the p u c and according to both the employees of bt and the b tab analysis they are highly unlikely to be successful operators of bt contrasts the analysis of publicly held status and a desire to continue to work with them to strengthen their proposal and minimize the risk to the city in the event of a sale of the company since this analysis thing has worked to improve their i am still a little bit frustrated on that one point but it's still just one point in comparison with many many points on the other offer however they have also improved other terms of their offer in particularly they have increased the amount of their bid from twenty seven point five million to thirty point five million they have agreed to make their eastern headquarters for video services here and will make bt a center for research and development of technologies that integrate wired infrastructure with radio spectrum to achieve the next generation wireless experience of ambient connectivity from the beginning tang has committed to provide annual contributions of sixty thousand dollars a year for b t v ignite fifty thousand dollars a year for free t v advertising on premium channels for local startups and community events one hundred forty thousand dollars a year to other community projects and free service to select local non profits to be fair did improve their bid to add fifty thousand to be t v ignite and to provide co working spaces and internships for students in addition albie t v employees i'm sorry in addition all employees will receive retirement benefits from taking and only fifty percent receive retirement benefits currently or with and would like to reopen this process to those options i do not think either could make it to full council approval the fourth better had a conflict of interest and a voluntary withdrawal and voluntarily with through their bid when that was brought to their attention sure's was also my favorite for a period of time but leading up to the narrowing vote i felt they were not engaged in our civic discussion thing was the reason the offer from schur's is not on the table is not because we stopped talking but because it only received one vote in the comparison between tng insurers a constituent who works in the creative economy said it best he wrote in looking at the websites and business models of both chain insurers it appears the ting is most closely aligned with the outlook and sensibilities of burlington it's somewhat anecdotal i agree but this should be an important consideration old family run and stable is nice but sure is really appears to be a midwestern newspaper company to me stable safe and boring are they going to add to the vitality of burlington and help us become a true destination for creative entrepreneurial thinkers who want to dig in tng may have their flaws but to me they seem truly believe in to truly believe in burlington's future as a hub of the creative economy they want to be part of the story but alas that ship has sailed on sure's or perhaps sank with only one vote in support and we now have will be best for the tech and creative economies best for startup businesses who will benefit from things in you will two hundred fifty thousand contribution to their endeavors best for burlington residents who don't yet have bt service best for non profits who qualify for free service best for those that do do subscribe to the service who will receive improved customer service and better hookups and best for our regional economy with a thirty five million dollar investment  considerations another interesting point that was raised by president no dell is could we get more for this has has to somehow short changed us in their offer but i think that what our asset is worth is determined by what the market will pay we had eight offers for this business and there was no offer higher than what tang has offered so i don't think that it's fair to say and i surely do not understand stocks as well as president no del but i don't think i am a realtor and i know what we say is market value is what people are willing to pay for any property and we have put that to the test here and what the market is willing to pay is right about in this range and it's not like we have numerous opportunities of people beating down  door for this asset i i think that that's a big risk to take there's one last thing you know many of us did have the opportunity to meet with employees and i so appre the time that they took to meet with so many of us and i know that councils councillors tracey and bush are and president odell were not able to find the time to meet with them but i wanted to share just one thing out of that conversation and and there was a lot of good feed good and meaningful feedback but this was inspirational we could see really stick it to comcast if we were able to grow we are waiting for the flag to wave so we can go running ting understands everything we need and can help us get there and i think that sentiment was very broadly held by those in that meeting certainly on how we can make investments and actually spend taxpayer money or other public money on telecom assets we have prohibitions in our charter this progressions and state law on the license  and you know one possibility that some people have wished for is that that might go away in the future in the city might have more flexibility in the future depending on how public policy shifts from here even if that does not happen and there's no indication that  that that is eminent i think the process we've been through of the last six months you know gives a sense of what an answer could be is that the city would have the ability to try to marshal resources put together a new deal in the face of a hostile takeover or in the face of king divesting they you know they were the specific circumstances that kings offer speaks to were the specific circumstances the counters r concern about that's why they were so specifically articulated they were the ones that gave us concern and trouble and those if those circumstances were there were the to transpire and the city would have an opportunity like we've had telecom employees last week and i have to say that conversation really threw me it was very emotional  i walked away definitely questioning what it what i had been thinking and planning previously and then i found myself coming back to the asset that this community has invested in and and the value of that and and i completely understand i mean ting ting has a lot to offer right now it's impressive and i get that that these employees that have worked so hard and through such difficult times and have had really much more success and really brought obviously brought bt to where it's at today i want to be able to just focus on making that company soar right now and do everything that it possibly could do right now and yet i can't help but think of ten twenty thirty years into the future and and really the vision that this company was started with and and i get maybe maybe that ship has sailed maybe i'm maybe i'm holding on to something that doesn't that isn't realistic but i can't help but think of that investment wanting to retain it ideally locally owned or at least get some more value back to our taxpayers i mean we certainly know every year that the budget is very there's increasing needs in our city and seventeen million dollars a lot of money so i guess the reason that i can justify accepting a bid that is so much lower recognizing that it has its flaws is knowing that that that asset is retained locally so i started thinking of it it's not like we're just selling it off we're retaining it so i am hopeful that there will be some other options we talked about a little bit yesterday some possibilities when we met and i know i know that people want to move on from this and a lot of people are really tired but i have to think of the long term and not and not just the next few years so i will be supporting the co op tonight began this public process one of the crucial issues that we that we dealt with was establishing public criteria and we went through lots of meetings lots of surveys lots of outreach to the public to understand what were the important terms what were the things that were most important to them when we looked for a sale when we were looking for a potential buyer and the thing that came out time and time again head and shoulders above everything else was the issue of local control maintaining local control and that came as no surprise to me this is part of who we are as a city this part of who we are as a state this is part of our culture this is part of our d n a as a place this is this is what we are in burlington vermont we're all about local and because local has worked so well for us keeping it local in terms of the waterfront keeping it local in terms of our grocery stores keeping it local in so many different ways has brought tremendous value to our city and getting it to be local was in fact the answer you know to the problem you know in the first place that we were dealing with you know we were dealing with a multinational attack conglomerate in comcast well adelphi at the time and so this solution to dealing with that the the you know the bad service the high rates the lack of competition was to in fact keep it local and that was very much you know that was you know done under very challenging conditions and i think conditions that in many ways set up the situation in which we find ourselves namely the fact that we were able to to build beyond burlington under the initial c p g but that there was a full build out that was required and so i think that in many ways that that that this idea that you know that it was that it was set up to fail are very much true and i think that being relieved of those conditions will be much more beneficial in the future however i think that there are that that the opportunity to the best opportunity for success comes with keeping it local into the well into the future and going with the co op bid at tonight and and well into the future and i think that the reason that i've kind of come to that decision is it has been through lots and lots of public outreach going to lots of different meetings in the in the north and talking with constituents where you know when you ask them at that meeting raise your hands you know how many of you support this everyone in the room supports for supports kavi t o emails tons of e mails in support feedback account to my personal account to this to you know as a city councilor to all these different accounts at public forums we see you know at the first public forum for the first cut thirty two to one for k t o last public forum we had thirty five to and so a little bit even more even split comes with people getting more and more familiar with the with these these meetings and you know i'm guessing that that would probably continue tonight so if if i ask how many people raise your hands how many people in this room support k b tail pretty powerful it's pretty powerful to see people turning out time and time again saying that they want local that they were they want local opportunity that they have continued faith in burlington telecom in local people's ability to not only take over this but to run it and to do so successfully through a democratically run cooperative and that's really what we're looking at tonight is two fundamentally different proposals one is saying let's keep it local let's trust in burlington residents let's trust in the expertise the amazing creative forces that we've brought together on the key bt local board let's let's trust in the cooperative model and the ability to give people in burlington a real voice and real say real ownership over this and to the real control not only now but well into the future thereafter and that really sets poorly with me and i think that we really have have an obligation to listen to the public outcry that we've had around this the grassroots support that we've had time and time again value that public opinion and really turn it into a real bid but we've seen throughout this is that instead of working with the cooperative model we've seen continual arguments against the cooperative model continue or reasons why we can't do that and you know i'll be you know i'll certainly admit that i have had those doubts but i worked with the cooperative the members of the cooperative to better understand the model to get the answers that i need to be more comfortable and to really work collaboratively i don't feel like that's necessarily the case you know overall and i think that we could have done a lot better job in in doing that you know we've seen issues of of debt being brought up you know the fourteen percent interest but not necessarily enough weight placed on the debt coverage ratio which we see that the burlington that they keep cave e t l model will certainly have enough ability to cover the debt that they that they have proposed to take out and not only that but they that ignores the fact that these questions about debt also ignore the fact that we'd be able to refinance once this gets up and running so that would bring that that cost of borrowing down substantially in addition that we've also heard complaints you know questions raised about the managerial expertise of burlington telecom which i think is pretty insulting to the members of the board of cave e t l who are very you know creative who are very diligent who are very committed in their in their you know in their efforts and who have continually risen to the challenges that have been thrown down in front of them and they've brought on you know on expertise to really deal with with a lot of the concerns that have been raised additionally you know we also that has also as many of these these complaints do take in focus away from some of the weaknesses of the bed which you know the reality with them is that they only have less than two years in this business the primary their primary business wise in domain names and cell phone so they're not really necessarily well well experienced in running the type of system that we have here in burlington and you know that's that's something that's incredibly significant so i think that the focus on on the shortcomings of bt have really an important and necessary and necessary focus away from some of the weaknesses and shortcomings of tng additionally we've heard more about lawsuits and i think that that well you know they the banks can threaten us it's important to understand what grounds they have to stand on and the agreement says that we were able to direct the sale and remain and continue to remain to continue to be able to do so and that moreover we're not obligated to take the highest bid as part of that sale so whether or not they actually have grounds to stand on without that that lawsuit remains to be seen but the point point that i keep coming back to is that we fight for what we believe and we fight for what our community wants and as we saw today you know the community wants this you know we certainly take their concerns to the banks concerned seriously but we also take the value and the feedback that we hear from our constituents that the people that come to these meetings seriously and we really try and act on that in addition to that you know i do also want to address the employee piece and i thank you for your hard work in making burlington telecom the success that it is today i absolutely have a deep sense of gratitude for you for you i hope you know the intelligence that you brought to the table in terms of that w would also you know help you to understand it would also be president terms of understanding that this is an incredibly complex issue and that we have a lot of a lot to balance whenever considering this a lot of combat a lot of different interests to balance and i also have a lot of constituents who are deeply passionate about this this entity as well and so i have to balance all of those different concerns and i think that you know for me i keep coming back to to trying to create an accurate balance of those different concerns and i would also just say that you know the employee asked us not to make them political pons i don't think that that's fair and i think that we should really make sure that we're treating you know treating you know taking those wishes seriously in this this matter listening is one thing but then trying to you know call out other counselors for not you know drop you know being able to to meet with them is is a completely different matter and so i would ask that we really take that seriously that we don't make them into political pons and then and then you know all of these things you know in terms of these these concerns that have been raised one after the other after the other again have continued to not continue to draw focus away from the analysis of of thing that you know counselor no doubt president no dell so eloquently ran through i mean that is a fundamental analysis and analysis that really hadn't been brought to the fore so first of all thank you president nobel for doing that analysis but second of all that's a pretty fundamental concern so those people who say that you know we are that that's the that's clearly the better deal i don't know that that's is something that we really haven't spoken to until really counts or no deal brought that up and i have not heard anybody dramatically address that undervaluation other than that that's what the market will bear and i think that this speaks to the fact that we really need to if we are going to be giving up a community resource driving a much much harder bargain we need to be having much better in a negotiation if we're giving this up because once you lose something that's local it's gone forever and we absolutely cannot lose this this and this local control you know in terms of this and we certainly can't do it for this price so i think that didn't want to get into the shores thing accounts of santa brought some things up and i just want to everyone to realize you know to say that shores is not community engaged i believe you shores and there was another come for you when the when the first four were advanced at least i know shore's was the only company that went to meet to be p t employees at least at least upper management so to say that sure is wasn't engaged and didn't want to be engaged i think they really showed the initiative  they were the first ones to go i think that's disingenuous to say that about the company i also would like to say it's ironic i hear all the counselors to talk about them going down and meeting with the bt employees and what an experience it was and trust me nobody knows better not i i was the first to do it with with anyone to tell me to go not setting up meetings just walked in there one morning and had a frank conversation with them all and i have a tremendous amount of respect for them but to think that they were only singing things praises is a little misleading as well they were ready to soar but they were ready to soar with others as well and so i want to i want to be clear about that and to be fair to all the employees down there ok because they could soar i think with the right partner which i don't think is there and conservation and also mention you know thirty million dollar price tag from tng that's just matching shores that's just coming up to match wear shorts was just so everybody knows and the thing that important shores is they want to offer us one third partnership we can all one third of the company under this corporation this is why it's so important that we get back to them ok and i hope we can do that tonight all right so i didn't want to get into a debate i'm hoping that we can have that debate later but i just don't want to misinformation out there about shores thank you thank you counselor and it will move to councillor dean thank you counselor right so i'd like to begin my remarks tonight with a e opener we spent a little more than an hour hearing from earnest motivated and dedicated people what we heard was an intense sense of pride and ownership this is really their burlin telecom they built it with their sacrifices their hard work and dedication and their eighty hour weeks they did all of this to bring burlington telecom back from the brink of failure to become a company that is legitimate worth thirty million dollars they should be proud and we should recognize their investment and expertise by listening carefully to what they have to say what we heard in their voices with deep concern a real worry a deep seated on the built up over many months as this city council and this community at large has debated the future of burlington telecom their burlington helicon that they built that they sweated for and that they missed their families and weekends for they are tired and worn with worry about where this all is headed because they do not want to fail again and they know enough about their business to understand that success is not assured it depends on hard work and dedication but also it rides on knowledge and experience and vision and careful planning so what do they say to us why are they so concerned what they see is the very real possibility that their burlington telecom where they have invested their best energies will be sold to a group of investors well intentioned and community minded are under capitalized burdened by debt have no experience running a telecom have little in depth understanding of the telecom and fiber to home space and have no clear vision for the future or critical necessity when they look forward to the years ahead etiam ploys expressed in no uncertain terms that if they are to survive and thrive they must have the leadership and financial resources to expand their network and their business right now not ten years from now the employees and leadership of burlington telecom want the best for their borrowing for their burlington telecom and it's incumbent on us to make the best choice until tonight to improve their offer to make it as much as possible commercially reasonable all with the hope that we could consider supporting it without accepting unacceptable regularity regulatory and legal risk well it's look at where we are the financing terms related to us are not in fact the same as last presented they were actually less acceptable should the c not elect to accept the twelve and a half percent carried interest equity stake in the company will now take on an additional one point five million of the highly leveraged money from main fiber a company we know almost nothing about more than ten percent increase in the debt position held at junk bond rates of fourteen percent making the burden of debt service even higher and leaving even less money available for capital expansion or community support we've moved backwards in contrast things updated on the way make significant additional investments commitments to capital investment and community development and the city council's visit to the toronto headquarters provided us with the opportunity to ask challenging questions and assess for ourselves the strength of the commitments the t'ing has made in their offer to us so how do we evaluate these two options here's what i see what the city takes on if we choose to accept twelve and a half million off offer for a company that is legitimately worth thirty million dollars we get promises and requests that we have faith there is a report that k b t l is secured favorable financing from their lender eight percent this turns out not to be true we hear an argument that will be able to negotiate more favorable terms with another financial institution a few years down the road relieving them some of their very significant debt service burden but do we know that conditions for finance will be any more favorable a few years from now there is a mention in the l a y of a line of credit for additional working capital and that the equity will be secured for that line but there's no letter included from those people who are securing that investment showing that that is really secured we understand that from the yellow  identifier and high and hire a management team that can prove managerial experience and technical competence to the p u c so that we can get a certificate of public good we're assured that a management team will be found but that that will follow later after the burden of debt service and ongoing operational costs there are only limited additional resources available to invest in capital expenditure to improve and expand the network we need to accomplish this build out to maintain bts competitive advantage we are sure th will be able to do this with the resource available but can we really be sure we are informed that we not need not worry about a potential lawsuit from citibank because this really is too small an amount of money for citibank to worry about negotiated terms of our settlement agreement will protect us while we know this is untrue since we've already been put on notice of citibank's intent to file suit and i have seen no opinion from any legal professional stating that this litigation is unwarranted and that the city would have a chance to prevail so ultimately the question for all of us in this are we willing to take a gamble to take on all these current wrists and the limited community benefit for the next ten years all with the hope for a future that we have been dealt a winning hand so what's the other available option if we elect not to gamble well here's what we expect from tng we got a well financed experienced an innovative telecom operator willing to buy t at a fair market value including recognizing and paying for two and a half million cost two and half million dollars of capital expansion in time until the deal closes we get an investment commitment to invest fifty million dollars in the next ten years expanding the fast fiber network in burlington and to jason jason community we've got a company that has the know how to lay fiber and potentially connect a thousand addresses a month they can get more done with the plan capital investment and in l time and even with all these capital investments we can get an assured two hundred fifty thousand dollars annually into the future to support b t v ignite free advertising for community organizations and to invest as we would like to support community initiatives in addition burlington becomes the eastern state headquarters for a new national video over an internet service being built from the ground up we've got a company and finally we get a company that has built its brand around customer service where a customer always gets to talk with a person not a machine and typically within a few seconds of placing your call and if it takes too much time to fix your problem each customer service or after representative has the ability to credit you back as a customer for your time that you invested we even get a company that's building its own software to integrate existing fire management platforms and who tracks with technology all of its assets placed underground and in the air we get a company the claim for great service and customer support and that's heard from its charlottesville customers to read it form in letters noting commitment to community and to public private partnerships from the coalition for local internet choice and there's much more they t way even remotely like comcast or fair point or time warner time warner so on one side we have promises and trust me and on the other we have financial where with all innovation know how and concrete promises of economic development and real quantifiable commitments community investment and customer service to me the choice seems very clear so finally i'm familiar with being the local competitor going up against a larger more experienced out of state firm we take on that challenge quite frequently in my business where we're competing for work against other national and international architecture and interior design firms as a local firm if we want to succeed and when we know we need to demonstrate professionalism competence and experience we need to bring our best people and projects forward and demonstrate why the value of the local teams know how and insight outweighs the additional capabilities and experience that the national or international firm brings we know we have to bring our a game and we do and without it we would not win but even with our a game and competence and professionalism and hard work and effort we often don't succeed we are selected we know that being local brings value but we also know that it does not and should not outweigh everything else we understand and respect the potential clients who weigh the options to decide that being local does not trump everything else the decision we are trying to make is about a thirty million dollar company that has the potential under the right ownership and leadership to bring great future benefits to our city this is no game this is not a place for guesses and assumptions and it's not a place for unreasonable risks and unqualified and unquantified promises a future return let's see is the opportunity to vote for a truly bright future for burlington both for the short term short thank you acting president right this is been a long journey that we've all been on to arrive at this moment burlington telecoms history has been one of innovation innovation probably have it ahead of its time and then almost and exciting and almost exhilarating idea that in the midst of the rush to expand and given that excitement got a bit ahead of itself and in doing so planted the seeds of what would later create missteps perhaps errors in judgment that led us to the legal settlement and to this day when we must decide on the future owner of burlington telecom five years ago we were hanging on to a local to a group a loyal group of thirty five hundred or so subscribers today that figure is over seven thousand and is going strong we have an amazing staff as we all know of bt employees some who are here this evening and many of whom that i met with a few hours ago they're all very talented they're engaged they're committed and they're looking forward to an exciting future for burlington telecom of the thirty employees at bt i was pleased to meet with about twenty five of them this afternoon and hear from them first hand about their perspective on burlington telecoms future their input was invaluable to me and i'm sure it was to others who were at this table as well over the last several months i think we have all done our own due diligence to arrive at this evening's decision and we've heard from many councillors already and it's clear that we have all worked very hard to arrive at our decision by being careful being thoughtful and again doing our own due diligence we are all bound by a fiduciary responsibility in this role as city councillors and that means the highest standard of care it's an it's a pretty awesome responsibility for me above all it is this standard this responsibility to do right by the city and its citizens to protect our assets from undue risk just support our financial foundations and to ensure the city's continued well being that guides me we have made enormous progress in the past few years with burlington telecom and surely we all want to continue on that road part of my due diligence has been many conversations that i've had with the leadership which began almost from their beginning shortly after the citibank settlement i am grateful for the time that they've given me simmer similarly i have long felt that it was that i couldn't make a decision of this magnitude without visiting for myself ting's headquarters in toronto getting an appreciation for the feel of the company's culture meeting with some of their employees and just being there in order to see their operations visiting ting open my eyes to what was behind the leadership and yes of course the company put their best foot forward that day we all know that and indeed it was only one day but facts are facts and culture is not something that we can see that can be created overnight to permeate an organization for one day the visiting team gave me what i needed to see in order to have to get a feel for their organization and i just wanted to make a couple of points that i think to some degree have been made and i'll try to make them brief there's a lot  that's been said about how customer service will suffer under a t'ing management the bt will lose out with a big corporate entity with some huge call center somewhere in canada running our customer service experience customer service will remain in burlington the only change to our customer service and this was something i gathered from the employees that i met with today the only change is that it's going to get better twenty four seventh's service no answering service after hours full service all the time and a burlington burlington v t person answering the phone when burlington telecom is open always someone with full access to your account who can problem solve we actually saw the state of the art ability to troubleshoot and that access will become an exciting part of bts infrastructure we're talking about state of the our connectivity that they in fact  created this system just a few hours ago when i met with bt employees i could tell that they are united in their support of an owner for burlington telecom who has the resources the depth of knowledge and the formal business structure to collaboratively take bt to the next level the new owner of burlington telecom must and i repeat must retain current bt customers one of the things that i have always been i've been puzzled about in the conversation that has taken place over many months would be with with bt is the concern that people have that only having bt and local hands will ensure that prices won't go up that if bt is owned by a large company prices will increase and the customer the consumer will suffer again the new owner of burlington telecom must retain current bt subscribers for the long haul their pro forma is built on retaining and expanding their footprint over time if you raise your prices you cost yourself customers and you've been and you begin a cycle that you may well not be able to get ahead of even over the long periods of time  on is not a huge market and we could not afford no one can afford to hike prices and still remain successful i understand that there are employees of burlington telecom who were initially very supportive of some of our early bidders as was i initially but one thing that i gathered today for sure and it's not just from bt employees it's from many people in the community who have e mailed me we need to make a decision if at all possible tonight and we need to move forward i think the community deserves that and i think we owe after such a long discussion we owe it to everyone including ourselves to make that decision this evening based on the letter of the letters of intent and the pro forma as the additional funds to burlington from partnering with sting instead of the other proposal is forty three and a half million dollars over ten years and i think that should count in terms of when you look at the value of the company i think you need to take that into account as well that is a lot of money and it's a lot of jobs and it's a lot of funding to burlington based services local means local jobs and expanded infrastructure the ability to attract more people to burlington and expand our tech footprint this is an economic development tool for the long and the short term you know running a successful telecom and cable enterprise is very difficult under the leadership of steven barrack life in the managers and employees that he has assembled some of whom are here this evening this group has recently made running burlington telecom almost look easy the truth is that it wasn't always that easy the truth is that burlington has already learned the hard way that it's really hard to run a telecom enterprise now that things are going well it's easy to think that we can anyone can come in and just take over and the trajectory that it's on will continue new operators in any business struggle no matter what the industry and with telecom being nimble and seasoned and well financed is critical ting has a distinguished track record of outstanding service and affordable pricing of fiber to the home networks they're supported by highly efficient well financed state of the art operations the coalition for local internet choice which is a national coalition of public and private sector interests who support the authority of local communities to make broadband internet choices that are essential for economic competitiveness recently honored elliott  ting with the local internet choice private sector champion award the director of the c l i c whose name is katherine rice said at the at the award ceremony mr  r was selected due to his in his company's unparalleled willingness to deploy gigabit internet connectivity through creative partnerships with local communities as exemplified in westminster maryland holly springs north carolina and greater sandpoint idaho and for standing with the c l i see when state legislatures have attempted to prohibit these kinds of public private partnerships when you talk about a community partner for burlington and net societal benefits ting has committed and these of to some degree been mentioned ting has committed to an additional three and a half million and up front funds fifteen million in capital investment over ten years a minimum guaranteed two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year continued support a betes lifeline broadband program expanded digital divide efforts focused on gigabit service community support for local y fi event sponsorships internships pro internship programs and fees services free services to qualified local organizations speaking of jobs and putting b t n burlington on the tech map nationally team has committed to bt being the eastern us video headquarters for their company additionally burlington would become the national site for two cows ambient connectivity research and development hub their capital investment and commitment to burlington being their video headquarters an r and d site will bring good high paying jobs and money that goes to services and the people of burlington who will benefit directly we all know that we are a close community neighbors no neighbors we all help each other when we need help and we are all connected in many ways the adage that there is six degrees of separation between one human being and another on one side of the globe while in the city of burlington it's probably about one degree of separation our lives are intertwined with one another and i do believe that the k v tale offer and the enormous public engagement has made for a better process i don't see my role tonight to point out the weaknesses of the cave e t l offer in an effort to strengthen my arguments in favor of the other i don't feel that that solves anything and i don't think that that's really who we are in closing i'd just like to add one more thing growing up in burlington i've always been attracted and attach to the local buy local argument the keep it local a spouse diversity inclusion and tolerance and how we welcome people to our city the truth is that we're actually pretty hard on outsiders that we don't think belief fiercely and it here fiercely to our values and priorities sometimes we don't even give them a chance assumptions about ting have been rampant over time i really believe that we will that they will prove to us that they are a good community partner we have letters from other municipalities just like us that have said that much and more as much as i believe in local i know that being focused on any one thing anyone montra can have unintended consequences when you become myopic in your thinking your mind becomes so focused often at the expense of other factors governing is about balance and myopic thinking is not about balance i truly believe that many of the positives that a local co op might bring to burlington can be brought to burlington by others many have worked hard for many years to bring bt to this point i hope that we can move forward together embrace progress and let's continue to build on successes thank thank you acting president i was start by talking about governing local municipalities said jazz into the first thing that we need to have and if we don't have it we don't have any chance is a vision a clear vision for the them been playing out too is this process which means we want to keep things into closed doors we don't want to invite our communities to be part of the process to building a greater and sustainable community we been working so hard for many generations to make sure that we stand against corporate to make sure that every single resident can strive every single resident will feel that they martyr that they part of the process we have been provided that option to the resident of burlingto way group of people who stood up among us and i think it was supposed to even be the city to find a couple of people and say hey bless you bring bring us a proposal if we did not do it a group of people stood up and proficient us well educated people who have knowledge of very respected indiscriminately they stood up we did not really behind them but we tried to put them down to let them know that you cannot do it to just have the elite tell it to keep on turning our city doing our due diligence we haven't done it none of us we went to two cows this is a document and it is my conversation we sitting operator wherever he was i don't know but our time frame was so there was a huge gap and listen i'm going to read just something here and i said what are the cities in the united states couldn't be using ting internet services his name is chris he said hi ali have you been operating telecom business and he made it very clear because all of us we missed that thing is new thing has only been operating was launched in thirty five people to keep on operating it we haven't done our due diligence the way it should be we haven't gone to maryland we haven't gone to virginia to see how we went to two cows a company that was created in one thousand nine hundred ninety three there is a big difference in my own sense what i feel like is important is we need to come together in stand against corporate people who are able to run we have no knowledge of people with that know about finances that have expertise in laws in regulation in hiring in returning why can't we make that happen it's not about the fourteen percent interest rate again it's not about that we hired a financial adviser he was here i'm not lying we all know he was right here and i said yes didn't he say that he said that right here and again a knowledgeable person we have telecom expertise we have a financial expert we have billing tony and seven thousand people who are able who are not going anywhere and we also have the ability to bring more the only option in getting  seventeen millions back east to find way for burlington telecom and the be employees to work together to make it happen we are going to win we haven't done our due diligence in going even to man fiber and asking are you going to really lend us this money we haven't done it and we are going to this what tonight it's about our identity we voting about the identity of this community are we corporate do we want to build a sustainable community do we want to leave a legacy to our children is about it's not about the thirty million or twelve million ease about the legacy we want to leave not for you for me not for you to be reelected again zz's is about our future the best choice for our president for our country the best choice to show the rest of the nation is we start taking our own set into our own hands we not letting anybody say something about the president on down because also her expertise in knowing the economy how it works she just brought up something new that i never thought of is this company five ten years how this company will become until we feel like we can do it nothing great will come out of here it starts you he starts from inside you started was that really a vision and as leaders we need to make sure that every single person living in burlington and in communities can strive the best option is not to bring those we let go is a shared success for the council and we've done it every step of the way over the last five and a half years together and it is certainly my hope that we can find a way to finish the job together hopefully tonight  regardless of tonight's tonight's outcome and i appreciate the ongoing discussion and look forward and one form or another to continue and i think there may be more discussion of that tonight it strikes me having a listen to this first round of comments leading up to the first vote there you know there's been a lot of conversation about essentially equity investments and how to take get the best return on the asset that we have some share of you know i find it interesting that this has been the focus tonight and i just feel  one thing that i have learned i think we've learned together as a council is how difficult it is to project out into the future what company is going to seed to succeed financially who is going to grow the most create the most returns we actually interestingly as a council and a ministration chose to move away from trying to pick winners with respect to the way we manage our pension fund and and we did that because it's almost impossible to do you know no one has a crystal ball about exactly who is going to succeed the most how our equity share my grow the most in the future let's be really clear that essentially all the bidders in this competition  offered very comparable all share of equity the equity percentage that the city could end up with has essentially been calculated the same way with each of their from proposal that's been done  a percentage of the net sales proceeds of the city will earn in the transaction as a percentage of the valuation and that doing that math is why it ends up with about twenty percent is the equity share with  proposal only twelve and a half percent with key b t l proposal the fact that another proposal suggested the city could earn up to about could could have about up to about thirty percent equity you know really i think  is not a distinction i recommend we focus on here and that really that would require additional money being put in the scene may or may not be privy to but the point is this if if we are going to have if we're  make this decision on how much our equity is going to grow in the future i think it's very hard for any of us to know what that's going to be none of us has a crystal ball if you did have to make a guess i have a hard time understanding why we wouldn't guess on those grounds that will have the best chance of growing they are the ones that have committed the most resources to growth they have been unique in that they have said they will spend more than fifty million dollars over the next decade to grow the asset they are hands down the best operators in the space they are hands down the operators that have most invested in fiber and expertise and fiber their day they have focus their business entirely on that so i think it's you know if we were going to make it on those grounds i think they would have a survey a strong case that said i don't think that's where we should be making this decision i think we the decision comes down for me at least to who is going to do best who is going to do right by our can to our constituents who is going to offer the most affordable prices who will have the best customer service who will run burlington telecom with progressive values around net neutrality around privacy policies around digital divide policies on those fronts demonstrably king has by far the best record of all the companies all the competitors that have been in this process from the beginning all eight of them and i think we do a disservice to the people we represent when we overlook that record entirely and write it off simply because the business has been organized in the legal go second round thank you president right i don't view this as a vote about our identity i have articulated my support for thing in the past and that has not changed over the past three weeks i think framing it as a vote about identity ignores the specifics of the bits one being for twelve million dollars and one being for thirty plus million dollars i've not heard anyone articulat vision in terms of how if is the successful bit or there is a path forward to them we we have been told in no uncertain terms that citibank will bring suit against us all we have to do is go look at that e mail i mean that was the sternest email i've i've seen litigation with citibank will cost the taxpayers in order to defend it will distract this counsel and the administration from other priorities that really have been left as we've been engulfed in this decision and it will also cause additional uncertainty for employees and staff at bt litigation doesn't end in months it's potentially years it's going to further impact negatively impact to a pain a certificate of public good the p u c is likely to stay proceedings until that litigation is concluded since any damages own to citibank will have to come from the taxpayers in violation of our city charter we have also received two very credible threats of taxpayer suit if we choose  also requires the consent of bluewater holdings that consent is conditioned on whether they determine whether k b could obtain a c p g in a timely manner we reached out and requested pre approval bid they politely declined to offer that pre approval but did note that they had serious concerns about whether k v can obtain a c p g from the p u c so adding its first time operator status lack of management experience and proposed debt financing reflecting junk bond status or worse they also side of the delay associated with litigation with citi capital and tax payers and finally because the offer price is so much lower than other bidders i think council hartnett said it best last week that they said no without actually saying no in light of those i do not understand how gets through the other thing to keep in mind is one of the management services agreement we don't get a do over if we don't do this right by december thirty first of twenty eighteen the city of burlington loses the ability to select the better i appreciate not everyone at this table maybe namrud with the two finalists but we've we've undertaken a significant long process to get here and i don't believe there's any certainty that the bidders the next bidders will be any better in addition over the last three weeks a number you know as has been articulated some of us visited ting and saw first you know up close and personal what they stand for and i will echo the sentiments around the table that i believe they are will be a good steward asset the last thing i really haven't heard although a number have spoken about their business with the employees what i heard which is something i hadn't fully appreciate it is the bt employees were very interested in taking this overbuilt asset and using it to its full potential under the ting bid with a fifty million dollar investment they are excited to take this to the next level under the k b t l offer there is in essence a standstill until the ten years is up when the debt service has been repaid the concern that was articulated was that fiber to the home is a real thing and it's going to happen and if bt does not take this opportunity to build in the surrounding communities that opportunity will be lost you so i've listened to all of you as each one of you shared your journey to tonight's vote and that matters to me  and other things matter to me too so i just want to reflect a little bit on the fact that there are two things that are really forefront for me  city has made a lot of decisions that have really divided us and is our process working the current process or should we do it differently how do we engage how do we talk to each other differently and they're referencing the town center and now this vote i think that's something that we need to reflect on after tonight also because i think it's really a very important observation and some people have spoken to the process inclusive xclusive except for the other thing that i wanted to share was that it doesn't seem that long ago for me but for many of you it would be a long time that i was in this room and people were speaking with adelphia present speaking in support of us going into the cable business and there were people that said you know that's for the private sector the city of burlington should not get involved but there was the hope and promise of potentially offering a service that would be would be be able to compete with adelphia now comcast that would actually help control prices it was a monopoly and there was a concern that people that were on fixed incomes couldn't get services that they needed and so i'm reflecting on that too that was a very interesting process and i've been there all along and i've helped make good decisions and i've helped make bad decisions i own all of them and i'm reflecting on all of that too i was one of the counselors who have not had the opportunity to meet with the employees of bt i did speak with abby over the phone this afternoon but stephen and i have been in contact and conversation for forever it seems and i feel that i have honestly shared my concerns and and seek his advice and his insight as how he's managed bt so i feel i understand stephen's vision and how he manages and what he thinks is best for the entity and i have not had the opportunity to hear directly from employers with they feel is best but i have heard from fellow counselors so that leaves me to not really regurgitating what everyone else has the you know the the letters of intent are out there for everyone everyone knows what one putting will offer everyone knows what keep beattie local can offer everyone knows the the the downside of each proposal so when i'm looking at voting i'm looking at tho that's what's before me and i'm thinking about the employees of bt who currently are employed there i'm thinking of those who have left who actually started that company and really stayed with it for a long time and didn't benefit from steven's leadership but were there and were there to start it i'm thinking of the citizens who made that investment so yes there's an investment of time from the employees there's an investment of money from the residents of burlington and there's concern from all of the residents about now losing that ant to t or losing their say in that and to t and i understand you know council mason and i are on the ordinance committee and it's not like i value his opinion more than anyone else's but we we work together and i do value his opinion a lot and so you know when he when he makes statements i really reflect on them and think about you know what what that means and and it's not just about local control i agree councillor mason it's not just about local control but it really is about not just the money on the table either it just isn't about that either we want to get some money back from the investment we want to pay back somewhat the the residents of burlington we want to pay back citibank we want to do the right thing all of us want to do the right thing and so here i am before you all thinking what is the right thing so some of my ward one residents and thank you all for all of the comments that you shared with me about how i should vote or what you think and i really mean that because that really keeps me right it is in this turbulent  water so you know everyone was saying well we're worried we're worried because this council is divided we don't feel good about any decision that is so divided and lopsided so why do you have to make this choice when it feels like you don't really have the right entities in front of you that garner the support why do you have to vote right now and so i said well because and the timeline has been addressed that if we go to january first two thousand and eighteen the percentage of money that the city gets is reduced significantly and so and so some of you not all of you but some of you had said oh well i'd rather have you make the right choice then get that additional money i don't want to feel like that timeline is going to force you to make a choice that we're going to regret forever so i want all of you to hear that because i'm just echoing what the people that i represent are saying to me so i'm not looking to delay mr mayor so i can see mr mare wrote worried he's looking at me going oh my god where she going with this well i'm not really going anywhere except to just state all of the factors that are coming at me and what goes into my process i'm not an economist but thank you president no del for enlightening me because i need that information just like i need the information from everyone else who shared their insights whether they went to toronto or not or you know really the passion that that concert django offered i mean that that what he had to say really resonated for me and it was so honest and raw and i appreciated that so i find myself with two choices and i find neither of them perfect anybody that thinks that either of these choices of perfect really you know what everyone in this room knows that there are there's not a perfect choice probably in any of the proposals but i think that there were some choices that allowed us to breathe life into the entity to not risk the entity to not frustrate the employees and to not leave the citizens saying what have we got a few million dollars and no so i at this time am going to after all of that i am going to say that what i hear from tng i didn't find the substance yeah there are some dollar amounts but in find the substance and i mentioned those last at the last meeting you know are dramatic changes in the i asked specifics and i was unhappy with the lack of specifics i understand this is just a level letter of intent but anyways so i feel both sides are saying you know trust me and offering promises and right  now my indicator based on who i represent and i'm not trying to kind of throw off my financial implications to all of you by any means by what i'm going to say but right now i feel that i need to stay with keep beattie local at this juncture and so and so that's the way i'm going to vote and i've tried to explain how i've come to this and what i see the risks and then hopefully we will start moving toward our first or a vote thank you acting president right i will be just really really brief acting president right i'm i'm very disappointed that the mayor has found my analysis shallow  and i am not sure that i was successful in getting across my main point in there which was not to predict who is going to grow the fastest but to emphasize the importance of the terms of a potential sell back of our share  which have been unfavorable in the case of team what in what they have committed to put on paper and and i think this is just a key point for me it's not a small point for me it is not something we can just overlook and move on and say we'll figure it out later because we figured out later we're going to have no bargaining power and things recognition that we had no buying power is why they put in that discount language they took it out because it was a political problem but they didn't put anything better back and that was really my key point and i wanted people been talking about that teaching will be build out to neighboring areas and just wanted to reference the october twenty ninth ela why they commit to expanding out within burlington north in downtown twelve hundred addresses within burlington identify the city some tenet units and businesses quote we will also review plans for neighboring areas the vote is tied six to six and we will take our first recess counsel is in recess and we will we will look to come back and we totally we can be back about ten thirty excuse me that clock is wrong we'll be back about nine thirty  us we sent out a search party we are back in full force and back on the table is going to the resolution is that we have another vote after the first recess and so i don't think it calls for there to be more debate but another vote after recess so we have taken a roll call so i think that we would ask the clerks to clerk to call the roll call again counselor dean counselor shannon yeah could someone actually ask councillors in the hallway to saunter back this way all right we are back again and i am going to come back from the recess where we've had two deadlock votes have fallen following the procedure that we have set up in the resolution i am now going to ask if the council is ready to cease voting and look at other options is the council ready to cease voting i'd like a show of hands of all those in favor of ceasing the voting at this time please raise your hand we have a majority of those opposing a check with each other we have we have a majority that have voted to cease voting that's the process of the resolution with that we want first we will go be going to is going to make a motion but first there was a conversation that occurred that we would like every port on from both to representatives of tang and from k b t l to allow to give us an idea well tell him they need to cease discussing and come in time is up  certainly you know as always what we're looking to do is what's best for the for our community and if there is a desire that we see keep beauty local and the and tang speak we're certainly walk you know happy to do that we don't know whether there's a place to go with us we don't know what the end results would be but having conversations and trying to see if there's a place for you know a mutual way to work through this is certainly an option that we'd be open to looking at again i don't know what an end result would be i don't know if an end result could get there but looking for it you're looking and attempting something i know there's a resolution from the council that asking us to do that in the council adopt that we'd be happy to take a look at that and see what kind of thing arrangements we might be able to make i think we both recognized that there is some philosophical alignment about doing what's best for the community could you pull the microphone on a little bit thank you we recognize that there's philosophical alignment in doing what's best for the community and we talked about some broad concepts that we would that both parties would be agreeable to and we suggested that we work out more details over the coming week and that the resolution that is going to be introduced would set the stage for that doubt thank you so we're any firm commitments made in the conversation in the hallway now just just a commitment to discuss further over the next week thank you very much and the other council have a know we're not they're not there we're not there yet cancer her that's going to be part of the cancer jang has to make his motion and then we need to see whether there's any changes proposed to that so we're not quite to that discussion yet  so all right thank you we appreciate that so we'll turn to cancer jang now who is going to make a motion an amendment to the motion that authorizes the mayor to telecom b t l and to cause us to can create an ongoing fund that support technology initiative in our community that benefit our entrepreneurs our youth later than november the teen the next city council meeting failing failing to address this venture proposal with this process on how that it was handled with some bidders being asked to withdraw without the council input we read quizzing and then themself i believe that having two parties sit down and work out our joint venture bring back would bring much closure to the whole community and i think when we talk about who would be that person who would be that entity who would help those two entities the person that comes to mind is peter i feel like if we request he's expertise he's experience in cannot solve our problems no one will do it for ourselves we have a huge we have a huge work to do a lot of work that we need to do and together we can it so that's what i just wanted to thank you thank you councillor jang really the motion to suspend the rules council no del president acting president right i moved to suspend the rules to continue working until we have completed this item  right thank you that requires a two thirds majority any of those in favor of the motion by cancer no doubt to suspend our rules of continue our work to the end please raise your hand he opposed passes unanimously and i will now paul thank you acting president right so i have a number of amendments to to this reason to these resolved clauses when to try to do them as efficiently go through the go through them by sentences in the first sentence after the word venture on the second line it would say venture comma in concept not the legal construct proposal that addresses the following first bullet point at the very end the words through a co op model would be deleted number in number two the second the second bullet point would be deleted number three the third bullet point the words if the city ops to take an equity stake would be before the word how after the word after the acronym would be the word and two cow ting would that's on the second line the words along side a city representative on a governing would be deleted and the word an advisory board of the new k b of the new bt would be added bullet point number four at the end of that sentence  where it says over time the words by creating a process to determine allocation of tings community impact funding would be added those are the changes that i have thank you  you have a point of order imagine a request actually could counsellor paul go back and and go through them again please i'm sorry but it was a little too quick for me and i lost you in a couple of through a co op model would be deleted the second bullet point would be deleted the third bullet point before the word how would read if the city after to cow ting the words alongside a city representative on a governing would be deleted and that place be added an advisory in the fourth bullet point after on the second line after the word overt after the words over time it would say by creating a process to determine allocation of tings community impact funding period and i can give the does the clerk's office think they have this i see their eyes are crossing over there like mine are ok everybody feel hear from cancer montreal again paul referenced your agreement to the idea of to these amendments and one of those is taking out the language through a caught model do you support that and if so why would resolution are having us try to work together i think you know holding true to the cost model is something that's really important whether it's in the resolution or not in the resolution you know that's where you know our view is we need to hold true to to that concept but i don't think the resolution frankly you know directing it that way is has that much significance for us because again our view is to hold true to that as much as possible and i don't know again if we'll be able to reach anything but you know i've gone into settlement discussions mediation discussions enough to know that when you go into something you want to have a broad range of tools available to you so if the council wants to keep that in that fine if the council ones to take it out that's also fine because that's where our beliefs are to begin with so that we're going to be holding to as much as we can ok thank you very much mr cancer bush or thank you so if you would stay there and i have another question so my my focus is on that third bullet where it changes from a governing board to an advisory board and talks about only if we up to take an equity stake in the or in the entity and so i just wanted to understand  i understood what you said before about the broader language which i understand when you read mean it's gone it's just not in black and white it can be can still considered but when you change the language to say only if and change governing to advisory that is in black and white and that is different and so could you just be to how he felt about that i don't have that language right in front of his high power ties on that but you know if again i think that going into discussions like this with them those are some of the elements that we think are really important and so whether it's in the resolution or not in the resolution those are areas that we'd be looking for if the council feels like that's important enough to me to just say it but for that we don't want to move forward i keep it in but going into a negotiation or trying to see if there's a place for us to be able to work together which i honestly i don't know that there is but if you but to try to explore that there may be other avenues that we're not even thinking about and so you know in my view when you're going into something like this rather than be boxed into any particular corners it's better to have the flexibility and having flexibility doesn't mean that you get to the end result that you want may mean that you don't get to the end result that you want but there may be other ways of getting there  any particular way that stated thank you but you know i appreciate your feedback i see this language this particular language is more restrictive and not as open ended as you interpret it is not involved and not as they called it what can you come up with a resolution with the help of a system of that media person and how would you decide who would be that person knowing that you probably not local but you can be also somebody who is outside of who's not a burlington you know ideally i think we would start exploring this on our you know just with the two parties but if it came to that we could certainly find common ground and find somebody that worked for both parties and this is also another question too because i don't know how things work but i consensus on this on this amendment as a whole right all right so we are think ready to vote on this so all those in favor of the amendment my counselor paul to the motion my counsel please raise your hand i would like to offer another amendment and relates to the very last clause so the amended language would say failing to provide a joint venture proposal from both k b t l and to coaching by no later than november thirteenth the city council would reopen the burlington telecom sale process decision at the nov twenty seventh city council meeting that we know what happens this is a promising process i hope that it has been a bears fruit that if it doesn't i think it's good for us to walk out of here tonight knowing what would what would be the next the next step thank you  the say that i support the the amendment in the new the new language that came prior i look at part of the part of this document as not so ironclad i really do want you to to run with that with the third party and confirmation thank you acting president right i guess my question and i'm not sure to whom this is directed is what if the council is not willing to accept i mean is the expectation that we would vote on the joint proposal and if that went down we would reopen the process i'm just trying to figure out this just as if they don't come back with a proposal cancer nobel projects address and just a point of order i had similar questions so i was wondering if we could vote on this amendment and then come back to that ok and any other any other discussion on the no del amendment and that is as she indicated separate process as we go forward for november twenty seven them to beat and come back with a joint proposal by the thirteenth and then provides if they don't then we reopen the process so i guess i'm trying to figure out what happens if they come back with a proposal that is not acceptable to a majority of the council house or no doubt yes i had a similar question so my question was so who decides if they have six who decides if they have succeeded write a coming up with the joint venture proposal so my understanding would be that they would only bring a something if if they mutually agreed to this proposal but that it would still be up to the council to have a vote a yes or no vote on the now blended proposal that would be before us and that would we could make th judgment then whether this is a six model that we think can succeed moving forward or not maybe that doesn't shine light so then the follow up the expectation would be assuming it did not pass under this language we would reopen the process to the for better with an expectation of a final vote on the twenty seventh i think that would be the expectation cassar no del yes i think the concept in this is this is a roof concept that we would go we could go from forty two to one at one mutual agreement come back to us and tell us that both parties have agreed the council will then vote whether we we agree with that agreement that we signed onto it and if not if that does not happen if either one of those two things don't happen then this language will kick in and we will pass or not oh yes just to further clarify i'm sorry i'm taking too much floor time i think it would be it would be a most probably a ting letter of intent was some kind of appendix or or kind of comp supplementary document that is laying out the terms of the working together city or there would be some some documentation for us to right great thank you shannon thank you i so so we would vote if this effort failed and they were not able to come to agreement or it was not acceptable to the council then we would bring back the four bit bidders and we would start the voting process as we have previously agreed is that correct i think we could then have another conversation about how we wanted to run the voting process for the twenty we would necessarily have to i think we resign to renew an agreement and decide how we want to vote is that something we can work out tonight so we know how it is we're voting prior to the thirteenth i think we'd better serve to work that out after rather than tonight  come to an agreement on that the council still have to watch to vote on that and anyone else are we ready to vote yes or tracey thank you president acting president right i just want to say that i'm disappointed that the language regarding through model was eliminated i like you know the strong supporters of the co op and particularly drew drawn to the cooperative model and that i think is a fundamental difference that exists within the model i wish great luck in trying to reconcile these two very different proposals i think that we're at a point where we at least have to try that and see if we can come to an agreement but i'm really for those of you who are strong coffee supporters please don't take this as you know a backing off or away at least on my particular part thank you and thank you cancer day for bringing this forward i have mixed emotions about this isn't it ironic that it was and it was a bad decision and actually i have mixed emotions because i'm in hopes that you don't come because tang is not the right partner for britain and so many ways and there are better partners out there including the two that we could add back into this and we could get to a better place so i'm not sure if i'm going to support this because i said to beginning i could never right think because her comments are are we ready to vote counts or shannon i'm concerned that we may not know whether or not they have reached an agreement until monday and at that point if they haven't reached an agreement then we're going to have a vote on we're going to narrow the vote that day i don't really even know what we would narrow the vote on i don't know what the offers i don't know what the offers would be how could we do that on the thirteenth i really are we narrowing the vote on the thirteenth if they don't come ok so we on the thirteenth we bring them back but we vote on the twenty seventh is that correct del my understanding the timeline would be that on the thirteenth we have a report back if they are successful there is some kind of documentation of their agreement that they both really have both agreed to and the council would vote that night on whether to accept that and to authorize the mayor to move forward if that fails then on the twenty seventh we would go back to the four and go from four to one on the twenty potentially you know updated l a wise from all parties confirmation this counselor china does bring up an important process question this requires them to come back no later than the thirtieth which is that they have our meeting given the overwhelming public interest in this i think you both can appreciate the need for us to digest whatever you come up with our advisors as well as the public so i'm not sure what date we should be using but i think the thirteenth is too far on one side  suggestion if you're amount of might be the front you know friday five o'clock or something that would allow us the you know the weekend and monday to get this out to constituents as well as have our advisory i think that that's an excellent point by counter mason i think that we don't want to get something on the day of the meeting or the night of the meeting that's jank and i think what we talking about here on the thirteen is actually for us to discuss that proposal it doesn't mean that they will not receive the proposal before hand but we will be discussing it here and then sending it to the mayor for signature ok thank you so so having heard that can we just can we just ask you to if you have something that you that gets worked out  have it to us by the end of the day friday or report to us whether there is something for us to be considering your best and at the very least we hope to provide a report of where we are ok all right thank you very much with that i think we are ready to vote so all those in favor of this additional language an amendment please raise your hand