Ed to Bob

A letter from Councilor Adrian to Mayor Kiss...

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November 19, 2009

Dear Bob:

I would like to follow-up on Karen Paul's letter of the other day and Joan Shannon's letter of today. We have, over a period of time, been asking as individual Councilors for many of the documents that were requested of the Administration at the Council's November 16, 2009 meeting. Some of these requests have been for weeks, some for months and in some instances years. The information contained in these documents will likely range from the mundane to the esoteric. Many of us will need help interpreting and understanding them to do our jobs. In addition, the audit and its off-shoots will require money.

Bob, my understanding is that the Administration will soon be requesting a budget amendment to rectify an "overpayment" of PILOT monies made to the City by BT. The overpayment amount is in the 100s of thousands of dollars. My understanding is that most of this payback will come from the DPW for this fiscal year. I am requesting that since you were able to come up with these monies out of the budget of another Department, that you look hard, and that on or before November 25, 2009, you find another $250,000.00 to be put into a special account, to be distributed by a majority of the Council in obtaining independent and expert review of the many working parts that BT contains.

Bob, without getting all of the documentation that we have requested and without having a third party expert interpret this information for us, I will simply not be able to vote to continue the enterprise of Burlington Telecom in its current construction. If this condition is not met, I will also do my very best to convince others to do the same.

Bob, at the Ad Hoc Committee on Governance for Burlington Telecom, Joe McNeil said that if after asking we were not getting the information that we needed as Councilors from the Administration to make decisions, then we needed to demand that information.

Based on that advice Bob, I am demanding that you provide us with the information requested and that you provide us with the moneys to obtain the resources necessary to make that information relevant.

The City and the people that populate it deserve no less from their elected officials.

Heading in to the Thanksgiving holiday, I am thankful for the fact that although we vehemently disagree on how to proceed in this instance, I know that we are all trying to do what we think is best for the City. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. For now, I remain,

Very truly yours,
Ed Adrian