iProvo committee meets for first time, is critical of operations

PROVO — Less than 12 hour after its formation, the iProvo review committee met Wednesday and, during the meeting, made critical assessments of the city-owned fiber optic network and its management.

The City Council-approved review board — which includes a list of who's who among local politicians and businessmen — met at 7 a.m. at the Covey Center for the Arts. City Councilman George Stewart said city officials organized the committee and approved it Tuesday night to provide alternative assessments regarding the ongoing viability of iProvo and the repayment of iProvo debt obligations.

"(iProvo is) the single most important financial issue facing our city," Stewart said. "We need to find some way to close the deficit."

At issue: iProvo has lost an estimated $9.5 million since 2003, and Stewart said he estimates the telecommunications network will cost the city another $2 million. Earlier this week, Mayor Lewis Billings presented a list of strategies to turn iProvo around, including charging city departments for their use of the network, increasing subscribers or even privatizing the network.

Although the board was formally organized to discuss iProvo's financial situation, critical remarks were directed at the mayor's office and its management of iProvo.

"If you can't budget and meet it, then you got a management problem," said Ron Eliason, vice president of Capital Community Bank.

Provo spokeswoman Helen Anderson said she's heard about some of the critical comments made at the meeting and said a response will be forthcoming.

City Councilwoman Cindy Richards said the board is not targeting any single person for the current state of iProvo.

"This is about attacking a problem," she said. "That's why we're looking at numbers."

Sen. Curt Bramble, R—Provo, said he wished Billings would have been present at the meeting to explain some questionable numbers he spotted in one of the consultant reports commissioned by the mayor's office to explore alternative ways to make iProvo profitable.

Bramble, a certified public accountant, said he noticed the report, prepared by Franklin Court Partners, stated the average number of iProvo subscribers is 184 per month. But, according to figures for June 2007 to March 2008, Bramble said the average is much lower: around 81 per month.

Bramble said he wouldn't present a report before the legislature that ignored the most recent trends.