Comments about ‘Provo restructures payments for iProvo’

Many of us have tried very hard to help the council understand that this is just another terrible iProvo mistake.
This council does not get it. I am most dissapointed by Sherrie Hall Everett who should have known better as a councilwoman who did not share in earlier iProvo poor decisions. I am also disappointed in Energy Department Kevin Garlick who has all but destroyed the Energy department's financial future. Get ready for a rate increase and degraded service.

The bottom line for voters here is if you believe that the the Provo City Energy department has no business subsidizing this private company at $1.5 million is to vote against those folks who have voted for this. Also let's not forget that Provo also pays Broadweave $300,000 a year for future services based on the City's own fiber network. During the next 18 months Provo City will send at a minimum $1,950,000 to Broadweave (now Veracity). There will actually be considerabally more dollars sent their way in additional funds for installations and other Energy department freebies.

This of course happens at a time during which all COLA and step raises have been suspended for all Provo City employees. They have also lost their annual bonus and seen impacts to their health insurance. It is obvious that this action is done at the expense of Provo employees and the city as a whole.

apenneysaved...Taylor Oldroyd is that you? Should have known. Quit spewing your venom and get some facts straight for once. You know not of what you speak.

Hey apennysaved it is easy to blast someone anonymously. Come clean with your identity. Based on your past comments during the past weeks it is obvious you are an internal employee with an ax to grind. Give broadband a chance. Your Provo power rates are still 20% less than any muni or IOU utility in the region. If rates go up it is
not because of iprovo but because that is the cost to do business now. Please refer to the cost of service study by an independent contractor being done now. It will show Provo has undercharged for years while subsidizing all customers rates with reserves. Look at the big picture. Provo power is a huge benefit to the city

Smell some payoffs here to Elected officials in Provo City.

Mr Thomas,
I don't think you know Jack! You sound like a desparate director looking to cover his hind end. It has to be very, very difficult to explain why a power company is bankrupting the city and dropping another couple of million into the Broadweave void. When Provo Power has to resume the bond payments, we will see if your claims hold any water. Cost of Service study by an independant contractor? That's hilarious! You have never had an "independant" contrator in the history of your tenure. You manipulate any study you have ever commisioned. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but your time is up! Provo Power could be saving the city's bacon now if you hadn't dragged the city into the fiber business.

This is an interesting form of socialism in Utah county.

All you are doing is postponing the inevitable, taxpayers will end up holding the bag on this boondoggle.

Good luck.

Are you really Jack Thomas? You sound more like the director of the Energy Department who had the dream of iProvo until you completely mismanaged it and wasted millions of our tax payer dollars. Is it better to use a false name or to post anonymously? You are right that Provo Power is a huge benefit to Provo City but that benefit has been marginalized by you draining the Power reserve fund to cover the millions of dollars of mistakes you made on iProvo. Your reserve is now so low you couldn't cover a real emergency like losing a substation. Are you arguing it is good to undercharge? Is this good business sense? We have to raise rates because you drained the reserve fund that you so intelligently believe it was okay to "subsidize" the citizens with. Shouldn't they pay real costs like everyone else? Mr. Eccles was right you are a desparate director continuing to weaken my public utility to cover your mistakes with iProvo. Enough!

The most deafening thing in this entire debate is the silence from the mayoral candidates. We have never publicly heard where they stand. Are you happy with the status quo of the current administration to leave those in place that are resonsible for this fiscal debacle? Do you actually intend to hold accountable those that have left the power company and thus the city on dangerous financial footing.

The power company at one point was fiscally strong with huge reserves. Those reserves have slowly been robbed to cover the terrible decisions made around iProvo. The city is in financial distress thanks to these decisions and we want to know if anyone is willing to hold those accountable for their terrible decisions. Candidates, what say ye?

Mr. Garlick had no power to actually do iProvo. He did not get to vote for the project. He does not control the spending of the reserves of the power department.

Only the Municipal Council could do those things?

It's much too late (7-8 years?) to change the decision (by vote of the council, not Mr. Garlick) to do iProvo. The issue today is what to do at this point in time. This may have been the best option available considering the current situation?

The other two options seems to be to take the network back and either run it or sell it. Both more costly for Provo City than the option they selected?

Why would a Provo City employee post their name if it could cost them a job, promotion or just trouble at work?

The most astounding silence is actually from Lewis Billings, the man who pushed with all his might and mayoral power to get us into Iprovo.

Oh--forgot, that is probably why he's not running. don't blame the council for his failure to tell them the truth.

Off the Mark, you are actually "over the edge" with that stunning opinion. You sound the same as Jack Thomas. Lets blame the Council for what? Because they were given false information? Because the real information that would have made them provide an informed position was witheld and still is to this day? Kevin Garlick mismanaged this venture from the beginning with terrible decisions dealing with the state legislature, letting AEG run all over him and take all the money, giving away millions of debt incurred by providers before Provo let them walk, poor decisions on direction, advertisement, equipment, personnel and development, the list could go on for pages. DON'T try and weasel out of this and blame it on the Council or anyone else. This is yours and Lewis Billings' mistake to own and always will be. That fact can't be changed!

This continuing spin and illusion game that you like to play Off-The-Mark? makes me ill. Mr. Garlick made iProvo happen. He is the conceptual founder of virtually all phases of this misguided project. The council had to vote but were nothing more than pawns with that "deer in the headlights" look in their eyes. They understood nothing. The council time and again just went along with the staff's recommendations stating that they had neither the time or knowledge to make a decision of their own. The use of the Energy reserve fund is the same gun to the head deal with the council. They pretty much do what their told. Of course this will be changing as accountability is restored to Provo.

No matter how hard they try, Billings and Garlick have put our community on very shaky and scarey financial footings. The City is barely hanging on because of them and it most certainly will be no better next year, most likely it will be worse. What does this mean? It means another extension of the couple of years for the employees with no wage increases. Most importantly it means a power rate hike to the citizens. Something that should have been done years ago when it would have been more palpable. But, in their infinite wisdom these two were more interested in their own careers and accolades rather than the public interest and so here we are today, 61.5 million later on iProvo. The sad thing is that the new mayor is the one that will have to clean up this mess. Lets hope he knows first where to start. With those that got us here.

If half of what I'm reading here is true then I am sick by what has gone on in Provo. Why is it that the local paper doesn't seem to think this is newsworthy? Why is there no one sending out the alarm that our leaders have run amuck? I am disguted by the waste of our tax dollars.