Author: BrianR

Greensboro worries about HB1587

Story from the News&Record called Internet bill worries Greensboro about The City of Greensboro’s take on this bad bill hb1587. Nice to see some reporting on this from the Triad.

Bill opponents are most concerned about the ability to offer Internet access, which is increasingly seen as a necessity for businesses and education. They say the proposed restrictions could hurt municipal efforts to recruit businesses or help bring affordable broadband Internet to lower-income areas.

“Broadband is just that important. It’s just like bringing in electricity or water or gasoline, it’s that much of a need,” said ToNola Brown-Bland, an assistant city attorney for Greensboro.

Hey Blogsboro! What say you? Respect and love to my fellow blogging North Carolinians! You should be worried about this too! 🙂

HB1587 passes Utilities Committee

Greater Access to Technology for Everyone

I went to the NC House Utilities Committee meeting this morning. It was held in the North Carolina Legislature building. I’d never been inside before and it was an eye opening experience. I was there to oppose The Local Government Fair Competition Act. Man this bill is anything but fair for local governments and its citizens!

I was extremely proud that Mark Kleinschmidt and Sally Greene, two of my local elected officials, were there too. Lots of people attended who opposed the bill also. The room was standing room only. (That green logo with the acronym G.A.T.E. was also a sticky badge many of us wore at the meeting. Thanks to the work of the City of Wilson.)

Many people, including myself, wanted to speak. But in the end only two people were allowed too. Wade Hargrove, an attorney for the Telecommunications Industry, and Wilson Mayor Bruce Rose.

Mr. Hargrove’s sound bite of the day was, “If you had closed your eyes at the hearing last week [May hearing of this committee], you might have thought you were in Moscow.” Yep. You read that right. He brandished the commie boogie man label. In a room full of local elected officials who’ve sworn to uphold the American way. I’d hazard a bet that they are all capitalist. But in this day and age of right wing control of the USA its ok to pretend you are for us or a commie pinko. Has this man ever heard of socially responsible business practices? Many of the people in the audience laughed out loud at his remark. Some went as far to tell him as he waked by that his statement was taking it too far.

Mayor Rose read a prepared speech defending his City’s work and the rights of citizens to have public infrastructure. In this case a fiber optic network that carries broadband Internet to the people of Wilson, NC. Their network construction is well underway. I have to say I’m jealous. The idea of having megabit fiber coming to my house is enticing. Some lucky people in Wilson will have a great resource at their disposal very soon. The entrepreneurial opportunities will be pretty great I bet.

Please read Sally’s post called When is a public utility not a public utility?. She took great notes. Writer extraordinar Fiona Morgan was in attendance too. She wrote a story for the Indy about this terrible bill called Cities fight bill to limit broadband.

The bill [HB1587] has strong backing on the committee—four of its members are co-sponsors, including committee chair Saunders and Vice Chair Rep. Harold Brubaker (R-Randolph). Its other sponsor, Rep. Hugh Holliman (D-Davidson), is on the finance committee. Campaign finance records show that all five of the bill’s sponsors accepted $4,000 or more in contributions from industry PACs (view chart, “The money connection”). In fact, Wells, who spoke on behalf of the industry at the hearing, personally gave $400 to Brubaker’s campaign last year.

Fiona pledged to continue to cover this story as it develops.

More documentation of this meeting coming soon…

Happy Birthday Sgt. Pepper!

My first Beatles album was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I found it along with The Beatles White Album hidden away with my moms records somewhere. I preceded to play Sgt. Pepper so much I remember my Mom telling me to turn it off. 🙂 Thanks for the records Mom!

Vampire running for Gov in Minnesota

Just in case we’re getting too serious about politics here comes this funny bit o’ fresh air. Laugh. Its funny… or scary. One way or another its scary. This video is a trailer for a documentary about a real candidate. The film crews FAQ says that the Vampire candidate has no control over the shooting or editing. They say its for real. Kinda believable considering a popular wrestler became governor of MN.

City of Fayetteville Opposes HB1587

Yet another North Carolina City opposes HB1587! Fayetteville, NC passed a resolution against the Local Government Fair Competition Act. Here are some good bits.

WHEREAS, HB1587 is not designed to make competition fair, but to greatly hinder local governments from providing needed services where existing high quality internet services are non-existent and where private companies have chosen not to make the investment necessary to provide those services;

snip

WHEREAS, the development of new communications technologies, high speed broadband networks and their expeditious deployment in all our communities is necessary for economic development and community growth in North Carolina into the future to replace our lost textile, tobacco, furniture and manufacturing jobs.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the City of Fayetteville, North Carolina, is against the passing of HB1587, and urges all members of the North Carolina General Assembly to vote “NO” in Committee and if necessary on the Floor of the General Assembly.

City_of_Fayetteville_Opposition_to_HB_1587 PDF

Free Press State Policy Tracker for NC

FreePress.net is keeping track of legislation throughout the United States. Including North Carolina’s bad bill HB1587. From their page Legislation in North Carolina I learned about a good article at MuniWireless.com called Here we go again!.

Here is an interesting bit:

A story this week in ComputerWorld highlights Charlotte where city officials have not proceeded with a deployment announced some time ago, due to the fact that they cannot find a compelling business case to proceed. Charlotte already has a number of different competitive operators. It quotes Susan Johnson, an executive with the city’s Business Support Services department., saying that the city has been unable to find a compelling business case for the deployment because it already has numerous private competing services and relatively low broadband access rates..

That may be true for markets the size of Charlotte, but what about the future of cities whose smaller populations make them unattractive markets for commercial providers? As in Pennsylvania, we have a case where telcos are attempting to force through legislation at the state level that protects potential future markets for them while forcing local leaders to jump through burning hoops to launch needed local initiatives.

One of HB1587’s sponsors is Rep. Saunders from Mecklenburg County, which contains the City of Charlotte. So are Utility committee members Rep. Earle and Rep. Gulley. I’d like to know more about the City of Charlotte’s search for a “compelling business case”. What was the process? How did they conclude it was not “compelling”? In my mind it is worth the hard work to find one.

HB1587 reads like it was written to make it harder for the City of Charlotte to complete a plan not easier. Why would a Representatives write a bill that makes it difficult for his constituencies to make publicly OWNED WiFi happen? Will Charlotte be grandfathered from this bill’s requirements if it should pass as a new clause would allow? Could it be possible that some members of local and state government in Charlotte want to protect telecommunications companies?

Fiscal responsibility of all local municipalities is important. But not at the cost of public safety, education, and equality. We can have good spending, balanced municipal budgets, and municipal networks. Arguments against municipal network construction on the basis of cost are simple diversionary tactics of conservative political pundits who put profit before people.

What should I Vlog about?

I’ve had the itch to make some vlog video for awhile. Bits of short video content delivered via a RSS feed and often times viewable in a browser with the flash plug-in. (ala Youtube, etc.)

But I have a bit of a creators block. So I ask you dear readers, What should I vlog about?

Honestly I don’t like to be in front of cameras. So I don’t want to just babble to the camera about some abstract thing I’m thinking about. (Easy enough todo in writing tho’. 🙂 ) Somehow I was able to speak into a microphone for my podcast despite my mild stage fright. I’m asking you because I want you to participate and be interested in what I make.

I want to know WHAT YOU WANT. Please login and leave a comment. All serious ideas considered. I reserve the right to laugh out loud…

NC HB1587 is still bad

Yesterday the NC House Utility Committee [excel file of emails] meet and discussed HB 1587, “The Local Government Fair Competition Act”. Turns out lots of people showed up and spoke in favor and against the bill. So the committee vote was delayed until Wednesday June 6 at 10am. Here is a synopsis of the meeting I received:

Your emails and phone calls are working! The Public Utilities Committee delayed vote on HB1587 one week, after the industry and a few members of the public spoke. The Committee Chair, Saunders (Mecklenburg) introduced a new version of HB1587 on site, advocated to push the bill to the Finance Committee with a yes vote, and then called off the vote after hearing a number of questions from his committee members (Harrison, Bryant, Coates, Holmes, McComas) and short public comment (Exec Director, North Carolina Telephone Alliance, Mayor from Mooresville, Freedom Works (industry), and Action Audits (Nash County, TJCOG, SEATOA). Saunders will reconvene the Public Utility Committee for a vote next Wednesday, June 6, ROOM 1228, LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. Please repeat your emails to committee members (attached) from your communities. Please repeat your phone calls and please come and speak on behalf of your community. Your members need to understand how this bill hurts the communities they represent! Only that will give them the leverage to vote against the wishes of the Chair.

One result of this meeting was an amendment to the Bill. I think it was in response to many localities who have already invested a lot of money in the creation of municipal networks. (fiber for voice, video, and data) In short a way to grandfather in these communities and protect them against the terrible new rules this bill would impose. Good first concession. But not enough.

This is really bad news for Chapel Hill and even Carrboro. In order to be exempt from the bill the locality would have to be deemed a utility by the rules set in this bill and other laws governing utility regulation. To my knowledge Chapel Hill wouldn’t qualify. (I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Just one citizens interpretation.)

It appears the new parts of HB1587 will allow a local government to become a telecommunications services provider with strict conditions such as:

  • require municipality to hold 2 public forums
  • require municipality to create a business plan
  • require municipality to hold a special election (!)
  • prevent a municipality from subsidizing a service
  • the municipality must PAY ITSELF PROPERTY TAX as if it were a private company
  • must open up ALL of its property to private use for communications businesses (poles, right of way, conduits, facilities…)
  • must keep separate books on this venture
  • shall conduct an individual annual audit
  • the municipality must pay equal to or GREATER the amount of liability insurance as a private provider would pay
  • GRANDFATHER all localities that are defined as a “public utility” BEFORE the date this bill passes

From a business perspective this may seem fair. I mean this would make local governments have to put up with the same difficulties a private business would. Right? Wrong!

I certainly don’t disagree with the idea that community forums should be held or that any group entering into a venture should write a business plan. But these other requirements would seriously cripple cash strapped local governments. Especially ones like Chapel Hill which face IMMENSE growth in the coming years. (growth = expense)

The part that is REALLY wrong about this is that it would turn a locality who choose to become a telecommunications service provider into a entity with the restrictions of a private company. This bill could PRIVATIZE local government! A serious step in the WRONG direction.

Local governments are the most direct form of democratic government in the United States. (They ain’t perfect. That’s for sure. But it is fixable. 🙂 ) They need EVERY tool they can find to protect citizens and plan for their futures. By restricting local government in this way we would be hurting millions of people in North Carolina in a very direct way.

This new amendment is a big threat from the bill sponsors. It basically says go ahead and provide telecommunications. But we’ll make it so difficult for you to get into the business you’ll think twice.

These dirty tactics are the very definition of unfair business practices. Its clear the bills sponsors don’t work for the people but for big business.

Time to email some Representatives again!

PDF HB1587 5/29/07 3:46PM

PDF HB1587 Fiscal Research Report 5/29/07