April 24, 2006

Comments of Mayor Kevin R. Burns

Ladies and Gentlemen…before we kick-off tonight’s meeting I’d like to address recent action taken by this City Council and the, dare I say, curious behavior by one of our corporate citizens – AT&T. 

One week ago, This City Council enacted a temporary moratorium regarding the placement of utility boxes on City ROW’s.  Our action was not punitive, as some would have you believe.  Rather, the moratorium was enacted to ensure that the City’s professional staff and elected officials are given ample time to study the implementation and impact of the project being proposed by AT&T.   Project Lightspeed as it is known, requires rather large fiber optic cabinets, which fall under the scope of those called out in Geneva’s moratorium. 

Enacting the moratorium touched off somewhat of a media blitz – a full-page ad in one paper, an editorial in another and a slew of e-mails from AT&T employees – some of whom reside in Geneva and some who don’t – to me and my colleagues on the City Council. 

Similar tactics were employed in communities nearby who chose the same conservative approach to protecting their communities ROW’s  Our friends in Batavia, Carpentersville, North Aurora, Roselle, and Wheaton (to name a few) share the same

AT&T wants you and me to believe that this sudden interest competitive video services and technological infrastructure improvements are the result of a grass-roots effort.   Nonsense; it more closely resembles Astroturf…there’s nothing real about it. 

The fiber optic cabinets in question are approximately 4’ X 5’ X 2’.  And, according to estimates, nearly 30 of these cabinets will be required to service the citizens of Geneva.  The 6 megabyte question is…where will these boxes be placed?  We don’t know yet.  That’s why we need time – and AT&T’s cooperation – to determine the very real impact of this project. 

Again, we’re not being punitive…we’re being prudent with the assets that are owned by each and every citizen of Geneva…our ROW’s. 

Geneva is ethically and legally required to uphold its video franchising regulations, and as such, require any new entrant to our community to play by the same rules as current providers – commonly referred to as the The Illinois Level Playing Statute.  

This rule is in place to insure that all residents of Geneva are provided the same services and choices.  Not surprising, AT&T does not agree with this “fairness doctrine” and simply wants the rules to be different for them.  Our existing provider, Comcast, is bound via franchise to provide video service to all residents. Shouldn’t AT&T do the same?   

Now, I could go on and on about the flagrant contradictions between AT&T’s plans to upgrade and the amount of money their predecessor (SBC) spent to fight our city initiatives to provide similar services to our citizens two years ago. 

I could show you video footage of a current AT&T executive seemingly attempting to downplay the need of bandwidth to the Batavia City Council two years ago. 

But I won’t. 

I’ll let you peruse all the information you could ever want on the City of Geneva website at your leisure and let you reach your own decision. 

I welcome the cooperation of AT&T and invite them to invest their resources on finding solutions to problems…not causing them.

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