Democratic Gubernatorial Forum: Follow Along!

Around 6:30 p.m., the five Democratic candidates for governor will take the stage in Burlington for an hourlong forum where each will answer four questions about Vermont's environment.

This is the second time the candidates will meet to talk about how they, as governor, would tackle various environmental challenges. The last time, however, Sen. Doug Racine (D-Chittenden), was out of the country at the time.

Tonight's forum is being hosted by the Vermont League of Conservation Voters, and will be streamed live on WPTZ. It's being held inside the Main Street Performing Arts Center in Burlington.

Council Balks at Burlington Telecom Refinancing

After two hours of feisty, and at times acrimonious and partisan debate, the Burlington City Council early Tuesday morning scuttled a $61.65 million refinancing proposal for Burlington Telecom.

Mayor Bob Kiss came to the council with a resolution offering to repay any money BT borrowed from the cash pool since October 1 within 60 days, while at the same time seeking council approval to work with financier Piper Jaffray to fully develop a refinancing deal to keep BT afloat and help it complete its buildout.

A complete deal, he said, would come back to the council sometime in mid- to late January for final approval.

In October, the council asked the administration to come back to it with refinancing options, and financing strategies, no later than November 16. Kiss, and Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold, said the proposal with Piper Jaffray was in response to that request.

Of course, no one said the council would approve what the administration proposed. The council also felt as if the administration was unfairly pushing the council to make a rush decision without giving it enough information.

Council Debate on Telecom Continues

Tonight's Burlington City Council meeting will feature three resolutions addressing (what else?) Burlington Telecom.

Also, this week will mark first meetings of two ad hoc committees created by the city council to delve deeper into the problems at Burlington Telecom. One will craft an audit of BT's finances and operations, while the other will examine its governance.

Tonight's council meeting, however, will help to shed more light on the unfolding saga of Burlington Telecom. At issue is what city officials knew, and when, and if they ignored the advice of attorneys.

As I noted in last week's "Fair Game" one resolution, if approved by a majority of the council, would force the public release of various legal memos and correspondence between the city's attorneys and the administration of Mayor Bob Kiss. The memos, all dealing with Burlington Telecom, date back to August 2008.

This resolution is sponsored by Democrats Ed Adrian (Ward 1), Mary Kehoe (Ward 6) and Russ Ellis (Ward 4) along with Ward 7 Republicans Paul Decelles and Vince Dober.

Fiber from the Chaff

As the saga of Burlington Telecom continues to unfold, a growing number of observers are offering their take on the ever-popular topic.

From the pages of the Burlington High School newspaper to the airwaves of Vermont Public Radio, the topic is capturing the public's imagination. Given the confluence of issues in play, such interest makes sense: We're looking at a $17 million loan that was never given an explicit OK by the city council; the use of that money in violation of BT's certificate of public good; a growing revulsion among some people toward anything government-run; and decades-old political turf wars between Democrats and Progressives thrown in for good measure.

As I noted in this week's "Fair Game," there are plenty of parties to blame for missing all the signs of a possible scandal (and the media aren't exempt). But where to go from here?

That's where these commentators come in. I'll simply provide a salient quote and a link to some of the thoughts being offered on how to move forward with Burlington Telecom.

From Log Cabin in Vermont, Couple Fights Reclusive Religious Sect

What would you do if your upbringing inside a fundamentalist Christian community left you scarred and confused — and estranged from family members still inside the sect?

For Tim Twinam, a software developer living in Williston, Vermont, the answer was: Launch a website dedicated to re-connecting lost members driven apart from family and friends by the religion's "doctrine of separation."

Twinam was raised inside The Exclusive Brethren in 1960s England. He couldn't eat or socialize with anyone outside the sect, and TV, radio and university education were strictly forbidden. Internet is also banned.

Today he is the webmaster of Peebs.net, an online community made up of former members of The Exclusive Brethren, which is the subject of this week's Seven Days cover story.

Twinam, and his wife Sallie (pictured), have devoted the last four years to exposing the secrets of the reclusive Brethren and creating a network of "helpers" to assist those who want to leave the religion but don't know how.

Now the Brethren are suing the Twinams in Vermont federal court for copyright infringement, claiming Peebs.net downloaded Brethren-owned sermons and letters that are property of the Brethren.

Lawyers for the sect say they're just protecting their legal property. The Twinams say it's a lawsuit meant to silence their criticism by bleeding them dry financially.

Two attempts to settle the suit have failed and a third attempt is slated for later this month. Meantime, the Twinams told their story in the hope it would raise awareness about a relatively unknown religion with 43,000 worldwide followers, one they say wields outsize influence in the worlds of business and politics.

We've linked to the story here to allow readers to comment.

Photo by Andy Duback.

Lawmakers: State Unemployment Fund Needs Work

A new proposal by the Douglas administration to fix the state's battered unemployment insurance trust fund is expected to draw heat from opponents during a public hearing tomorrow.

Throughout the summer, a special legislative committee has been gainfully employed looking at ways to shore up a fund that House Speaker Shap Smith said “is in desperate need of reform. The fund has been in decline for many years and without reform will go bankrupt."

So, what to do?

The committee is looking a mix of solutions that include everything from reducing benefit levels to increased contributions from employers and short-term borrowing, among other things.

Last month, the biggest news that came out of the committee's hearing was a letter circulated to members by State Auditor Tom Salmon. Salmon recommended changing the maximum benefit to as little as $300, or the levels they were at in 2000. Three other states — Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota — have this benefit level today.

In Vermont, the current maximum benefit level is $425, although the average benefit paid out is $309 a week.

A special legislative committee will meet at 1 p.m. in the Statehouse to hear from administration officials about a new proposal being floated by the governor. The public hearing will be held from 4 to 6 p.m.

The administration of Gov. Jim Douglas is proposing several changes, some of which opponents claim hurt laid-off workers more than employers — employers who haven't had to pay more into the system for years.

The administration's latest proposal would lower benefit levels from a maximum of $425 a week to $400, saving $5 million in 2010 alone, as well as other changes, including:

And Then There Were Four ...

It's official (almost) — former Windsor County State Sen. Matt Dunne will enter the Democratic primary for governor.

"It will not be a big campaign launch with banners and crowds. It will be a more informal occasion with family and a few of the many people I've met around the state who believe, as I do, that Vermont is ready for its next great era," said Dunne in an email to potential supporters.

That brings to four the number of Democrats vying for the right to take on the GOP's presumptive gubernatorial nominee Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie. It's not expected Dubie will face an opponent in the Republican primary.

Dunne joins Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, State Sen. Doug Racine (D-Chittenden), and State Sen. Susan Bartlett (D-Lamoille) in the race to succeed Gov. Jim Douglas, who announced in August that he would not seek reelection.

Got Burlington Telecom?

The ongoing debate in Burlington about the use of $17 million in city funds to keep its fledgling telecom utility afloat has taken up a lot of the political, and policy, discussion in the Queen City.

One frequent, and fun, question that comes up in discussions is: Of Burlington Telecom's 4600 subscribers, how many are city councilors?

I know that's not the biggest question people have, and the formation of two special council committees is a step into finding out answers to the bigger questions around how the money was spent, and whether or not the current governance structure is adequate. As this week's lengthy council meeting proved, there is no end to the angles that can, and will, be explored.

I thought it'd be a fun exercise to find out which councilors buy BT and which buy from other companies. Would they fall into neat political categories? Would the pro-BT voices on the council all have triple play? Would the anti-BT voices have Comcast or whomever?

So, I polled the entire council and with all 14 members responding, their answers may, or may not, surprise you.

Special Council Panels Created to Review Burlington Telecom

Burlington City Council President Bill Keogh Thursday formed two special panels to look into various aspects of Burlington Telecom, the first step in trying to get a handle on how it came to be that the city loaned the fledgling utility as much as $17 million without explicit public knowledge.

That loan came without explicit approval from the city's Board of Finance or the City Council, and because none of the money was repaid within 60 days it's also a violation of BT's certificate of public good.

Mayor Bob Kiss and Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold have said the loan was both appropriate and necessary. Leopold apologized to councilors last week for not being clear in his presentations that money from the city's so-called "cash pool" was funding BT, and said it was a mistake to keep them in the dark about the CPG violation. Leopold said he first became aware of the violation in November, but didn't disclose it to the council until May.

The panels were approved during a long and contentious council meeting that began Monday night and ended early Tuesday morning. Despite the acrimony over whether to put Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold on paid leave, the resolution calling for further investigation into how money was approved and spent on BT's behalf passed unanimously.

Adventures in Elder Wii— Playing Nintendo with the Aged

As I become increasingly aged and decrepit, I need to look beyond contact sports like walking and checkers for my exercise. Recently, I happened upon a fitness system I could get my old bones behind — Elder Wii. For the uninitiated, Elder Wii is the sport of crushing seniors  at Nintendo's Wii Sports. They're old, plus they don't know how to operate technology, so, how hard would it be to destroy them?

Photo at right is of me annihilating an older person. Well, trying to annihilate him.

Well, it's proved harder than I anticipated. Those oldsters are feisty. Plus, they have zero compunction when it comes to smugly telling you exactly what it is you're doing wrong. And by you I mean me.

I found Elder Wii at the Champlain Senior Center on N. Winooski St. in Burlington. Of course it's not called Elder Wii. That's my name for it. The center got a Wii machine about a year ago, and since then they've been using it for their group fitness programs, as well as for general entertainment. It's more active than jigsaw puzzles and requires fewer fine motor skills than crocheting, so it's perfect for the senior set.