Todd Paris, Candidate for Salisbury City Council, Salisbury, N.C.
♦ The Fibrant-Calix 10 gig news is no doubt the turning point for Salisbury. You see, Fibrant’s birth was somewhat troubled. Over-budget and financially troubled from inception, in addition to the 33 plus million dollars borrowed back in 2008 and 2009, 7.6 million dollars were taken from the water and sewer customers. The 2014 audited budget reveals the city has been only paying the interest on this “loan.” There is some question whether they intend to ever pay it back. Did you know this? Mark Lewis and Brian Miller approved it. We get to vote for them again this year!
Additionally, the audited 2014 budget (page 47 of 168) shows the “Broadband Services Fund’s” total net position as being negative 12.6 million. If you know budgets, you will no doubt note that “Total Net Position” is little more than a measure of value or worth. In other words, Fibrant is 12.6 million dollars south of “worthless.”
Do you folks know that Fibrant’s budget only shows three employees and shifts the rest to the City Budget? While some of the folks at Fibrant do double duty, like running the stoplights; a number of employees, including the sales and marketing employees, do virtually nothing for the city proper, and are not even on the Fibrant budget. The result is an annual subsidy from the general fund, by employee allocation, which in essence subsidizes Fibrant from the city’s general fund in excess of one million per year. Let me repeat this, IN EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR! If this stops, property taxes can be lowered over 3 cents or we could rebuild the surviving remnants of the Salisbury Police Department back into the first rate agency that it used to be.
Of course, that’s all turning around because we now have ten gigabit capacity! We have had one gigabit capacity for some time. Do you know how many companies are using our one gigabit capacity? We hear it’s “three businesses.” If we can only sell one gig to three businesses, how do we expect the same failed marketing strategies and economic development “wonks” to sell ten gigabits?
Then there’s the little “birth defect” from the beginning. Did they tell you about Atlantic Engineering? They were the original contractor that ‘strung the lines.” They underbid the project and came back asking for more money. The city refused. As a former Duke Power employee, you would probably know that all installations on the poles have to be in compliance with the National Electric Safety Code. A “run and gun” ensued and much of the network was installed without meeting code, endangering the lives of utility workers since 2009. Was Atlantic Engineering’s performance bond “pulled?” Has a lawsuit been filed? Have we started fixing this at our own expense? Has the statute of limitations expired? Is the cost for “the fix” over 4 million dollars? Are certain persons on council so embarrassed by this nonfeasance that they have told Fibrant employees not to talk about it? How long will the city continue to kick this can down the street because they don’t have the cash to fix it?
Calix Inc. will fix everything. It is a multi-million dollar corporation that Van Geons and the city say will save us and lead us into the new 10 gigabyte century. I am so glad that someone did their due diligence on these folks.
Calix stock is down from $12.00 per share to $7.00 per share. Last quarter they had a loss in excess of 5 million from operations. Their six month loss was in excess of 17 million. Of course, RFP “lies all the time!” A link to Bloomberg is attached. Another link to a financial website is attached that says that on a scale of “one to a hundred” that Calix’s predicted likelihood of bankruptcy is over seventy out of a hundred! Of course, I just know what I read. Maybe Van Goens and the Council need a class on how to use the “google box?” It took me ten minutes to find this.
Have Van Geons, Paul Woodson, Maggie Blackwell, Karen Alexander and Brian Miller already signed a contract with these guys? If Calix does go “belly-up,” are we going to be stuck with a bunch of equipment and no support or software updates? How will this loss be absorbed? Will there be another raid on water and sewer funds? Will Spencer, Granite Quarry and the other small towns that linked with our water and (or) sewer just have to “suck it up.” Will the bond rating folks downgrade us once again?
Well, the links are below. The judges at the courthouse say “show your work!” This 10 gig pig is going to need lots and lots of lipstick. In retrospect, Calix and Fibrant may be the “perfect match.” We are so lucky Duke Power has not forced us to spend millions to make our poles safe!
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=CALX
https://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/CALX–Probability_Of_Bankruptcy
