Tonight I attended part of the meeting hosted by the Orem city Council to discuss the $20 utility bill hike to pay for the fiasco Utopia.
Here are a couple of notes I took. I hope the information is reasonably accurate
– Orem owes about $40.3 million for Utopia.
– Orem is interested in charging every resident of the city, $20-$25 a month added on top of utility bills for the next 30 years to pay for the Debt/bonds.
– There are over 30,000 households within the Orem city borders.
– 3100 households are currently using utopia
– No one can opt out.
– Utopia and the partner me say they will be responsible for installing fiber optics under the streets of the city. It will lead up to the house. Any Internet access within the home and any necessary requirements to use fiber optics work within the home will be the responsibility of the Internet Company and the homeowner.
– There were about four milestones that need to be accomplished to make the final decision. Tonight meeting was on the topic of milestone. A decision will not be by the vote of the people, but by elected officials.
– Each household will be responsible for paying $20-$25 a month for the next 30 years.
– June 26 will be the decision to move from milestone one to milestone two
– ISP: means Internet service providers.
– The partner company with Utopia promises about $18-$20 charged all homes.
– The basic service will offer 20 GB up on basic service. This gives you the capability to download 20 Netflix movies.
– Quite a few of the local schools already use Utopia. The government may give them credit for doing this
– Homes will not be billed for the $20 until fiber optics is installed in their part of the city.
– Utopia currently pays $12 service and they will not get any rebate from the $20 fee by the city.
– Milestone two. Additional paperwork and further analysis of the 30 year plan to pay the debt. The same for milestone three
– Utopia has not yet shown a profit. Partner Company says of their experience with setting up major projects. And they will follow the contract that assigned.
– Cost is $20 x 12 month’s ×30 years.
– That Partner Company says that after the 30 years of paying the debt, the assets of the company will provide revenue for the city. (Sorry that we now with the names of the partner companies)
– The more customers that upgrade the basic package to premier package, will contribute additional fines toward the debt.
– You can get additional information of the 76 page document and other documentation from the Oregon website. It also has an FAQ document as well as an executive summar
Concerns by other citizens:
Retirees and families are concerned about paying an extra 2020, $25 when on such a limited budget.
There’s a lot of information is being glossed over.
Many people also concerned about the company’s fulfilling the promises as stated
My feedback to the council:
When I got up I was not very eloquent. I mentioned my perception of inefficiency of Utopia.
I am concerned that they did not have to follow their contract and were not held accountable.
Utopia didn’t follow the contract deadlines.
My concern continues with even the partner.
I am familiar manager with how well the city Council listens to the people from my experiences of previous city Council meetings. I did speak with some sarcasm.
My personal concerns are:
I am concerned that doing any kind of referendum will be useless with a track record of the Orem city not listening to a citizen.
There is also a concern of the city being in debt because of the terrible decisions that previous city counselors made by becoming involved with Utopia.
I’m concerned in city Council making decisions outside their jurisdiction and responsibility
There is worry of the partner companies keeping their promises.
Last time a group of us collected a bunch of signatures, it didn’t have much effect on the city Council. It was clear during a certain meaning that the Council had already made up their decision
I wish there was an alternative option to pay the debt we owe.
