City Council Minutes 04-21-2008 SpecialCouncil Minutes: 4/21/08
MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING - MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL
Monday Apri121, 2008 - 5 p.m.
Members Fresent: Clint Herbst, Wayne Mayer, Torn Perrault, Brian Stumpf and Susie
Wojchouski.
Members Absent: None
1. Call to Order.
The meeting was called to order at 5 p.m. The purpose of the special meeting was to review
the management services contract with Hiawatha Broadband Communications for the fiber
optic system.
2. Review.of services,a~reement.
Jeff O'Neill reviewed the negotiations with Hiawatha Broadband on the management
services contract. BVU was the firm the City had looked at originally to provide
management services but it didn't work out due to the inability to get a cable signal.
Hiawatha Broadband Communications (HBC) can provide the signal. HBC was willing to
go with a three year contract instead of a five year contract which was what BVU was asking
for. HBC has a good record of management experience in this area and operates systems in
Winona and other communities. The cable signal is a lot less expensive through this
agreement. HBC comes from a background in government and education. It was felt that
overall HBC was well qualified and reasonably priced. It was a good fit for the City.
Susie Wojchouski asked who had reviewed this agreement on behalf of the City. Milda
Hedbloom and Joel Jamnik had reviewed the document as did Brenda Krueger from
Springsted and representatives from Oppenheimer.
It was noted the employees of the system would be city employees but the manager would be
an HBC employee. It was felt after three years it would be relatively easy for the City to
take over operation of the system.
Tom Perrault had questions on the various acronyms that were used since they were not
defined any place in the agreement.
The consensus of the Council was that this agreement provided mutual benefit to both
h'iberNet Monticello and HBC.
BRIAN STUMPF MOVED TO APPROVE SUPPORT OF ADOPTION OF
TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH
HIAWATHA BROADBAND COMMUNICATIONS. TOM PERRAULT SECONDED
THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
Council Minutes: 4/21/0$
Susie Wojchouski said she would like to have written statement from the City Attorney that
he had reviewed the document. Susie Wojchouski asked about the land by the water tower
for the building site. She felt legally the land should be in FiberNet Monticello's name and
the land should be purchased from the City by the fiber optic entity. There was some
discussion on what would be a reasonable value. Staff will check into this further. The
concern was expressed that requiring FiberNet Monticello to purchase the land could have an
impact the bond sale.
TOM FERRAULT MOVED TO ADJOURN AT 5:20 P.M. WAYNE NIAYER
SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
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Recording Secretary
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