[Imc-makerspace] Fwd: Your help needed to support public broadband in the public interest

[Danielle Chynoweth]

Care about the future of public broadband?

Two ESSENTIAL meetings this week: Mon 7pm Urbana City Hall & Tues 7pm
Champaign City Hall.

The original proposal was to give all $33 million in public assets to a
private non-profit that could meet in secret.

Thanks to all the public pressure, the cities are now considering leasing
to a non-profit and have made some improvements to the bylaws primarily
ensuring the board members remain appointees and can only be removed for
cause. (Yes, democracy is alive and well in CU).

NOW is the time to speak up to ensure the network we worked so hard to fund
and build operates in the public interest.

The proposal for Urbana City Council (which was clearly written by a tired
attorney and it is bit hard to follow) can be seen here:
http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/ordinance-2013-08-065.pdf

First read observations:
- The opening resolution still mentions transferring assets.

- It appears there are a number of hurdles to leasing - we need to pressure
them to overcome these hurdles quickly.

- The proposal has assets returning to City of Champaign on behalf of the
consortium - I am worried about this since Champaign has had cold feet with
the network and grant at various times.

- The bylaws changes don't go far enough. We need to not allow them to
close a session without 2/3 vote nor take action without a public meeting
(note the Written Consent section).

- Meetings are not required to be in Champaign County or be held in a place
accessible to the public. This must be required in the bylaws.

- Issues of minority inclusion that were raised repeatedly in the last
meeting are not addressed in the revisions at all unless I am missing
something.

I am following this issue closely and can try to field questions.

Hope you can come speak at these essential meetings.

Danielle
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