Yesterday we examined at length the municipal broadband battle going on between three Illinois cities and local competitors SBC and Comcast. Sitting at the table at the heart of that conflict is Ed Hodges, Chairman of a citizens group called 'Fiber For Our Future' and the founder of the Tri-Cities Broadband citizen support website. We asked Ed what it was like going head to head with the big boys; if residents were warming to the idea of municipal broadband; and what the 'Fiber For Our Future' group was all about.

BBR: Can you please tell us what exactly you do for the Tri-Cities municipal broadband initiative? Were you involved in the project from the beginning?

EH: I've been asked to Chair the Citizens Group called Fiber For Our Future. Our stated goal is to support the Municipalities of Batavia, Geneva, and St. Charles, IL in educating the voters about the proposed Tri-City Broadband utility that will be voted on by referendum in all three cities on the 1st of April. The Fiber For Our Future group is, of course, very much in favor of the Tri-Cities building and implementing a Fiber to the home (FTTH) and Fiber to the business (FTTB) transport and support utility.

I became involved in January of this year when I began to realize that the Municipalities were serious about the issue and were ready to move past the research and investigative stages. I attended my first City Council meetings on the subject around mid-January and spoke in favor of this initiative at both the Geneva and Batavia meetings. In recent weeks, I've authorized my business to donate web-space, bandwidth, money, time, and other services to getting the word out to the voters. I've also been asked to speak at several civic and political group meetings throughout the Tri-Cities area.

BBR: How are area residents receiving the idea?

EH: To date, most voters that are given the chance to hear both sides of the argument end up being swayed in favor of the proposal and have stated that they will vote yes during their respective elections on the 1st. However, there are several well meaning and honest opponents to this project. Their stated objections range from the philosophical (Government should not compete in the private sector) to the technical (There are other alternatives to Fiber, such as WiFi).

That being said, there are also a number of not so honorable opponents that have taken it upon themselves to say or do anything that comes to mind. They are handy with the acerbic comment, ready to misrepresent the facts, tell outright lies or deliberately omit pertinent information. What gives me hope though is that most of the citizens of these three cities are a great deal more sophisticated and savvy then our opponents were counting on.

I'm pleasantly surprised myself at the wealth of knowledge concerning business operations and the depth of technical expertise available in this area. I joke about the number of "Fat Brains" that participate on our message board but the truth is, my neighbors know what they are talking about and I'm getting quite an education out of all this.

BBR: We'd read reports that if the idea fails a vote on April 1st,that at least two of the cities would likely go forward with the project anyway, true?

EH: This could be termed a "tricky subject" but the bottom line is that two of the Municipalities (St. Charles and Batavia) are, by law, permitted to post these questions to voters under what's termed an "Advisory Referenda". The distinction is that under Illinois State Law, a city that has reached a certain population becomes known as a "Home Rule" city. Under Home Rule, Batavia and St. Charles representatives are not required to get the voters approval for implementing certain types of services.

I'm not an attorney. So I can't really describe in any greater detail all of the limitations surrounding this aspect but suffice it to say that the Cities felt that they should go to the voters with this Advisory Referenda in order to get an idea for how the residents feel about the issue. Both Mayors from the home rule cities have stated publicly that if this Advisory Referenda fails to get a majority vote, they "could" in fact go forward with the project. None of the Mayors have stated that they "would" go forward, especially if the referenda are soundly defeated. Geneva is not a home rule city and so must abide by the decision of the voters.

BBR: Both SBC and Comcast have truly been firing their PR departments on all cylinders trying to convince area residents that the municipal idea isn't a good one. What do you say in response to local ads run in the paper that paint the concept in a negative light?

EH: I don't mind them painting the concept in a negative light. What I do mind is Comcast and SBC using old school Chicago style politics to get the job done. Now, that's just my opinion but I'll give you a few examples so that others might make up their own mind.

First, SBC and Comcast have both advertised that this project WILL result in higher taxes. They say it as a certainty. They even go so far as telling the reader that the name of the referenda is The Telecommunications and Broadband "Property Tax Increase" Referenda. Another example in the same ad is the statement "If they don't immediately sign up 1/3 of all businesses and households, they'll have to increase your property taxes to pay the tab -- $62 million worth of increases."

The truth is that the utility will need to sign up 1/6th of just residences within a two year period to meet estimated interest payments on the General Obligation bonds that will be sold to investors. Those GO Bonds are the real funding source for the project and the payments on those bonds will need to be met using subscriber fees after an initial capitalization period of two years. There are many more examples but the one that gets me the most is when they state that each and every household will see their property tax increase immediately by the staggering sum of $2,353.

The local city offices that calculate property tax for the three cities are still trying to figure out the math that was used to reach those figures. As an example, the City of Batavia, at my request, used their standard calculation spreadsheets to come up with a number for Batavia residents. My home has a Tax Assessed value of $250,000. If this project is a complete disaster and all $62 million was spent at once with 0 chance of recovery, my property tax would go up $147.

BBR: Are you receiving any outside support or guidance perhaps from operators of other municipal networks?

EH: To date, we have been in contact with at least 7 other municipalities that have offered both advice and commiseration over our battle with the incumbents. And, we've heard some real horror stories that make some of our own troubles seem somewhat mild so far. I was really expecting that our group was going to have to go it alone. But we've had some outstanding community and business support come our way.

BBR: Recently the Tri-Cities broadband website was hacked. Was it discovered who was responsible? Your website claimed that a mailing list was stolen and that users were in turn "spammed". What kind of Spam?

EH: As the sysadmin of the site in question, I'm of course somewhat hesitant to dwell on this issue but I will say this: The review of the log files has been completed and continued investigation is a matter for the proper authorities. There is no evidence to suggest that any serious or long-term damage was done to the server in question. A known exploit of majordomo listserver was used to gain access to the complete mailing lists for three groups. Those lists were apparently given or perhaps sold to a commercial marketing company. That company did what any good marketing company will do, they marketed.

BBR: According to Kane County Chronicle, the three mayors for the affected cities this week claimed that they'll be moving forward now regardless of the vote....do you feel this could alienate residents in the area, particularly those who have been buying into SBC and Comcast's "misinformation" campaign?

EH: The report was published in the local, small town newspaper following a press conference hosted by all three Mayors in support of the initiative. Unfortunately the author was either very tired, very behind in his work, or very incompetent. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he may not be smart enough to be that purposefully malicious, so he must have been worn out from a long day of work and forgot he was supposed to be writing a news report and not an editorial.

As to the question raised, other writers in attendance from some of the larger newspapers at yesterday's press conference wrote much more balanced articles. But in any case, I would refer you back to my comments earlier. By the way, the Mayor of the City of Geneva (a non-home ruled city) has already contacted the newspaper in question and demanded a retraction.

BBR: The Tri-City Broadband Community Support Group is backed by an organization named the "Fiber for our Future Committee". For those concerned that this organization is simply another group of businesses trying to erode Telco territory, how would you respond? What is the "Fiber for our Future Committee"?

EH: Fiber For Our Future is a group of like minded individual citizens and voters in the Tri-Cities area. I say like minded because it's true. Each of us has our own "war stories" concerning residential and/or business telephone, internet and cable television services in this area. Most of us are currently working for large companies or we run our own businesses.

Our ages range from the low 20's to the high 60's with a median age of around 39. There are around 20 regular members and somewhere around 80 supporters. The balance of gender runs about 60/40 in favor of men vs. women. Although there have been some business contributions in the form of money or like kind services, most of the funding we've been able to raise has come from individual donations.

We are registered as an official political action group in Kane County, IL and we do publish our financial statements as required with the county and state board of elections. In the end, what you need to know about us is that we are just folks. Now I don't mean that in a cornball sense but rather, there are carpenters, woodworkers, former flight attendants, truck drivers, real estate agents, club owners, business owners, designers, consultants, and yes... one or two geeks in attendance on a regular basis when we get together on Saturday mornings to talk about the beating we are going to deliver to the BIG BAD TELCO'S next week.

BBR: For readers who are interested in supporting your region's broadband push, is there something they can do to help?

EH: Well, with the vote coming on the 1st of April, there's not much time left to do very much even if we had the money to do it. I would ask my fellow readers of Broadband Reports to watch carefully what happens in this little suburban area West of Chicago. If our voters give the green light for this project to go ahead, we are going to be the watch word for technology integration and implementation at the community level nationwide.

One final note, A representative for either Comcast or SBC recently stated that "If the people of the Tri-Cities needed this kind of service, we would have built it for them". My response to them is that I don't think there is anyone working for SBC or Comcast or any other Telco that is qualified to tell us what our needs are in our own community. You had several chances going back several years to deliver what we needed and you blew it every time. Now, get ready to do what you say you love to do, Compete.