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Sandra Bishop spoke as the Vice President of the EWEB Board of Directors. She urged the council to send the issue to the voters in May. She said that EVVEB was specifically requesting that the original charter language proposed be approved by the council. She said that the alternate language suggested by the City Attorney would not allow EWEB to build out a publicly owned telecommunications system. She stressed the importance of broad charter language to allow an accessible platform system that could be used by multiple competitive providers. She also stressed that EVVEB had no intention of providing content. Moving on, Ms. Bishop said that the public would have full ownership of the project and that EVVEB was going to pass a resolution to commit itself to the public process. She said that EVVEB would have as many public meetings and public hearings as needed for the public to know that it had full ownership of the project. She formally requested that the issue be put on the May 16 ballot. Peter Bartel, 2240 Agate Street, EWEB board member, commented that private companies could not deliver the services that people wanted and needed. He said that EWEB needed broad authority to provide universal access to the community. He called for the council to adopt the original charter language. Dorothy Anderson, 939 East 21st Avenue, EWEB board member, said that the country was entering a new era that would have an effect as great as that of the industrial revolution. She said that EWEB was searching for ways to best serve the customer. She stressed the importance of providing clear authority in the charter to avoid lawsuits that had plagued other public utilities trying to go into telecommunications. She urged the council to put the issue to the voters. Randy Berggren, General Manager of EVVEB, called for the council to put the issue to a vote. He stressed that EWEB needed broad charter authority to provide a service with universal access that was publicly owned. He added that the modified language suggested by the City Attorney would not meet EVVEB's needs to challenge any lawsuits brought against them. He stressed that EVVEB had no intention of providing content and was committed to the public process. Craig Curtis, 3690 West 12th Avenue, said that his e-commerce business was exploding but that the telecommunications service available in the city was less than the infrastructure in other cities. He stressed that EWEB's proposal was vital to the city to retain its current business community and promote new business as well. Jeff Miller, 2425 Lariat Meadows, raised concern over the direction taken by the council and EWEB. His concern was over the proposed charter amendment to clarify EWEB's authority to maintain municipal telecommunications infrastructure. He stressed that EWEB should be held accountable to all Eugene tax payers and not just EWEB rate payers. He raised concern about the impact on tax payers if the project failed and said that there should be a provision present in any ballot measure that would hold EWEB accountable every step of the way. He said that EWEB should be made to sign a franchise agreement for use of the right-of-way as other utilities would be. Scott Chambers, 86195 Berry Road, commented that Chambers Communications Corporation was currently opposed to the charter amendment. He said that the EWEB approach to telecommunications was flawed. He noted that the project was not fully functional and had no paying customers and that there had been no response to EWEB's request for proposals. He said MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 14, 2000 Page 4 Regular Meeting