AFN task force seeks delay in hiring leader

Committee wants to give advice before city picks new chief of network

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

The newly formed Ashland Fiber Network Options Committee wants the mayor and city council to delay hiring a head for AFN until the committee can present details on alternatives for the future of the struggling enterprise.

The committee held its first meeting on Tuesday and questioned whether the city should bring on a new AFN leader when the future existence of the financially struggling cable television and high-speed Internet service is in question.

The committee of business and high-tech experts is tasked with exploring whether the city should sell all or a portion of AFN, spin off all or a portion of the service as a nonprofit organization or invest in new products and services in an effort to boost revenues. They hope to present information to the mayor and council within 90 days.

“I don’t think we should be telling candidates, ‘We’re all confused. We don’t know what we’re doing,’” said committee member Richard Barth.

The committee, through City Administrator Gino Grimaldi, will ask the mayor and council to postpone candidate interviews from the original estimated time of early to mid-September until late September.

Committee members will aim to present initial information about the most viable options for AFN at the end of September, according to member Paul Mace.

Mace said the mayor and council would look for a different set of skills for the new AFN leader based on what they decide to do with the service.

Grimaldi said the city has received 71 applications for the job and about 10 to 20 are still being considered. He said city officials will be candid with applicants about the AFN’s financial troubles and uncertain future. The application deadline for the job was in July.

Even assuming 10 percent revenue growth annually, AFN will fall $3.8 million short by 2011 in being able to make payments on its 20-year $15.5 million loan taken out in 2004, according to the Ashland Finance Department.

The mayor and council did not ask the committee to make a recommendation on AFN’s fate, but rather to present an exploration of options. But several committee members said the most viable option will probably be clear.

“It will be self-evident from the list of pluses and minuses,” said committee member Kevin Shultz. “There may be some close calls.”

With the committee meetings open to the public, committee members discussed the dilemma of the public nature of the deliberations in an environment where AFN information is disclosed while Charter Communications, the competing Internet and cable company, can keep its business discussions secret.

Charter representatives also have shown up at AFN Programming Committee meetings, said committee member Paul Collins. The programming committee determines the lineup of channels on AFN’s cable television service.

Mace said no sane businessman would sit in a room and talk about business details with a Tidings reporter in the room.

Committee members want City Attorney Mike Franell to attend the next meeting to explain issues such as whether they can have some meetings in executive session. Members of the public cannot attend executive sessions. Reporters can attend but cannot report on the proceedings under Oregon law.

Committee member Michael Donovan said the group may have to accept that conversations will have to be public, and he said the committee should expect to hear input from community members.

“The community should be involved in this,” he said.

However, Richard Holbo, AFN telecommunications engineer, had reservations about disclosing certain information.

“I’m reticent to give the competition the information to kick my butt,” he said.

Committee members are making plans to meet with Holbo in groups of three or less — thus avoiding rules that state a quorum of a committee must meet according to public meeting laws — to tour AFN facilities. Holbo would be free to discuss AFN business information during those tours. Holbo would not give permission for a Tidings reporter to attend one of the tours, saying it should be up to committee members. Finance and Administrative Services Director Lee Tuneberg said this morning he is looking into whether a Tidings Reporter can go on a tour. Tuneberg is the city staff assistant to the AFN Options Committee.

Former AFN and Electric Department Director Dick Wanderschied continues to head the electric department.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 482-3456 x 3018 or valdous@dailytidings.com.