Let me start by dispelling a myth. I do NOT think that our public works people do not work hard. In fact I think they work very hard. I just think that it's become clear that something very fishy is going on with their leadership. Most recently, public works tried to dodge several e-mails and another public records request for more specifics about the existing network. Fortunately, a very hard working attorney for the city named James Erb followed up on the request. The request was simply for receipts, items and locations for cabling and conduit. Even James said that it was disturbing to be told by public works that they have virtually no receipts, or other documents, for the many thousands of dollars they've spent on the network over an almost 40 year period. Only old, outdated, school district documents were provided to give a sense of locations. When James pushed for more, he was given the 80s style drawing I've put in the update. When the public works ditector is faced with these questions he will use it as a reason not to give the public access to the resources we've paid for, hide behind others, and blatantly refer you to one specific anti-net neutral broadband company. The mayor and some members of the council also seem to be linked to the private, anti-net neutral telecoms like Comcast and CenturyLink and seem to be blocking progress for personal reasons. Ted Carlson has even threatened to end my meetings on behalf of the power company. So my advice is to ask the candidates for mayor if they will perform a transperant investigation of this department if they are elected. Bellingham deserves a public works director that works in the interest of the public and not just the top 1%. In the meantime, we still have some potentially positive news coming from the state that I'm waiting on. One last thing. Under Ted Carlson's direction, the city has gone back on its plans to have a transperant 3rd party audit its resources and has decided to do it themselves. Under normal circumstances I would applaud them for saving money, but with all of the fishy stuff going on with this, it is inappropriate for the COB to audit this themselves in a non-transperant way.