The war of words that swirls unceasingly around Mooresville’s and Davidson’s ownership of the local cable network, MI-Connection Communications System, took another twist Friday when one of the system’s longtime critics admitted he actually works for competitor Time Warner Cable.
Andy Stevens of Troutman has spoken out against the towns’ 2007 cable purchase, posted comments on this and other local websites and started an anti-MI-Connection blog. He has described himself as a concerned citizen and an opponent of government ownership of government involvement in telecommunications. When reporters and local officials have questioned him about his employment, he has repeatedly denied working for the company.
But in an email to DavidsonNews.net on Friday, Mr. Stevens acknowledged he works for Time Warner Cable as an installer. His admission followed an encounter with MI-Connection’s general manager, who spotted Mr. Stevens at a local shopping center wearing a Time Warner Cable uniform and driving a Time Warner Cable truck.
The discovery raised concerns among MI-Connection employees and officials from the towns of Davidson and Mooresville, which own the local cable and internet system.
MI-Connection board chair John Venzon posted the information in a comment on this website Friday. He said Mr. Stevens “has been active in using our publicly available information to turn our potential customers against us and to stir up fear, uncertainty and doubt about MI-Connection while hiding his motives. He does not live in our town or service area, so he does not ‘have a dog in the fight’ unless you consider who signs his paycheck. Could I attend competitors’ regular board meetings to see what they are doing?” Mr. Venzon asked in the comment.
Mr. Venzon also noted that Mr. Stevens has used the state’s open records law, or Freedom of Information Act, to obtain copies of “every communication between the towns, the board and management. So Time Warner does in fact sit in our meetings.”
Under North Carolina Law, those records are open, and the towns have known since they bought the system in 2007 that they had to operate under public scrutiny in a way their private competitors did not. Mr. Venzon acknowledged that, but said he’s unhappy about having a Time Warner employee following the company so closely. “In corporate America, this would constitute espionage. In our situation, it is free and legal. I find it deplorable,” he wrote.
We confronted Mr. Stevens with the information Friday, and he said in an email: “Yes, it is correct that I work for TWC (Time Warner Cable). I have taken great pains to separate my employment from my criticisms. My position as a TWC employee is that of a BB I/S Tech (Installation and Service). I am not a member of TWC management nor do I report to them on matters [related to] MI-Connection, nor do I receive any special treatment as a result of my non-work related activities.”
Mr. Stevens has posted dozens of comments about MI-Connection-related issues on DavidsonNews.net and also posts anonymously on other sites, including the Mooresville Weekly, where he uses the handle “Spitfire.”
Time Warner Cable spokesman Dan Ballister confirmed that Mr. Stevens works for the company, but said he’s “doing that all on his own.”
“We can’t prevent our employees from voicing their personal opinions,” Mr. Ballister said.
Does it matter that Mr. Stevens is a Time Warner Cable employee? As editor of DavidsonNews.net, it concerns me that Mr. Stevens hasn’t acknowledged his employment when we’ve asked, or when he has commented regularly on this site about MI-Connection. In my comments Friday, I have apologized to readers who (like me) may have been misled.
Mr. Stevens is free to state his opinions about MI-Connection, and certainly can argue that his employment doesn’t affect his views. But ethically, he needs to disclose it.
Nonetheless, his employment status doesn’t change the MI-Connection story. Davidson resident Joe Hutchens was among those who discussed the issue Friday on this site.
“This is exactly the type of situation the town opened itself up for when it decided to challenge private enterprise on its own turf. I would expect there will be more of this type thing going on. It is a tough business our town has taken on, and the competitors in this industry are relentless,” Mr. Hutchens wrote.
Glad this hidden conflict was exposed.
Of course, there are conflicts of interest and conflicts of interest–some “right out in the open,” to borrow a phrase, but barely noticed if at all!
How about the Davidson Town Manager, Leamon Brice–an original proponent of MI-Connection who was stingy with information in the Fall of 2007 when the cable purchase was a major issue in the election campaign? He now sits as a new voting member of MIC’s board. Incidentally, amending the charter to lengthen the terms of Town Board commissioners to four years–an idea he has frequently championed–would guarantee Mr. Brice greater job security.
And then there is the new chairman of the board, John Venzon, whose spouse–Laurie Venzon–is a supporter of MIC as an elected commissioner in Davidson and one of the Town Board’s self-described “experts” on MIC? She happens to serve on the nominating committee for membership on the MIC board.
Glass houses. But “what is the Constitution among friends,” after all?
The fact Mr. Steven’s is a Time Warner employee doesn’t change the fact that his criticisms have been mark on. As to the Freedom of Information Act, it doesn’t limit requests only to users of MI or citizens of their service area. As others have stated, when a town buys a private business it can not choose to follow whatever set of rules/laws happen to be most advantagous for a given issue. I’d love it if the Freedom of Information Act didn’t apply to MI, as long as they couldn’t use my tax dollars to cover their losses….
FACT CHECK: Bill Jackson is correct about the relationship between John and Laurie Venzon. However, she was not involved in his nomination: Mr. Venzon was appointed Sept. 22, 2009, before the towns formed a nominating committee to pick MI-Connection board members.
In that 2009 meeting, Ms. Venzon asked fellow commissioners to be excused from voting on her husband’s appointment, but they declined to grant her request. Davidson Town Attorney Rick Kline said at the time Mr. Venzon’s appointment to the unpaid position raises no conflict-of-interest issues.
Who can you believe anymore? As a Davidson taxpayer I don’t feel I can trust any commissioner or town official who keeps lauding the Mi-Con bandwagon. We deserve a clear plan of how we are going
to get out of this mess, up to and including declaring this business bankrupt.
Many of our town “leaders” are well intentioned. But, they have put us in a situation that worsens with each report despite their hopeful rhetoric. We are seeing good people losing their jobs in Davidson while poor decision makers somehow keep theirs; so much for accountability. We know where the road lined with good intentions leads. Financially we are well on our way.
Others have picked up on our report here and added some information to it.
Phillip Dampier at StopTheCap.com, which promotes community-owned communications networks, notes that Mr. Stevens has taken down his Not-MI-Connection.info website, an anti-MI-Connection blog.
Another site, Community Broadband Networks (http://www.muninetworks.org/) also commented on the news, saying in a post this week:
This entire fiasco serves as a reminder of the massive disadvantages communities have in building their own networks. Companies like Time Warner Cable, which measure their revenue in the tens of billions, have effectively unlimited resources to attack communities who build their own networks. Big companies attack communities in the courts, legislatures, and the media — while communities have little power to respond in any of those venues … And in places like North Carolina, it could get a lot worse if the Governor allows H129 to become law. It is on her desk now and whether she signs it or lets it pass by doing nothing, big companies like Time Warner Cable will have even more advantages while communities will effectively be barred from building their own networks.
May I be permitted to revoke and apologize for my 5/9 comment on conflicts of interest insofar as Davidson Mayor pro tem Laurie Venzon and MIC board chairman John Venzon are concerned? After further examination, I believe them to be beyond reproach on this issue. It was an ill-informed, cheap shot by me.