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Eye On Boise

IEN debate hot and heavy…

Mike Kennedy of Intermax in Coeur d'Alene addresses a special hearing Wednesday convened by Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, on questions about the Idaho Education Network and concerns raised by local Internet service providers around the state. (Betsy Russell)
Mike Kennedy of Intermax in Coeur d'Alene addresses a special hearing Wednesday convened by Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, on questions about the Idaho Education Network and concerns raised by local Internet service providers around the state. (Betsy Russell)

The special hearing convened today by Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, on questions surrounding the Idaho Education Network wrapped up by 1:30 (Mountain time, that is) when virtually all of the legislators listening had to scurry off to other committee meetings. The hearing got pretty hot and heavy before that. Travis Johnson, president of Microserv, an Internet service provider in Idaho Falls, told the lawmakers, "We can provide the same or better service to any of those school districts than what Qwest ... can provide." He noted that his firm currently serves nine school districts, and has served one of those for almost 12 years, "back before Qwest was even an Internet provider." He said, "Qwest or whoever it may be, Syringa or anyone else, isn't doing anything magical. They are not installing or putting anything in place that we are not already doing right now, and I'm serving nine school districts."

Charlie Creason, general manager of Project Mutual Telephone Cooperative in Rupert, said his firm provides service to the College of Southern Idaho and "exclusive service to Cassia School District, based on a complete fiber solution to every school in the Cassia School District." He said, "We'd love a chance to bring the state some of the most finest, advanced and least-cost services possible."

Melissa Vandenberg, deputy attorney general for the state Department of Administration, said, "What these gentlemen are asking you to do, with all due respect, is to allow them to come back in after a process which the Attorney General's office has reviewed all along, and essentially circumvent, when the project worked." The bid process for the IEN, of course, currently has the state embroiled in a lawsuit. But Vandenberg said, "These gentlemen did not bid on the contract. We had four bidders. ... When we have contracts that are let, we don't do that, we don't allow someone to come in after the prices are already disclosed and the cost disclosures are public record, to come in and say, 'Hey, I can do it cheaper.'"

Gayle Nelson, vice president of Education Networks of America, the current contract partner with Qwest on IEN, said, "It's not an apples to apples comparison. Delaying this project ... I think would be devastating. ... I think the momentum would end, I think it would essentially kill the project."

State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna said, "We relied on experts, we turned this over to experts outside the Department of Administration. ... The dog I have in this fight are the 278,000 students in our schools today, and too many of them do not have access to high-quality instruction and high-quality courses only because of where they live." He said, "There is no pause button in this project, there's only a kill switch."

Steve Meyer of Intermax in Coeur d'Alene said, "This is all about bandwidth. ... Once this gets onto the network, regardless of whose routing protocol is put at the front end and whose security safeguards is put at the back, we can do the same thing that is done by Qwest. ... It's really about last mile and about cost. ... We suggest to you that revisiting the most effective way to deliver the service has merit for the state."

Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, suggested that the issue is analogous to the state suddenly deciding to get a statewide contractor to provide food service at all schools, pushing out of business local providers who already might be doing that locally at much lower cost, but aren't in a position to bid for a statewide contract. "Pretty quick we're over to having statewide services, and what we do is we replace these gentlemen with bureaucrats on the public payroll," Schroeder said.

Internet service providers from around the state turned out for the special hearing, and afterward, gathered with the Department of Administration's Greg Zickau. Goedde noted that all were meeting for the first time. "Well, at least we got 'em talking - so maybe something positive will come from it," Goedde said. "I don't think we reached any resolution here today. ... But I don't know how the state backs away from a contract that they've already cut, unless it's by mutual agreement." The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider $3 million in spending authority for the IEN on Friday, to allow an Albertson Foundation grant to be spent on the next phase of the project. Gov. Butch Otter is pushing hard for approval.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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