Far from the ludicrous claims of Look Before We Leap (they published the names of Mayor Bryan Baum and his wife Stephanie as supporters on their website), both are actually strong proponents of a Yes vote on 2A. I had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie recently and she was outraged at the claim that they opposed it.
Mayor Baum was kind enough to allow me to reprint his statement on his position:
"I’m certain that no matter how much money is spent this time by the opposition, the truth will be heard and the voters in Longmont will make the right choice.
I absolutely support of the passage of 2A. The Fiber Optic loop is an asset bought and paid for 14 years ago, and owned by the City ofLongmont but can only be used by a small fraction of our community. The option to lease the currently dormant bandwidth to private industry and non-profits is a win-win for the city and our citizens.
We’ll be able to offer exceptionally fast internet access to our citizens and businesses while generating revenue for Longmont. Fiber Optic access could help lure more primary jobs to Longmont and employees. Longmont didn’t land the ACE Park but we would love to have those Aerospace engineers call Longmont home by offering them Fiber Optic access to their homes.
It could also secure Longmont as a city for the second round of Google Fiber. Because we own our own right-of-ways, we were an extremely attractive candidate for Google Fiber to the Home. We held conference calls with Google executives during the selection process and escorted officials from Google around town during their visit last winter. The stumbling block appeared to be Senate Bill 152.
Passing 2A will give us back the freedom to maximize this important asset."
