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"The administration of Mayor Miro Weinberger appears to have negotiated a good deal for the city in the proposed $10.5 million settlement of Citibank's $33.5 million lawsuit over troubles at Burlington Telecom.While the settlement would pay off the city-owned utility's debt to Citibank, it does not immediately reimburse taxpayers for an additional $16.9 million improperly spent by BT &amp;mdash; although Weinberger said in announcing the deal Monday that it could eventually lead to at least partial reimbursement.And the settlement&amp;nbsp;may eventually come at the price of ceding control of the city-owned utility to private interests, as well as requiring taxpayers to cover at least a portion of the $1.3 million city contribution to the settlement.The plan unveiled Monday will likely lead to the city ceding majority ownership to an outside partner or partners &amp;nbsp;within four years, Weinberger said. While corporate interests would be most likely to have the necessary cash, the local group working to form a telecom co-op could conceivably emerge as the new owner,&amp;nbsp;Weinberger said.Alan Matson, a leader of the co-op effort, said in an interview that his group will seek to &amp;ldquo;seize this opportunity&amp;rdquo; to keep BT in local hands and under democratic control.&amp;nbsp;But the fledgling co-op, which has so far raised less than $300,000 from supporters, will have to achieve a stunning financial breakthrough in order to come up with the $6 million &amp;ldquo;bridge loan&amp;rdquo; the city needs to pay off part of its debt to Citibank.&amp;nbsp;Weinberger said at the news conference that &amp;ldquo;investment banks&amp;rdquo; would be the likeliest source of the bridge financing.&amp;nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2014/02/04/burlington-telecom-deal-could-be-big-win-for-weinberger-and-for-taxpayers>