Part of the Public Service Department's decision to hand the Burlington Telecom situation over to the attorney general for criminal investigation was based on a letter that was sent by a former city attorney to CitiCapital along with Burlington Telecom's application for a $33.5 million loan in August 2007, according to a story in the Burlington Free Press.
In the letter, lawyer Joseph McNeil explained that the City Charter prohibited BT losses being borne by taxpayers, but stated that there was no problem using general city funds for BT activities. He did not mention BT's Certificate of Public Good, which requires any city money used by the company must be repaid within two months. McNeil also interpreted the fact that the city's general funds are not entirely made up of taxpayer money to mean that they were fair game for BT loan payments, an argument that was not accepted by the Public Service Board. McNeil maintains that the letter correctly represented the situation.
Orleans County State's Attorney Keith Flynn has been appointed by Attorney General William Sorrell to conduct the BT criminal review.
Letter included in Burlington Telecom criminal review
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