Below is a press release issued today announcing MI-Connection's hiring of a consultant to transition the cable system to more operational self-sufficiency. (For more on that, visit MI-Connection ends management relationship with Bristol Virginia Utilities.)
Davidsonnews.net reports that the consultant, David Auger, is expected to begin work immediately after signing a contract that would pay him $17,867 per month, plus expenses.
The website also reports that MI-Connection board members expect the system's deficits to continue for at least the next two years.
MI-Connection hires Auger to spearhead transition
Mooresville and Davidson’s state-of-the-art cable, Internet and telecommunications system has hired a cable veteran with a record of success to spearhead its transition to local control and operation.
At a special meeting Wednesday morning, the MI-Connection Board of Directors voted 4-0 to approve a contract with David J. Auger of the Auger Media Group, LLC, to serve as the consultant who will facilitate the system’s transition from operation by Bristol Virginia Utilities to local operation.
The announcement comes on the heels of the board’s December 2010 signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BVU, the provider that has managed the system since its inception in December 2007. The MOU announced MI-Connection’s intention to bring local employees and most services in-house, which will result in BVU moving from operator to service vendor.
Board member Dawn Huston, chair of the board’s hiring committee, said the board is pleased with their selection. “The board is highly confident that Dave's leadership will lead to a smooth transition to drive MI-Connection's growth and service within our communities,” she said.
Chairman John Kasberger said he knows the board chose the right person for the job. “Dave is an experienced industry expert who has the vision and know-how to keep us moving in the right direction,” he said.
Auger began his career with Warner Amex Cable and ultimately served as the Director of Marketing at the company’s corporate office. In 1988, he took a position with Jack Kent Cooke as their Vice President of Marketing with oversight of sales, marketing and programming for the company’s 54 cable properties.
From 1989 to 1994, David served as the Publisher of The Los Angeles Daily News, where he managed a budget of $105 million and a staff of over 1,200. From 1994 to 1995, Auger was one of the executives responsible for the development and launch of a wireless cable operator in Southern California that ultimately sold to Pacific Telesis for over $180 million.
Auger also worked for Time Warner from 1995 to 2006, first as the vice president/general manager of Northern Los Angeles and then as Division President for Minneapolis, where he oversaw a successful system rebuild.
In 2001, Auger transitioned to president of Time Warner’s Charlotte division. In this role, he oversaw finance, marketing, sales, customer service, I.T., human resources, technical operations, engineering and annual revenue of $360 million. He led the organization restructure, increased subscribers, digital customers, data customers and improved cash flow while launching a variety of new products and services.
Since leaving Time Warner is 2006, Dave has owned and operated his own consulting and investing firm, Auger Media Group, LLC, where his major client was Charlotte-based American Broadband. He served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and was responsible for acquiring and managing multiple cable television operations. He successfully developed a cluster of systems with 40,000 customers under contract and another 50,000 at various stages in the pipeline.
Auger said Wednesday that he is eager to tackle his new role with MI-Connection. “This transition implemented by the board to a locally-run broadband network is key to unlocking this system’s full potential,” he said. “I look forward to overseeing this process and getting it done as quickly as possible.”
For more information on MI-Connection, visit www.mi-connection.com.
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16 comments:
Just a few weeks ago, there was all this hoopla, about how great MI was doing. It never has done well, never will, and sell it to Time Warner, folks in the cable business, and not in the the business of running a Town.
When is enough going to be enough?????
It's deplorable, what the Board has done to this town. CAN'T BE SAID ENOUGH TIMES
Anybody, and I mean anybody, who speaks in favor of continuing to pour money into this bottomless pit is hitching their cart to a dying horse. Mark these words.
What a joke. This system was broken when they purchased it and is still broke. It was a huge mistake to get involved in this "private enterprise." Want to see another example, just look at the broadband cable system in Salisbury. Same thing.
In 2001, Auger transitioned to president of Time Warner’s Charlotte division
Now that's funny -- we hired the man who ran the system which the board has consistently told us was totally inadequate. Please tell me he doesn't have any relatives who need jobs!
I have watched in disbelief as one commissioner after another has drunk the coolaid that was mixed for them by Bill Thunberg, Frank Rader, Chris Carney, and Mac Herring. It is truly unbelievable that they all expect the rest of us to get on board and drink along with them.
A Consultant? OK, let's assume this $17,000 a month is the "best of the best". And he will make 'recommendations' on how to transition the BVU operations to MIC.
What then? OK, MIC will be in charge of its own destiny, which is none too bright. Basically, we are going to dress up this pig (MIC) but it is still a pig.
"This fiscal year (2011), the subsidy will cost the towns $6.46 million – $2.018 million from Davidson and $4.44 million from Mooresville." Davidson News.net.
Andy Stevens wrote in the Davidson News "the Towns’ taxpayers can expect to continue making financial contributions to the losses generated by MI-Connection. Even decreasing the losses by 8% per year over the next three years will result in accumulated losses of $5.9 million in 2012, $5.4 million in 2013, and $5 million in 2014."
The fiasco of MIC will tap millions out of the Town for the foreseeable future draining dollars away from much needed programs and possibly (probably) increasing our tax rates.
The future looks grim for the Town holding onto this fiscal disaster. But then again, we already knew that and don't need a consultant to tell us that!
I've said it a thousands times we should have never bought the cable system. Now we are stuck with deficits for who knows how long. The taxpayer should not have to pay the bill since the taxpayers made it clear not to buy the cable. Now how do we keep from raising taxes? Cut employees, cut the commissioner health cost and maybe their pay, cut all benefits including cars,longevity pay, matching 401K,etc. for town employees and possible pay cuts. Ladies and gentlemen the party is over. You can not keep growing government and expenses at the expense of the taxpayer. The taxpayer's revolt that is sweeping the country is now in Mooresville.
OK Team,
Who screened this guy Auger? From his Bio, it looks like he can't hold a job! Do not be fooled by his jobs in the 1980's or 1990's. Those are past history, different times and whatever he learned and exhibited back then is probably dated. In short, they are meaningless and not germane to the MIC debacle.
It is merely resume fluffing!
His only claim to fame was with TWC, where he had millions of capital expenditures behind him to expand already developed services. (in the mid 2000's, rolling out Digital phone and HD cable services was as easy as buying a loaf of bread!) Especially with a huge Time Warner budget to pay for your spending spree.
This name came out of the blue and will be suspect until someone tells us what he can do (specifically!) for MIC. My guess is he a member of some Rotary and grabbed a MIC Board member's ear.
A $214,404 a year (PLUS expenses!!!) consultant is an expensive price to pay for "recommendations"! It takes a lot of customer revenue to support this type of expenditure!
Where is the consultation fee coming from? MIC or the Town's budget? Was this a forecasted MIC budgetary item for 2011?
SHOCKING NEWS!!! MIC will have a hand in our pocket for at least another few years.
As a fellow long term anti-cable purchase person, I actually look at this as good news.
The MIC Board is finally admitting what we've known for a long time...this thing will cost us millions and millions of dollars for years to come.
They've stopped playing the shell game that if they could only just get "15,000 RGUs" all would be fine. Maybe now we can actually get them to give us REAL numbers on how "our" media company is doing, rather than trying to snowball us with "PR-happy talk" about "we're not losing nearly as much as we were".
Think of it as Charlie Sheen finally waking up and saying....."Wow....I'm in a mess".
Hiring this guy to come to the rescue of MIC is par for the course for this retarded group of so-called Town Commissioners. But just think of the same thing they have done with Erskine flamboozle Smith, the Golf Course debacle with a golf course Director of Golf who only sells golf balls, Charlie Roberts. Just think with these two and the new MIC Advisor we are going down the tubes big time!!!! And we thought that the Joe Knox days were so bad!!!!!
I know for a fact that the current Interim Town Manager, Erskine Smith, was in there greasing the wheels of this cable scam behind the scenes to solidify his position and insure that he'll keep getting paid for doing nothing.
We are saddled with so many money drains it's not even funny. Time to takes the saddles off.
MI-Connection no longer proudly highlights their customer numbers anymore. They conveniently ran out of time at their January meeting to discuss customer numbers at all. At the February meeting (results through Jan - 7 of 12 months into Fiscal Year) they presented a customer growth report that shows a loss of 468 Cable, a loss of 98 Internet, and a gain of 309 Telephone customers since the current Fiscal Year began July 1st. They also reported a net loss of 521 Customer relationships (ie, billed customers). As far as progress on their stated goal of 15,000 additional RGU's this year, they actually reported a NET LOSS of 257 year to date! Without creative bookkeeping, its plausible that 4th Quarter revenues this year will actually be less than the 3rd Quarter's! By the way, at the Special Meeting held (among other reasons) to hire Mr. Auger as a consultant they indicated they will be restating the current year's Budget - I don't think the restatement will be more positive than the dismal reports already presented. More than likely, they're going to spend the $494,000 sales tax refund they received in the last 60 days on restructuring costs (including Mr. Auger's consultant package) and additional capital expenditures not authorized by the Towns in their accepted Budget last June.
$80,000,000 initial investment, then $12,000,000 more to make improvements, now $4,000,000 per year to keep it afloat. I sure hope Bill Thunberg runs for Mayor again so that we can make it clear to him once and for all that we ran him out of town last time since he apparently hasn't figured it out. He is the person who orchestrated this whole deal and he has never offered any explanation as to why ! He should be paying for this travesty in some way more than simply getting his ass kicked in the last election by a no name candidate.
Can the public call for an investigation into this so-called "purchase"? How do we know somebody's hands weren't greased? For that matter, how do we know somebody's hands aren't still being greased?
How many '$17,867 per month, plus expenses' months to come to the shocking conclusion:
Yep, you're screwed.
The current town board members have a duty to publicly reprimand any former or sitting official who ensnared us by this losing proposition several years ago. They had no problem reprimanding the current mayor, and rightfully so. That shows us they are capable of putting together a public reprimand. Yet, as of this date, none of them have publicly renounced the actions of the public officials who went against clear public consensus on this atrociously expensive issue.
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