Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can’t move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.

When I came to the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts as Chief of Staff in 2001, I found a large stack of telecommunications invoices, a Cabinet Secretary who wisely was refusing to pay them, and a staff who stared blankly at me when I asked them any question about the WV2001 Project or its invoices.

The invoices were from both long-distance telecommunications vendors and the West Virginia Information Services and Communications Division, the Office of Technology’s precursor.  It didn’t take me very long to figure out that I didn’t have all of the bills and, even more importantly, that I didn’t have a clue whether we should pay for them.  It also didn’t take me long to figure out that Verizon and others were busy complaining to every politician who would listen that they weren’t being paid by their biggest customer – the State of West Virginia.

So I asked my blankly-staring staff (good people in over their heads) who could help us figure out the WV2001 project, given that the person in charge of it had made an abrupt exit from IS&C shortly before I started work for the Cabinet Secretary.  At the meeting they arranged for me, I met the state’s technology leaders, many of whom I came to respect a great deal: Dr. Jan Fox, Marshall University’s CIO on loan to the Wise Administration; Brenda Williams, director of educational technology for the West Virginia Department of Education; Billy Jack Gregg, Consumer Advocate for the West Virginia Public Service Commission (who hadn’t been invited by us, but came anyway and shook his head back and forth and laughed throughout the entire meeting, which, I must say, was very disconcerting for a brand new Chief of Staff); and Henry Blosser, WVNET’s director.

During that meeting, I learned that these weren’t run-of-the-mill telephone bills about which we were talking, but rather bills for something called telecommunications circuits that could carry video, audio, and data.  This is not what you would have thought from reading the Charleston Newspapers, which were reporting that the State wasn’t paying its telephone bills (which also was true).  Additionally, I learned that our bills from long-distance carriers were for something called shared facilities, circuits over which multiple organizations’ video, audio, and data traveled, and most of my IS&C bills were from Verizon for circuits to specific organizations.

What I didn’t learn until much later was that many of the shared facilities bills had been shifted from IS&C to the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts shortly before Governor Wise took office, not because the Department had made a commitment to pay them, but rather because IS&C had failed to rebill them by the end of the state fiscal year, and agencies with expiring funds (supposedly) could not pay for them.  (WV2001 project funds did not expire.)  Older and wiser, I now know that most people who claimed they couldn’t pay these bills could have paid (and later did pay some of) them from other non-expiring revenue (admittedly unbudgeted for this purpose, but still available).

At the end of the meeting, I asked WVNET director Henry Blosser why these monies had not been placed in his agency’s budget.  He shook his head knowingly and smiled.  Twenty-five plus years of government service had taught him not to say too much too soon….

Where are the clowns?…  Send in the clowns….

Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.

As some of you probably have guessed, I have a much more extensive technology background than people viewing my resume otherwise might expect.  The reason: I spent more than eight years of my life discreetly cleaning up messes for two different state agencies, and many of those messes happened to be of the technological variety.

Today I begin to discuss one of those technological debacles in greater detail – the WV2001 project – because so much of relevance to WVNET can be learned from it.  In exposing this spectacle, I make the assumption that all applicable statutes of limitations for crimes of incompetence (no malice was involved) probably have run.

Now turn back your clocks to the period before the first major technology bust when half the world thought an internet startup selling the latest earwax removal product was a sound investment and the other half believed most high school and college classes would be online within five years.  Into this tech-crazy world of the mid- to late-1990s comes Verizon with its knight-in-shining-armour proposal to keep West Virginia from being left behind by constructing a massive ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) infrastructure to support the expected exponential growth in technology use.

Never ones to be left outside the big tent when the circus comes to town, the West Virginia Legislature quickly appropriated $1.5 million annually to cover the State’s price of admission.  This appropriation, which appeared in the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts’ budget, would support higher education, K-12, library and other agency buy-ins to the bright, shiny, new high-tech ATM network.  The idea was this: the State would pay for higher education institutions to buy and maintain T-1 and DS-3 circuits to transport data, voice, and video for 14 months, at the end of which these circuits would be so central to operations that everyone would print money on their bright, shiny, new high-tech color copiers to keep them.

The circuits, of course, were not cheap: a T-1 line cost $600 per month, a DS-3 line cost $3,800, and an OC-3 line cost $7,200 as I recall.  But there was a bit of a sleight of hand involved because that was not the only charge: T-1 and DS-3 circuits have to connect to other circuits, which the State also purchased.  Circuits that crossed LATAs (discussed in a previous post) were purchased from long distance providers like AT&T, while circuits within LATAs, including organization T-1s and DS-3s, were purchased primarily from West Virginia’s cute little “Baby Bell” Verizon.

On the state government side, the person who took responsibility for this initiative worked for IS&C, the precursor to what is now known at the West Virginia Office of Technology.  As best I can tell, he spent most of his time running around the State making sure everyone got hooked up to these bright, shiny circuits.  What he did not do was bother to keep track of the costs … or pay the bills ….

And watching this technology spectacle from their seats in the balcony, like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, were the wizened technology veterans at WVNET, who had been in the technology business for more than 25 years….

Isn’t it rich?…

Over the last few days, I have been providing background information about WVNET’s role in the larger world of technology.  Today I would like to veer off in a different direction and remind everyone that WVNET is about more than technology: It is about people.

First, the people WVNET serves:

• The Raleigh County adult who is pursuing a degree by completing distance learning classes late into the night after a long day of work at a low paying job.
• The Tucker County judge who holds a pretrial hearing via teleconference.
• The little old lady from rural Pocahontas County who uses dial-up because it’s the only available option and calls WVNET’s help desk with questions – and to chat.
• The administrative staff at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College who use back office technology housed at WVNET to operate more efficiently and effectively and ultimately maintain lower tuition costs and provide better service for their students.
• The Ohio County high school student researching Marie Antoinettte online for her term paper.

These are the people with whom WVNET is concerned day in and day out.  Have you heard ANY of them discussed?

Second, the people at WVNET:

Over the last four years, WVNET has been under perpetual assault.  On three separate occasions, I had to talk directly to WVNET staff about the latest assault, twice in person and once by video conference.  I remember explaining one time that another organization surveying and marking off their property really did not have permission to do so.  I remember explaining another time that legislation giving the Higher Education Policy Commission authority to sell the only property it truly had authority to sell didn’t automatically mean their property was going to be sold and their jobs lost.  I remember explaining yet another time that all the rumors they were hearing from others in the Morgantown community about their jobs were not accurate.  And I remember each time talking to those employees ALONE.

I also remember a meeting where everyone was so busy fighting over who would benefit from the sale of the WVNET property – West Virginia University, some or all higher education institutions, or the Higher Education Policy Commission – that no one said a word about WVNET’s employees.

What does this perpetual uncertainty produce?  I will tell you.

• A suspicious workforce who had to wonder whether I was telling them the truth as they peered out their windows and saw surveying stakes in WVNET ground that suggested I was not.
• A demoralized workforce, many of whom are now gone, who knew good work didn’t matter and regularly asked me for reference letters.
• Higher education institutions fearful of looking to WVNET for new services because it soon might not be there.
• A facility that was not properly maintained because you don’t want to make a significant investment in a building that isn’t going to be there five years from now.

WVNET staff is not perfect, and most of them would be the first to tell you that.  But they also would tell you they did not deserve to be treated as they have been – and they would be right.

In 1982 AT&T, also known as “Ma Bell,” agreed to a break-up that led to the creation of a series of Baby Bells, including Bell Atlantic, which ultimately merged with other carriers and became Verizon.  The agreement divided the United States into local access and transport areas (LATAs) inside which Baby Bells would be allowed to operate and across which only long distance providers would be allowed to operate.

The goal of the U.S. Department of Justice in entering into this agreement was to promote telecommunications competition in a post-breakup world.  Competition was fostered on the long distance (LATA-crossing) side, but was less successful on the local provider side.  At the local level, it is much more difficult to ensure effective competition among telecommunications providers, primarily because they often have monopoly control over telecommunications circuits.

The State of West Virginia has two available mechanisms to ensure that reasonable telecommunications rates are charged and competition fostered.  The first and most frequently discussed, the West Virginia Public Service Commission, can control costs by regulating certain rates and business practices.  To represent the interests of consumers in such proceedings, the PSC employs a Consumer Advocate.  For many years, Verizon and other providers had a fierce foe in Consumer Advocate Billy Jack Gregg, who fought telecommunications providers tooth and nail on behalf of consumers like you and me.

After 30 years of tireless service as West Virginia’s first and only Consumer Advocate, Mr. Gregg retired from the public sector and founded Billy Jack Gregg Universal Consulting. Still widely regarded as one of West Virginia’s foremost authorities on telecommunications issues, Mr. Gregg continues to provide his expertise to clients on both the consumer and business side. But these days, you’re highly unlikely to hear Mr. Gregg weigh in on any issue concerning Verizon. Rumor has it that Verizon now pays Mr. Gregg a substantial retainer just to keep him from commenting publicly on its maneuvers.

A second and less frequently discussed group – public sector telecommunications purchasers, including K-12, higher education, and state government agencies – also can control costs and foster competition with their procurement practices.  Why?  The public sector – first K-12, then higher education, and then the rest of state government and the courts – are Verizon’s largest customers.

Given this fact, I will pose a counterintuitive proposition: The last thing the State of West Virginia, including education, wants to do is bid out mega-telecommunications contracts to be awarded to a single vendor.  Rather, the State wants to bid out multiple smaller contracts to multiple vendors.

But doesn’t the State want to get the best bang for its buck on telecommunications costs, you ask? And doesn’t an entity like the State get the lowest vendor cost and have the lowest contract management expenses if it bids out mega-contracts?  Yes and no.

In the short run, you possibly could attain these benefits if you assume that the bidders are on a level playing field, which they are not, and that political considerations would play no role in the award.  Verizon, with control of so much infrastructure, particularly middle mile infrastructure referred to in a previous post, has a leg up on everyone else and is the entity most likely to win the mega-contract.

But even if the first round of bidding were truly open and competitive, future rounds would not be as the entity that got the initial contract could quickly exploit its monopoly status and drive current and future competition out of the market, resulting in higher long-term costs for the State of West Virginia and its citizens.

Tying these thoughts back into a discussion of WVNET, the State is not like any other single private sector vendor, which almost always would benefit from collective bidding of telecommunications services.  As an entity large enough to promote harmful monopoly, the State should be strategic in its thinking about contracting and should not automatically bring K-12, higher education and state and local government together for purposes of telecommunications contracting or bid all parts of its infrastructure at once.

Technological advances are changing the calculus I have described, but we will have an 800 lbs. telecommunications “baby” into the foreseeable future.  And that is an important consideration in these proceedings.

PS: If this blog mysteriously ceases publication, one of two things happened.  My own personal Verizon account was shut down … or I received a VERY LUCRATIVE consulting contract and am honoring the terms of that contract.  (Others have posited a third scenario, but I remain optimistic, even as I lock my doors.)

Ninety (not 180) degree turn!  Full throttle!  The Charleston Gazette now is reporting that the State Office of Technology “has no intent of moving those [WVNET] employees” from the Morgantown area.  It is not clear where they would work, however, as their building and equipment would be gone.

So much to comment upon it is hard to figure out where to start:

• The latest plan is to consolidate WVNET, sell its property, and move the equipment to Charleston or Flatwoods? Why would you not consolidate everything to Morgantown where you have qualified staff and a machine room at the ready?  [Insert obvious answer here.]
• What about the 16 to 24 months West Virginia University needs to move services to its campus data center (which, by the way, was in a flood plain the last time I checked)?  [Insert obvious answer here.]
• A proposed follow-up question to the statement that the Higher Education Policy Commission owns Bluefield State College and Concord University property, too: So the 2007 legislation was aimed at helping the Commission sell Bluefield State College’s and Concord University’s property, not the WVNET property?  [Insert obvious answer here.]

Why doesn’t everyone just take a deep breath and admit one thing?  There is no well-thought-out plan to do anything other than put up a “For Sale” sign on the WVNET property.  I don’t mean to sound so bemused/ cynical/ sarcastic/ strident (take your pick), but seriously … technology is too important to our public schools, our colleges, our courts, our government, and our citizens not to have solid transition plans in place before selling property as important to the State as that on which WVNET sits.  Even more important, the environment in which good plans are developed and implemented requires trust, and there’s not likely to be much trust after all of this.