Many of us will remember Fred Tuttle, the retired Tunbridge dairy farmer, who ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to oppose Pat Leahy in November. His opponent in the 1998 primary was Jack McMullen, a Massachusetts businessman with a Vermont ski condo.
Vermonters would have none of it. McMullen was quickly dubbed Jack McMillions and was recognized for what we was, a carpetbagger. But bad ideas do tend to repeat themselves.
Now we have Alex Rozek, a millionaire owner of a private equity fund based in Massachusetts who, together with some colleagues from his corporation GWI, is hoping to wrench ECFiber out from under the Vermonters who created it.
ECFiber was the brainchild of several Vermonters who recognized early on that a fiberoptic network owned by local municipalities and governed by local representatives from those towns would have advantages unmatched by out-of-state corporations. ECFiber’s mission is to provide “wicked fast” internet service to every business and residence within the service area at a highly competitive price. It is dedicated to providing good paying jobs filled by people we know. ECFiber is successful because that’s what we do.
In contrast GWI has plans to outsource our local jobs to rarely accountable people from who knows where. Alex Rozek is following the Jack McMullen model. Swoop down, bamboozle the local founders, take the money and have things his own way.
With far more resources behind him and a longer game to play, Rozek is proving slower to get the picture and understand that trying to yank ECFiber away from the people who created it will just create a deeper hole from which he’ll need to extricate himself. A sensible businessman would have recognized by now that his options are closing one after another and head home.
Vermont Rep. Jim Masland, D-Thetford Center
The writer is a member of the ECFiber executive committee