Mediacom released the below statement following a Polk County Judge’s decision to allow its lawsuit against the City of West Des Moines to proceed to trial.
Mediacom’s lawsuit against West Des Moines states the city is misusing millions of taxpayer dollars to build a Conduit Network for Google Fiber’s exclusive use. Additionally, the lawsuit details the strong conflicts of interest certain councilmembers have with respect to the project.
On, Wednesday, May 18, the Iowa District Court for Polk County denied a Motion to Dismiss filed by West Des Moines in part with respect to Count I and completely with respect to Counts II, III, IV and V of Mediacom’s lawsuit.
Tom Larsen, Senior Vice President of Government and Public Relations for Mediacom, had this to say about the ruling:
“We are pleased the court ruled that Mediacom’s lawsuit against the City of West Des Moines and the West Des Moines City Council can move forward. As Mediacom detailed in its original complaint and more recently in a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission, the City made an exclusive deal with Google Fiber out of the public view while certain members of the council had strong conflicts of interest.
“The deal between the City and Google Fiber will hurt taxpayers, limit the availability of affordable broadband options and prevent marketplace competition, and, in light of this ruling, we believe the City Council would be well-advised to suspend all activity related to this project until the conclusion of this litigation.
“While the court has decided to dismiss our specific claim challenging the City’s issuance of bonds for this project on a procedural technicality, we believe that is only because the City was able to deceive the public long enough about the nature and scope of this project to get past the State of Iowa’s 15-day statute of limitations. In addition to appealing this portion of the decision, we plan to monitor city activity and timely object to any future attempts by any municipality to illegally spend taxpayer money for the exclusive benefit of Google Fiber.”
A link to the court’s ruling can be found here.
