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Michael D. Pitman reports about Butler County, Ohio, politics, county government, countywide issues and Butler County people just like you for Cox Ohio Publishing (including the Hamilton JournalNews, Middletown Journal and several weekly papers in Butler County). He wants your suggestions and questions for more news stories. Leave a comment for him here or e-mail Michael at Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > June > 04 > Entry
The other fiber optics debacle
It should be noted that Butler County Domestic Relations Judge Sharon Kennedy’s request to go after the money from a defunct fiber optics contract has nothing to do with Dynus Corp.
Butler County’s problems with fiber optics started years before Dynus Corp. made headlines, sparked an FBI investigation and tumbled a county auditor.
All that began in 2005. But the county’s fiber optics headache stretches back to when the system’s backbone was being built in 2001.
That year, the county entered into a $2.75 million contract with the company NORMAP to build the county’s fiber optic backbone and paid them $1.37 million up front. The contract required a performance bond that the company never obtained.
Soon after, the company was going bust and appeared unable to pay Cincinnati Bell, which it had actually subcontracted to do the work. So former commissioner Michael Fox said he arranged for Columbus attorney Robert Schuler to purchase NORMAP to keep the deal alive.
Schuler, son of a state senator by the same name, had just closed a multi-million dollar deal and needed something to invest in as a tax shelter, Fox said.
County officials say Schuler renegotiated the contract to have Cincinnati Bell build the system and lowered the maintenance cost on the system by roughly $200,000 a year, potentially saving the county $4 million over 20 years.
Schuler received the remainder of the original NORMAP contract, more than $1.3 million. He later sold the company to then-Middletown councilman Perry Thatcher.
Cincinnati Bell then built the system for $2.5 million and now maintains it.
Butler County Domestic Relations Judge Sharon Kennedy told the county prosecutor’s office Thursday, June 4, that the county should go after that original $1.37 million in court, suing former NORMAP president Ron Lutwen for breach of contract.
But the county didn’t lose any money, argues Fox, who spearheaded the fiber optics initiative.
What Schuler did, he said, was negotiate down a contract that has such astronomical profits built in that he could complete it without the original $1.37 million.
“We basically cut a bad deal (with the original NORMAP contract),” Fox said. “You may not like the deal, and you may look back in retrospect and say they could’ve done a lot better, but to say that the county lost money or is missing money is objectively false.”
Commissioner Gregory Jolivette, who joined the commission in 2004, said he asked about going after the money when he first joined the dais.
“I asked how come they didn’t go after NORMAP for the money criminally, they said there wasn’t support on the commission to do that,” he said.
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By Jiminy Cricket
February 22, 2011 10:43 AM | Link to this
Kennedy probably had stock. Best lying family in Cincinnati. Good thing she moved to Butler County.