Piedmont discovers error in billing company for utility pole use

The Piedmont City Council learned Thursday that they have failed to collect fees from a 10 year agreement with Information Transport Solutions which is currently the center of a dispute about whether the city should help schools pay for students’ wireless Internet access off campus.  City officials say the 10-year contract states that the company should pay the city between $3,100 and $3,400 monthly for use of city utility poles and electricity, but council members said they were unaware of the fee until Thursday, and the city has not billed the company for the fees since the contract was signed in January 2012.  Council members said if the city starts collecting the fee, which would be paid in addition to a monthly $6,500 cable usage fee the city collects from the company, it will make more sense for the city of Piedmont to help the schools in Piedmont pay for students’ wireless Internet.  At the center of the dispute has been a $6,250 monthly payment the city agreed to pay the schools. A measure passed by the council in 2011 said the city would make the payment for three years, but Piedmont stopped making the payments within a few months. City officials said Thursday that former Mayor Rick Freeman called the payment off because it was intended to be a 20 percent match to a grant that expired early.  The grant was valued at $867,000 and awarded by the Federal Communications Commission in 2011 to help establish a wireless Internet network throughout the city for students’ laptops.