Aurora Mayor John Laesch is criticizing the spending of OnLight Aurora, a not-for-profit organization the city established to manage fiber-optic broadband services.
Courtesy of city of Aurora
Aurora Mayor John Laesch is shaking up OnLight Aurora, saying the fiber-optic broadband service has mismanaged its funds and is deep in debt.
He is questioning more than $337,000 in marketing expenses that the former chairman of the city-affiliated not-for-profit paid since 2018. Laesch said there is little to show for the money that was spent.
The list of expenses includes $7,206 on what the mayor called adult entertainment and $50,937 in debit card withdrawals at ATMs by OnLight’s former chairman.
The not-for-profit entity is $1 million in debt, Laesch told city council members Tuesday night. He said it is operating at a monthly deficit of $27,000.
“Currently, we (the OnLight board) have about enough oxygen to get to the end of the month,” Laesch said.
“’Stunned’ is an understatement here,” Alderman Ted Mesiacos said after Laesch’s presentation. “How are we going to find out what really happened?”
OnLight was created in 2012 in the administration of then-Mayor Thomas Weisner.
The idea was to provide affordable high-speed internet to city of Aurora facilities, and also rent strands to commercial and nonprofit users, such as hospitals and schools.
The mayor of Aurora and the city’s chief information officer are automatically part of OnLight’s board, and there’s one spot reserved for an alderman. There are also spots for four outside people.
Alderman-at-large Keith Larson, who is a software engineer, has been placed on the board.
Laesch did not name the former chairman. The chairman quit his city job in late May after Laesch took office.
OnLight has lost 12 clients since 2018 and brought in one, according to Laesch.
Laesch has replaced OnLight’s staff, which he said were paid salaries totaling $201,000, with a volunteer director for the next several months.
Mesiacos said that the late Alderman Bob O’Connor once asked, as a member of the city council’s finance committee, for OnLight’s financial records. City staff told O’Connor that the records would have to be obtained from the mayor’s office.
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