A2D files suit against WR

“It’s totally unwarranted. It really amounts to a violation to the terms of the contract that he signed back in February of 2019. So, we’re filing this mandamus action to ask a superior court judge to hold a hearing and to compel Mayor Toms to honor the agreement that he signed with our client and to stop this arbitrary and capricious manner and behavior of denying my client access to its own property, which happens to be in the city’s right-of-way.”

Those were the words that Bob Cheeley, senior partner for Cheeley Law Group, expressed to Houston Home Journal on Wednesday when he notified that he would be serving as lead council for plaintiffs, A2D, Inc. and eCBI, LLC as they moved forward in a lawsuit against Warner Robins Mayor and Council. According to Cheeley, A2D is a company that installs fiber optic conduit in communities around the state of Georgia, and eCBI is a company that it set up for this Warner Robins fiber service.

“On this litigation with me, will be former Attorney General of Georgia Mike Bowers,” Cheeley announced. “A mandamus is a particular type of lawsuit provided under Georgia law to force elected officials to do their jobs and to perform the functions that they have legally committed themselves to do, but for arbitrary reasons, are refusing to do,” he explained. “It’s a very disturbing and arrogant practice on the part of the mayor to sign an agreement, and then to intentionally not abide by that agreement.”

Based on information shared by Cheeley, A2D entered into a public-private contract with the city of Warner Robins and also the Economic Development Authority to provide high speed fiber optic service in a 27-mile loop around the city of Warner Robins. The history to what has transpired stems back to before Warner Robins Mayor Randy Toms came on to city council.

“In 2012,” enlightened Cheeley, “the city wanted to provide the high sped internet service to Warner Robins and all the businesses and residents—make it available so that it could compete against other cities that had it and attract new business and industry to Warner Robins and not be at a competitive disadvantage.”

In greater detail, Cheeley shared that there was a SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) that was passed by the city to help generate $2.5 million to attract companies such as A2D to approach the city about entering into an agreement to install fiber service.

“Fast forward from 2012 to 2016/2017, and my client approached the city about providing this service,” Cheeley said. “There was no one else that had approached the city about providing this service up until that point, so the city and the authority issued and entered into a comprehensive agreement whereby the city would authorize my client to install the 27-mile loop of fiber service.”

Cheeley expounded that within that fiber conduit are many fiber lines—up to 72, initially. The basic agreement provided the city would own 12 of those fiber lines inside this conduit, and then the development authority would have 12 lines (with those 12 lines, in turn, being leased to Cheeley’s client). The client would then go out and get retail customers and residential customers signed on to those 12 fibers and additional fibers his client would have, up to a total of 72.

“The closing for this occurred in February of 2019,” Cheeley emphatically pointed out. “All the documents were signed. There is a bill of sale among those documents that Randy Toms signed acknowledging that the city owned 12 fibers and only 12 fibers. There is a total of 10 documents bearing Mayor Toms’ signature from that closing,” he continued. “Now, the mayor is refusing to allow my client to go out and sign up residential and retail commercial customers claiming that the city owns the entire conduit with all the fibers in the conduit and is basically not honoring the clear terms of the agreement from February 2019.”

Cheeley further charged that Mayor Toms is refusing to allow Director Bill Mulkey, who issues the permits, to gain access into the public right-of-way, which is along the roadway where this fiber line is buried underground.

“Each time you tie into that fiber to provide access to a business, for example, you have to submit a drawing to the city,” explained Cheeley. “My client has to submit a drawing to the city showing the location where they’re going to tie into this 27-mile loop. My client has submitted these permit applications dating back to June of this year, and the mayor has instructed—we believe—Mr. Mulkey, not to issue these permits to eCBI and to A2D.”

Despite their attempts, Cheeley said that he has not yet had a chance to meet with Toms. “We’ve requested a meeting, but we’re being told by the new city attorney, Julia Mize, that the mayor is taking the position that the city owns all of the conduit, including all the fibers in the conduit, and that my client has no right to it; which is totally unsupported by any of the agreements that the mayor signed.”

The lawsuit, Cheeley said, would be filed before the end of day on Wednesday (October 28), and the mayor would be made aware of it.

“The mayor’s actions are very troubling in several aspects,” Cheeley expressed. “He’s ignoring the clear agreement that the city signed. In those agreements, it shows that the city only owns 12 of the 72 fibers. There is a bill of sale that documents that, and the bill of sale is attached to the lawsuit that we will be filing. There is absolutely no justification for the mayor to take the position that the city owns the entire 72 fibers and the conduit that contains those fibers.”

According to Cheeley, Toms’ actions are depriving the citizens of Warner Robins from having high-speed access to the internet that is much, much faster than what is currently provided over copper wire. Though state of the art fiber service is readily available, the mayor, Cheeley charged, is refusing to tie into it.

“It’s been installed since February 2019. The agreement provided that the city of Warner Robins would receive free service until February 2020. At that time, the city was supposed to start paying for the access to the internet through my client’s 27-mile loop. There are well over 100 businesses that have expressed interest for several months now, tying into this fiber loop, but the mayor is prohibiting that from happening because of his unjustified behavior,” Cheeley asserted. “We’re going to get down to the bottom of what his motive is for refusing to take advantage of this high speed fiber service; not only for the city services, but also for the public in general.”

Houston Home Journal reached out for comments from Mayor Toms regarding this matter, and although City Clerk/Public Information Officer Mandy Stella confirmed that a lawsuit was indeed pending, she also informed that because this was a pending litigation, Toms had been advised by legal council not to speak on it at this time. In a brief conversation with Warner Robins City Councilman Larry Curtis, Houston Home Journal learned that members of council (or at least, Curtis) had not yet been informed of any legal actions being taken against mayor and council by A2D or eCBI.

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