COLUMBIA — The city of Columbia has received $14.3 million in a settlement with Brightspeed Communications, formerly known as CenturyTel of Missouri.
The settlement is a result of a lawsuit filed by the city of Columbia and the city of Joplin in 2014, which alleged that Brightspeed underpaid certain licensing taxes and fees to both cities.
However, Columbia did not issue a news release when the settlement was decided in July. The settlement also avoids any mention of liability on the part of either party. The agreement for the settlement also said that the effective date of the settlement was May 30.
"From my understanding, often when we have ligation and settlement matters, usually those are things that are kind of in the background, we don't necessarily do press releases," Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said.
Ken Rice, a former city council candidate spoke at Monday night's City Council meeting and said the city and the city council should have been more transparent about receiving the money.
"You know, we apparently knew about this back in July. Well, why wouldn't the city, at that point, go ahead and put out a press release?," he said.
The $14.3 million went to the city's general fund, which is money used to fund the Police, Fire and Public Works departments, among other things.
However, the city doesn't have any plans in place to spend the $14.3 million just yet.
"We do not have plans on how to utilize this funding because we have a budgeted deficit," city of Columbia spokesperson Sydney Olsen said in an emailed statement.
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