Imsong Lee called the meeting to order at 7:40 AM. The first order of business was to discuss the draft letter from PA-COMNET to the City Council regarding the last mile. The only change was to modify the reference to "embarrassment and shame" and substitute the word disservice. PA-COMNET also will offer to advise on the subject, probably via the Telecommunications Advisory Committee which still exists and will be reactivated by staff later in the process. All of the e-mail comments on the letter were positive, with everyone adding their names as signatories. Moved and approved unanimously.
The letter will be presented to the Council at Oral Communications next Monday, with copies to the Utilities Advisory Commission. Imsong will sign it, and Jay Thorwaldson will present it. The list of electronic signatories will be appended. Copies will be sent to the press.
Bob Moss reported that the Cable Co-op Board voted to sell the system to Sun Country at the meeting last night. There still are a number of details to be worked out, after which the City Council must approve transfer of the franchise on behalf of the Joint Powers, and the members must vote to approve. It is possible that individual cities will want to review the deal themselves rather than delegate to Palo Alto, but that won 't be known for some time. Financial details still are not being disclosed. There were a number of members at the meeting who spoke against the sale, but they couldn't comment on the actual deal because so little information has been made public.
The next topic was how to proceed on the last mile connection. Brad Anderson called Margaret Cooley to ask what PA-COMNET's position was. He suggested that if we support the deal, that would get the B cable activated, or get fiber, and advanced services. In fact the deal to buy Cable Co-op requires Sun Country to put at least $7.6 million into a system upgrade. There is a requirement for a 10 year extension of the franchise for the sale to be completed. The offer from Sun was to put in the money over 3 years in exchange for the extension. PA-COMNET can request a greater investment, faster pace of installation, with high speed 2-way access provided to homes simultaneously with businesses and industry before the franchise extension is granted. This request can be incorporated into an addendum letter to the City Council regarding our offer to assist in facilitating the last mile connection.
Bill Cutler discussed the process for including the overall community in any decisions on the last mile and telecommunications operations. First step is bringing in stakeholders. Hank Magnuski noted that one problem is getting the stakeholders to identify themselves and get involved. Many won't realize they have an interest in fiber installation to the curb, what are the advantages, etc. Bill said anyone who thinks they are stakeholders are stakeholders. The system for getting to effective solutions using the process described previously may or may not be complex. It appears likely that getting agreement on a telecommunications facility will be a complex system which needs careful structuring early in the process. The steps to take in order to successfully complete the analysis and selection of objectives and approaches must be articulated.
Bob Moss said that the stakeholders are everyone who lives or works in the cable service area, plus any organization providing service. There are 3 levels to the system. One is providing the basic infrastructure such as the city's fiber loop and Cable Co-op's coax. The City or other entity can agree to provide the basic facility with no regard to the technical details of what electronics and operating systems to use. The technical level which involves operation and maintainance of the system, is second. This includes selection of head end, transmission, and subscriber equipment, etc. It can be left for resolution between the stakeholders and providers in the future. The third level is the means by which the service providers are identified and required to get and give feedback from stakeholders, users, government agencies, etc. If there is an adequate method to require 2-way information flow between all parties, then it can serve to define and influence the technical solutions.
Margaret was concerned that it will take too long to educate stakeholders and get agreement on what the solution should be. Bill said it is important to design the system to be flexible and responsive. Bob will take a cut at the process to come up with an approach.
Jay said that in order to get Council attention people have to make an effort to tell Councilmenbers what is needed and how to act. Also there will be people who get the word late and come into the process after most things are agreed to. Discussions with Council and staff should occur soon. It was agreed that Jay will present the PA-COMNET position drafted by Margaret and circulated and approved electronically. The best opportunity is at the next City Council meeting during oral communications. Jay and Imsong will get together so that Imsong can officially sign it. Margaret has a tabulation of all those who agreed via e-mail to endorse the position paper. The list will be attached to the resolution and given to the Council.
Bill wants to get all reasonable options on the table, and get all stakeholders involved. Mary Jo said we can be most effective by setting out options and offering advantages and disadvantages of each. This is different from traditional political process which is to make a proposal first, not to set out values first.
Van Heimke wanted to know if PA-COMNET intends to contact the Council and others directly and not use the Utility Advisory Committee or staff. He said that there is no replacement for Bernie Strojny with telecommunications responsibility. Presently everything on the topic of cable and related operations is passed by the City Clerk who is responsible for oversight on cable. They have no directive to do anything or focus of some particular technology. The general response was that PA-COMNET very much wants to work with the UAC and staff. The problem is there is no direct Council request for work on telecommunications. If PA-COMNET just give advice and comments to staff and UAC there is no way of knowing when and under what circumstances the city will ask for information and advice. Perhaps the PA-COMNET request for action will lead to directions to staff to look into the issues and make recommendations about City involvement. At that point we can work with staff to come up with the most beneficial and lowest cost solution.
Next meeting will be Mar. 5, 7:30 AM at Terman Library. We still would like to have someone from PacBell talk about their plans for providing telecommunications services.
Adjourned 8:50 AM
Bob Moss
Imsong Lee, Ph.D.
Chairman of PA COMNET
http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/palo/city/pacomnet/pacomnet.html