Sheri Weiner

When an issue gets overheated, it can helpful to step back and ask: what are we really fighting about?

Now’s a good time to ask that question about the One Touch Make Ready policy before Metro Council on Tuesday night. Is it about very fast internet? Google versus AT&T and Comcast? Or which side can send the most emails to their council member in a 24-hour period?

For me, and many of my constituents, here’s what this debate is really about: fixing a broken system from start to finish and not just part of it.

So let me be clear – we all want a faster fiber rollout so that we can have competition and choice. That is what we ALL want. But is One Touch really doing that?

One Touch exacerbates a broken system. It undermines Communications Workers of America contracts. It does not address the myriad of problems we uncovered. It introduces new safety and reliability concerns with competitors moving each other’s equipment.

And perhaps most important to my duty to constituents and all Nashvillians, One Touch Make Ready puts taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in legal fees – defending Google, whose parent company Alphabet is worth over half a trillion dollars.

So I come back to my question: Are we really fixing a broken pole attachment system here? It doesn’t seem that way.

During the hearings with the stakeholders, here’s what we learned:

The application process requires consecutive applications that are enormously time consuming. Delays are inherent in this antiquated process.

The make ready process is also seriously flawed. There is no mechanism to utilize other attachment processes such as lashing (binding one set of cables to existing ones) or standoff brackets (that don’t require anyone else to move equipment).

Council members are receiving routine calls about property damage with little accountability. Gas lines have been cut. Cable services have been cut. What about phone service interruptions in the face of an emergency?

Let’s fix these problems instead of creating new ones.

So instead of rewarding intransigence, let’s require all the stakeholders to work cooperatively.

Instead of paying millions in legal defense at Google’s behest (bearing in mind some experts suggest Metro will lose the suit and be responsible for AT&T’s local and national attorneys’ fees, too), let’s do the pro-Nashville, pro-taxpayer, pro-common sense thing and move forward with a mediated solution.

I am referring to the resolution RS2016-380 I am sponsoring at this week’s Metro Council meeting.

Here are the highlights of what a mediated solution would bring:

Expedites the pole attachment process

Creates strict penalties if poles are not made ready in a timely manner

Addresses many of the issues in the antiquated “make ready” process that One Touch does not.

Avoids multimillion dollar lawsuits and associated delays

Protects jobs

If this doesn’t work, then perhaps One Touch Make Ready is the solution. In fact, I was originally a co-sponsor of the One Touch bill.

But first – don’t we owe it to the people of Nashville to see if we can resolve these problems in our council chambers instead of a federal courtroom?

Sheri Weiner is the Metro Councilmember representing District 22 in southwestern Davidson County.