In the end, it was Councilman Will Arnold who seemed to sum up the mood of the majority of the City Council following a lengthy discussion Tuesday evening about expanding broadband access in Davis: “We can’t approve a municipal fiber network today,” Arnold said, “but we can kill it, and I’m not willing to do that.”

The council ultimately voted to have staff return with a plan for evaluating a phased-in approach for building a municipal fiber network, including the phasing options, the cost and potential revenue from those options, as well as financing mechanisms.

The vote largely followed the recommendations made by the Broadband Advisory Task Force, which has been tasked for the last three years with finding ways the community of Davis can improve broadband access. Their primary recommendation: That the city create a municipally owned network in order to provide greater choice and service to Davis residents and businesses while also closing the digital divide.

But the task force also recommended the council bring in experts with the technical and financial backgrounds needed to explore how to move forward, something the council agreed to do on Tuesday night.

“We strongly feel that with the right combination of technical engineering, financial exploration and residents with relevant expertise, not only will the city be successful in deploying this utility to the community, but would also pave the way for massive economic development,” task force chair Chris Clements said in a letter accompanying the task force report.

About a dozen members of the public echoed that sentiment Tuesday night, urging the council to continue exploring the possibilities for creating a municipally owned network.

Doug Walter, board president of Davis Community Network, said, “I see no magical thinking or boondoggle in the BATF’s recommendations for further study. … (With) a community-owned fiber optic ring, we could address neutral treatment of internet traffic, privacy for our medical data being transmitted from the home, fair access to the internet for people facing income inequality, so I believe it would be remiss for the council not to accept the recommendations of the BATF and have groups of experts study the technical and financial aspects of community broadband fiber.”

Looking ahead

Said former City Council candidate Ezra Beeman: “I’m a small-business owner, I’m one of those folks that works downtown in the internet black hole … It’s enormously difficult when service cuts out, lags and there’s nothing I can do about it because I’ve got no other options.

“Davis has long been a visionary city,” Beeman said. “Community-owned telecommunications services is a once-in-a-generation option for visionary action for our community. It offers us the opportunity to make us the envy of the rest of the region and the state if we do it well. It won’t be easy. It requires visionary leadership, good management and probably a little bit of luck. Doubts raised by the consultants, staff and council members are understandable. The challenges ahead will be many and it will not be easy.”

However, he said, “fortune favors the bold. The (task force) made bold but responsible recommendations. These recommendations are low-risk and will keep our options and dreams open. I urge you on behalf of our community … to take action tonight to move Davis forward boldly.”

Public commenters also pushed back on the city staff report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting — as well as an Enterprise op-ed penned by Councilman Dan Carson — that focused on expenses and risks associated with a municipal network.

The estimated cost of constructing the fiber network and providing network connections and broadband service is $106.7 million, according to a broadband feasibility study completed in 2018.

That’s based on a scenario where the city pays for the network, and is also the Internet service provider (or contracts with a single partner to provide Internet service) with 50 percent of homes, businesses, organizations and apartment complexes participating.

City attitudes

Following completion of that study, the Broadband Advisory Task Force worked with CCG Consulting to conduct a poll of Davis residents to see what percentage would switch from a private broadband provider to a municipally-owned network.

The results: 21 percent of homes said they would definitely buy broadband from a new city fiber network and another 31 percent they probably would. Thirty percent said they might.

“This is significantly lower than what the consultants have seen in many other markets,” staff reported.

In his op-ed, Carson noted that CCG determined “a municipal broadband project would be costly and risky and that community interest in committing to pay for such a service is weak.”

On Tuesday, however, task force vice chair Christine Crawford said the task force “recognizes that the costs are very high and it’s too much to bite off at once,” and said the task force, recognizing those high costs, “actually pivoted, and we’re recommending a phased approach now, which is more realistic and also was suggested in the CCG original feasibility study.

“And since the phased approach has not been studied — all we’ve looked at is a city-wide approach — we feel it should be looked at in more detail.”

“The task force remains steadfast in its vision for a municipal network through a phased approach,” Crawford said.

And quoting from Clements’ letter, she added, “the time has never been more important than now to take significant action towards that effort. Comcast is becoming more and more of a monopoly broadband provider in the city which will increasingly affect competition, service and pricing over time.”

More information

Council members expressed their own doubts and concerns but in the end voted unanimously for further exploration of a phased-in approach.

Councilman Lucas Frerichs suggested that California does not have many municipal fiber networks because of high labor and construction costs as well as legal costs, including those related to the California Environmental Quality Act.

“It doesn’t mean it’s not possible,” Frerichs said, adding that he generally favors community-owned enterprises. “I do think further examination is needed.”

Mayor Pro Tem Gloria Partida also said, “it’s always best to have community-owned, community-controlled entities.

“But there are realities that have to be faced, and the money is the most obvious one,” she said.

However, Partida added, “I don’t want to be the council that puts the nail in the coffin, because this is a good idea… we should study it further.”

Carson remained largely skeptical but said if his colleagues desired further study, he would support that.

In his Sunday op-ed in the Enterprise, Carson noted the task force’s suggestion that a municipal network be built in stages, and said he worried about “a bullet train-style boondoggle in which construction starts only to find out that the rest of the money needed to finish a network isn’t coming.

“Davis could end up building a ‘network to nowhere,’” he wrote.

On Tuesday Carson said, “the more questions I ask, the more confirmed I am in my opinion that this will be a dead end.”

However, he added, “I’m not going to oppose my colleagues seeking answers.”

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy.

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