City Council Minutes 2018 01 16 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes January 16, 2018 Page 4of8 address speed, reliability, cost, net neutrality, cell phone coverage, etc. She would like a broader community discussion on what we are trying to accomplish. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton suggested in the scope of services the stakeholder list should include the school district and other governmental entities. He stated that more generally, the things that are important to him are what policy decisions we can make as a city to foster competition and have additional service providers in the marketplace; and how we can update the land use code to encourage more options Councilmember Keany stated he is concerned we may be setting an expectation the City is going to be a broadband provider He stated we don't have the resources to do that and he doesn't think this is the role of the City We want to open up speed, content, and availability at public buildings, perhaps even wifi throughout downtown He is not interested in the City being the broadband provider He stated perhaps there could be partnering with the private sector and other ways to benefit the businesses in town. Mayor Muckle agreed with Councilmember Keany that we need to manage the expectations. He is interested in providing high quality service at public spaces, fostering competition, and addressing net neutrality by facilitating pnvate providers He is interested in the feasibly of what is practical. Chris Neves, IT Director, stated the City does have a good existing middle mile service and all City facilities are connected with fiber, but there are areas that could use improvement He stated providing wifi at public places outside is challenging and could be expensive, but we should create a list of where we would like it. We do have robust public service at the Rec Center and the Library already. Councilmember Loo stated residents are complaining about how Longmont can provide such great service and Louisville does not provide anything at all There already is an expectation with the public that we should be able to provide better service. Residents want us to attempt to make it better. She also noted that it is more than providing wifi in public buildings; other communities are advertising to businesses that they can provide 5 gig service. We need to look if we are competitive on a commercial basis. We need to clearly state what we can and cannot do. The election created the expectation; now we need to explain to people why we can't do it immediately. Councilmember Maloney asked if the RFP is predicated on making changes to the land use code Director Zuccaro stated the zoning code is to facilitate private investment and allow use of the rights of way to put in infrastructure. Councilmember Maloney would like that added to the RFP. Councilmember Maloney agreed we need to be able to explain this to a lay person. He noted Ft Collins and Longmont have existing conduit in which to build this and we don't.