City Council - Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

okay I'll bring us back to order here uh we'll just proceed with our um committee meetings here this morning and our first uh committee meeting this morning is public works and natural resources and that is chaired by Council marer Stone thank you very much um president Hamill so I am joined on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and Lil Quist we have a couple of items before us the afternoon this morning usually we're in the afternoon after good morning everyone um the first agenda item is agenda bill 24249 so this is approval of an interlocal agreement with watcom County for Lake watcom Forest management plan partnership so the city of Bellingham Public Works Department in partnership with the w watom County Parks and Recreation Department seeks to develop a comprehensive Forest management plan for the lake wam Watershed the plan will include the city of bellingham's watershed acquisitions lands and watom County's forested park lands in and adjoining the lake watom Watershed the purpose of the lake wam Forest management plan is to create an actionable and imple implementable document that serves as a long range tool for the coordinated management of city and county-owned Forest land the plan will improve forest and Watershed Health climate and Wildfire resiliency water quality and overall ecology um for this item I'm first going going to turn to interim Public Works director Joel fun morning chair Stone Council um mayor uh so with

this first item I'm going to be turning it over to Renee lroy um superintendent for natural resources and we're also going to be joined by Michael perisin assist what did I say okay assistant director good morning um uh and N Michael P Perkin our uh natural resources field manager so I will turn it over to um uh Renee good morning Renee lroy we're excited to bring this agenda Bill uh forward as you know we've been buying a lot of property in Lake WAM and we have another couple exciting uh potential purchases that we're going to bring you shortly uh as we accumulate more land we're very well aware that we need to manage that land differently and especially with the risk of climate change uh and so we have made some structural changes internally within public works over the last two years to address that one of which is bringing the um Washington conservation Corp crews in housee and hiring of our own restoration crew so that's been in the works and that crew is now fully hired um and most of them started earlier this month or September we in October um and then we also so along with that we hired the restoration creu we hired a supervisor and then we created a a field operations manager position to oversee all that so the field operations manager is with me today his name is Mike parin I wanted to introduce you to him um because he will be a key part of how we uh Steward like watom going forward um so Mike do you want to get up and talk about that the contract that's before

the group today good morning council members I'm Mike pelkin Public Works natural resources and I'm here to talk to you today about the forest management plan partnership with Wacom County Parks um the forest management plan is going to focus on three main areas uh the first one being stewardship so we're going to have a stand level inventory uh to create an ecologically based approach to Forest Management on all of our Watershed preserves um this approach is also going to have a unique Focus on the lake Wacom tmdl uh additionally it's going to provide a 30-year timeline uh to that'll create management recommendations um at particular inter intervals uh the plan is also going to focus on climate adaptation um it'll include a current climate projection as well as uh climate adaptation strategies um and lastly it's going to focus on Forest Health and Wildfire resilience um we'll be looking at our vulnerability to pathogens invasive species uh and where we lack biodiversity um these are opportunities for increase Wildfire risk so we'll be implementing Solutions such as variable density thinning uneven aged and selective harvesting and variable retention Harvest um to lower Wildfire risk um and as a suite this will create a healthier watered uh to protect our drinking water uh We've selected a consultant Northwest natural resource group and they'll be helping us out they specialize in custom tailored Timber management as well as stakeholder engagement um climate adaptation and

Soil and Water Quality protection thank you does anyone have any questions any questions from committee members council member Anderson um my first question is regarding the contract on terms I wasn't um entirely clear um our portion of the payment um is41 , 295 it states that um the agreement shall be effective starting September 10th and shall automatically be renewed so the agreement I'm assuming will automatically be renewed on a annual yearly basis because there's no um length of contract and then when does it get renewed and if it gets or when it gets renewed does that mean it's another cost of 41,000 how does the the cost versus renewal work out for us so it's a one-time cost of 41,000 and the contract will be in place as long as is needed to complete this plan so just no end date versus actually needing to be renewed correct okay counc liist well several things I appreciate about this work one that it's coordinated with the county it's important uh the other thing is kind of the the topics Michael that you talked about are very appropriate I guess my only question is are we expecting anything particularly new or different we already try to manage the Watershed with many of these risks in mind um and many of these priorities in mind are we expecting it to be particularly different or just kind of like new and better and more robust and more complete I think it's just probably more of a holistic perspective on the Watershed um and greater detail on each parcel um

currently we just have Forest management plans for particular properties that we are looking to um either manage for you know kind of like a stand reduction or Forest Health um but we don't have an inventory of every single property at this point so that's what this will help accomplish and to build on that I think uh one of the things that we will see more of is uh thinning so we are owning more we're purchasing more and more Forest lands and those Forest lands um were sometimes planted very densely and never managed properly and so I imagine that we will see Forest thinning contracts increase Council Anderson thank you for that my next question was about um thinning and I assume through perhaps Timber sale um one of the reasons we've purchased so much land in the Watershed is to protect it to ensure we um have good practices and I'm not against thinning um I have a a little bit of a backgrounded knowledge of how important that is especially for um creating more biodiversity and also for fire um fire management but my concern is how the process of the thinning and extraction of those resources might go um will that when the time comes and there's going to be a contract to do the thinning or perhaps Timber cell is that going to come to council for approval so that we also will be able to ask the questions as far as you know are roads being cut or how will these resources be taken out in order to minimize any impact on soil erosion um just a crystal ball to let us know what to

expect since that is written in here that that'll come to you all in the form of a revenue contract with for the city um and yeah all those elements particularly soil disturbance is definitely something we'll be looking at you know all ground groundbased equipment um just to minimize soil impact um you know and then of course there's the suite of um for practice laws that will be following with stream buffers and that sort of thing but yep an extra layer um that we'll be looking at for sure questions from committee okay any other council members so this item is on the agenda um with a recommendation to vote to approve approve um or a motion to approve again the interlocal agreement move approval thank you very much so there's a motion from council member Anderson to move to approve entering into the interlocal agreement with watcom County um to create a coordinated Forest management plan for Lake wcom Watershed there's no further discussion I'll call the question all in favor say I I any opposed or extensions seeing none that passes 30 and I'll bring forward that recommendation this evening thank you very much so the next item before the committee is agenda Bill 24250 this is a resolution adopting elements of the 2024 fiber Network comprehensive plan in order to improve fiber Network redundancy and resiliency and to support the city's needs in the future the city has concluded work to inventory existing conditions identify resources and opportunities and perform financial

analysis in order order to develop a fiber Network comprehensive plan this work effort is intended to address the ad hoc Broadband advisory committees observations and recommendations which were adopted by City Council in May of 2023 as part of the planning process funding opportunities to serve unserved and underserved areas in the community were evaluated and market research was conducted in both the residential and business market segments the fiber Network comprehensive plan includes a long-term City fiber needs map as well as next steps for fiber testing and infrastructure upgrades in the city that the city can Implement to increase redundancy and resiliency in the city's existing fiber Network system as well as support the city's future needs so for this item I'll first turn to um interim Public Works director Joel fun good morning um so this with this item I am joined by St Steve Hogan superintendent of traffic fiber and parking and John Gavin fiber optic network engineer uh we've been hard at work on this project for the last year uh we've learned a lot about um the situation with our our own existing infrastructure and then opportunities to serve the community with that infrastructure and how best to do that I would say um not all the results were maybe what we had hoped but uh but I'm going to turn it over to John to talk about that in a little bit more detail thank you um we'll start with a quick overview or an outline um the background will'll go through our

existing fiber Network what's what it's made up of who it serves in the community we'll also then move to the objectives and scope of the study that we had performed as well as some go through some of their findings um the results of a financial services plan for the fiber Network and our study recommendations and then finally our steps going forward to upgrade the city's infrastructure so City currently operates about 89 miles of fiber throughout the city it serves fire police water Wastewater traffic signals and our it infrastructure we also provide services through the Bellingham School Districts um a lot of the network was actually built in partnership with the school district um many years ago so we serve of all the Bellingham Public Schools as well as Wacom Transit Authority our regional 911 call center is also served as part of our fiber ring and Wacom County Sheriff's emergency Operation Center is also part of the city's fiber Network so I believe it was in May of 23 the Broadband Advisory workg Group came back with several recommendations for the city to look at so in response to those recommendations we um retain the services of a consulting firm Uptown Services LLC um Uptown has been providing services for municipal fiber bills since 1999 their work has come up to about 480 million in publicly funded fiber projects throughout the United States so we felt like we had a really good match with our consultant um and the objective of this study was really to develop the

comprehensive operation plan for our fiber Network um one of the words was Carrier class that was brought up in the Broadband advisory work group so building a carrier class Network and we knew we had to improve it some um through the study we found out actually how much um the plan was also to improve the city's Broadband capabilities in a financially self-sustaining way method and um bring in a what was infrastructure only model where the city could lease conduit or dark fiber other network providers or other entities inside the city was the objective we had to start out with looking at our existing infrastructure documentation there were some gaps we before we could actually say hey what needs to get done we need to know what we had um part of the study was to go and identify what parts of the city's infrastructure needed to be updated in order to become Carrier class along with that what resources would be required to do that and what infrastructure would need to be renewed and replaced looking at opportunities to serve some unserved or underserved members of our community and finally to create a standard list of documentation for the city to go forward with as they build so what we found in some of the field observations was things that needed to be repaired or replaced um here are some examples of some vaults in our Underground system um in all of these examples the fiber is under stress or under tension and is really not performing to its maximum capabilities first

Vault to the left is way too shallow middle Vault there's way too many cables in there and in the last Vault that's a splice enclosure and it is the Bend to get to the fiber to get to that splice enclosure is way too tight how fiber works is there's a minimum Bend radius that is the the amount of Bend or Circle that could be put in the fiber before it starts imp imp acting performance in all three cases we would exceed the bend radius of the manufacturer ca's recommendations so these all need to be replaced and addressed and fixed um there's also another small issue we found with the condu is in many areas we are fairly shallow we would look for an ideal depth of 24 18 to 24 Ines deep in a lot of areas we are maybe 6 Ines below grade um this creates a resiliency problem where if someone's doing a sidewalk panel cut or a driveway cut um our fiber also gets cut along with it in the last just in this year we've actually been hit twice really lucky the contractor saw the conduit and didn't take us out but around Cordata and Baker view so so there are areas where we are only six inches below grade um currently the system is supporting the city's needs um we need to install or we need to enforce Vault splice and cable management standards throughout the system we do have spare fiber available as part of our inventory um the plan for that spare fiber is to for the city to build Network Rings that'll take some of the risk out of where we're buried not deep enough where if we do take

a cut City's infrastructure will stay up and running during that time um the Rings will need to be collapsed in some areas but overall we'll be able to to make the Network far more resilient to to Cuts being we have some issues with conduit um currently the underground conduit as I brought up is really not ready for um private entities so the initial recommendation of leasing conduit um the city to raise revenue really wasn't a realistic option so the conduit infrastructure isn't suitable for commercial fiber our dark fiber and the underground structure of course if the structure it's built in isn't suitable the fiber that's in there is also unfortunately not suitable there is a 144c count fiber ring that was built from the data center on SE Street out to the co um on North State back down to Sea Street that would be available for leasing um it was built 20 plus years ago but it was built to Telco standard um so the city could offer an SL and what what the SLA is is a service level agreement where we would say the city can keep this network up 99.999% of the time most companies in a telecommunications environment require that service level agreement right now it is was the consultant's opinion that um given the way the infrastructure is the city could not offer those slas so after we looked at the existing it was well where can we go and move to the Future so the consultant provided did a survey of about 1500 residents and the household um what we found is 98% of the

household are currently using internet inside the city of that 86% have a wired connection what we saw was unwired connections which is um cellular fixed wireless connections were mainly um in the lower income housing we saw our lower income households had a lower or had a greater occurrence of that and overall there was a dissatisfaction with the current providers on a scale from 1 to 10 we had about a 5.7 um degree of satisfaction and and most of that the dissatisfaction came around price and and um really an improved speed so overall that's would be the needs of the of the households so 50% of the households we Ser surveyed felt that their ideal speed would be one gig or higher 10% of our households are um in the city are are participating What's called the affordable activity program ACP which is a $30 a month stien that's offered through the providers both Comcast and Century Link offer that that discount for lowincome houses households right now that's funded at least for the next two years um it is unsure if it'll be funded after that so there's a possibility of that going away and of the household surveyed about 50% of them are saying they are underutilizing the capacity they could get from their provider because of cost so along those lines the city said okay if the city were to provide Broadband at a $70 rate $70 a month rate rate um you know would you be interested adjusting for that we found about 38% of the city would be interested in in taking services from the

city um and overall um the city would be the preferred provider for about 46% of the households while if we took the number of hey who would likely subscribed to if the city provided that service we would get up around 72% so so there's a strong brand Affinity or lack of a better term for the city to to provide that service you know um why that is it could be because of price because at $70 for a gig um we would be some less than the current providers part of the other another part of the recommendations were really to look into um the business opportunities inside the city so the consultant did one-on-one in-depth interviews with eight local businesses um most of the firms stating they had sufficient fiber access that they really didn't need any another provider but they would consider the city if we were to offer it um the opportunity there was really as a backup service so they have a provider today but if the city could provide a an alternative route um that would be fantastic and they would look at using the city in in that sense um the downside is most of them would require that service level agreement that we would have problems with with our current infrastructure and we saw a local pricing point of about $300 per fiber mile was was on average so looking at kind of if the city provided fiber Services what kind of services we looked at three the first one was least dark fiber market for this is is fairly small because these would be companies that could manage their

own fiber connectivity we would just provide them the glass essenti between locations um the the financials for this never really um ended up looking all that great we never got positive cash flow in a 20year window um without having positive cash flow you know this entity if we did this would would need to continue to borrow from the general fund up over $40 million total in you know 20 years of operation next service we looked at was a lit service um this is where the city would provide one gig 2 gig 10 gig Services um the good news about this is is there's a bigger potential market for approximately 1,00 businesses located within 500 ft of our current Network um there was definitely a a better operating income from this model but again it never became positive we we get really close on year eight and N but reinvestment in electronics and general cost increases prevent that from ever actually becoming cash flow positive so again you know a fiber entity doing least access we would end up continuing to have to borrow from the general fund to about you know a little over $60 million out over 20 years the final scenario we looked at was was last mile or doing becoming a fiber of the home provider um the income of this looks really good because you start to there's lots of homes there's 39,000 homes in the city of Bellingham um even at capturing 38% of them um Can generate quite a bit of Revenue so in year three in this model which will be three years into construction cash flow

would actually become positive the downside is is really the cost of construction close to about $200 million in cost when we start looking at the debt of having to pay that down the cash flow would never become positive because cash flow is imp positive um we would need to have borrowed a lot of funds so you know after 20 years we'd be looking about $110 million um still left that that the fiber Enterprise would owe the city from borrowing those funds um the way to make this self-sufficient because we also then asked the the consultant say hey we want to do this you know what would it take what it would take would be a $90 million Equity investment that we would use for construction we would have another $57 million bond that we could pay off and based on subscription rates for 38% penetration in year 17 The Entity would become cash flow positive and would be positive by year 20 we would have $50 million back of that $90 million stake that the City put in the equity the city put in up front so we would still be $40 million short on on that SP to overall the the financial analysis is the local construction costs are fairly expensive it comes out to about $2300 per passing or per home that we would build by the federal infrastructure grant money um it's timely there's a lot of it I think 42 billion 48 billion um unfortunately the city does not qualify because of the service offerings from Comcast and Century Link and Quantum fiber um so nowhere in the city would we qualify to

get those federal funds so with dark fiber leasing is not financially feasible least access is not financially feasible and for Last Mile to be financially feasible we would need a $90 million Equity investment so from the recommendations um based on the current economic conditions and all three scenarios not being financially self-sufficient without an equity investment um we would say the city should not pursue offering fiber Services outside of the Ci's and its current public Partners upgrades to the existing infrastructure still need to be completed to support the city um we need to develop Network Rings we need to upgrade those vaults that showed you pictures of where where the fiber is is way too B bound up way too tight and there is one section of fiber that we'll need to increase the capacity because we are at zero fibers available um finally we look to maintain and update the city's long-term fiber need map which will allow us to install conduit with projects in the right away to make sure that hey we don't tear up that street and not put the conduit in that the city needs in the future so here is the map that the blue areas are the fiber need um the rest is our existing Network so any Public Works projects Street what whatever in these areas we will be installing conduit infrastructure upgrade plan how are we going to upgrade all those vaults well it starts with testing the fiber what we want to do is not waste any funds in vaults that don't need to be upgraded so

we're not going to just do a blanket upgrade of all vaults we will run tests and we could actually see where the fiber is bent and kinked too tightly and upgrade those vaults the estimate for those that testing is about $144,000 the infrastructure upgrade which is all those handholes and conduits throughout the city there's 845 possible locations our contractor went out to some local contractors to do the work and get estimates to do the work came in with a budget upgrading those 845 locations would be about an $8 million budget item then there's the fiber augmentation that is the cable between essentially downtown and Fair Haven that is exhausted right now that would be a little over $127,000 to upgrade that section of cable after the handholes and vaults are over so with that any questions thank you John for the presentation and and we've been over this uh before last month we had the the in-depth presentation from the report 130 somewhat slides yeah so I mean this is disappointing it hasn't given me everything that I'd hoped for I have several lines of questioning I'd like to go through but I'll start with a smaller and simpler one one of the hopes is to um address the U accessibility and affordability for um low-income households and and the Hope was that and some sort of Municipal Broadband might be leveraged to create that affordability accessibility but we have something else right now that's serving a similar function uh which is the ACP program and so my question is

who funds the ACP program right now to help out low-income households how much does it cost to run annually and how can the city support its renewal or continuation that's something I I don't know who runs ACP house I believe it is a federal program and we don't have any idea what uh what's that's costing no well I guess I'd say let's find out about the ACP program um I think my impression is it was sort of covid relief Associated right it it was it's it's it's one of those things that I believe will expire in a year or two or sooner um it seems to me that might be something we can think of in terms of a legislative agenda at the federal level or if it passes through the state we can't be the only Community that's benefiting from the ACP program we can't be the only Community that's looking unhappily forward at the expiration the ACP program so cim I see you writing stuff down can we at least look into that and and see if we can add our voices to some effort to continue a similar program because that would address uh these accessibility and affordability and Equity issues across the country not just here so that's that's my first line of inquiry okay second one um so the Silver Lining is I think we have a much better understanding of the current Network and its deficiencies and ways to improve its functionality and they seem eminently achievable right $127,000 to to for that downtown to Fair Haven run so it's no longer exhausted easy like no-brainer a lot of the other

improvements seem like no-brainers as well so now it becomes a question of how do we afford to do this obvious and and and beneficial activity so this is going to anticipate the mayor's budget presentation how do we pay for it we know that the budget is under strain but we also know up here we know that the strain is only in some parts of the city budget some of the most important parts but other parts of the city budget are doing fine um we will be continue to buy Park land and we continue to buy land to protect Lake watom we have other sources of funding that are very healthy and the city will continue to spend even while we're cutting and tightening our belt in other places so I want to ask about what sources of funding can the city use to pay for the recommended Network improvements in particular can we talk about what grants might be available whether or not the utility funds or City utility funds are appropriate uses because we most of the current traffic is utility related um or Street fund related Transportation funded so what utility and transportation funds are allowed to be used for these funds um have we thought about approaching the county for the use of the EDI monies EDI monies are collected and they the city the county is sitting on lots of money EDI money and it's meant for public infrastructure especially public infrastructure can have like you know Community benefits so have we thought about and I think we ought to maybe talk with the county about EDI funds

for this more like $9 million when you all in $9 million um and also Reit uh reat funds are also available we have the city a relatively healthy reat fund we do a lot of things with it it's not like it's sitting on not being used but again that's for paying for public infrastructure this is clearly public infrastructure so grants utility funds EDI Reit can we put together a reasonable funding plan to pay for those 899 million of upgrades over the next six five three 10 years I don't know so can someone address the use of funding and the ability to uh work our way through those recommended Network improvements I can that a little so um that was really the intent of the next step and the request of direction from from Council here today is that um we felt like um you know the the large document that's part of the packet um really didn't turn out to be necessarily a plan per se it was more of a study and a conclusion and that's why the resolution that you have in front of you is is prepared the way it did not to adopt that quote unquote document um but it really is to set a direction from um from Council for the city to get into that very next step and we have a lot of the same thoughts that you do of uh how how can we identify funding to make this system more reliable more resilient um and use those different sources we have not gotten into that level specifically but that would the intent is that that would be the next step um based on that direction is to identify and

prioritize um certainly we've I think set a Direction with that uh connection between downtown and um faen being that top priority for first step and then um learning more about the the details of where we go from there I was just going to note that I mean that was one of my questions are these you know cost budgeted but reading and the now therefore part of the resolution right clearly stating that dependent on the identification of necessary available funding and the need to balance these priorities with other City priorities you know the city will implement the following next steps of fiber testing and infrastructure upgrades um as contained in the comprehensive plan and so this is sort of a commitment from Council and policy direction that yes these are priorities that we want to address um but recognizing the current budget constraints Council Mist I'm really glad to hear you say that this document isn't really a plan that was confusing the heck out of me uh the motion you know I thought we were going to be adopting a a comprehensive Network plan but it isn't the plan at all as you said it's a study so I was trying to figure out what document I was adopting it it I I know what the resolution is stating but is this the plan yeah ultimately that um that is the plan because of you know the scope and where we ended up and things like that is that it really does come down to a lot of information we gained a lot of things we learned some of it you know was really insightful

some of it we didn't necessarily it's not what we had hoped but the the the Direction going forward will be to um have us create maintain uh use the the um the long-term fiber map as well as go after over that um that you know the next two five 10 years to really um upgrade our existing um fiber Network so that it can serve um what I would say is you know is a very valuable need for the city and the community um and our agency partners I mean here's my frustration um this isn't a plan that I want to adopt and this doesn't in my mind count as a plan either I would like to adopt a plan and neither of these documents is what would normally count as a plan I want to adopt a plan it seems like we're talking about what is a plan and that plan is to identify the funding sources to work through the recommended work to figure out the not only the the sources of funding but a realistic time frame to implement that and a list of recommended projects or or or areas to address we have all the elements of a plan it just kind of doesn't exist yet um I'm more than happy to support this uh this resolution but I I I kind of still want to see a plan and it seems to me we already all know all the elements of the plan already the the the companying memo in here that Joel maybe you wrote it it's it's almost enough to be a plan but no document is actually a plan so that's a that's a process frustration because I'd like people to point very clearly for the public for myself for the administration

here is the comprehensive fiber Network plan and all the elements are here and I think I understand exactly what would go in it but it doesn't yet exist um do you think we could develop something we could proudly call a plan without too much work because I do think we have every single bit of information we need I think that um that that is something that you know staff will be basically working on anyway I mean we have to your point we have all of the elements here um the intent was that that the that that all of this has been kind of entered into the record and that the direction going forward would be to um going forward on those those finer details um of the the actual implementation of the the direction in the resolution M Anderson thank you um I understand where council member Lilo Quist is going I kind of see this as a um kind of a inferred plan that we had given Direction previously to pursue um a study with the intent of seeing if it was viable to be become a provider and so the information obviously is um definitely indicating that it is not viable unless we want to spend tens of millions of dollars out of our general fund which I would much prefer to provide housing and services that are a little bit more achievable but um it would be nice to have um a little more like we're providing you direction that yes we agree we're going to jump off the the line of um pursuing providing and then based on your um recommendations here that you're looking for support that this

is something to pursue before you completely write up a plan on it because there there's certain elements like the 800 volts we don't know how many of those so it's going to be a matter of testing so it's really hard to bring forward a cost a true cost because 800,000 I mean 8 million is an estimate but if of those 800 vaults um only 300 need to be changed um that's going to dramatically change the overall plan of which ones we address first um so my question is um timing wise um the hierarchy of work I'm assuming there's the assessment to figure out how many of these vaults need to be redone and then I believe a a full budget request will come forward to us like over the scope of you know is it going to take us two years is it going to take 10 and that will be dependent on how many of these have to be done who's going to do that work do we have the ability inhouse to do all that testing is it going to be a contract um what do you see the next steps because it might be identifying those next steps become the plan and then that can come forward to us for a final approval I mean I can move the motion to approve the recommendations here so that you have direction of go forth and then bring back um what is going to be most useful for you um ultimately and then what is what's the next step for us to expect and that next step what would be the potential timeline of bringing something back to us marn I just want to clarify from Council when I hear the word plan when as council

member Anderson Just referred to it I hear more of a work plan and actions for next steps but I think what council member lillquist might have been getting at is frustration about the lack of more of a master plan around this and so I just want to clarify um kind of when I hear the word plan what is the intention and meaning behind thatc lis so the city has lots of plans I I've seen dozens of them we have a comprehensive stew storm water plan we have a comprehensive um uh stormwater plan we have a comprehensive we have Parks plan we have lots of plans and so I know what they kind of look like and this isn't that and I want what those are so look at the bike and P pedestrian Master plans they have a lot of background information on them but then they get to the point where they actually say here's how we how we arrived at our recommendations and then here are recommendations and they're they're listed out in general terms and they're financed out in general terms and there's us a timeline indicated right that this work plan is a 10-year work plan or this work plan is a 20-year look ahead or you know whatever so I think I know what a plan looks like and this isn't it and I I really want to go through and strike out the word plan in this document um I mean I'm going to make a motion which is that we officially rename that document report and the reason why I would do that is I would add a third element to the resolution I would strike I would say as con this network fiber

Network comprehensive plan in section two I would change that word to report and I would move that we add a third element which is to develop a fiber Network comprehensive plan actually using the word plan based on the foregoing outline of work and containing the insights from the fiber Network comprehensive report I would move that we amend the resolution to for the development of what really would be a plan along the lines of the other plans the city has um that's my motion so I'm going to ask you to restate that motion slowly my for our my motion is to amend the resolution um the resolution is to uh strike the word plan in section two to instead relabel the fiber Network comprehensive plan as instead the fiber Network comprehensive report and then to add a third item to the resolution which is uh to develop a fiber Network comprehensive plan based on the foregoing outline of work in section two and section one and containing the insights from the fiber Network comprehensive report second mayor please well I I support you having robust conversation about this what I would appreciate is for staff to go back and report back to you on what the cost of that formal comprehensive plan looks like in terms of Staff time because if we look at how we approach the comprehensive plans that you're endeavoring to create around this it is boards and commissions it's staff time it is public engagement it is surveys it's it's a significant investment to invite the public in to do that work

in a robust way and it requires a lot of Staff time to support that and so I'd like to be able to fully inform what the cost would be for staff to do that in that engagement process as we've done if you think about as you mentioned like our bike and pet plans so if we look to something like that I'd like to come back and Report out about what that would look like I guess just to add on to that and then come back to council member list um what I'm reading from the report right basically we had this contract to do a study the study results have shown what council member an was highlighting right what's not possible unfortunately and so to develop a more detailed plan that states that right and then really what comes out of that study which is something that we're able to tackle and adopt and accomplish is filtered down my understanding into what's highlighted in this resolution which I understand is not satisfying um because we were hoping to do more but I'm understanding that the does that make sense I mean that what would that plan outline basically would outline all the things that we're not able to do or just focusing on or would that plan simply focus on these tangibles that we're adopting Council the motion um does accept the reality of the report and the reality recommendations and the plan would be based on the work plan as identified here um with all due respect we have had a lot of public process on this the entire Broadband Advisory workg Group was a public process

the consultant did Outreach and Community surveys this I think we don't need to go back and do a public process for input and Gathering we're at the tail end of five years of public process and Gathering I'm not looking for an elaborate document I'm I'm looking for I mean there's a memo in here uh that's five pages long or four pages that's almost what I need I'm just saying that this resolution isn't a work plan and this report isn't a plan there's another document and it's not too far away I I really don't think we need to go back and do a process all we need to do is reformat it in a form that actually looks like a plan and it's very very similar to this outline right here but it's a little bit more it's kind of like the memo so I'm I hope I'm asking for not too much so what I hear you saying is the actual product and not a focus on the process yeah I'm saying we had a really good process that didn't lead to the right product all I'm asking for is the right product um so we can point to it and so it's we don't do work plans in a resolution and we don't call reports plans so just please make me the right kind of document and I don't think it needs to be much different from the the memo that's that's in the document so the motion is to develop a not fiber neur plan based on the forging outline of work right and we passed this resolution that is the outline of work and and also containing the insights of the fiber Network comprehensive report right so in there you have to

indicate what was studied and what was found and then you indicate what the work plan is that's a plan that document doesn't exist except maybe the memo which is pretty darn close thank you councilman requis um so we're close to time and we have a very full day um so there has been a motion for an amendment um I'll call for a vote first on the amendment to the resolution if there's no further discussion okay Council Anderson just a quick comment um I kind of agree that I don't think we have to reinvent the whe and start the whole public process over again this has been in the works for years and we've had the committee we've had a huge public process I think all the elements are here and then we can also I think it's just tying it in a nice clean document saying these are going to be our goals and processes going forward for the city's own fiber plan um and then from there we it comes forward and has a public hearing and that kind of caps off the ability for you know final public input um I don't think we have to start all over in the process we just take all the information we've been working on for years and tie it up nice and cleanly um I would hope we could go that process versus starting all over again so I think um St staff would be comfortable if the idea is more of an implementation plan something that is very focused on the the um uh item number two around the rec recommendations around the next steps that that's something that staff has the capacity and ability to

do in house and and yeah you know staff W was the ones who prepared the memo to try to articulate that story in a more kind of meaningful way so I think if if you're comfortable with something that would be you know fairly lightweight this isn't a tone it's more of a a fairly short plan but clearly articulates how where we're going and how we got there that that's something that staff could staff could do and bring back at a at a future point that does align with my expectations and what my intent was in the motion so I'll call the question then all in favor of the amendment say I I I any opposed or extensions okay that passes 3 and then moving back to consideration for the resolution recommend approving the resolution as amended okay any further discussion okay seeing none all in favor say I I I any oppose or extension seeing none and can you just provide that writing to the clerk as well yeah I'm going to hang on to it for tonight's meeting and then I'll I'll give it to the clerk thank you very much thank you very much to staf I appreciate the conversation and the presentation um with that we are adjourned and I'll send it back to you president Hamill thank you take a brief break and before our next uh committee meeting this morning and that is community and economic development and that's chaired by council member cotton who is just on the hallway I just texted him he'll be here in a moment