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3 <br />City Council Special Meeting Minutes <br />August 23, 2023 <br />Ron Haley, Los Altos Hills, said most of the link to the Internet for Los Altos Hills <br />is mostly above ground. <br /> <br />Allan Epstein, Los Altos Hills, said he doesn’t believe the study has provided any <br />actionable information. The study doesn’t identify the pockets, so it is unclear where <br />the people are who don’t have adequate speed. <br /> <br />Sasha Zbrozek, Los Altos Hills, subsidy should be an equal opportunity. No one <br />has invested in his area in the past 70 years. What drives the costs to install <br />infrastructure and what might the town do to drive those costs down? <br /> <br />Rajiv Patel, Los Altos Hills, agreed with what he heard from Councilmember <br />Tyson. We haven’t heard any substantial information to make any decision any <br />kind. The town needs to create a technical advisory board that can sift through all the <br />details and provide a recommendation to the Council. <br /> <br />Gautam Agrawal, Los Altos Hills, said there are ARPA funds available. He noted <br />that AT&T is under financial duress. If an entity asks the town for $20 or $30 million <br />dollars to provide broadband for the entire home, we are essentially funding our own <br />network – and for that amount of money, we should control it. <br /> <br />Kamal Hyder, Los Altos Hills, built his own home near a subdivision and was <br />frustrated when neither AT&T nor Comcast would provide service. The only way <br />they eventually got service was to put pressure on AT&T’s corporate offices in New <br />Jersey. They never got anything from Comcast. He loves the idea of a committee <br />comprised of people who know how to do this from both a technical and business <br />perspective. There should be several companies offering service so there is <br />competition. <br /> <br />Due to technical problems, Mayor Swan left the meeting at 7:36 p.m. <br /> <br />City Manager Pirnejad provided some potential next steps for the Council to <br />consider. <br /> <br />Council discussion ensued. <br /> <br />Mr. Young, GovTech was invited back to the podium to clarify the results of the <br />survey. He noted that online surveys are completed by people who already have <br />Internet service. The survey was very limited, but it tried to point us in the direction <br />of the problems. <br /> <br />Mayor Swan rejoined the meeting by phone at 7:50 p.m. <br /> <br />City Clerk Padovan informed the Council that there were three additional public <br />comment speakers who had raised their hands on Zoom. Two had already spoken <br />and the third individual had not yet spoken.