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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/23/20231 City Council Special Meeting Minutes August 23, 2023 Town of Los Altos Hills City Council Special Meeting Minutes Wednesday, August 23, 2023 Council Chambers, 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, California Present: Mayor Linda Swan, Vice Mayor Stanley Q. Mok, Councilmember Lisa Schmidt, Councilmember George Tyson, Councilmember Kavita Tankha Absent: None Staff: City Manager Peter Pirnejad, Interim Assistant to the City Manager Cody Einfalt, City Clerk Deborah Padovan CALL TO ORDER (6:00 P.M.) A. Roll Call B. Pledge of Allegiance Vice Mayor Mok called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Mayor Swan was attending remotely. Vice Mayor Mok presided over the meeting. 1. PUBLIC COMMENT (PUBLIC COMMENT IS LIMITED TO ITEMS WHICH ARE THE SUBJECT OF THE SPECIAL MEETING) Robert Sandor, Los Altos Hills, questioned the need for this project, although he knows there are some residences in town where it is difficult to get high-speed Internet. He has a lot of high-speed internet options. He said it’s important to make it easy for these companies to obtain rights of way to install equipment. He believes that any money spent for any other reason is money down the drain. 2. STUDY SESSION A. Discussion and Possible Action on the Final Broadband Feasibility Study Recommendations (Staff: C. Einfalt) City Manager Peter Pirnejad provided an overview on how the meeting will flow this evening. It is a study session for the Council to discuss options relating to broadband. Preston Young, Government Technology Group (GovTech), Turlock, provided a presentation. 2 City Council Special Meeting Minutes August 23, 2023 Gautam Agrawal, M.D., Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF), gave a presentation. Johann Schmidt, LAHCF, provided further information about community broadband. Ellen Kamei, External Affairs, AT&T, provided a presentation. Vardin Amari, Tarana Wireless, provided a presentation. Tedi Vriheas, Vice President of Eternal Affairs, AT&T, and Diana Brown, Director of Construction and Engineering at AT&T, replied to questions from the Council. Vardin Amari, Tarana Wireless, responded to questions from the Council. The Council asked questions of the presenters and received answers. Public Comment Hendrik Dahluamp, Los Altos Hills, said he is confused by the numbers by AT&T. Rajiv Bhateja, Los Altos Hills, said we need to think about today’s issues and tomorrow’s issues. About 800 homes are not happy with their Internet service. Starlink covers all homes in LAH at about $250 per month. Rather than invest in expensive solutions, we should just use Starlink. Going forward, before we sink tens of millions into a fiber solution, we need to think about how technology will evolve. Lennies M. Gutierrez, Comcast, mentioned that even for a current provider, it does cost money to invest in infrastructure. She offered to return at another time to make a Comcast presentation. Jay Snable, Los Altos Hills, the needs in various parts of town are different. There are 600 inquiries in to LAHCF and many pockets of town that have no service. On his own project, he spent less than $8,000 to bring fiber to his house. Daniel Dulitz, Palo Alto, President, Adobe Creek Networks, LAHCF’s sister organization in Palo Alto. They evaluated wireless technologies before trying a fiber solution. They found it to be possible by copying the model of LAHCF. They have a process/roadmap on how to move forward. Clearly define goals and make these available to all competitors. Issue a proposal to which all competitors can respond. Please be clear on what you want to buy. Retain local control. Johann Schmidt, Los Altos Hills, commented on Starlink, saying it really isn’t available to everyone in LAH as it requires a good line of sight. Its performance is inconsistent. 3 City Council Special Meeting Minutes August 23, 2023 Ron Haley, Los Altos Hills, said most of the link to the Internet for Los Altos Hills is mostly above ground. Allan Epstein, Los Altos Hills, said he doesn’t believe the study has provided any actionable information. The study doesn’t identify the pockets, so it is unclear where the people are who don’t have adequate speed. Sasha Zbrozek, Los Altos Hills, subsidy should be an equal opportunity. No one has invested in his area in the past 70 years. What drives the costs to install infrastructure and what might the town do to drive those costs down? Rajiv Patel, Los Altos Hills, agreed with what he heard from Councilmember Tyson. We haven’t heard any substantial information to make any decision any kind. The town needs to create a technical advisory board that can sift through all the details and provide a recommendation to the Council. Gautam Agrawal, Los Altos Hills, said there are ARPA funds available. He noted that AT&T is under financial duress. If an entity asks the town for $20 or $30 million dollars to provide broadband for the entire home, we are essentially funding our own network – and for that amount of money, we should control it. Kamal Hyder, Los Altos Hills, built his own home near a subdivision and was frustrated when neither AT&T nor Comcast would provide service. The only way they eventually got service was to put pressure on AT&T’s corporate offices in New Jersey. They never got anything from Comcast. He loves the idea of a committee comprised of people who know how to do this from both a technical and business perspective. There should be several companies offering service so there is competition. Due to technical problems, Mayor Swan left the meeting at 7:36 p.m. City Manager Pirnejad provided some potential next steps for the Council to consider. Council discussion ensued. Mr. Young, GovTech was invited back to the podium to clarify the results of the survey. He noted that online surveys are completed by people who already have Internet service. The survey was very limited, but it tried to point us in the direction of the problems. Mayor Swan rejoined the meeting by phone at 7:50 p.m. City Clerk Padovan informed the Council that there were three additional public comment speakers who had raised their hands on Zoom. Two had already spoken and the third individual had not yet spoken. 4 City Council Special Meeting Minutes August 23, 2023 Vice Mayor Mok requested a vote to determine if public comment should be reopened. With no motion made, Vice Mayor Mok called for a vote. The vote was as follows: AYES: Mok NOES: Schmidt, Tankha, Tyson ABSTAIN: None RECUSE: None ABSENT: Swan (Note: As the action was failing, Vice Mayor Mok did not call for Mayor Swan’s vote) Vice Mayor Mok would like to revisit this during the goal-setting process in January 2024. 3. ADJOURN The meeting was adjourned at 8:03 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Deborah L. Padovan Deborah Padovan City Clerk The minutes of the August 23, 2023, special City Council meeting were approved as presented at the September 28, 2023, adjourned regular City Council meeting.