[Davisgig] BATF Meeting Synopsis

[Robert Nickerson]

Brief synopsis of the 5/25 BATF Meeting.

TLDR – the BATF has taken the RFP in whole, created a subcommittee to 
review it for possible changes, and tweak it so it is branded from the 
City of Davis. They will then possibly approve it, and hopefully 
recommend the City publish it on its web site, and fund the FSR, hooray! 
but everything is delayed.

This was the 3^rd meeting of the BATF, and the DavisGIG RFP for a 
Feasibility Study was the primary item that was discussed. I think it 
went well. Steve McMahon brought up a couple of minutes changes 
pertaining to the comments provided by the City Attorney at the 2^nd 
BATF meeting.

Rob N gave a quick 5 minute background about why community owned fiber 
will directly address council goals and needs, and referenced the 
“DavisGIG backgrounder” email sent to BATF members after the 2^nd 
meeting. This was presented as an opportunity for our City. I drew 
inspiration too from seeing the clearly articulated 2014-2016 council 
goals, and how easily many of the aspects of DavisGIG directly address 
those goals. Then gave a little “provenance” on the RFP document, how it 
was edited from its example, and how it was thoroughly “vetted and 
edited” by a variety of DavisGIG volunteers, including the Chair and 
some other committee members. People grappled with the idea of how the 
City could co-sponsor the RFP with DavisGIG or DCN. People discussed 
starting all over and creating their own RFP, and having two. People 
thought it would be awkward to have the BATF just use a document created 
by another organization, which might show that BATF is not carrying out 
its duties.

So in the spirit of getting things done as quickly as possible, and in 
light of the amount of money we have so far raised to fund this study, 
approximately $7000, we have authorized the BATF to take this document 
and run with it, ensuring that the current respondents to this RFP 
remain involved in the process. The BATF formed a subcommittee of 5 
including 2 people that had originally looked at and worked with the 
document, that will take “comments” from all BATF members, submitted by 
6/8, to City Staff reps, and “incorporate them or not” into the 
document. A lot of time was spent discussing how “comments” could be 
incorporated, and how the document “could be worked on” in a joint way 
without violating Brown Act rules. The solution above is what was 
decided on. One of the reasons we decided to front load this was time. 
In these situations, where innovation is spreading, its easy to get, 
“behind the curve,” and lose the opportunity. For instance, some other 
entirely for profit enterprise could come build this out, own it all 
privately, and just be another monopoly. Then the City completely loses 
out on this possible revenue center, our citizens miss out on the 
innovation, and better pricing delivered by competition. There is no way 
this RFP request will go before City Council until August or later. This 
puts the deliverables, the study, out into sometime mid 2017.

The Mayor Pro Tem sat in and gave some important advice, that I've heard 
him discuss before. Specifically he referenced the successful process 
that the Community Choice Energy commission followed, which resulted in 
city council being advised and prepared by a combination of “local 
experts” and community leaders, to deliver policy recommendations for 
City Council to debate and act on. Apparently, that style seemed to 
work, and he sees us following that type of process and is encouraged by 
it.

Then there was some discussion around sharing documents, and what the 
protocol should be around that. Apparently they have to go to the staff 
then it gets distributed. Also people discussed etiquette and reason be 
associated with the request to read a particular document.

Anyone at the meeting please chime in if I mischaracterized anything or 
left anything out.

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