IV. Public Policy and Procedures
An online Google Group comprised of one member of each County Administrator or designee and one member of the Board of Supervisors as available, plus representatives of local ISPs, utility districts, tribes and other interested parties was formed to review and address local broadband policy issues.
Each county submitted any relevant ordinance regarding broadband, wireless and/or telecommunications and the items were uploaded to the Google Group files section. The group reviewed the ordinances that were available. The group also spent time attempting to identify and review existing or potential state and federal policies that could either hinder or facilitate broadband deployment and implementation of the preferred scenario.
One comment was that CEQA created undue burdens on local service providers but there was no specific recommendation on this other than a call for a review of CEQA.
CETF passed on Broadband Example Policies Project – Request for Input from Local and Regional Officials and Summary of Example Policies and Ordinances From California Local Governments – Working Draft – Work in Progress May 2009 for policy group review. The group reviewed the documents online and was given copies to serve as a resource for public officials and policymakers in formulating policies for their own jurisdictions. Input was solicited from the ISPs regarding the documents.
The Policy Group made no recommendations for a common set of ordinances or recommendations for appropriate legislative action. The group stated they were not averse to doing so at a future date.
Conclusions, recommendations, and lessons learned: this issue was considered to be a low priority by the group. This group was almost entirely comprised of conservative rural county residents who stated a general belief that deployment was a function of the market and private enterprise, not necessarily the local government beyond support and encouragement. Local ISPs expressed fears that further regulation would be costly and burdensome, stalling deployment. The group seemed to be hesitant to add additional requirements or burdens on local businesses but did promise to take the materials back to their respective jurisdictions for further review. It would be beneficial to have a local representative for the ATCAA CSC project continue to work on local policy issues. An energetic person spearheading the group would move the issue further given sufficient time.
