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Kronmiller 8-52020 email to IAC1 k.cammilleri Subject:FW: Letter to the IAC Attachments:2020-04-09 Agenda.pdf; 2020-05-27 Scandia Internet Expansion Plan.pdf; 2020-07-20A Scandia Internet Expansion Plan.pdf; 2020-07-20B Scandia Internet Expansion Plan.pdf From: s.kronmiller Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 3:15 PM To: s.kronmiller Subject: Letter to the IAC August 5, 2020 IAC Members, To follow up on our conversation on July 9, I am personally disappointed that the IAC has not, and apparently, will not be more transparent about our expansion efforts. I regularly get questions from constituents about when they can look forward to getting service. We have no answers. The feedback I get from the citizens of Scandia is they are very frustrated with the IAC’s inability to provide them with any meaningful information. Sharing what we are trying to do would be much better than sharing nothing. I am especially frustrated with our inability to tell folks who can expect service this year! The tools Justin said would provide this detail frankly do not! There is no reason MidCo cannot share a list of addresses where service is available, and a list of addresses they are expanding to with the help of taxpayer funding. We have never asked for a list of customers, as that could be consider confidential. The IAC’s Charter is to get everyone internet. How can you be sure you are doing that if you have no idea who has it, or will get it? When was the last time you planned something, and everything went exactly according to plan? I will bet, never! I strongly feel giving people insight to the facts about what we are trying to do (even if our plans need to change over time) is extremely important. We put men on the moon. Lots more uncertainty, but they had a detailed plan and adjusted. I believe the citizens in Scandia want transparency from their Council and all City Committees. They want an expansion plan that lets them know what we will do IF what we are trying comes to pass. They also want us to make (and communicate) adjustments along the way. MidCo has failed to provide any meaningful written information, as requested several times over the past year. Justin is a great salesman, as he has seemingly convinced the IAC into believing the best way forward is to simply put our blind faith in MidCo. No business I know today would accept an offer from a vendor that says they will try to help but I need to withhold critical information and will not commit to anything in writing. I do not understand why the IAC thinks this is ok for our relationship with MidCo. Please review the committee charter and let me know what, if anything, has been done to address the expectations laid out by the Council. The expansion is happening this year because the application submitted last September was approved. MidCo is complying with the conditions of that grant. The IAC had no part in making this first phase happen. MidCo is leading and we are following along for the ride. From the way MidCo is talking, we will likely not have any meaningful information on future phase either, other than to continue to try and discover for ourselves what is happening (just li ke we are doing for this first phase). 2 If MidCo knows of 40 addresses they want us to reach out to, they should let us know those addresses, so we can efficiently address the. We should not have to guess which ones they are. Do not get me wrong… I sincerely hope MidCo will stay engaged and provide service to everyone in Scandia (although we do not have that commitment in writing). However, I as a certified project management professional, I am very disappointed in our ability to establish a true partnership with MidCo and the citizens of Scandia where MidCo will provide accurate and complete information that can be shared with the residents of our community. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any answers or wish to discuss any of this furt her. I sincerely hope the IAC will soon adopt an expansion plan that gives our residents some hope that something will happen soon. This wait and hope “plan” is not sitting well for many. I am very torn over the difference between what the community wants from the IAC and what the IAC is doing. Not sure how to respond to the conflict so I have remained silent... for now. As a Council Liaison to this committee I owe it to the EDA and the Council to let them know my concerns. However, I want to give the IAC the opportunity to address them first. We are told we cannot come up with a plan because there are too many unknowns. For me, the most troubling unknown is what MidCo is doing. We do not really have any details to know what MidCo is doing for us because they refuse to share the address data the IAC needs. I think the City should demand full transparency from MidCo: What addresses will be expanded to this year?... we do not know. What Scandia census tracts did MidCo bid on in the RDOF auction? We do not know. What addresses do they intend to apply for with a DEED Grant this year? We do not know. We also need a written commitment from MidCo to provide 100/20 minimum service to everyone in Scandia (I have an email from Justin stating this is possible), and to stay engaged with the Council until that happens. We also need to agree to mapping the potential expansion plans (and keeping the maps updated as plans change) so residents know what we are trying to do and when they can reasonably hope to get internet service. I have been asking for this information for over a year and have yet to get accurate answers. Regarding the “plan”, I have included 4 documents: 1. The agenda for April 9. This is where Justin laid out a “plan” as described in the agenda. 2. The map we reviewed last month. I researched the RDOF potential areas and updated the “April 9 Plan” with more accurate RDOF data. 3. “Plan A” changes the wording of the future expansion areas to try an add more of the flexibility I heard some on the committee desired, while still clearly identifying the potential RDOF areas. 4. “Plan B” eliminates all the mapping detail other than to show what we have and are doing this year. Everything else is a single color. Not much of a plan, but more than we have provided to date. I hope all of the IAC members will think about our responsibility to communicate with our residents and join with me in trying to get the data we need, and communicate it, for the benefit of all our Scandia neighbors! Please come to the next meeting prepared to discuss what, if anything, you wish to communicate to the residents and business owners in Scandia about our expansion “plan”. For those of you with limited internet bandwidth at home, you might want to consider parking in the City Hall parking lot and using the City’s internet. If you have comments or questions for me, please do not “Reply All” because that would violate the open meeting law. 3 Steve Kronmiller Scandia City Councilmember