San Jose Mayor Quits BDAC; Other Local Members Stay to ‘Fight the Fight’

The BDAC’s only local member until the FCC added two more, Liccardo hoped to “contribute to developing balanced, commonsense recommendations that will advance our goal of expanding broadband access for all Americans,” the Democratic mayor said in a Wednesday news release. But it became clear that BDAC “will simply serve to further the interests of the telecommunications industry over the public interest.”

“My preference is to stay there and fight the fight,” responded Andy Huckaba, another local BDAC member who's a Republican city councilmember from Lenexa, Kansas, and consults for telecom companies. “It would be nice to have more seats at the table,” but at least local governments have seats, he said in an interview. “I don’t personally feel dominated by industry here.” Liccardo and staff will be missed, Huckaba said. The mayor runs a big city and may have felt BDAC wasn’t worth the effort, he said. “The fatigue factor of this work is beginning to set in for a lot of people,” and Huckaba said he wouldn’t be surprised if more BDAC members quit regardless of background.

Also staying is Georgia Municipal Association Executive Director Larry Hanson. “I hope by continuing to advocate for fairness and balance we can ensure the need for broadband for all Americans is met in a way that is responsible and respects the rights of the local communities and the local citizens and taxpayers who live in them,” said the nonpartisan ex-city manager of Valdosta, Georgia. Local governments must protect citizens and fairly treat right-of-way users, he said. “We will continue to advocate for local input and respect for home rule.”

Liccardo isn’t surprised the others will stay, he said in an interview. Their backgrounds give them different perspectives and they “should do whatever they believe is most effective for … more equitable deployment of broadband,” he said. “As a person who’s spent some time in government, I can recognize the difference between beating my head against the wall and carrying the wall around with me,” Liccardo said. He said mayors plan to seek action from Congress instead of the FCC.

After nine months of working group deliberations, AT&T Assistant Vice President-External Affairs Chris Nurse at the eleventh hour rewrote the BDAC’s draft municipal code to resemble industry proposals in state bills, Liccardo alleged. Also, the state municipal code group had no local representatives and proposed eliminating “all municipal control over when, how and whether to accept industry applications for infrastructure deployment,” the mayor wrote in his resignation letter. An AT&T spokesman pointed out that the BDAC works by consensus. "All participants can contribute to the process and nothing gets adopted without broad support," he said.

BDAC Leaders Disappointed

Liccardo's leaving disappointed BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles and municipal code working group Chair Douglas Dimitroff. Liccardo got lots of airtime during Wednesday’s BDAC meeting, especially as the co-presenter of the municipal model code.

“The mayor added a much-needed perspective to the BDAC” and “it’s unfortunate that he feels the need to resign right at the moment that we are making substantial progress toward our end goal,” said Bowles of wireless ISP Aristotle in an interview. The model codes weren’t final, and BDAC doesn’t want to complete work with a one-sided approach, she said.

The model code wasn’t final and the group welcomes more input, said Dimitroff, wireless attorney and board member of the New York State Wireless Association. “It is certainly true that there was a substantial update made to the code at a critical time as we moved to finalizing things, but these are all drafts,” he said. “It’s still a draft.” But Liccardo said, “We never got a chance to even bring the last draft to the BDAC for the municipal model ordinance, because it had all been swept aside by the industry proposal.”

Bowles saw “a great deal of collaboration” and “trying to reach common ground” in working groups, she said. “We are trying to reach a consensus that is going to be good public policy that will help us close the digital divide, and the only way that happens is to have all voices heard.” The state model code working group didn’t include local officials, but had people sensitive to local issues, Bowles said. “Industry is always going to have a big voice, because they’re the ones that have to go out and pay to have this done,” she said. “But it doesn’t get done without the cooperation of municipalities.”

It’s unfair to “lump” all industry together, said Bowles, noting she’s the only voice for fixed wireless competitors to big incumbents. “If you’re doing a headcount, yes there are more industry members than there are local government members,” but distribution is “fair and balanced,” representing education, public policy organizations, LGBTQ and minority groups, wireless ISPs and tower owners in addition to the big phone and cable companies, she said.

BDAC “and its working groups have brought together 101 participants from a range of perspectives to recommend strategies to promote better, faster, and cheaper broadband,” Chairman Ajit Pai said. “Bridging the digital divide continues to be my top priority, and I look forward to continuing to work with the BDAC and many others to remove regulatory barriers to broadband deployment and to extend digital opportunity to all Americans.”

States and localities “must be heard,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said. “It is deeply disappointing to me that it has reached the point that San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo felt compelled to resign. Disregarding an elected official representing one of the largest U.S. cities ... is unconscionable.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said, "Mayor Liccardo’s presence on and contributions to the BDAC were important." Other commissioners didn’t comment.

State, Local Sympathy

State commissioners aren’t surprised Liccardo left, said NARUC Telecom Committee Chair Paul Kjellander. A July NARUC resolution (see 1707180007) predicted recommendations would reflect the committee’s composition, he said. “The BDAC output so far indicates that NARUC’s concerns were justified. … Many of the suggestions in the recently approved ‘barriers’ report suggest the FCC has authority missing in any reasonable reading of the statute.”

“The BDAC continues to be unfairly slanted toward the concerns of industry rather than communities,” said Angelina Panettieri, National League of Cities principal associate-technology and communications. “We hope that the FCC will take Mayor Liccardo’s concerns and contributions seriously, and work with us to create policy that fosters equitable broadband development while preserving and expanding municipal tools for digital inclusion.” NATOA supported Liccardo’s “strong statement of frustration.”

Liccardo’s sentiments are “widely held” by local government “and have been so since the BDAC decided that matters would be resolved on a majority vote,” said Best Best telecom attorney Gerard Lederer. “If the process had been a consensus process as advertised, the breakdown of government [versus] industry would not have mattered as much.”

Doug Brake of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a member of the state code working group, called the resignation “unfortunate.” Finding consensus has been difficult, he said. "Liccardo was a forceful advocate for cities’ ability to set their own rates for small cell-siting, this was definitely self-interested, as San Jose has been working through an RFP [request for proposal] process, seeking a percentage of revenue from carriers explicitly to pay for other city services,” Brake said. “But it’s fair to say Liccardo wasn’t the only one pushing a self-interested line.”

The frustrating thing is “instead of working towards compromise, he thought it more effective to undermine the efforts of the entire BDAC,” Brake said of Liccardo. “Most on the BDAC recognize that if the output is seen as leaning too hard on spurring deployment alone and doesn’t take a balanced approach, it won’t be very effective or actually be adopted. Like any advisory committee, there has been a lot of pulling in different directions in the BDAC, but the group is working to get there.”

“Liccardo never really participated in the model codes for cities working group so he won’t be missed,” said Richard Bennett, a network architect, who's also on the working group. “His real issue is the prospect of a new California law limiting extortionate rents cities can extract from mobile networks.” Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill doing that last year, “but it’s sure to pass in the coming session,” Bennett said. “San Jose, like many cities, is struggling with pension expenses that force it to look at the 5G rollout as a gold mine.”