OP/ED by Jim Dulzo, Chair of the Benzie Democratic Party
It’s taken three years, but the Benzie County Board of Commissioners may soon take another step to bring broadband–i.e. high-speed digital internet service–to our woefully underserved county.
Merit Network, Inc., of Ann Arbor–a nonprofit internet consultant and provider to governmental and other pubic institutions–surveyed county residents this winter about broadband. It presents its findings to commissioners on May 24, 10 a.m. at the Benzie County Government Center. Citizens should plan to arrive May 24 at 9 a.m. for the public comment period.
Hopefully they’ll make strong recommendations and our commissioners will listen. Be there if you care about Benzie’s digital future, because it’s not clear what commissioners will do.
The commissioners established the Benzie County Broadband Subcommittee of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) in March 2019–albeit with zero budget–and ordered then-county administrator Mitch Deisch to chair, manage, and take minutes for the new body. Commissioners apparently made little effort to investigate various state or federal grants or in hiring an experienced, much-needed project manager.
Slowed by frequent monthly meeting cancellations, few deliverables surfaced, but commissioners said little. Only Art Jeannot seemed interested.
Last March, two years in, the subcommittee proposed hiring an experienced company for the survey and issued requests for proposals to more than a dozen firms. When only Merit responded, commissioners insisted on resending the RFP. There were no additional responses, and after some back and forth with the EDC, no effort to grab available state and federal grants. The survey did not launch until this past November 2021.
Now, with the survey results headed to commissioners, they’ve abruptly disbanded the subcommittee. Although the group was formed to investigate options for quality, affordable, county-wide broadband, new county Administrator Katie Zeits’ brief dismissal email to them–which barely contained a “thank you”–claimed their job was done, since the survey was complete.
So citizens who’d spent three years figuring out broadband won’t be part of the official proceedings, when crucial decisions are made.
What will the commissioners do?
If they want quality, universal internet, they will discuss partnering with Merit to build a local system and hotly pursue federal and state funds. They will approve an engineering study–likely for around $125,000–to learn requirements and costs for countywide, affordable, fast service. They will require conduits for optical fibers: 1,000 times faster than Elon Musk’s Starlink system and the most dependable, expandable, longest-term solution.
If they let a private company do this, they must require high minimum speed and reliability guarantees, and make sure poorer residents can afford good service—a potential route out of poverty. And they will hire an expert to ride herd and make sure residents get the best deal.
What they should *not* do is say “it’s all too complicated or expensive,” then hand off the project to a local cable provider and call it good.
That won’t work. The government’s way of determining broadband service quality and coverage stinks, with loopholes that telecoms love. The companies rarely guarantee minimum speed or reliability, unless forced to. They tout “speeds up to” some big number, not guaranteed minimums. And they rarely stretch service far into the countryside.
But the commissioners might hand the whole thing off to a private company anyway. A few months ago, with minimal warning to the subcommittee, commissioners heard a pitch from Charter/Spectrum representative Marilyn Passmore. Spectrum had already scored some federal funding to expand service in parts of Benzie County, and now–after ignoring earlier, repeated invitations to talk to the subcommittee–she was interested in what the group was doing.
Ms. Zeits, Benzie County’s administrator, says she’s talked with Spectrum several times. No records of those conversations are published, although they should be. When a subcommittee member asked for maps of Spectrum’s future plans if given a contract, Passmore refused, claiming that was “proprietary.”
Passmore’s presentation mentioned “speeds up to”, rather than guaranteed minimums, and did not commit to total coverage. But she impressed at least one commissioner, who suggested canceling Merit’s survey contract, since Spectrum said it was ready to move ahead.
All angles—technical, budget, local oversight, geographical coverage, construction costs, pricing—need public discussion, with subcommittee members as key participants. They’ve learned more about broadband than the commissioners ever will, and they likely have strong, well-informed opinions about next steps.
We must hold our commissioners’ feet to the fire. Don’t let any coziness with Spectrum or other telecoms, an uncritical love of unregulated free enterprise for cable providers, professed aversion to spending money, or unconcern about the project’s slow pace sink great broadband for Benzie.
Their decisions about our broadband future will profoundly affect our families, careers, businesses, and economy—and this is likely our only chance to get it right.
With federal and state funding rising and many counties eyeing broadband, we cannot blow this. We need, in particular, strong consideration of the county partnering with a nonprofit like Merit to build Benzie’s system. That approach is working brilliantly in some areas, including a good swath of the U.P. The fact that telecoms hate this approach so much is–to me–an endorsement.
Let’s make sure the commissioners do their jobs—and lead us to the excellent digital service Benzie County needs to thrive.
Jim Dulzo can be reached at [email protected].