The plan to set terms for a fiber-optic broadband network in the city, with a goal of reaching low-income Census tracts, advanced Tuesday, Oct. 24, before the Memphis City Council.

The council approved the ordinance on the first of three votes with no discussion before the vote.

But the council heard plenty from Comcast representatives who are opposed to the plan in earlier committee sessions and council members had plenty to say in response.

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The Comcast pitch in committee sessions was a mix of a new, upgraded cable system that the company argues will be better than fiber and talking about public outreach by the company to get low-income Memphians access to the Internet with discounts and similar efforts aimed at adoption.

Evangeline Parker of Comcast’s Memphis office showed the council a photo of her from a 2021 “digital equity day” event with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland where 500 free laptops were distributed by Comcast along with $170,000 in funding to various groups along with an “Internet Essentials” program promoting free access for those who qualified based on income.

“I’m not concerned about the access. Our infrastructure is throughout this city,” she told the council. “But I am concerned with the awareness and adoption. … I need you to partner with me today to make sure families are connected.”

Council chairman Martavius Jones said Internet Essentials was required by the Federal Trade Commission to approve Comcast’s merger with smaller companies.

Council member Chase Carlisle said 500 laptops was very little when compared with the billions of dollars Comcast makes each year.

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“This turned into PR (public relations) games,” he told Parker. “You guys made a lot of money. And you gave away 500 laptops.”

“It’s almost laughable to me. It falls so short for me, it’s hard to fathom,” Carlisle said.

The Comcast presentation was similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s pitch to the council as Memphis Light, Gas and Water considered leaving the federal agency and electric power provider.

TVA pushed weatherization programs and job fairs it hosted along with community events.

And council members reacted the same way they did to Tuesday’s Comcast presentation.

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The claims by Comcast executives that renovations to its cable-based existing system in the city would be better than fiber were refuted by Jay Rolls, a consultant for Broadband Success Partners and former chief technical officer of Charter Communications — a telecom rival of Comcast.

Rolls was presented to the council by city chief operating officer Chandell Ryan.

“Comcast is trying to make it as best as they can with the infrastructure they have,” Rolls told the council of Comcast’s existing non-fiber network in the city. “We’re starting where Comcast is striving to be. You’d really be laying down some infrastructure that is going to have decades and decades of future capability.”

Attorney John Farris, representing Comcast, said the request for proposal that put the infrastructure company Meridiam in a partnership with the city to build out fiber across the city to those telecoms who agree to meet a goal of access to 60% of the city and 60% of the low-income population of the city isn’t neutral.

“We hope the council will pass an ordinance that is technologically and competitively neutral to all providers,” Farris told the council. “Comcast will meet or exceed all of their requirements that have been offered to another firm before they will. … Provide us with the same benefits that the other company is getting.”

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Strickland has said Comcast wants the process opened to companies not willing to do fiber optics — something Comcast has in parts of Memphis.

The city’s approach is an attempt to break the barrier that causes telecoms to install and limit access to fiber networks to high income areas and the suburbs with most federal incentives that specify incentives for fiber networks targeting rural areas but not urban areas like Memphis.

Ballot questions

The council also approved on the second of three votes Tuesday a pair of city charter amendment referendums that would change city elections if they make it to the ballot and then win approval from city voters in August of 2024.

One would allow local political parties to call for and hold partisan primary elections ahead of October city elections starting in 2027.

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Another would require runoffs for all city offices in races where none of the candidates get a majority of the votes cast in that race in the October elections.

Sponsors of the two measures see them as competing ballot questions and say the council should ultimately approve one or the other but not both to go to Memphis voters next year.

Cobblestones

The council approved $2.3 million more in city funding for the restoration of the Cobblestones on the city’s riverfront.

The capital funding comes from a delay in a resurfacing of Channel Avenue on Presidents Island and funding from completed capital projects that came in costing less than anticipated.

The restoration of the Cobblestones predates the 2016 start of the Strickland administration.

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It is a $19 million undertaking with the largest share of it being state grant money and including $4 million in federal funding for a floating dock for businesses and restaurants on the edge of the cobblestones where they meet the Memphis harbor.

City engineer Manny Belen says the project costs more because of the historic low levels of the Mississippi River at Memphis this summer and into this fall.

The low levels have caused erosion beneath the 19th Century cobblestones that are being restored and in a new revetment blanket that was an earlier part of the project to stabilize the area.

“It suctions the ground water along with it,” city Public Works director Robert Knecht told the council of the effect of the low water level. “It allows that soil to move with the water. And that causes displacement.”

The work has also uncovered a far larger field of cobblestones buried beneath the river silt and riverbank.

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The river rises and falls an average of 52 feet during the course of a year.

Belen told council members he and his staff explored doing nothing and waiting for the river to rise but the idea was vetoed by state officials who said if the city did nothing it would have to repay the state $7 million in grant funding.

Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas recused herself from the vote, citing her job with the Memphis River Parks Partnership that oversees city riverfront property through a contract with the city.

Metal Museum extension

The National Ornamental Metal Museum wants to extend its lease with the city for the Rust Hall building in Overton Park to meet its fundraising goal for renovating the Overton Park landmark.

The museum wants the city to keep control of the building for another year before turning it over to the museum for a $25 million renovation.

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Museum director Carissa Hussong said the museum has raised $19.5 million of its goal and is behind on its timetable to raise the full amount because of the lack of adequate air conditioning and working elevators to take potential donors on a tour of the building.

Hussong told council members in committee sessions Tuesday that another factor is negotiations with the state on historic tax credits. The state has been resistant to plans by the museum to make changes to the iconic mid-century structure to make it accessible to those with disabilities by standards of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

The museum’s plan is to have construction drawings completed in the spring. The renovated museum is scheduled to open in 2025.

The one-time home of the Memphis College of Art is planned as a second site for the institution as it maintains its current site and residence program in southwest Memphis.

Memphis Parks director Nick Walker says depending on how the current lease is worded for the extra time, the city administration may be seeking an increase in funding for security patrols and to improve the HVAC system as well as elevators.

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The key is whether the delay in the transition to construction moves into the next city fiscal year that begins July 1.

There was no request for any action by the council Tuesday. But Walker said he could be back at the first council session in November with a resolution seeking more city funding.

Police review board

Council members approved the creation of a new police review board Tuesday on the second of three votes.

The new review board would replace the 30-year old Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board that was recently disbanded by state law.

The state law doing away with CLERB in Memphis and a similar review board in Nashville takes effect in a matter of days.

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Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland proposed the new board to meet the terms in state law for a new review board.

The current board of 13 would become a transitional board of seven, said city deputy operating officer Antonio Adams, with those on the panel now working out among themselves who will make the transition to the new board, at least until Mayor-elect Paul Young appoints members to it.

MATA

The Memphis Area Transit Authority is considering some changes to a drastic set of proposed service cuts to take effect in December if approved by the bus system’s board.

MATA CEO Gary Rosenfeld told council members the cuts are a combination of declining ridership along with the problems in finding qualified workers to keep the fleet of buses running and supply chain problems in ordering new buses as well as parts for older buses.

Rosenfeld briefed council members before the MATA board voted later Tuesday to send the proposal back for possible changes.

The proposed cuts include ending all night service in the bus system’s grid after 7 p.m.

Rosenfeld told council members there may be changes to that to allow running buses up to 11 p.m. on nine routes where ridership during evening hours is the highest.

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MATA is also considering a citywide expansion of its “On Demand” service that uses cars to pick up passengers by appointment in certain zones of the city now where ridership is low.

Such an expansion would depend on getting some amount of increased funding.