PORT ANGELES — The City Council approved Tuesday a seven-year fiber-optic use agreement with Capacity Provisioning Inc. that was stuck in a tied vote three weeks before.
The contract with the Port Angeles firm was approved in a 5-2 vote with City Council members Max Mania and Cherie Kidd opposed.
Despite city staff members touting the seven-year agreement as not only affordable, but providing perhaps the most inexpensive fiber network in the nation last month, several council members, primarily Kidd and Mania, expressed concerns over the length of the contract the and ability of the city to use other technology, such as wireless, during that time.
City staff members responded that a shorter contract would cost the city more and that the agreement allows wireless access to be added.
On March 18, the measure failed in a 3-3 vote, with Deputy Mayor Don Perry absent and both Mania and Kidd voting no.
Council member Brad Collins opposed the contract then, he said, because he wanted to see if the contract would cost less if it was for five years rather than seven.
He voted for it Tuesday.
City Power Systems Manager Larry Dunbar said a five-year contract would cost the city $52,517 more.
“It makes sense,” Collins said Tuesday. “Seven years is a better deal.”
City funding lines
Another issue raised was whether the city should pay for new fiber lines to be installed when it won’t own any of them.
“It sounds like we’re buying CPI a car and they’re charging the city to ride in it,” Mania said.
He was referring to the $133,233 up-front cost that the city will pay for “redundancy,” meaning two or more fiber connections, at several facilities.
Dunbar said that, while the city won’t own the lines, CPI has agreed to allow the city to continue to use them at no cost after the contract expires, even if it chooses another network provider.
The fiber “Metropolitan Area Network,” as it is known, connects the computers at city facilities and allows staff to share and access documents at a rate of 100 megabits per second.
The 100-Mbps rate also is used for videoconferencing, utility and sewage overflow monitoring, surveillance and radio communications, according to the city.
Under the terms of the new contract, the city’s monthly bill will decrease from $5,679 to $5,045 before tax.
That rate would go up by $520 month after another three years.
The contract also increases the connection to 1 gigabit per second, which is about 10 times faster than 100 Mbps, at seven city facilities.
Kidd had initially raised questions over the city’s arrangement with CPI at the March 2 council meeting.
She asked why the city pays for the Museum at the Carnegie to be connected to the network when it doesn’t have any computers.
City Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler said the building was included in the original contract, signed in 2002, because there was a proposal at the time to make the soon-to-be museum would be a “high-tech” facility.
The new contract does not include the museum as being connected.
Wave Broadband also made a contract proposal.
The cost estimate for CPI’s proposal was about 42 percent of what Wave Broadband offered, according to city staff.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
