— by Alex MacLeod —
As many of you now know, OPALCO/Rock Island Communications is busily putting up poles for its commercial LTE/Internet business, part of its larger Internet/broadband business. These would be bare poles were it not for a deal OPALCO/RIC struck with T-Mobile, which is providing all the gear for the poles. In exchange, it is getting free access to OPALCO’s broadband infrastructure for its cell business.
As OPALCO itself said in a Feb. 4 press release, “T-Mobile brings their (sic) extensive design and engineering experience to the effort, as well as core and radio networks, equipment, maintenance and support while OPALCO/Rock Island provides the installation services, power and fiber infrastructure. ..”
So, no mistaking what this is: a joint LTE/cell business venture.
But OPALCO/RIC decided it didn’t need any land-use permits for this venture and charged ahead with putting up the poles. It did so mostly because RIC is in desperate financial condition — as its deal with T-Mobile makes evident — and would need more cash from OPALCO to stay in business unless it could get its LTE towers up and running fast.
In that sense, OPALCO’s behavior — wrong though it is — makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense — nor is it fair to ordinary citizens who have to follow the county’s development rules to the letter — is that the county has gone along with OPALCO, even though the code in question clearly requires development permits, a chance for the public to be heard and probably for conditional-use permits to be issued prior to any installation.
What has become the county’s position was spelled out in a list of “Talking Points” RIC vice-president Gerry Lawlor sent to county manager Mike Thomas early last month, prior to a council discussion on the subject. It was obtained through a Public Records Act request.
Here is its central point: “The code states that the primary purpose of a Joint Use Wireless Facility is to provide ‘wireless communication services in support of necessary public services (such as electrical transmission, utility distribution, telephone, cable television), and communication facilities for public emergency providers.’ The code goes on to say that ‘JUWF may also be used for another purpose such as high-speed Internet (broadband) such as WiMax service or personal wireless service providers for cellular personal communication including 911 service, as long as such joint use does not impair the primary mission of the provision of necessary public services.”
Lawlor highlighted everything except the key to the code: that “the primary purpose…is to support electrical transmission, utility distribution, telephone, cable television).” High-speed Internet and “cellular personal communication including 911 service,” is permitted, but it is not listed as a primary purpose.
Is there anyone, other than Hughes and fellow councilman Jamie Stephens, who would argue with a straight face that OPALCO bought Paul Allen’s wireless spectrum in the county, then bought Rock Island for a half-million dollars, then “loaned” Rock Island $7.5 million in “start-up” money (most of which already is gone) and then agreed to a deal with T-Mobile primarily to support its electrical transmission, utility distribution, telephone or cable TV?
The notion is laughable. OPALCO has done so primarily to make money, if it can, on Internet service to offset flattening electric demand and rising operating costs. Anything else — even the valid side-benefit of improved emergency communications — is secondary, at best.
In informal conversations earlier in March, several members of the county’s Department of Community Development and Planning told me what OPALCO/RIC was doing fell under a different, and much more demanding, part of the code: “Personal wireless service facility or PWSF, a facility for the provision of personal wireless services (emphasis added).” This is the part of the code that requires public notice, development permits and, often, conditional-use permits.
Yet by the time the council discussed the matter on March 15, after Thomas had received Lawlor’s “Talking Points” and a private meeting had been held of RIC and county staff, chaired by Councilman Rick Hughes, the county’s story changed. OPALCO/RIC could proceed under the part of the code it chose, unchallenged. The county hasn’t even decided if it will try to collect “late fees” from OPALCO for erecting the poles without any permits.
Why does any of this matter? Basic fairness. For better and sometimes worse, the county code is the law in San Juan County. We are all expected to follow it. That’s not happening in this case, one of the biggest single developments in recent years. It is one thing to decide that the end result will be good for the county. It is quite another to disregard the law to reach it, and that is what the county, with the council’s blessing, is doing.
Anyone looking at what OPALCO/RIC/T-Mobile is doing knows that its primary purpose is to make money by providing personal Internet and cell service. And even though it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, the county has chosen to call it something else.
You should ask councilmen Hughes and Stephens if they still think this is fair, or even legal. Feel free to quack when asking.
(Alex MacLeod is a longtime OPALCO member who lives on Shaw.)
I sometimes wonder if Alex MacLeod ever has anything to do other than attack OPALCO.
Alex: I don’t have time right now to read all of your comments. My question is: Do you want high speed access for all, including you? sounds like you don’t, and you want to keep us in an Island Dark Age. I, and a few of my neighbors are happy to be using the T-Mobile wireless system to fuel our computers, faster and for less money than our former situations.
Enough said….
I am so thankful that we have intelligent people like Alex Macleod in this county who are willing to do the leg work to give us the real scoop on what is happening with OPALCO/RIC.
I doubt that Rock Island, or even T-Mobile, will be able to make it financially in the Islands without the trust of the public. THAT is bad for business.
OPALCO/RIC: You need to own up to what you have done, and to what you have failed at. Only then will the public be able to begin to trust you again. Continuing to shovel convoluted BS at us just ever deepens the hole you are in.
Enough Said.
The county has made a statement about the new Opalco/RIC poles. You can read it at:
https://sanjuanco.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=22
That’s curious – if a Joint Use Wireless Facility doesn’t require permitting for poles, and the County has determined that OPALCO / Rock Island poles are Joint Use Wireless Facility – then why in the world would the County also be requiring permits for these same poles?
The fact that the County is requiring permits suggests that the poles are not being treated as Joint Use Wireless Facility.
Can anyone point me towards whom at the County I can talk with to learn how it was the County came up with this mix of Joint Use Wireless Facility plus permits? This doesn’t make sense to me, so there must be something I am missing.
As always, I appreciate the great dialog about an important topic here at Orcas Issues (support them!). A few things I think we should keep in mind:
1. To those who feel the need to critique Alex directly, I’d encourage you to take issue with his ideas, but not with the fact that he’s expressing his opinion. No matter what you think in relation to OPALCO’s foray into broadband, Alex has consistently provided a counter perspective to that presented by the OPALCO boosters. Engaged discussion like this is a foundational right in any open society.
2. I think we should avoid polarizing this discussion into whether someone is for or against better internet. Someone could be strongly in favor of improved connectivity, but take issue with the way that OPALCO has solicited (and responded to) direction from it’s members, or the way in which our electric rates are at some level subsidizing the RockIsland efforts. Let’s try to avoid the binary polarized approach so common in today’s culture. It’s a complicated topic, and there’s room in our community for a nuanced and respectful exchange of ideas around specific concerns.
3. Alex’s points are important to pay attention to in my opinion. The reality is that OPALCO continues to approach this effort with a degree of arrogance that can only come from desperation. The recent Gerry Lawlor member email that basically highlighted the message of “don’t worry little co-op member, Uncle OPALCO knows what’s best” was a perfect example- as was OPACLO communicating directly to it’s members about who they should vote for. One of the key rules of elections in government is that public employees can’t use their official platform to lobby for a particular candidate or cause. OPALCO would be wise to adopt a similar approach. The current effort by OPALCO to push through the new tower sites without any review or permitting is just more of the same. The issue for me isn’t whether they should exist or not, but whether OPALCO is somehow immune to the same permitting regs that we’ve been forcing everyone else to follow for years. What the County does with this will be a telling sign of whether our elected officials are truly independent decision makers working for their constituents on this, or whether they’ll just roll over to the OPALCO machine.
4. Keep in mind, that at the end of the day there are two things from RockIsland project that will benefit islanders: one is that some neighborhoods will indeed have a higher quality level of internet service. They will pay dearly for it- and based on initial efforts, the served neighborhoods will primarily be those with a high density of highly affluent residents, able to pay higher rates. The other benefit is that T-Mobile will have a fairly robust cellular network, effectively having piggy-backed onto the OPALCO steam roller to walk right around the regulations that have stymied cell phone providers from improving coverage in the island for years. Lawlor has said the pole sites will be open to other providers too (AT&T and Verizon for sure), but until we see the agreement with T-Mobile, we don’t know for sure. My guess is that T-Mobile would never embark on something like this without some sort of exclusivity agreement.
5. My main concern is simply that our beloved OPALCO has turned into another example of the broad backs of the general public supporting something that will primarily benefit the wealthy and comfortable. It’s a shame for sure.
Alex MacLeod, are you saying that high-speed internet and cellular personal communication including 911 service aren’t as important as telephone and cable television? What century are you living in? If the County Code hasn’t caught up to modern reality yet, then it should be changed, and quickly!