Thursday, December 31, 2015

Marching Orders

David Seals, a teacher at Jefferson County High School and a Jefferson County Commissioner put the following information together for those of us who want easy access to their state representatives. I urge you to write your senator and representative in Nashville to promote the bills to bring broadband and high speed internet to all Tennessee counties.

Jefferson County has a great opportunity to influence state legislation to bring broadband internet to rural areas of our county, and to rural areas of other counties across Tennessee.  In order to make it possible for our own electric utility (AEC) to provide a route for broadband providers, we must encourage legislation to be passed in Nashville that will permit local utilities to expand service outside their home service areas. This will enable utilities to partner with other utilities in providing internet services, like AEC and Morristown Power.  I firmly believe this is something we can all agree on and work to accomplish. I started working on this effort (along with others) in the Fall of 2014. I encourage you to do the same.

Our students need internet for educational purposes. Speaking as an educator, I can not overstate the importance of this issue. Individuals need high speed service for banking, entertainment, communication, security, and many other activities. Business, and potential new business, need high speed internet for obvious reasons.  Currently, only a fraction of our citizens are served by high speed internet.  This must change; and it will require your effort and the effort of many other people to overcome the tide of political pressure to maintain the laws that restrict internet expansion from one utility to another . Existing internet providers have influence with state legislators and wish to remain unchallenged by utility companies. Plainly said, commercial internet providers do not want any more competition, and do not wish to take the financial risk of expanding in areas of low population density.

Contacting your local legislator will not be enough.  The unanimous vote for a resolution enacted by The Jefferson County Commission on November 16th in support of broadband legislation will not be enough. Participating in surveys and attending local meetings will not be enough.

Active web links and email addresses are provided for your convenience.
Here is a list of things you can do make it happen:

1
Call, write, or email the legislators on this list.
(local legislators will not see this legislation on the General Assembly floor unless the various committees approve it first)

2
Forward this information to as many people as possible who are willing and motivated to take action.

3
Use as many opportunities to speak about and promote this issue as possible.

4
Ask questions and learn as much as you can before this opportunity passes. Visit the Tennessee General Assembly web site.

5
Contact Local Community Activist Joe Malgeri (Dandridge) at 248-635-6965


Broadband Internet Contact List
Information Compiled and Provided by:
David Seal
Jefferson County Commission
District 9
Decision Makers Listed on this Document
Each individual on this list should be encouraged to pass proposed legislation to permit public utilities to provide services outside their respective service areas, giving utilities needed clearance to provide broadband internet services to neighboring utilities and communities.  A summary of the proposed Legislation and direct web links are provided in this document.
Proposed Legislation (from last legislative session)
House Bill 1303
Senate Bill 1134
House Bill Sponsor
Representative Kevin Brooks  (R) Cleveland Tn.  (Sponsor of HB 1303)
Senate Bill Sponsor
Senator Janice Bowling (R) Tullahoma TN.  (Sponsor of SB 1134)

Committee Contacts listed on this page can forward information to individual committee members.
House Business and Utilities Committee
Direct web-link to Business and Utilities Committee 
Contact
Brita Britnell                                                                       brita.britnell@capitol.tn.gov
Secretary G-19A War Memorial Bldg.
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
 Phone: (615) 741-6824
Senate Commerce and Labor Committee
Direct web-link to Senate Commerce and Labor Committee
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/committees/comm-labor.html
Contact
Analyst
Luke Gustafson                                                                                luke.gustafson@capitol.tn.gov
11 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senate State and Local Government Committee
Direct web-link to Senate State and Local Government Committee
Contact
Alex Pollack                                                                        alex.pollack@capitol.tn.gov
G-19 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Individual Members of House Business and Utilities Committee
Chair
Representative Pat Marsh                                           rep.pat.marsh@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite G-19A War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Vice Chair
Representative Kent Calfee                                        rep.kent.calfee@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 219 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Martin Daniel                                    rep.martin.daniel@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 109 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Barry Doss                                          rep.barry.doss@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 106 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Kevin Dunlap                                     rep.kevin.dunlap@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 32 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Brenda Gilmore                                                rep.brenda.gilmore@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 26 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Tillman Goins                                     rep.tilman.goins@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 207 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Marc Gravitt                                      rep.marc.gravitt@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 107 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Patsy Hazelwood                             rep.patsy.hazlewood@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 20 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative John B. Holsclaw, Jr.                       rep.john.holsclaw@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite G-24 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Harold M. Love, Jr.                          rep.harold.love@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 35 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Gerald McCormick                          rep.gerald.mccormick@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 18A Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Jason Powell                                      rep.jason.powell@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 34 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Jay D. Reedy                                      rep.jay.reedy@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 22 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Jerry Sexton                                      rep.jerry.sexton@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 113 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Mike Sparks                                       rep.mike.sparks@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 113 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Art Swain                                            rep.art.swann@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite G-19A War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Representative Tim Wirgau                                         rep.tim.wirgau@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite G-2 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Individual Members of Senate Commerce and Labor Committee
Chair
Senator Jack Johnson                                                     sen.jack.johnson@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 11 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
First Vice-Chair
Senator Mark Green                                                      sen.mark.green@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 4 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Second Vice-Chair
Senator Jim Tracy                                                             sen.jim.tracy@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 2 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Todd Gardenhire                                            sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 11A Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Delores R. Gresham                                       sen.dolores.gresham@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 308 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Steve Southerland                                         sen.steve.southerland@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 10 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Reginald Tate                                                    sen.reginald.tate@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 320 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
    
Senator Bo Watson                                                         sen.bo.watson@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 13 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Ken Yager                                                           sen.ken.yager@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite G-19 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Individual Members Senate State and Local Government Committee
Chair
Senator Ken Yager                                                           sen.ken.yager@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite G-19 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
First Vice-Chair
Senator Steven Dickerson                                            sen.steven.dickerson@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 310 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Second Vice-Chair
Senator Richard Briggs                                                   sen.richard.briggs@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 317 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Mark Green                                                      sen.mark.green@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 4, Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Thelma Harper                                                 sen.thelma.harper@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 303 War Memorial Building
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Ed Jackson                                                         sen.ed.jackson@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 3 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
  
Senator Jack Johnson                                                     sen.jack.johnson@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 11 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Bill Ketron                                                          sen.bill.ketron@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 5 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243
Senator Mark Norris                                                       sen.mark.norris@capitol.tn.gov
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 9A Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Exhibit From the Tennessee General Assembly 
Link to Broadband Legislation for Review
BILL SUMMARY
Generally under present law:

(1) Each municipality operating an electric plant is authorized within its service area to provide cable, Internet, and related services within or without the corporate or county limits of such municipality, and, with the consent of such other municipality, within the corporate or county limits of any other municipality; and
(2) Each municipality operating an electric plant has the power and is authorized within its service area and on behalf of its municipality, acting through the authorization of the board or supervisory body having responsibility for the municipal electric plant, to contract to establish a joint venture or other business relationship with one or more third parties to provide such services.

This bill revises the above provisions to remove the restriction of cable, Internet, and related services be provided only within the service are of the municipality operating an electric plant. This bill adds that prior to providing services outside of its electric system service area, the system must obtain the written consent of each electric cooperative or municipal electric system in whose territory the system will provide the services.
 
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List of TN Newspapers

Daily newspapers 

This is a pretty comprehensive list, with built-in links to their websites. I include it here so you can easily send along your letters to the editors in support of issues like bringing broadband to all Tennessee counties.

(in alphabetical order by city)  From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Tennessee 

Weekly or bi-weekly newspapers[edit]

(in alphabetical order by name of publication)
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Friday, December 25, 2015

Mr. and Ms. Legislator A Question, Please....

What Very Few Tennessee Legislators Understand 

An Open Letter to Tennessee's Legislators in 2016


I recently realized that I've behaved like Facebook long before there was a Facebook. 

For decades. one of my strengths as a consultant was that I read books, articles, reports and used what I learned to teach others. Every time I discovered something new, something exciting, I reached out to others to share the knowledge and the joy. Some things are just too cool to keep inside. Even now I still share what I find in hopes that it helps whoever it touches.

Today, I'm thinking about legacy, and I'm sharing it with Tennessee legislators because it seems like many don't consider legacy in their deliberation process.

So, Mr. and Ms. Public Official, I offer you the following: 
Consider the legacy of your 2016 decisions from a 2036 perspective

It's New Year's Eve, 2035. 

You're hosting the family at home, when two of your grandchildren find you sipping a brandy in the library. They are cousins, each on break from their university studies. Curious as they are about their grandparent's achievements as a former legislator, they ask you what your legacy was, through your eyes.

You motion them to sit in the comfortable high back chairs. They wait patiently as you gather your thoughts.

Back then, you had some decisions to make that impacted the whole state. You knew in 2016 that that rural communities were at economic risk. Counties you represented were becoming increasingly less competitive for lack of broadband and high speed internet. You knew, for example, that Joyce Coltrin's business, J and J Nursery in Cleveland, is losing its competitive edge for lack of internet. Or, that just down the street from the nursery, Glenda Sink lost her job as a medical transcriptionist because all that work is now done online and her internet connection could not keep up. (They may not have been your constituents but you had plenty just like them.)

Some of your peers knew, too. Like Senator Frank Niceley, who has internet at his office in Nashville but none when he's home in his district in Jefferson County.

You knew that, just like every other elected official, your own constituents faced the same issues. You knew that some 30% of students in the public schools in your district didn't have access to internet in their homes, and that it put them at a disadvantage in their studies. In turn, that made them less attractive to employers and you knew how many prospective large employers looked at the state as a place to establish new facilities – and passed for lack of skilled workers and broadband. You knew because your own constituents made a point to tell you.

And, you also knew why things were like they were. You know that at the time the leading providers, AT&T, Comcast and others simply did not want to run fiber optic lines to those communities because it cut into their profits. You remember the lobbyists, who told you that their clients, the ones who made donations to your campaign coffers, wanted to cherry pick the best opportunities and were pretty open on two points: they wanted to go where the money is, they didn't want to go where the money isn't – and they surely didn't want anyone else to go there, either. It did not escape you that this same model defined the operations of the Mafia.

As you think back, you recall that in 1999 some communities fought for, and got, legislation that
permitted the state's electric utilities to offer broadband and high speed internet to their customers – but just to their customers. You remember how ticked off the big donors were, and you were happy that they accepted the loss, even though they didn't like it.

You remember how Comcast sued Chattanooga over it, and lost; and that then mayor Ron Littlefield told the giants that, if they would pledge to bring fiber to all the community, the city would step aside – and they refused, saying they couldn't afford to do it. He replied, “We can't afford not to.”

Seven electric utilities stepped up and took the risk to install fiber optics, and all seven prospered while the counties around them faltered. Chattanooga added almost 3,000 new jobs in five years, many of them high tech/high pay. The city attracted some of the best and the brightest people in the nation because it was perceived as the place to be for young innovative, entrepreneurial people as well as a source for tech savvy employees.

Morristown, Tullahoma, Jackson and the rest, all experienced revitalization while the areas around them – the Jefferson and Bradley counties and others – watched. Their success proved that internet and broadband had become the next utility, something as important and as necessary as electricity and water.

Seeing the successes that the broadband communities achieved, and feeling the sting of not being able to compete, your constituents came to you and your peers and said, 'We want the same opportunity those seven have to create our own destinies.” And, that put you in a tough spot. Do you work for the benefit of your constituents, the ones whose taxes paid your salary and expenses – and covered the operating expenses of the state's infrastructures – or do you accede to the demands of the campaign donors whose interests openly conflict with the voters' needs?

So, looking back, Mr. or Ms. legislator, what is your legacy? Did you remember that one of the
responsibilities of your office was to create environments in which your constituents can succeed? Or, did you choose to go for the money, kowtow to your donors, and leave your friends, your neighbors and your fellow Tennessee citizens disadvantaged, many still without those services today? 

Finally, how did you respond to your grandchildren? 
I await your answer.

Joe Malgeri

Dandridge, TN
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