Consider Directing Staff to Explore Offering Free Public WiFi Throughout the City.  (Mayor Spencer)  [Not heard on September 5, 2017]
So that brings us to the counsel referrals item nine, a consider directing staff to explore offering free public Wi-Fi throughout the city, and that was brought by Mayor Spencer. Is there anyone who wants to lead the conversation? I mean I'll speak to it because I. Council member. Odie. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor, because I. Told the mayor that if she was not here at the time it came up, that I would be happy to advocate for it. I mean, I suppose if it only gets two votes, then maybe we can, you know, deferred until she gets back. But no. I remember when Suleiman Roberto was running for council. He said, You know, I will. Listen to any idea. And just because I don't think of the idea, if it's a good idea, then I'd like to advocate for it. So this is one of those. I mean, I think it's a good idea that the mayor came up with to consider exploring a free public Wi-Fi. I think it's pretty explanatory. I mean, other cities are doing this and we're trying to do I think we're doing a little test side of it over at Alameda point for like vendors so they can, you know, actually sell things there. So I think I think it's an idea worth exploring. And staff has been working on this and we're coming to council in October. Um, it's the I.T. strategic plan. It's part of that whole process of let's look at all our IT needs citywide. Madam Vice Mayor. Council member Mutter. I see. I think for the reasons that Councilmember Brody mentioned, I, I would support giving this direction as long as it is understood that it is not urgent. It is important, but not urgent. So. But if everyone's agreed to that rating, I have no problem with it. So. Councilmember Ashcroft. Do you have any. Comments? So what I'm trying to do is pull up the. Uh. Yeah, I, um. It sounds like staff is working on it, and as long as we are not saying push something else out of the queue because I think, um, you know, I, I would let staff decide when they're able to logically bring it back to us because I think we have thrown a number of more substantive issues. That's I mean, we'd like to say yes to everything, but we can't do it all at the same time. So with those caveats, I would be supportive. Understood. And, you know, my concern is there's a lot of infrastructure needs that we have. In particular, we just saw a drinking water issue at Alameda Point. I do hope that our priorities relative to infrastructure are focused on that as being both urgent and important, as opposed to providing free wi fi, which is an added plus, but to me not a necessity. My concern with this is that I don't think that it's urgent or important if staff is already working on something relative to Alameda Point, I'm happy to hear that. But in just in terms of our overall staff capacity and looking at the list of remaining referral items as well as the infrastructure issues that have come forward, you know, again, I really hope that we place a premium on access to clean drinking water for our residents and spending our resources on that before we start engaging in something like wi fi, which I've traveled to a lot of cities, we all have you know, I see a lot of businesses providing free wi fi. If our business community is interested in that, I'm happy to, you know, look into exploring ways to work with them on doing that. If, you know, if. And I've also seen it on public transportation. But in terms of just citywide Wi-Fi, I also am concerned about hacking issues, our own liability relative to being the provider of of wi fi. If something were to transpire over that, what would that mean for the city? And so, you know, and then again, the cost and staff time and resources. And another item that's on the strategic plan discussion is Sinek, which is correct. Ultra Right. And and maybe the conversation when we come back, which it will cover. A broader topic, and that might be a good time for the council to say this is our priority on this technology. Amenities, basically. Understood. So do. We. Yes. Councilmember Oscar. Timeline. I'm bringing that back. It's at the same time, actually Scenic is bringing an MRU, I think, on October. 17. Oh, my gosh. No, no, no. It's. It's a contract to work. Just feasibility, right? Yeah. To start the first part of the cynic. So I'm with the vice mayor. I think public health and safety always has to take precedence and our very pressing infrastructure needs. I do believe you can get free Wi-Fi at the Army, get free library and it's. Yeah, right. And none of it's free. So I think there's. A cost. Of. Yeah, but we're not. So much paying for. Yeah. We all, we're all paying for it. So I think that's right. It's available. Available without charge charged. Do we want to make it not important, not urgent and bring it back? It's come back when you're bringing it forward with other items. I'm amenable to that. And it sounds like Councilmember Monterrosa is also amenable. I'm good with. That. Okay. Do I have a motion? I move that we give counsel direction. I mean, give staff direction. Sorry. That's consistent with the points in the council referral. Considering no charge wi fi. And that we prioritize the ranking as not urgent, not important. I can second that. All those in favor. Hi. Hi. I think motion passes or do zero item nine be and we do have four speakers. We have two speakers with two other individuals ceding time to one of the speakers and this is a referral to consider the adoption and resolution condemning the increased incidence of bias, prejudice, discrimination, violence and antisemitism, and to direct staff to provide a