Grand jury: Napa County internet access is ‘inconsistent and often nonexistent’

With federal legislation offering state and local governments $65 billion to fix internet connectivity problems, money is no longer the object.

What is, says the Napa County civil grand jury, is the plan of how to spend it.

The grand jury recently concluded internet coverage is “inconsistent and often nonexistent,” with senior county leaders largely unaware of the problem or how to fix it.

“The Grand Jury could not identify any single county employee who is assigned to work full-time, or even a majority of their time, to move the county broadband agenda forward,” the report read, calling on the county to hire a point person on the issue.

Meanwhile, business operators and residents in the far reaches of the county have learned to improvise.

“We don’t have internet,” said a clerk at the market in Pope Valley, a rural community of 583 people located north of Angwin and east of Calistoga. The clerk declined to provide his name.

Another employee at Pope Valley Winery indicated dropped calls and hiccups with point-of-sale transactions are common.

“We invested in two-way radios,” said Hieko Gerdes, owner of arborist company Pope Valley Tree.

He said he was dragged into the computer age “kicking and screaming.” The company signed on with internet provider Viasat and relies on a generator when the power goes out.

The grand jury panel also observed that the county demonstrated “insufficient awareness on the part of senior county officials of the critical broadband issues and the choices that they are likely to confront,” the June 10 report read.

The grand jury issued a set of recommendations to improve access, including having county officials adopt an internal plan by Oct. 1 “to better educate themselves” about the issue.

Within two months from that date, the local government should publish a strategic plan to hire contractors to build the needed improvements. It also suggested forming a task force as well as scheduling forums in the community.

For now, the sole official involved in internet service efforts in Napa County is county Supervisor Diane Dillon, who is not seeking reelection and will leave her post in December. She serves on the North Bay North Coast Broadband Consortium with the IT chief, county librarian and one other staffer on a part time basis.

In comparison, Marin and Sonoma counties have designated one “broadband coordinator” for each county who is dedicated to handling those tasks and serving on the consortium.

Economic Development Broadband Analyst Calvin Sandeen said Sonoma County is in the process of securing an entity that may secure grants on behalf of the local government. Phone calls to Marin County Chief Information Officer Liza Massey were unreturned.

Napa County has budgeted for such a position and received the grand jury report at its supervisors’ board meeting on June 21.

“If we do all the recommendations, we’ll be just fine,” said Dillon of the jury findings.

Dillon described the new federal funding as a “firehose” of money coming from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

“We went through years and years of no hope. Now dealing with this issue is in sight,” she said.

The county has two major internet service providers, AT&T and Comcast. But Dillon admits it could be hard to get them to invest in installing resources into areas with few customers. Internet service has become critical, since wildfires have swept through areas like this year after year.

“Few Napa residents can forget how the 2017 and 2020 wildfires caused vast hardship and devastation across the county or how the ongoing COVID pandemic has changed lives. During these events, too many in Napa (County) realized that there were significant internet limitations affecting the ability of county residents to communicate with others,” the grand jury report explained.

The state has also noticed the disparity in communications.

In May, state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, introduced a bill that calls for more study. It requires Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office of Planning and Research to deliver a report to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2024.

“It is critical that all Californians have access to reliable broadband service,” Dodd told the Business Journal. “But as many in our rural communities know, that’s not the case right now.”

California is due to receive $3.5 billion from the federal government to cover the “middle mile.” If the internet was a tree, the middle mile is the trunk. The tree is weakest at its branches, often called the “last mile” in internet service.

Those projects are due to receive $2 billion for infrastructure projects, according to a June 16 update provided by the California Public Utilities Commission. The CPUC already approved 13 broadband infrastructure projects figured to cost $82 million and benefit 2,430 households. The state utilities commission is expected to get a website dedicated to the broadband effort up and running by next month.

Inadequate internet service spans the North Bay

On Feb. 1, a “digital divide” report presented to the Marin County Board of Supervisors showed, that among 3,000 residents surveyed, almost 600 households are unserved. This is defined as either having no internet service available in their community or connections below the standard 25 Mbps (megabits per second)

Only 11% surveyed noted they were “satisfied” with how fast and reliable their internet service is.

Like other regions, Marin County — which touts a median property value of over $1 million — has poor neighborhoods such as the Canal Neighborhood, pockets of Novato and areas of Marin City. Many residents either don’t have access or can’t afford to connect.

Internet connectivity impacts many aspects of life. According to a Pew Research report from 2019, 69% of Americans said not having home internet connected would mean a “major disadvantage” to find a job, get health care or gain access to other key information. This number climbed from 56% recorded in 2010.

In its 193-page digital divide report compiled in 2019, Sonoma County identified inadequate service areas including the Dry Creek neighborhood. There, 500 homes and 70 businesses were tagged in 2015 as without access.

While most in Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Rohnert Park may have connections, households in the communities of Penngrove, Sonoma Mountain, Bennett Valley, Timber Cove and Cazadero are not faring as well in access or speed.

Sea Ranch invested in its own isolated internet service for its development.

Susan Wood covers law, cannabis, production, tech, energy, transportation, agriculture as well as banking and finance. For 27 years, Susan has worked for a variety of publications including the North County Times, Tahoe Daily Tribune and Lake Tahoe News. Reach her at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com