by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In Aesop’s famous fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare, the speedy rabbit sprints to a quick, seemingly insurmountable lead. Sensing an easy win, the hare opts for a nap. During his slumber, the plodding, relentless tortoise passes him and wins the race.
Locally, technology represents the rabbit, the city is the turtle and General Counsel Rick Mullaney is determined to help Jacksonville at least get even in the race. After creating the Telecommunications Master Plan Task Force in February, Mullaney crafted a resolution asking City Council to let the task force produce a comprehensive study that looks at Jacksonville’s current telecommunications and fiber optic capabilities and where the city needs to go to not only survive, but thrive, as the world moves further into the 21st Century.
The task force met Tuesday for the third time since being formed and Mullaney is pleased with the group’s progress. At an earlier meeting, the task force put out a Request for Proposals to hire a telecommunications consultant. Fourteen consultant firms responded, and Mullaney expects to pare that number soon and have a consultant hired sometime next month.
“The study was originally due in September, but quite frankly, we will not have a consultant selected until July. So the study will probably be complete sometime this fall,” said Mullaney.
Sandy Bateh, the City’s chief information officer, said the Professional Services Evaluation Committee has not met yet concerning the consultant, but will produce a short list by June 28.
“I’ve gone through half of the submittals,” said Bateh. “We are still in the contact phase and have outside dates of July 21 or 22 and hope to be through a lot earlier than that.”
One of the first things the consultant will be asked to do is evaluate Jacksonville and its current state of telecommunications preparedness; specifically, what already exists and what needs to be installed. Mullaney is quick to point out that, in addition to four major vertical projects, the Better Jacksonville Plan also contains $1.5 billion worth of road and infrastructure work. As roads are paved on a daily basis, JEA is simultaneously installing empty fiber optic conduit capable of housing cable wires and virtually every other high-tech telecommunications wire currently and potentially available.
JEA isn’t the only public entity involved in the task force. Mullaney also included representatives from the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Public Works, the Duval County School Board and several others. Rather than single out a business, Mullaney opted for Jerry Mallot, the executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce.
“We’ve made great progress and it’s a very good group,” said Mullaney. “All the major public entities are being consulted and will be in partnership on the infrastructure. I couldn’t pick a representative from one private company, so I picked Jerry Mallot. It’s a very good group and I’m very excited about the possibilities.”
Once hired, the consultant will also be asked to look into the financial aspects of such a venture. No one involved believes the city can be totally wired for next to nothing, but because empty conduit is already going in the ground, the price tag won’t be as much as would be if the project was starting from scratch. Another item the task force is looking at is how other cities across the nation have initiated and implemented similar master plans.
“One city we are looking at is Tacoma,” said Mullaney. “They have Tacoma Power that has a fiber optic network. A division within that provides their cable.”
While Tacoma represents a publicly-owned telecommunications network, Gainesville recently created a public-private network with Shands being a two-thirds owner. Because that network is so new, its success can’t be quantified yet.
Other metropolitan areas the task force will survey include a 13-county area surrounding Pittsburgh, Chicago, Poplar Bluff in Missouri and cities in Georgia and Michigan.
Like the tortoise, Mullaney and the task force understand that the master plan is for the long haul. It’s not a sprint and there is no quick fix.
“What we really want to do is be thoughtful and thorough,” said Mullaney.