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5 DATE: April 1, 2024
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Stefan Chatwin, City Manager
FROM: Diane Pitman, Administrative Services Director
Rob Lasky, IT Manager
DEPARTMENT: Administrative Services
SUBJECT: AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE THREE (3) FOUR-
YEAR AGREEMENTS WITH UTILITY TELECOM FOR INTERNET
SERVICES AT THREE (3) CITY FACILITIES IN AN AMOUNT NOT
TO EXCEED $225,000
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached resolution authorizing the Mayor to sign three (3) four-year contract renewals with Utility Telecom for Internet Services at three (3) City Facilities (City Hall, Corp Yard, and Sea Cloud Park) for a total amount not to exceed $225,000, billed monthly.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With increased utilization of cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) applications and the ever increasing volume of computer data, the City’s current internet speeds are becoming a bottleneck in day-to-day business activities. Increasing the speed of the City’s internet circuits will accommodate the needs of today’s applications, and prepare us for future data needs as well.
BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS
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5 The City currently has agreements with two (2) internet providers, Utility Telecom and Etheric Networks. The following table outlines the services these vendors provide:
Vendor Services Provided
Utility Telecom •Primary internet circuit (150Mbps)
•Data circuit to Corpyard (50Mbps)
•Data circuit to Sea Cloud Park (20Mbps)
•Managed Router (hardware)
•SIP trunks to connect the telephone system to the global telephone network
Etheric Networks •Failover internet circuit
•This circuit is also used for all guest network traffic The current three-year contract with Utility Telecom was signed in 2020, but did not go into effect until November 2022, due to delays in the installation of the Corp Yard and Sea Cloud Park circuits. These new circuits were needed because prior to 2020, Corp Yard and Sea Cloud Park had been connected to City Hall for free via dark fiber provided by the City’s cable franchise agreement with Comcast. When the City’s franchise agreement expired in 2020, Comcast took advantage of DIVCA (Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act - Public Utilities Code § 5840) and renewed their cable franchise agreement with the State of California, and the State’s franchise agreement did not include dark fiber.
Recently, the IT Division has seen an uptick in the City’s internet bandwidth demands and in January, received numerous calls from users reporting slow or unresponsive web pages. After investigating, staff found that this was caused due to a saturation of the City‘s primary internet circuit and was able to track down the issue to a large software update to Adobe Acrobat being downloaded by multiple computers simultaneously. Staff was able to tune the firewall to limit the download speed for software updates, but the demands for internet bandwidth are still present.
Graphs of the City’s primary internet circuit for the most recent week available of 3/11/24 (Attachment 5), shows that during the workday, the average download throughput (amount of data that can be sent and received within a specific timeframe) is 50Mbps, with some spikes up to 140Mbps. Also included is a graph of one of the days in January where the City‘s internet circuit was overburdened.
Due to the increased bandwidth demands, staff reached out to Utility Telecom to inquire about increasing the City’s maximum circuit speed. The monthly costs of their quotes including taxes and regulatory fees (which are not included on the Agreements), are summarized below:
Circuit Current Monthly
Speed and Cost
Proposed Monthly
Speed and Cost
Cost Difference
City Hall 150Mbps, $2456 500Mbps, $2735 + $279
Corp Yard 50Mbps, $953 100Mbps, $1003 + $50
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5 Sea Cloud Park 20Mbps, $848 20Mbps, $805 - $43
TOTALS $4,257 $4,543 + $286/month
The new quote also includes a waiver of early termination fees on voice related services (SIP trunks and long distance minute bundles) since those services will likely be dropped later in 2024 when the City’s phone system is replaced.
California Environmental Quality Act
Not Applicable
FISCAL IMPACT
Based on today’s taxes and fees, the total amount for three (3) four-year contracts at the three (3) locations (City Hall, Corp Yard, and Sea Cloud Park) is $218,086.56.
However, since taxes and fees do change over time, and to cover possible overages, the Resolution calls for a not-to-exceed amount of $225,000.
Four years of the City’s current service levels, based on existing monthly billing, would run $204,384. In over four (4) years, there would be an increase of just under $14,000, or $285.47 per month.
The budget for FY 2024-25 in the IT Utilities and Communications Fund (504-0160-419- 4248) is adequate to absorb this increase.
Per Municipal Code 3.04.110 subsection (F), in lieu of soliciting bids for internet services, staff was able to compare Utility Telecom’s quotes to prices available via the State of California’s competitively bid contracts vehicle for telecommunications services, known as CALNET. The CALNET site includes pre-negotiated prices for various telecom services from multiple vendors which local agencies can piggyback on.
The lowest pricing listed on CALNET for a 500Mbps internet circuit was only $318 per month lower than Utility Telecom’s quote (or roughly 7% lower). Considering this relatively small price difference, staying with our current provider (Utility Telecom) makes sense, since moving to a new provider would require a significant amount of effort by IT staff, and would likely delay some other IT projects.
CITY COUNCIL VISION, MISSION, AND VALUE/PRIORITY AREA
Innovation and Sustainability
ATTACHMENTS
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5 Attachment 1 - Resolution
Attachment 2 - City Hall Voice and Internet Services Agreement Attachment 3 – Corp Yard Voice and Internet Services Agreement Attachment 4 - Sea Cloud Park Voice and Internet Services Agreement Attachment 5 - Bandwidth Usage Graph