Public Comment? More on use of pandemic relief funds for internet access.

 The short version of this post:

RantWoman is following up on last week's hearing at the city council Housing and Finance committee about specifically allocating funds received from the federal government pandemic relief bill.

See Earlier post

RantWoman did in fact try briefly from her medical appointment to observe the committee hearing, but even in the electronic age there are limits to how much one should try to multitask. RantWoman prefers not to talk to her phone. RantWoman also realized she cannot really reasonably swipe with an IV in her arm. 

 RantWoman learned that CM Pedersen's amendment passed and RantWoman would like to offer a couple additional comments as Council finalizes the legislation (CB20018).

Federal legislation grants up to $50 / month for the cost of internet access. RantWoman hopes that whenever possible the community based organizations administering the internet access funds will take advantage of whatever discount plans a household qualifies for so that people can have the most economical basic access possible. This will also stretch available funds to serve as many households as possible. 

RantWoman also hopes that people administering these funds will be open to making sure that household connectivity budgets address any needs such as choice of content provider based on good availability of audio description or content in specific languages. RantWoman cannot possibly know all the ways households where at least some members are limited English access content in their languages or what additional technologies such as Roku boxes might be needed. RantWoman does know that people should not have to subscribe to plans with hundreds of channels if they only want 5 channels in their own languages. RantWoman definitely hopes city contacting practices will take these concerns into account when evaluating the capabilities of the comunity based organizations  the city contracts with. .

RantWoman also notes that some community-based organizations serve people both in Seattle and in King County. City of Seattle funds of course can only be spent on Seattle residents. RantWoman hopes though that community based organizations receiving Seattle funds will train staff in the necessary program details so that if they serve clients outside of Seattle they are still widening the net of digital inclusion.

Thank you all for noting these concerns.

The rest of the story:

RantWoman is again commenting in blogdom mainly because she has fished around several ways and cannot find a way to sign up to comment during this afternoon's virtual city council meeting. RantWoman found great instructions for when the council is meeting in person, but somehow RantWoman has not connected with instructions for signing up to comment during virtual meetings. 

Welcome to modern public participation.