Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Forget San Diego's wi-fi network
City's IT guy goes ahead with Earthlink
San Diego — The City's ambitious behind-the-scenes quest to build a municipal Wi-Fi network is virtually moribund, according to a slew of e-mails obtained from city hall last week under the state's public records act. The saga began on May 22 of last year with a meeting between City Councilman Scott Peters and Betsy Kinsley, his chief of staff, and Stephen Salinger, director of business development for EarthLink Municipal Networks, an Atlanta-based outfit that has negotiated contracts to build wireless systems in Philadelphia and San Francisco, among other big cities. In an e-mail to Kinsley sent after the meeting, Salinger described the market for his company's services as "a feeding frenzy! To reinforce that perception, I'm in Detroit today. Tomorrow? New Orleans. Friday? San Francisco. It is crazy. It would be great to see San Diego move in this direction."
But two days later, Lisa Briggs, a $95,000-a-year "policy advisor" to Mayor Jerry Sanders, weighed in: "I need to offer a bit of 'caution' here," the former SDG&E public affairs manager wrote. "We will need to talk to someone who has direct experience in negotiating these kinds of deals. I'm not sure the city has that expertise on the pay roll at this time." Kris Michell, the mayor's deputy chief operating officer for community and legislative services, also offered an opinion. "I have strong concerns about the process." In spite of those reservations, by last summer Matt McGarvey, the City's chief of information technology, seemed to be plowing full speed ahead. After an August 7 meeting with the City, EarthLink's Salinger wrote, "I will send to Matt later today a non-binding Term Sheet. I will forward the generic agreement to him later this week."
By February 28 of this year, a deal seemed close. "EarthLink is interested in scheduling a couple of marathon meetings in order to reach consensus on agreement terms with the City," wrote the City's Marc Jaffe. "Specifically, they have a new lead negotiator, Ms. Beverly McIntosh, who will be residing in San Diego for these discussions as well as their attorney who will fly out from Atlanta to meet with our team."
But by then, McGarvey's ardor had somehow cooled. "My schedule is pretty rough," he e-mailed Jaffe the same day. "I also need to update you on my conversations with Kris Michell regarding the EarthLink deal." He provided no other details. Since then, according to a source at city hall, there has been virtually no movement on the proposal. Ostensibly the deal is still on the table and McGarvey is talking to EarthLink on the phone, according to a City source, but no other documents have emerged to characterize the progress of the negotiations or the mayor's current Wi-Fi policy, if one even exists.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Forget San Diego's wi-fi network
City's IT guy goes ahead with Earthlink
Forget San Diego's wi-fi network
City's IT guy goes ahead with Earthlink
San Diego — The City's ambitious behind-the-scenes quest to build a municipal Wi-Fi network is virtually moribund, according to a slew of e-mails obtained from city hall last week under the state's public records act. The saga began on May 22 of last year with a meeting between City Councilman Scott Peters and Betsy Kinsley, his chief of staff, and Stephen Salinger, director of business development for EarthLink Municipal Networks, an Atlanta-based outfit that has negotiated contracts to build wireless systems in Philadelphia and San Francisco, among other big cities. In an e-mail to Kinsley sent after the meeting, Salinger described the market for his company's services as "a feeding frenzy! To reinforce that perception, I'm in Detroit today. Tomorrow? New Orleans. Friday? San Francisco. It is crazy. It would be great to see San Diego move in this direction."
But two days later, Lisa Briggs, a $95,000-a-year "policy advisor" to Mayor Jerry Sanders, weighed in: "I need to offer a bit of 'caution' here," the former SDG&E public affairs manager wrote. "We will need to talk to someone who has direct experience in negotiating these kinds of deals. I'm not sure the city has that expertise on the pay roll at this time." Kris Michell, the mayor's deputy chief operating officer for community and legislative services, also offered an opinion. "I have strong concerns about the process." In spite of those reservations, by last summer Matt McGarvey, the City's chief of information technology, seemed to be plowing full speed ahead. After an August 7 meeting with the City, EarthLink's Salinger wrote, "I will send to Matt later today a non-binding Term Sheet. I will forward the generic agreement to him later this week."
By February 28 of this year, a deal seemed close. "EarthLink is interested in scheduling a couple of marathon meetings in order to reach consensus on agreement terms with the City," wrote the City's Marc Jaffe. "Specifically, they have a new lead negotiator, Ms. Beverly McIntosh, who will be residing in San Diego for these discussions as well as their attorney who will fly out from Atlanta to meet with our team."
But by then, McGarvey's ardor had somehow cooled. "My schedule is pretty rough," he e-mailed Jaffe the same day. "I also need to update you on my conversations with Kris Michell regarding the EarthLink deal." He provided no other details. Since then, according to a source at city hall, there has been virtually no movement on the proposal. Ostensibly the deal is still on the table and McGarvey is talking to EarthLink on the phone, according to a City source, but no other documents have emerged to characterize the progress of the negotiations or the mayor's current Wi-Fi policy, if one even exists.
Comments