Scope_of_Work_Broadband_Investment_Consultant.pdf

Washington County – Broadband Investment Strategy – Proposed Scope of Work

Washington County – Broadband Investment Strategy This document contains a Scope of Work for a proposed broadband needs assessment and strategy project. The purpose of this work is to collaboratively develop a shared vision and strategy for future investments in broadband infrastructure to ensure fast, reliable, and affordable internet access to all residents and businesses within the county.

Scope of Work

Background and Purpose Washington County is investigating disproportionate pandemic impacts, including in broadband. The coronavirus pandemic has made the importance of broadband access more obvious: equitable access to government services, healthcare, education, and participation in the workforce requires equitable access to an affordable and reliable internet connection. Communities facing economic insecurity prior to the pandemic have been disproportionately less able to work remotely, attend school remotely, access government resources and emergency information, and receive healthcare services due to inequities in reliable and affordable broadband access1.

Broadband access is also essential for businesses. The importance and value of business broadband access spans industries. One 2021 study found that U.S.

farms which transitioned to reliably fast internet access saw decreased operating costs, as well as increased agricultural yields overall2. Businesses with broadband access can receive up-to-date information, compare pricing, learn best practices, and participate in digital commerce—all of which undoubtedly impact business survival. The value extends to a regional level: economic stability and competitiveness requires broadband connection, and a region’s speeds can be a factor in businesses decisions to move to, remain, or leave a region.3

Washington County recognizes the crucial importance of broadband connection for households and businesses. In acknowledging the complex, interconnected social and economic factors that impact broadband access, the Washington County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) directed staff to conduct a detailed analysis of broadband infrastructure, access, and affordability countywide and to develop a countywide broadband investment strategy. At the highest level, the purpose of this work is to help the County and its local government partners prepare for potential broadband investments through the development of a comprehensive countywide Broadband

1 U.S. Department of the Treasury. Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Interim Final Rule. Federal Register 86(93). Web: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-05-17/pdf/2021-10283.pdf 2 LoPicaalo, Katherine. “Impact of Broadband Penetration on U.S. Farm Productivity,” Federal Communications Commission Office of Economics and Analysis Working Paper. 19 February 2021. https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/working-papers/impact-broadband-penetration-us-farm-productivity.

3 Oregon Broadband Advisory Council. Broadband in Oregon: A Report of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council prepared for the Joint Legislative Committee on Information Management and Technology. November 2020. Retrieved from:

https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/citizen_engagement/Reports/OBAC%202020%20Report%2011-1-2020.pdf

Broadband is a flexible term for always-on, high-speed internet access that can be accomplished through a variety of transmission technologies.1 There are a range of broadband connection types, including fiber, cable modem, digital subscriber line (DSL), wireless, and more.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-05-17/pdf/2021-10283.pdf https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/citizen_engagement/Reports/OBAC%202020%20Report%2011-1-2020.pdf

Investment Strategy. The purpose of this project is to identify key opportunities for potential investment in:

Building broadband infrastructure throughout the county’s geography, including in the over 80 percent of county area that is rural

Heightening household and business access to modern speeds, with a focus on modern, resilient and “future-proofed” technologies

Improving county-wide access and affordability for households and businesses disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in rural, suburban, and urban areas

Integral to each component above, this work is intended to prepare the County, local cities, and other partners to pursue potential state and federal dollars earmarked for broadband. This document proposes a foundational scope of work; we anticipate that Washington County in partnership with other government jurisdictions and the contractor(s) will co-create explicit anticipated outcomes to fill knowledge gaps and identity proposed actions to address broadband infrastructure gaps, access challenges, and affordability for all.

Project Commitments and Goals Washington County is leading this study to establish a shared baseline understanding of broadband infrastructure, access, and affordability within the county and to identify key investment recommendations through the creation of a proposed Broadband Investment Strategy. This project must identify technical needs in building out a more complete broadband system, evaluate access considering household, business, and neighborhood-level variables, identify disparities in affordability of various demographic groups, set the table for partnerships, and prepare local jurisdictions to both acquire funding and make broadband investments. The methods required will be interdisciplinary, collaborative, and grounded in equity.

Project Commitments

Washington County is leading with foundational values in exploring long-term broadband investment opportunities. The following values reflect those within the Board-adopted American Rescue Plan Act framework4. Through this study, Washington County and all partners will:

Center Equity. In developing a proposed Broadband Investment Strategy, we will lead with racial equity to mitigate historical impacts, change persistent systemic issues, and achieve a more inclusive future.

Focus on Resilience. This project will foster durable infrastructure systems, and strong organizations and individuals, with a focus on long-term sustainability.

Build Collaboration. This work is county-wide in nature and will achieve better outcomes working together with partners across the county’s geography.

Lead with Good Governance. Washington County is a responsible steward of the public trust and resources, and this study will leverage pandemic recovery funds for long-term impact.

4 American Rescue Plan Act: Investing in Washington County.

https://www.co.washington.or.us/Support_Services/Finance/GrantManagement/american-rescue-plan-opportunities.cfm

Project Goals

This project will result in a countywide Broadband Investment Strategy. To develop this plan, this project will:

Identify shared goals and desired outcomes across jurisdictions and in partnership with community. Multijurisdictional coordination and community engagement are necessary to identify shared goals, develop common language, and form a suite of collaborative strategies targeted at improving infrastructure, access, and affordability. At present, jurisdictions within Washington County have expressed a range of interests in approaching broadband challenges, have proposed various levels of investment, and have approached access and affordability in different ways. A foundational piece of this project will be to develop shared values, definitions, and expected outcomes and promoting group buy-in focused on collaborative long-term investment planning.

Establish a baseline of the broadband landscape—spanning infrastructure, access, and affordability—across Washington County. To date, most of the County’s geography has not been thoroughly assessed for broadband infrastructure, access, and affordability. These knowledge gaps are especially apparent in considering barriers to access for marginalized communities. The baseline assessment will provide details regarding connectivity, status of providers and operating models, infrastructure gaps, technology status (e.g. “future-proof” networks), affordability, and related programmatic efforts already addressing access and affordability.

Create a proposed multijurisdictional Broadband Investment Strategy. Working in concert with local jurisdictions, the Broadband Investment Strategy will summarize the countywide package of broadband investments necessary to achieve shared broadband goals in infrastructure, access, and affordability. The Plan will provide collaboration strategies for local jurisdiction participation and coordination, while clearly identifying needed infrastructure, organizational, administrative, and programmatic actions required to achieve desired outcomes.

Position Washington County and its partners to receive external funding for broadband deployment. The Broadband Investment Strategy must strengthen the position for Washington County and its partners in applying for, receiving, and managing state and federal broadband funds. State and federal funding earmarked for broadband investments may become available in 2022.

Scope of Work Elements

Multijurisdictional Coordination

Interview local leadership from all 16 cities (staff and elected officials) on existing broadband investments, philosophy on broadband investment, and interest in potential future broadband investments.

Develop proposed structure, membership, and key activities for a multijurisdictional, exploratory county-wide broadband steering committee. Must include representation from local government jurisdictions within Washington County and Washington County staff. May include strategic staff and elected leadership representation.

Share results of the broadband assessment with the broadband steering committee and facilitate a comprehensive Q&A on report results.

Identify key overlap between Committee values and identified areas of critical need from the assessment.

Determine shared values among the broadband steering committee surrounding broadband investment to guide the Broadband Investment Strategy.

Key deliverables:

A multijurisdictional collaboration plan that summarizes how outreach, committee management and facilitation will be conducted.

A capstone memorandum that summarizes engagement and committee meeting activities.

Washington County Broadband Assessment

There are several important variables to consider in evaluating broadband access: physical infrastructure, the speeds available, household proximity to anchor institutions with public internet access availability, the level of household and business broadband adoption, the number of providers available for consumer choice, and ratepayer affordability. Each of these variables play a part in whether households can effectively access the government, educational, health, and business benefits of broadband. Despite the essential nature of broadband to participate in today’s economy, adequate broadband connections are not available in many places. Even within communities that have existing broadband infrastructure, there can be inequal access to fast and affordable broadband. The assessment should include the following:

A detailed review of existing broadband infrastructure across the county’s geography, including differentiation between publicly owned and privately owned infrastructure, broadband type (e.g., fiber, coax, DSL, etc.), and aerial and underground infrastructure.

A detailed review of broadband access, including differentiation between speed availability, across the county’s geography. Analysis of access levels should consider neighborhood characteristics such as income and race, consider both household and business access, identify barriers to access, and present data limitations. Narrative elements should cross examine public and private service levels and access. We recognize that national level broadband data can be misleading and that ground-truthing access can be a robust undertaking. We will work with the contractor to identify an approach that presents the best possible summary of broadband access within budget and data limitations.

A detailed review of broadband affordability, including an assessment of monthly rates by speed levels as well as household and business adoption rates. Analysis of affordability should consider neighborhood characteristics such as income and race and consider household and business level trends and barriers where possible. Narrative elements should cross examine public and private service levels and affordability.

A policy framework summary of local government broadband approaches and regulations. The summary should identify the various broadband policies used by local governments across Washington County, with specific identification of commonalities, opportunities for alignment, and potential policy-related challenges.

A series of geospatial (GIS) representations of the infrastructure, access, and affordability metrics detailed above. Included in this analysis should be an asset map of “broadband hubs” such as libraries, educational institutions, and community centers and their spatial relation to existing broadband infrastructure and communities with below average broadband access and/or affordability.

Basic statistical representations in tables and graphical data visualizations highlighting key trends in infrastructure, access, and affordability.

Intentional and explicit intersectional analyses of demographic data related to access and affordability grounded in equity. Analytical and narrative elements should consider multiple overlapping aspects of identity (for example, race and socioeconomic status) and how multiple forms of marginalization impact outcomes.

Possible interview, focus group, and public survey data collection as needed to fill knowledge gaps in existing publicly available datasets as needed. Research methods must be grounded in racial equity. May include interviewing private sector entities.

Other assessment components to be determined through multijurisdictional engagement and with input from contractor(s).

Key Deliverables:

Technical Assessment Report detailing the broadband landscape in Washington County in infrastructure, access, and affordability.

Targeted Outreach

Consider social research methods such as interviews, focus group, and public survey data collection to assess broadband access and affordability

Develop outreach strategies which appropriately respect, value, and compensate existing community leaders and deep-rooted, trusted community networks

Collect, distill, and summarize top themes to inform the Broadband Investment Strategy

Communicate with selected participants how their recommendations will be used and the project goals and potential outcomes

Key Deliverables:

A social research plan that summarizes how outreach will be conducted with a focus on racial justice.

A Community Priorities Report detailing community concerns and priorities in thematic investment areas.

Broadband Investment Strategy

Synthesize results from the Broadband Technical Assessment Report, desired committee outcomes, and community engagement findings.

Make recommendations on high impact investments in expanding broadband infrastructure, access, and affordability, including specific recommendations addressing current inequities.

Present a framework to guide cross-jurisdictional partnerships in potential broadband projects including proposed roles and responsibilities across jurisdictions.

Identify collaborative opportunities in obtaining state and/or federal funding for potential broadband investments.

Present a threshold-level summary of potential economic impacts and benefits that would result from increased broadband access and affordability.

Propose specific package options of phased broadband investments and provide approximate cost, timeline, and anticipated impact tied to the broadband assessment report findings.

Key Deliverables:

A concise Broadband Investment Strategy report that summarizes the activities of the project including details of committee and engagement activities, findings and recommendations from the assessment, and a presentation of clear pathway options for building a better broadband system across Washington County.

Budget and Timeline

Washington County has allocated $150,000 for all activities and deliverables described in previous sections. This work may be completed by one or several contractors in collaboration with one another and Washington County. The number of contractors and those selected will be based upon areas of expertise and ability to deliver on project goals.

Timelines for the creation of the Broadband Assessment Report, the development of the County-wide Broadband Steering Committee, and the drafting of the Broadband Investment Plan will be intertwined.

Timeline development will be a cooperative effort between Washington County and the contractor(s).

Initial target project completion date is September 1st, 2022.

The start of the project will include a project kickoff workshop wherein the consultant(s) and Washington County staff will collaboratively refine the project’s scope of work elements and associated timelines.

Consultant Required Skill

Scope of Work Item Example Activities (See above scope section for full details)

Facilitation; Group consensus building; Values assessment

Multijurisdictional Collaboration Facilitated meetings for 1) elected leaders and

2) city leadership staff; Results synthesis

Access and affordability analysis; GIS;

demographic analysis

Washington County Broadband Assessment

Broadband assessment focused on equity, access, and affordability; Analyze existing data sets; provide visual maps

Survey and focus group research;

Access and affordability analysis

Social research and analysis to complement existing datasets; could include survey and interview research methods focused on racial equity

Infrastructure analysis; GIS analysis; statistical trends

Broadband assessment focused on infrastructure overview and typologies; Analyze variables including access type and speed;

Develop technical reports with visual maps

Strategic investment planning Broadband Investment Strategy

Recommend high impact investments; Identify funding opportunities and requirements;

propose a cross-jurisdictional framework;

design and frame a document for the funder audience