I will start with the contact information for the City Council and Mayor and then explain how special interests are yet again forcing their interests through our system via Public Works. 
ccmail@cob.org 
mayorsoffice@cob.org
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the poorly researched study that the COB ran that even City Council Member Lilliquist called, "not a plan." Here is the link:
https://nwcitizen.com/entry/how-to-get-nothing-done/search/129cb5de9a897c6cda9c7a974388c270
We were hoping that the public outcry about this document would lead Public Works and our elected officials to do more through, statistically significant, research and ask for more public commentary. After all, their own research shows that Bellingham residents overwhelmingly want a public fiber-optic broadband service.
Sadly, exactly the opposite has happened. Public Works, and Uptown Communications (the author of the "study/plan"), instead met with special interests like WAVE behind closed doors and then intentionally made an even less useful version of the document with no oversight from the BAG (Broadband Advisory Group), elected officials or the public. 
For example, love or hate the BAG (Broadband Advisory Group), one of the useful recommendations they made was to upgrade the existing COB public fiber network to a carrier class network. This fiber network is the backbone to providing critical communications services to our police stations, firehouses, libraries and public schools. 
The proposal that Public Works is putting before the City Council and Mayor, and asking them to approve on Monday, is a proposal to do nothing and maintain the status quo. Meaning, they are refusing to maintain or upgrade the existing fiber network because making sure your kids can learn at school or that the police and fire services can receive communications just isn't more important to them than making sure Comcast and WAVE are happy. On top of this, they have done no real cost analysis and refused to include any cost analysis that considered the great cost reduction that a Dig Once Policy would provide. Again, a Dig Once Policy is a policy proven to save 90% of the cost of fiber installation in other communities in the US and around the world. 
On top of this, they refused to provide drafts of their documents for months for review by the public, only dropping some of the documents on an obscure portion of the COB website on Thursday night with the idea that they will vote on it on Monday. They also intentionally did NOT even mention this document in their "Inside Public Works" newsletter this week. Public Works' hope seems to be to push the wishes of big telecom though, against the public interest, with no real opportunity for public commentary or input from anyone else. 
So again, we ask you to please use the above addresses and contact they city council and mayor. We should not be messing around with upgrading and maintaining our critical infrastructure, as public works seems hell bent on doing time and time again. Of course, it would be nice to have elected officials that would stop them from getting away with it, you know, for a change.