Unidentified Speaker 1, a committee member, told the Communication and Public Relations Committee they had reviewed minutes and opened a broadband update, asking staff for new information. "I read the minutes and, I'm approving it as, presented," the speaker said while moving past procedural items to the broadband matter.

Staff present said there was nothing new to report as a completed broadband update but flagged related economic-development work. Speaker 2 noted the Economic Development Committee will consider an agreement with PFE on ongoing broadband-related work.

Speaker 1 said they had attempted to gather door-to-door broadband coverage data for Benton Harbor but encountered difficulty and discovered a public survey site with a BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment) deadline that had closed. Speaker 1 said the survey process appeared to have been ongoing since about 2014 and that the city likely missed opportunities to compile local data for earlier BEAD rounds.

Mister Little, identified during the meeting, explained why some areas of Benton Harbor had been treated as ineligible under BEAD: when BEAD funding rolled out, the program's eligibility rules treated some neighborhoods with existing coaxial cable (Comcast) as "served," because the underlying technology was considered capable of carrying higher speeds; that designation made those areas ineligible for BEAD subsidies. "...because coax cable that they use is considered to be rated to carry up to [higher speeds], They considered the city as having been served. So those areas we could not qualify for," Mister Little said.

Committee members asked staff to attempt to extract existing survey and sensor data (including a GeoGator/sensor data source referenced in the meeting) to build a clearer picture of local coverage ahead of future opportunities. No formal motion or vote on broadband projects was recorded in the transcript; the committee set follow-up for its next meeting.

The committee also discussed intercommittee coordination: Speaker 1 said they expected the PFE agreement on the Economic Development agenda to return to Communications when appropriate so both broadband planning and community outreach could be aligned.

Next steps: staff was asked to pull available datasets for Benton Harbor and to report back at the committee's next meeting so the city can better identify digitally underserved areas and potential funding pathways.