Duggan mulls shifting funds as internet initiative drags
Eliminating Detroit’s digital divide has been among Mayor Mike Duggan’s top priorities. On Friday, the third-term mayor proposed moving about $11.6 million in federal funding originally dedicated to dissolving that gap elsewhere.
Duggan’s reason is that the city will not be able to spend the money through the American Rescue Plan Act by 2026, the required spending timeline, because of the complicated nature of wiring neighborhoods with fiberoptic networks. Filling in the digital gap involves providing affordable access to reliable internet, hardware and digital literacy training. Instead of wiring neighborhoods, Duggan aims to shift that funding toward a more immediate use, such as affordable housing.
“It has proven far more difficult for a government to wire neighborhoods than we thought, so that is a slower pace,” Duggan said in a news media call in March with White House and congressional officials. “(There) is a whole different package Congress passed for broadband initiatives. It’s a different source of money. I’m sure we are going to take some of the broadband money that we look at and say we won’t get to spend it by (2026); we’ll move it to something like affordable housing that’s being spent right away.”
Detroit City Council will have to approve the transfer of ARPA funds.
Detroit had spent a little more than 9% of ARPA funds and programmed 90% of it as of March 27, according to the city’s dashboard. Neither Duggan nor White House adviser and ARPA coordinator Gene Sperling is concerned with the spending timeline.
“I think you really have to look at what’s happening in the community. Are people addressing their urgent needs? If they’re not, it doesn’t mean they’re just sitting on it, or it means they’re allocating it for thoughtful programs that may take a few years to go on. Money is obligated ... to very smart and good uses. But they’re not simply, just as some states
might have done, just throwing it into their fiscal situation,” Sperling said.
Christine Burkette, the city’s new digital equity and inclusion director, is responsible for locating additional money and resources to close the gap, district-by-district.
Burkette founded an IT consulting firm and served as chief information officer at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, where she delivered IT system services, implemented cybersecurity protocols and an online admission testing platform from 2017 to 2018. She also launched General Motors’ global onboarding program and has more than a decade of experience as a speaker for diversity, equity and inclusion, tech leaders and IT solutions.
“I 100% support what the mayor is saying. One of the major things that I think a lot of people don’t understand is we have an initiative to put fiber optic throughout the city of Detroit. We also have to understand that each one of these particular areas, the oversight is Comcast and Verizon, and you can only work as fast as those partners,” Burkette said, citing the Hope Village project, a testing ground for a city-led expansion of fiber-optic internet, Bridge Detroit reports.
It may require at least a year to integrate a fiber-optic network in one neighborhood from the onset, giving the remainder of the city only a few years to spend those dollars. It also involves various logistics to lay out new lines, Burkette said. But the native Detroiter is working on identifying areas to replicate the Hope Village project and retain some of the ARPA funding while she identifies other monetary sources through public and private partnerships.
“The mayor’s point is not that he wants to give the money away, but if we have to spend it by that time, we’re going to need our partners, which would be Comcast and Verizon, to jump on board with us and get out there and help us make it happen. But we also have to respect the fact that they also have additional initiatives,” Burkette said. “My job is to put together such amazing proposals that we’re going to get a lot of ‘yeses.’ ”
Other times, giving away hardware comes at an exorbitant cost. Burkette wants to offer subsidized phones and Wi-Fi to Detroiters, but to run the program for three years, it could cost about $1.4 million for 2,000 residents.
Beyond giving away technology and stipends, Burkette has many layers of digital equity to address across the city. On the other side of her office is a wall full of sticky notes marking various statistics in each city council district, including population, ethnicities, poverty levels, age groups and technology hubs, which are spaces for Detroiters to access hardware, internet and digital literacy training. The breakdown helps her identify each district’s needs.
“Do they have fiber-optic? Are there issues with Wi-Fi connectivity? Do they have a large population of elderly? Do they have a workforce that wants to go into the IT industry?” Burkette asked. “That’s me, remembering, every day and every person across the city of Detroit that I’m doing my job for. That’s my reminder when you got that many stickies looking at you every day. Your decisions impact everybody.”
The digital equity director warns against equating a lack of access to technology with poverty.
“Access does not mean poverty. It just means poor carrier service . ... The biggest issue is we always equate issues with digital literacy or connectivity with poverty. That’s not always the case. Some of our poverty areas probably have the best connectivity. So connectivity isn’t an issue. It’s the cost for services,” Burkette said.
During her first week, she broke down the different ethnicities of each district to identify organizations that could potentially fund initiatives.
“There’s a lot of resources for Native Americans that’s not available, let’s say, to African Americans, but if I can go to the
Native American organizations and say, ‘Can you help me out with subsidized costs for this number of people across these seven districts?’ That’s more likely because now I’ve told them exactly who it is,” Burkette said.
Ensuring readiness among Detroiters seeking training and job opportunities, and learning to use health care technology is an additional priority for Burkette, who will look to multiple funding sources and partnerships for help.
“When you take IT certification courses, that’s one part you need to go through the certification, then you need to get placed in the role and that sometimes requires internships,” Burkette said. “Then our biggest thing is health tech. We have a lot of elderly in our community, and there’s a lot of different things rolling out with health tech that will keep them safe and also provide them services where they can actually utilize them from home, such as telehealth.”