Oakland is ready to receive $15 million from California to shut gaps in local web speeds – a grant that faced objections from industry giants Comcast and AT&T, who argued the town doesn’t have a slower web connection than another place.

A bunch of advocates had struggled throughout much of the pandemic to persuade state technology officials that Oakland deserved a bigger share of the federal COVID-19 response funding for broadband improvements.

But recent funding announced this week goals to fund the “last mile” of fibre optic connectivity by connecting neglected areas to a wider backbone along major highways.

The group, called OaklandUndivided, fought in the course of the pandemic to persuade California authorities that East Oakland neighborhoods were being neglected in existing broadband expansion funding plans.

With the brand new funding, Oakland joins the ranks of other communities classified as “underserved” by the California Public Utilities Commission, including San Francisco ($10 million), Fremont ($7 million) and Plumas County ($7 million).

These are communities in Northern California which might be “just a short walk or drive from the development of some of the world's most famous high technologies,” but “they are on the wrong side of the digital divide,” CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said, in response to a press release before voting for the funding.

In their written objections to the $15 million grant, Comcast and AT&T argued that 100% of the Oakland neighborhoods targeted for improvements were covered by high-speed web.

But utility officials found that the providers' web sites listed a number of the addresses included of their maps as “not receiving fiber service.” They also noted that “many of the locations complained of by the providers were outside” the intended service area.

Oakland Connect, a civic organization led by a former city school teacher, had rejected the objections with reports that Oakland's Internet connection was slower than the speeds advertised to the general public by Comcast and AT&T.

Tests by technology company HubbleIQ found that greater than a 3rd of 8,000 addresses had slow download speeds, in response to data seen by this news organization.

Young students in East Oakland told this news organization in previous interviews that they’d trouble accessing the web when the pandemic forced entire families to remain home. One teenager, a highschool student named Santiago Preciado, said he “missed a significant portion of eighth grade because of it.”

These inequalities, that are also noticed by teachers and mentors in after-school care, often go unmentioned in political discourse in Oakland – but they seem to contribute to the performance gap between different neighborhoods.

“This is an information justice issue,” said Patricia Wells, who heads the Oakland Housing Authority. “All people, regardless of income, have the right to access reliable and affordable high-speed internet, just like other essential utilities like water and electricity.”

Originally published: July 12, 2024 at 16:24

The Pac-12 posted record revenue within the 2022-23 fiscal yr, surpassing $600 million for the primary time, based on federal tax returns obtained by the hotline.

Total revenue of $603.8 million, based totally on media rights deals with ESPN and Fox, represents a 4 percent increase from last yr.

“We are pleased to have achieved record revenue for our members,” Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said in a press release. “These proceeds are used by our campus athletic departments to provide invaluable support to our more than 7,000 student-athletes annually and fulfill our mission of developing the next generation of leaders.”

The seeds of collapse lie dormant in these numbers – quite a few examples of the overspending and mismanagement that plagued the conference for years and contributed to its demise last summer.

Despite the rise in revenue in comparison with the previous yr, distributions to the 12 campuses increased by $3.4 million per school, or 9.1 percent, from $37 million in fiscal yr 2022 to simply $33.6 million in 2023.

While comparable conferences increased their annual distributions, the Pac-12 went downhill – and the revenue gap widened consequently.

The Big Ten paid out a mean of $60.5 million to its long-time members last yr, while the SEC split $51.3 million, the ACC paid $44.8 million and the Big 12 paid 44.2 distributed hundreds of thousands of US dollars. based on USA Today.

The conference attributed the decline in payouts to “lower revenue for Pac-12 Networks related to affiliate fees.”

The Pac-12 Networks reported revenue of $97.3 million, down $9.6 million from last yr. When split 12 ways, that involves $800,000 per campus and doesn't explain all the year-over-year decline in distributions.

However, based on the conference, it is predicted that Pac-12 Networks' figures within the Schedule R portion of the tax return will likely be adjusted in a future tax return to reflect the reduced revenue.

This lower total is attributable to Comcast, a distribution partner, withholding payments to the networks to make up for the quantity it has overpaid over the course of a decade.

The Pac-12 knew in regards to the overpayments, which totaled about $72 million, but didn’t correct the matter until Comcast noticed the error and contacted the Pac-12 in the autumn of 2022.

(Two executives, CFO Brent Willman and Pac-12 Networks President Mark Shuken, were fired for failing to properly report the overpayments. They have filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the conference.)

The tax returns include the next note: “The Conference expects to file an amended Form 990 for tax year 2023 in the future in connection with a possible restatement.”

The documents also revealed for the primary time the quantity of salary paid to former Commissioner George Kliavkoff.

Kliavkoff's disastrous tenure began in the summertime of 2021, but because compensation is reported by calendar yr slightly than fiscal yr, his 12-month salary didn’t appear within the Pac-12's tax returns released last spring.

According to documents released Thursday, Kliavkoff earned $4 million in his first full yr on the job.

After watching the conference fail, Kliavkoff resigned earlier this yr and agreed to a settlement with the 2 remaining schools, Washington State and Oregon State.

Kliavkoff received a better salary than his colleagues – SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey earned $3.6 million, based on USA Today – but lower than his predecessor Larry Scott, who earned $4 million several times during his tenure on the helm of the Pac-12 mark was exceeded.

Scott received a $3 million severance package after parting ways together with his employer in the summertime of 2021, based on the conference. He also has to repay an unpaid $1.8 million moving loan at the top of June.

In total, Scott and Kliavkoff led the Pac-12 for 15 years, making one strategic mistake after one other.

For their efforts, they received total compensation of roughly $57 million, based on a hotline review of Pac-12 tax returns for 2013 through 2023 and USA Today reports for 2010 through 2012.

(The exact amount is determined by the severance pay Kliavkoff is paid. This is not going to be publicly announced for an additional yr.)

The tax returns also showed that 13 current or former employees earned a minimum of $400,000 in calendar yr 2022, up from nine the previous yr.

The well-paid staff includes Scott; the 2 executives fired over the Comcast mess, Shuken and Willman; plus deputy commissioners and executives chargeable for sales, legal, strategy, content, communications, sponsorships, and engineering and product.

In addition, the conference paid $4.2 million to Emeryville, Calif.-based Advanced Systems Group for work described as “production facility expansion.”

The 42,000-square-foot facility in San Ramon, California, opened last summer and was intended to deal with the Pac-12 Networks after the lease on the conference office in San Francisco expired.

And it did – for a yr: next month the networks will likely be switched off.

However, the state-of-the-art studio will likely be used to supply Washington State and Oregon State home games, including football games, for media outlets. At least for the following 12 months.

---