Loveland City Councilman John Fogle has been named to the Federal Communications Commission’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee, one of a dozen municipal representatives from across the country and the only member from Colorado.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced the appointment of 30 elected and appointed officials from municipal, county, state and tribal governments last week.

“Councilor Fogle’s appointment is a huge benefit for Loveland Pulse and the northern Colorado region. The need for ubiquitous access to affordable, reliable communications technology is undeniable and has never been more important,” Brieana Reed-Harmel, the city of Loveland’s fiber manager, said in a statement. “Councilor Fogle understands the technical, municipal and business sides of telecommunications as well as the unique needs of our communities. He will not only be a voice for Loveland and Colorado at the federal level, but he will bring a tremendous amount of knowledge and passion to the IAC.”

Fogle has represented the city’s Ward 3 since 2011 and served on the National League of Cities Information, Technology and Communications advisory committee for six years.

The city said he was an early advocate for a municipal broadband network and served as the council’s liaison to the Broadband Taskforce and the Loveland Communications Advisory Board. 

Fogle has 38 years’ experience in technology, including owning and operating an IT consulting and sales business for the last 13 years.

“I am proud to bring my expertise to the IAC as the FCC continues to explore public access to information systems and telecommunications,” Fogle stated. “I have been fortunate to work closely with Loveland and surrounding cities on broadband issues through my work as a city councilor and NLC-ITC and look forward to continuing my work advising on the broadband industry, 5G and more.”

Kenneth Fellman of Kiplinger & Fellman had served on the IAC off and on since its inception in 1997, shortly after passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. At that time, then-Vice President Al Gore and FCC chair Reed Hundt believed local governments needed a seat at the table as the telecom act was being implemented.

Fellman, then mayor of Arvada, was the committee’s first chair, from 1997 to 2003. He has since served at least two other two-year terms, while he was city attorney for Littleton and most recently, county attorney for Yuma County.

Fellman said the committee’s responsibilities are dependent on who chairs the FCC and what that person wants the committee to do. In its early years, the committee was given a lot of free rein by the commission, which would seek their input on what the FCC should be working on. It was the first time that this kind of engagement existed between local, state and tribal governments and the FCC, Fellman said.

Most of the FCC chairs have had a lot of respect for the committee, Fellman added. “They didn’t always do what we suggested, but we had a seat at the table” and could advocate for the issues arising from local communities, he said.

Fellman cited as an example early commission work on local rights of way and zoning authority tied to companies attempting to deploy new telecom networks. The commission, due in part to the feedback from the IAC, preserved state and local control in those decisions.  

More recently, the FCC adopted rules regarding telecom site changes, which could have been more restrictive on local land use authority were it not for the advocacy of the IAC.

That advocacy role has changed in the last couple of years, Fellman said. Pai expanded the size of the committee from 15 to 30, and it went from a majority of local governments to a majority of state officials. It’s less of an open forum now, Fellman said; the commission now makes assignments to the committee rather than soliciting feedback on issues.

Everything Pai has asked the committee to work on is important, Fellman said, but the committee’s ability to raise issues with the FCC is now lost. The committee has not had an opportunity to submit recommendations on FCC actions in the past couple of years because of these other assignments.

“It was an uncomfortable change for me,” Fellman said.

He is pleased with Fogle’s appointment. “He’s not shy. I’m glad he’s on the committee … . He will be a strong advocate for local interests.”

Fogle told Colorado Politics he hopes to bring some of the issues raised by the National League of Cities to the committee and on to the commission. One that he’s particularly interested in is a study of 5G radio emissions. The FCC’s documentation on radio emissions is “old enough to vote,” he joked, so a new study, in advance of the roll-out of 5G technology, is needed.

Fogle said the study could address some of the “tinfoil hat” conspiracy theories floating around on 5G, such as that it caused COVID, for example. “It would be wonderful to have something from the FCC that says what 5G really does … nobody knows what to believe.”

This article has been updated.