Digital Sea told the Cleveland Utilities Committee on Oct. 30 that its third-quarter rollout has connected thousands of households but drew sustained questioning from council members and the city's internal audit team about how subscriber counts are verified and which Cleveland households are actually getting service.

"We don't need perfection. We need progress," Digital Sea executive director Josh Edmonds told the committee during the presentation, framing the program as a "Cleveland model" that pairs city funds, philanthropy and local outreach. Edmonds said the program has connected 4,019 households this year (the year-two goal was 4,700), 6,821 total households since January 2024 and more than 17,000 residents overall, and that Digital Sea has facilitated roughly 19,000 trainings to date.

Council members pressed staff for clarity on the figures and on access to the underlying data. "Trust but verify," Councilman Harsh said multiple times while asking why committee members could not see the subscriber lists directly. Natasha Brandt, manager of internal audit for the city of Cleveland, told the committee that internal audit receives subscriber and adoption files from Digital Sea on a secure flash drive and "they check those against a database of addresses that we have," adding that the team also cross-checks billing addresses and sign-in sheets and performs field sampling.

Brandt said auditors keep personally identifiable information secured and that the quarterly audit files are not distributed by email. She confirmed auditors have made on-site checks in prior reviews and said the audit team is performing quarterly verifications this year.

Council members asked several technical questions about how Digital Sea counts subscribers. Edmonds said the organization reports subscribing households (6,821) and estimates resident counts using a 2.5 persons-per-household conservative factor; he acknowledged that in some homes the number of residents can be higher. He said churn is about 2% (below the 3% national average) and that Digital Sea counts households that later unsubscribe as connected for reporting on installs, while billing records reflect active payers.

The committee also asked about coverage gaps and rollout timing. Edmonds said East Side wards generally show higher take rates because towers and sites were built earlier there, while some West Side sites came online only this year. Council members requested recurring visual coverage maps and ward-level heat maps; staff agreed to provide those in future reports.

On pricing and sustainability, Digital Sea staff said Cleveland students enrolled through the Cleveland Metropolitan School District receive the service at no cost to families, while other Cleveland households can get a minimum 100/100 Mbps plan for $18 per month. Edmonds and his financial officer, Marlene Piatek, emphasized that $18 alone does not fully fund long-term operations and that the 501(c)(3) is pursuing diversified revenue, public-sector contracts and philanthropic support to sustain the program.

Committee members raised operational concerns: customer reviews reporting unpaid bills or equipment left behind after cancellation; a reported 15% delinquency figure the company identified in response to a question about overdue accounts; and whether Everstream's bankruptcy and a possible Bluebird acquisition of Everstream will affect Digital Sea's backhaul costs. Digital Sea said it has diversified backhaul providers and has negotiated additional arrangements to reduce vendor concentration, but council members asked for further assurances.

Digital Sea described customer service procedures: a dedicated customer-experience team, a ticketing workflow in HubSpot, and a call center run by a national vendor using a blend of human agents and automated tools. The company said the call-center model and automation reduced costs after an earlier $1 million penalty affected operations. The vendor model and hours of operation were described as 7-days-a-week with an unconfirmed 24-hour response; Digital Sea said it would confirm exact hours for the committee.

On audit transparency and privacy, Brandt and other city staff repeated that internal auditors have secure access to subscriber files and can appear before the committee to confirm they have received and verified records. Brandt said the audit team also compares modem activity and, in prior audits, selected sampled addresses for field visits to confirm service.

Committee members said they want additional, auditable signals: unique modem counts or MAC-address-based snapshots, ward-level heat maps, and periodic field verification to ensure city funds are reaching people who previously lacked broadband or were eligible under the old Affordable Connectivity Program criteria. Digital Sea acknowledged limits in verifying whether every subscriber previously lacked broadband or participated in ACP and noted that the contract and term-sheet criteria for eligibility use dated program definitions.

The presentation also highlighted outreach and training efforts: LaDonna Norris, director of outreach and education, described intergenerational digital-literacy classes including a drone "flight school" that attracted grandparents and children. Edmonds and outreach staff said Digital Sea attends neighborhood festivals, school events and faith-based meetings to recruit subscribers and hire local installers.

No formal votes or legislative actions were taken during the hearing. Council members and Digital Sea staff closed the session with agreements to provide additional documentation: ward-level heat maps, a picture of installation equipment, confirmation of call-center hours, and the audit team's availability to appear before the committee for live verification of secure audit files.

The committee adjourned with members praising progress while reiterating the need for ongoing, auditable verification and clearer ward-by-ward reporting so the council can assure constituents that city funds are producing the intended connections.