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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 03221988 - 2.6 TO- BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM: Phil Batchelor, County Administrator Contra Costa . °ATE' March 14, 1988 C suBJECT. INFORMATION-ACCESS OR "DIAL-A-PORNII TELEPHONE SERVICES SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION• Adopt a position in support of AB3644 (Peace) , AB3539 (Baker) , .SB2605 (Montoya) , AB4075 (Katz) , AB3833 (Moore) , and SB2461 (Kopp) . BACKGROUND: On December 8, 1987 the Board referred to the County Administrator a letter from Darlene Sculley of Antioch urging support for legislation which would allow a telephone subscriber to block access from his or her telephone to the information-access telephone services (976 prefix) at no cost to the subscriber. Current law (Public Utilities Code Section 2884) provides in pertinent part that the Public Utilities Corporation shall require every telephone corporation to offer residential subscribers the option of deleting access to 1197611 service. The law states that "the commission shall further establish a charge to the subscriber, of not to exceed five dollars ($5) , for. the exercise of this option, and the commission shall require that any unrecompensed expenses . in this regard be borne . by providers of information-access telephone services rather than residential telephone subscribers. " In response to a substantial public outcry at having to pay to block service they did not ask for and do not want several piecesof legislation have been introduced, as follows: Four bills address the maximum fee of $5 to block access to the, 1197611 prefix. All of the bills are identical and amend the portion of Public Utilities- Code Section 2884 quoted above to instead read: "The commission shall require that all charges in this regard be borne by providers of information-access telephone services rather then residential. telephone subscribers. " These four bills (AB3644, AB3539, SB2605 and AB4075) simply delete the authority to make any charge of the subscriber and instead require the cost of blocking the service to be borne by the providers of the 1197611 messages. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES - SIGNATUREe&vh Z Y,92 RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE XAPPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE S : _ ACTION OF BOARD ON 22 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS i HEREBY.CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS (ABSENT ) AW CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TARN AYES; _ NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: - ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. cc: Following page ATTESTED MAR t2 2 1988 PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY M382/7-83 ,DEPUTY — - 11976" Service -2- March 14, 1988 AB3833 is similar to the four bills cited above. However, it goes one step further and requires the Public Utilities Commission to order the telephone companies to refund any amounts paid by subscribers prior to January 1, 1989 and instead requires the providers of 11976" messages to reimburse the telephone companies for all refunds made to subscribers. SB2461 is also similar to the four bills noted above. However, it also requires that where the telephone equipment in a particular area does not allow deletion of service to an individual subscriber the telephone company be required to delete service to all subscribers and that the charges for this deletion be borne by the information providers ( "976" providers) . There are three other bills which address the problem of 11976" prefix messages in various ways. These are SB679 (Rosenthal) , SB1844 (Russell) and SB2787 (Nielsen) . However, none of these three bills are as direct about prohibiting the charging of the subscriber for the blocking of access to the 11976" prefix service and so we have not recommended support of them at this time. It would seem that an ideal solution would be achieved by the passage of legislation which combines AB3833 (Moore) and SB2461 (Kopp) . This would achieve three goals: 1) Delete authority to charge the subscriber for the cost of blocking service. 2) Require that all subscribers who have paid the charge for blocking 11976" service be reimbursed for their costs. 3) Require that if in a particular area a telephone company cannot selectively block access to "976" numbers by an individual subscriber that the entire area be blocked from access at no cost - to the subscriber. According to news reports on March 11 the Public Utilities Commission, supported by Pacific Bell, has gone as far as it can by reducing the charge to block access to the 11976" prefix to 1� . Actual imposition of this charge of 1(P and refunds of the current $2. 00 charge are being held up pending action by the Legislature on one or more of the bills discussed above. cc: County Administrator County Counsel Director of General Services Ralph Heim, Jackson/Barish & Associates Senator Kopp Senator Montoya Assemblyman Peace Assemblyman Baker Assemblyman Katz Assemblywoman Moore Darlene Sculley, 111 James Donlon #1089 Antioch, CA 94509.