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%1-6 TELECOM from page 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . over a new regulatory scheme for Califomia is beginning to heat up as we move into the sum- mer months of the legislative session. City officials need to be ready for the change. The technological advances will potentially have , major implications for city revenues, local authority over these services and economic development. Telecommunications infrastructure is about to become just as important as the infrastructure provided for water, sewer, transportation and other public facilities in the community. Background Currently, local govemments are given authority to regulate utilities that use city rights-of-way to construct their infrastructure. This includes most utilities that deliver services to city residents such as water, electrical, and cable television services that are regulated through a franchise process. Telephone companies have traditionally been outside of the city franchise process. But anned with business plans to develop the infrastructure to provide video services, telephone companies are now poised to deliver a service that looks a lot like the video services traditionally provided by cable television companies. Further complicating the picture, cable television companies are beginning to provide the telephone services traditionally provided by telephone companies, and electrical companies are assessing the opportunities for their entry into this exploding communications market. Congress, California Legislature Debate Regu- latory Issues With all of these changes, Congress is ex- pected to begin debates as early as this fall and into next year over a major rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. This act defines the authority and conditions under which local commu- nities currently regulate the cable television indus- try. This debate by Congress will undoubtedly have implications for how cities regulate the communica- tions industry in Califomia. Meanwhile, the debate The debate in Califomia started with a nar- rower attempt by a member of the telephone industry to change certain regulatory practices. Lloyd Levine, chainnan, Assembly Public Utilities Committee, thought it was best to abandon this narrow fix approach in favor of a broader discus- sion about updating the state's current regulatory scheme to better match the revolutionary changes in communications technology. For the past three to four weeks, Assemblymember Levine has conducted work- shops for interested parties under the committee's direction. The League has been a participant in those meetings along with the cable television industry, the telephone companies, consumer groups, and non-profit organizations seeking balanced and non-discriminatory deploy- ment of communications services. Essentially, all interested parties are present in these discus- sions. After the most recent workshop, city repre- sentatives were asked to meet with the chainnan and staff to talk about specific city issues in these discussions. The meeting was productive in its exchange of ideas. The League's Telecom- munication Subcommittee is working on fine- tuning a policy document for the League. League policy committees will debate this in June, while the League Board will address the issue in July. Emerging Issues After the \NOrking group under the Assembly Public Utilities Committee met a number of times, some key questions emerged in the discussions. These questions promise to be a part of a draft proposal that is likely to be circu- lated in a couple of weeks. Those key questions include: Continued on Page 7 PAGE 6/PRIORITY FOCUS Visit the League's Official Website .. www.cacities.org