A. The City Council finds and determines as follows:
1. The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 preempts and declares invalid all state rules that restrict entry or limit competition in both local and long-distance telephone service.
2. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is primarily responsible for the implementation of local telephone competition, and it issues certificates of public convenience and necessity to new entrants that are qualified to provide competitive local telephone exchange services and related telecommunications service, whether using their own facilities or the facilities or services provided by other authorized telephone corporations.
3. Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 234(a) defines a “telephone corporation” as “every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any telephone line for compensation within this state.”
4. Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 616 provides that a telephone corporation “may condemn any property necessary for the construction and maintenance of its telephone line.”
5. Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 2902 authorizes municipal corporations to retain their powers of control to supervise and regulate the relationships between a public utility and the general public in matters affecting the health, convenience, and safety of the general public, including matters such as the use and repair of public streets by any public utility and the location of the poles, wires, mains, or conduits of any public utility on, under, or above any public streets.
6. Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 7901 authorizes telephone and telegraph corporations to construct telephone or telegraph lines along and upon any public road or highway, along or across any of the waters or lands within this state, and to erect poles, posts, piers, or abutments for supporting the insulators, wires, and other necessary fixtures of their lines, in such manner and at such points as not to incommode the public use of the road or highway or interrupt the navigation of the waters.
7. Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 7901.1 confirms the right of municipalities to exercise reasonable control as to the time, place, and manner in which roads, highways, and waterways are accessed, which control must be applied to all entities in an equivalent manner. Nothing in § 7901.1 adds to or subtracts from any existing authority that municipalities have with respect to the imposition of fees.
8. Cal. Gov’t Code § 50030 provides that any permit fee imposed by a city for the placement, installation, repair, or upgrading of telecommunications facilities, such as lines, poles, or antennas, by a telephone corporation that has obtained all required authorizations from the CPUC and the FCC to provide telecommunications services, must not exceed the reasonable costs of providing the service for which the fee is charged, and must not be levied for general revenue purposes.
B. In recognition of and in compliance with the statutory authorizations and requirements set forth above in paragraph A., the following regulatory provisions are applicable to a telephone corporation that desires to provide telecommunications service by means of facilities that are proposed to be constructed within the city’s public rights-of-way:
1. The telephone corporation must apply for and obtain, as may be applicable, an excavation permit, an encroachment permit, or a building permit (ministerial permit).
2. In addition to the information required by this code in connection with an application for a ministerial permit, a telephone corporation must submit to the city the following supplemental information:
a. A copy of the certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the CPUC to the applicant, and a copy of the CPUC decision that authorizes the applicant to provide the telecommunications service for which the facilities are proposed to be constructed in the city’s public rights-of-way. Any applicant that, prior to 1996, provided telecommunications service under administratively equivalent documentation issued by the CPUC may submit copies of that documentation in lieu of a certificate of public convenience and necessity.
b. If the applicant has obtained from the CPUC a certificate of public convenience and necessity to operate as a “competitive local carrier,” the following additional requirements are applicable:
(1) As required by Decision No. 95-12-057 of the CPUC, the applicant must establish that it has timely filed with the city a quarterly report that describes the type of construction and the location of each construction project proposed to be undertaken in the city during the calendar quarter in which the application is filed, so that the city can coordinate multiple projects, as may be necessary.
(2) If the applicant’s proposed construction project will extend beyond the utility rights-of-way into undisturbed areas or other rights-of-way, the applicant must establish that it has filed a petition with the CPUC to amend its certificate of public convenience and necessity and that the proposed construction project has been subjected to a full-scale environmental analysis by the CPUC, as required by Decision No. 95-12-057 of the CPUC.
(3) The applicant must inform the city whether its proposed construction project will be subject to any of the mitigation measures specified in the Negative Declaration [“Competitive Local Carriers (CLCs) Projects for Local Exchange Communication Service throughout California”] or to the Mitigation Monitoring Plan adopted in connection with Decision No. 95-12-057 of the CPUC. The city’s issuance of a ministerial permit will be conditioned upon the applicant’s compliance with all applicable mitigation measures and monitoring requirements imposed by the CPUC upon telephone corporations that are designated as “competitive local carriers.”
C. The city reserves all rights that it now possesses or may later acquire with respect to the regulation of any cable or telecommunications service that is provided, or proposed to be provided, by a telephone corporation. These reserved rights may relate, without limitation, to the imposition of reasonable conditions in addition to or different from those set forth in this section, the exaction of a fee or other form of consideration or compensation for use of public rights-of-way, and related matters; provided, however, that such regulatory rights and authority must be consistent with federal and state law that is applicable to cable or telecommunications services provided by telephone corporations.
(Ord. 1082, passed 11-16-04)