Town Council delays undergrounding ordinance

Mayor calls AT&T heartless in meeting

PARADISE >> The Paradise Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to delay a decision on an ordinance that would require all utilities to be underground. But before the council voted to delay a decision on the ordinance to June 8, something that Councilor Greg Bolin made clear didn’t make him happy, two councilors took the opportunity to tell AT&T exactly what they thought.

AT&T Director of External Affairs Alice Perez told the council via telephone that the company was looking forward to negotiations with Town Manager Kevin Phillips.

That is when Mayor Steve Crowder took her and her company to task over not agreeing to underground its poles, calling the company “heartless” and said it was choosing its profits over the safety of the town residents.

In fact, Crowder argued with AT&T that the $30 million costs the company spent to restore service to the town after the fire, was a drop in the bucket and argued that’s about the cost of a sponsorship to a major sports stadium in America that the company has in Dallas.

AT&T’s Director of Construction and Engineering Noel J. Goyhenetche argued that prior to the fire, its facilities had been in place for decades in Paradise in the same configuration and said ones installed after the fire are smaller and less obtrusive than those that had been destroyed in the Camp Fire.

Goyhenetche said that the new equipment included broadband services with gigabit speeds. He also argued that the poles were never “temporary.”

“AT&T did move extremely rapidly in order to restore service, and was able to bring Paradise live on its systems by April 25, 2019, approximately six months after the fire,” he wrote. “But AT&T’s facilities were always designed to be permanent in nature.”

Crowder argued that as early as December 2018, PG&E’s Aaron Johnson made clear at a public meeting that its poles were temporary and that an AT&T rep who spoke after Johnson did, never objected to that statement. He added that the safety of the residents is the Town Council’s top priority. Crowder also told the AT&T spokeswoman that he doesn’t know how she could work for such a company.

“In my opinion, if you don’t underground the entire town,” Crowder said. “You can take your football, go back to your sports arena.”

A letter to the town sent by AT&T said the town should renew negotiations with the company.

Vice Mayor Jody Jones took issue with that.

“I want to make it clear that the town never stepped back from mediation, “Jones said. “It was really AT&T that went dark, and what we’re looking for is to underground our entire town not what you propose in your last settlement offer. That’s totally unacceptable to the council.”

That offer Goyhenetche wrote would result in undergrounding 16 miles of arterial and collector streets that were identified by the town. Goyhenetche said that proposal addressed concerns raised by town staff over ingress and egress during an emergency.

The decision to delay it to June came at the behest of Town Engineer Marc Mattox who said more time was needed to get all the moving pieces in place.

However, he did tell the council that when developments occurred he would update the monthly on the progress before a June 8 decision is made.

While Bolin seconded the motion to delay the vote. He made it clear before a vote where he stood.

“I am just done with this,” Bolin said while noting that it has been deferred since November. “My grits are cooked.”