Panel Passes Bill to Block Phone Overlays

In an unexpected move, the state Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday passed legislation that would force state utility regulators to adopt number-conservation measures and block future area code splits and overlays.

But before the bill moves to the full Senate for a vote, committee members agreed to send the measure to a two-house conference committee to hash out its specific provisions, including one to rescind the 310 area code overlay and another to ban future splits and overlays statewide.

Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), who introduced the legislation to place stricter controls on area code overlays and splits, such as those proposed for the San Fernando Valley, West Los Angeles and the South Bay, called the action a major step forward for area code reform.

“The bill went from going into a midnight graveyard cemetery of a suspense file that can be used to bury a bill silently, to one of the brightest lights in the Senate--the conference committee where everything is done in the public spotlight,” Knox said. “We have moved a bill and an issue from complete obscurity to one of the most important issues of the session.”

The conference committee will be made up of three members each from the Senate and Assembly, handpicked by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), officials said.

The committee must come up with a compromise plan and submit it to both houses by Sept. 3, officials said. Supporters of the measure are pressing to have the bill passed and signed by Gov. Gray Davis before the current session ends Sept. 10.

Supporters and opponents went into the Appropriations Committee chamber Monday expecting the committee to put the bill on hold, because its $529,610 price tag was more than the $150,000 spending threshold set by the committee.

As a matter of routine, legislation costing more than $150,000 is placed in a “suspense file” until Aug. 30, when committee members know how much they can spend without exceeding the state’s operating budget, officials said.

But as the committee acted on other bills, a knot of political leaders, telecommunications representatives, consumer advocates and state regulators whispered among themselves and passed memos back and forth.

When Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) called for AB 818, the Consumer Area Code Relief Act, they all briskly walked to the speaker’s podium.

In surprise action, California Public Utilities Commission staff members asked the committee to delay funding on the measure, because some of its provisions conflict with Federal Communications Commission regulations governing area code relief plans.

“There is no gain in ending up in federal court,” said Helen Mickiewicz, an attorney for the PUC. “We have requested authority from the FCC [to implement area-code relief plans beyond splits and overlays]. The conference committee is the appropriate place to address these concerns.”

Mickiewicz said the FCC is expected to take action on utilities commission petitions regarding telephone number conservation by early September.

Representatives from Pacific Bell, AT&T;, MCI, GTE, MediaOne Telecommunications, the California Cable Television Assn. and the Cellular Carriers Assn. of California argued against the bill, saying a split or an overlay would be the most efficient way to accommodate a surge in demand for additional phone lines. But some agreed that the bill should go to a conference committee.

A coalition of consumer groups, including the Utility Reform Network and the Utility Consumer Action Network argued in favor of the bill.

Steven Teitelbaum, a Santa Monica physician who launched the Web site https://www.stopoverlay.com to protest the proliferation of splits and overlays, was the only residential consumer to address the committee.

“I knew there were going to be a lot of slick, high-paid lobbyists representing the phone companies and that there would be no one there from the public,” Teitelbaum said after the meeting. “What really bothers me is that no one is looking out for us.”

One type of conservation specified in the legislation would reduce the block of phone numbers given out at one time to telephone companies from 10,000 to 1,000. Another is “number pooling,” which would reclaim unused phone numbers from phone companies and place them in a single pool for distribution.

A combination of residential, business and political outrage in the 818 and 310 calling areas is the driving force behind the legislation, Knox said. “There is only one reason this bill has moved so far: It’s because of the public outcry.”

Knox has called on consumers to attend a public meeting on the bill at 6 tonight at the Olympic Connection, 11301 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles.

Additionally, Knox wants phone users to take part in the “Big Hang Up” on Aug. 31 by not using the phone between 3:10 and 4:24 p.m.--the area code numbers designating the Westside and South Bay overlay.