Hearing on Overlay May Be Postponed

An Aug. 5 hearing on a controversial area code overlay for the San Fernando Valley will very likely be postponed one month to allow for a town hall meeting on the issue, officials said Thursday.

The public meeting was called by state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who said he wants to give residents and small-business owners in the 818 area code the chance to question state regulators and phone company representatives on the overlay plan.

“The purpose of the meeting is to increase public awareness that an overlay is being proposed and the impact of an overlay,” Alarcon said. “We want to have the [Public Utilities Commission] present to provide information and to see what we can do to challenge the decision when it goes to the PUC.”

No date for the town hall meeting has been set, but it will probably occur on or before Aug. 5, Alarcon said.

The PUC is scheduled to consider the overlay proposal at its regular meeting at 10 a.m. Aug. 5 at its San Francisco headquarters.

But that agenda item is expected to be deferred until the commission’s regular meeting Sept. 2 to allow state regulators time to weigh public comments, said Tim Sullivan, an advisor to PUC Commissioner Henry M. Duque. Duque is the lead commissioner on area code overlays and splits.

Under the overlay proposal, all new phones in Valley homes and businesses would get a new area code, with the actual three-digit number to be determined later.

In addition to the new area code, all Valley callers would have to dial 1-818 to reach other 818 numbers--even if they are in the same building or across the street.

In addition to state regulators, Alarcon said he will invite representatives of area chambers of commerce, phone companies and Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), who introduced legislation to put stricter controls on overlays.

On Tuesday, the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee approved the Area Code Relief Act (AB 818) that would rescind the controversial 310 area code overlay and ban future splits.

The amended legislation also calls for a single area code for fax machines, cellular phones, pagers, computer modems, ATMs and other electronic devices requiring telephone lines.

PUC officials, however, said Thursday that some provisions of the legislation would put the state in direct conflict with Federal Communication Commission regulations.

The dispute is symbolic of the conflicts in authority between state and federal communications officials that Knox said his bill seeks to resolve.