REGARDING SB 565

 

Dear Supporters,

This is extremely important. There are currently 3 State Bills pending in California which would limit our local control over wireless installations. This bulletin is about SB 556 which was heard on Monday, April 12, 2021, and passed the hearing unanimously by the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications, and is now up to be heard again on Monday April 19, 2021.

 

Here is the link to the hearing site: https://seuc.senate.ca.gov/.  This Bill was introduced by Bill Dodd, whose ties to telecom and PG&E are listed below.

My understanding is you (the public) will only have a short time to speak, so you need to make it short and dramatic so they remember it, and we need a lot of calls or emails. I spoke with the Assistant to the Committee who told me to just say my name, the organization, and that I am opposed to the Bill. You can decide what you want to say, but know you won't have much time (roughly 10 seconds!). The access code is not up yet, and the telephone number that is currently listed may change, but should be up by Friday, April 16.

 

Below is the League of California Cities stand against this bill:
 

SB 556   (Dodd, D)   Street light poles, traffic signal poles: small wireless facilities attachments.

Would prohibit a local government or local publicly owned electric utility from unreasonably denying the leasing or licensing of its street light poles or traffic signal poles to communications service providers for the purpose of placing small wireless facilities on those poles. The bill would require that street light poles and traffic signal poles be made available for the placement of small wireless facilities under fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory fees, subject to specified requirements, consistent with a specified decision of the Federal Communications Commission.

 

League Position:  Oppose

Primary Lobbyist:  Berdugo, Rony

Policy Committee:  TCPW

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League Position Letter(s) & City Sample Letter(s):
SB 556 (Dodd) Opposition Letter Sen. E. U. & C 3.26.21
SB 556 (Dodd) City Sample Letter Sen. E. U. & C

 

More information on Sen. Dodd and his reported connections to energy corporations can be found here: https://www.couragescore.org/people/bill-dodd 

 

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Here is the contact info for our State Senator Henry Stern. Please call his offices and email regarding voting NO on this SB 556.

 

Contact info for Senator Stern

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EMAIL 

Senator.Stern@senate.ca.gov.

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CALL  

Capitol Office: (916) 651-4027

Calabasas Office: (818) 876-3352

 

PRESS

Email: Evan.Goldberg@sen.ca.gov

 

MAIL       

Capitol Office                                Calabasas Office

Senator Henry Stern                    Senator Henry Stern

State Capitol, Room 5080           5016 N. Parkway Calabasas #222

Sacramento, CA  95814              Calabasas, CA  91302

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For more information on all three of these bills, please visit www.wirecalifornia.org.

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As always, thank you for your support in keeping our City and our State a safe place to live. I know we have asked a lot of you lately, but you can see how a dedicated group of people can make changes for the better.

 

Lonnie Gordon

Exec. Director, MalibuForSafeTech