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To update you all regarding the ongoing saga pitting the corporate polliwogs of Verizon against the fine citizens of Mono County, the following letter was sent by a representative of the California Public Utilities Commission to one of Verizon’s many Vice-Presidents of Government Relations on April 2:

Dear Mr. Rasmussen:

Resolutions T-17330 and T-17350 require Verizon to provide broadband service to the communities of Crowley Lake and Swall Meadows by January 28, 2013. To date, Verizon has not beguin providing that service.

In his January 31, 2013 letter, Commission Executive Director Paul Clanon advised Verizon that it may be subject to penalties for this violation. Your February 5 response indicated that Verizon anticipated offering broadband service in Crowley Lake the week of March 18 and in Swall Meadows the week of April 1. In subsequent emails Verizon specified it would begin accepting orders from Crowley Lake residents on March 27.

Editor’s insertion for clarity: According to the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) website, “With an initial funding of $100 million, the CASF ((California Advanced Services Fund) supports projects that will a) provide broadband services to areas currently without broadband access and b) build out facilities in underserved areas, if funds are still available.”

Resolution T-17143, which implemented the CASF program, cautions CASF recipients that payment will be reduced if grantees are unable to meet the standard 24-month project completion timeframe. In Resolution T-17330, the Commission ordered Verizon to begin offering broadband service to Crowley lake and Swall Meadows by no later than January 28, which became the Project’s established completion date in lieu of the standard 24-month timeline. As Verizon has not yet complied with this deadline, it is in violation of Resolutions T-17330 and T-17350. Resolution T-17350 awarded Verizon up to $286,398.45 in CASF funding to assist it in providing broadband servi8ce to the communities in question.

Accordingly, Commission staff, pursuant to T-17143, intends to seek reduction of Verizon’s CASF maximum grant award by $2,000 for each day after January 28 that it does not provide broadband service to both communities. Further, if Verizon is not serving both communities by April 5, that daily reduction shall increase to $3,000 per day.

Despite the missed deadline, Verizon  should provide broadband service to these communities as ordered and notify the Commission  when it begins offering service.

Robert Wullenjohn, Program Mgr.
Communications Division
California Public Utilities Comm.

Citizen watchdog Stephen Kalish of Swall Meadows said he is “pleased that the CPUC has told Verizon what the delay will cost them. I hope it will incentivize Verizon to bring broadband service to our communities posthaste.”

Updated Feb. 5: The California Public Utilities Commission has denied Verizon’s request (discussed in the linked article) for a 12-week extension to supply Crowley Lake and Swall Meadows with broadband. According to a letter from the CPUC to Verizon, Verizon is in violation of its order to provide the service and may be subject to penalties until service is offered. Click on the link below to read the entire CPUC letter.

Resolution T-17350 Crowley Lake – Extension Request Denial

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In the past week and a half, Verizon didn’t drop a call, but it did drop the broadband ball.

On Tuesday, Jan. 22, the company sent a letter to the Executive Director of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requesting a 12-week extension to its Jan. 28 deadline for offering broadband service to the Mono County communities of Crowley Lake and Swall Meadows.

The deadline was established on July 28, 2011 and gave Verizon 18 months to comply. Verizon was hit with the requirement to provide broadband service to Crowley and Swall after it violated the Scenic Byway laws requiring all communications or electric utility facilities within 1,000 feet be placed underground. Verizon had deployed 32,000 feet of aboveground fiber optic cable along scenic U.S. 395 in Mono County without receiving a variance from the CPUC.

The Jan. 22 letter issued by Verizon came as a surprise to Mono County staff and residents who have been involved with the process.

County GIS Coordinator/Digital 395 Project Manager Nate Greenberg explained to the Mono County Board of Supervisors at a special meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29, that Verizon kept telling staff that they were on target.

“Verizon has had adequate time and they should have given notice of this months ago,” Greenberg said. Greenberg sent a letter to the CPUC on behalf of the County last week stating this and more because the CPUC thought it was going to resolve the issue on Friday, Jan. 25 and time was of the essence. A decision was not made last week so on Tuesday, Greenberg requested that the Board also send a letter to the CPUC to further back up the County’s position.

Swall Meadows resident Stephen Kalish, who has been the community advocate for this project, also attended Tuesday’s Board meeting. Kalish has been in constant contact with Verizon in the last year, speaking with one of its VP’s 12 times.

“I was worried six or seven weeks ago [that things were not on track],” Kalish told the Board. “I said something to staff and to the PUC, but Verizon sent a letter saying they were on track. I thought I was mistaken and then this came out of the blue.”

Greenberg explained that the CPUC told County staff that the County should ponder what type of penalties Verizon should incur for these delays. Greenberg pointed out to the Board that “financial penalties don’t really benefit the people being harmed by this,” i.e. residents of Crowley and Swall who have been waiting anxiously for service that was promised to them.

Crowley resident, Meghan Stevens, who spent the entire month of January calling Verizon to get on the service list, agreed with Greenberg.

“Make them put in full FiOS [Verizon’s bundled home communications service], or perhaps give us a screaming deal,” Stevens told The Sheet via telephone.

Stevens said she had been calling Verizon every 10 days or so since Jan. 1. “Only so many houses will be able to plug in, but they are making no effort to presell,” she said.

She said the process has been frustrating because when you call “you really have to push hard to get them to look deeper. Only one person out of the four or so I talked to would admit that there was a court order. It’s hard to get someone who knows what’s going on.”

She said that when she calls or attempts to sign up for service online she continues to be told that service is not available.

So what is Verizon waiting on? In its Jan. 22 letter to the CPUC, it is unclear why an additional 12 weeks are necessary to complete a project that had 18 months. One of the main items holding up the project was a needed backhaul upgrade to Verizon’s network, however, the upgrade has been completed and in place since late December 2012. The backhaul upgrade was also expected to make new service available in Mammoth as well.

In Greenberg’s letter to the CPUC he also pointed out “Over the course of the past six months or so, Verizon was able to successfully install equipment and bring online a new cell tower location in Crowley Lake. This required running fiber from their Central Office in Crowley Lake to the antennae location. The tower was turned on in late December. Verizon’s ability to complete this project in a short time frame indicates their priorities and interests, including their general lack of motivation to complete the Crowley Lake/Swall Meadows project.”

In other words, Verizon seems to be prioritizing its wireless service over its obligation to Crowley and Swall.

The Sheet spoke with Verizon’s Director of Government and External Affairs, Mike Murray. Murray is based in Long Beach and said he only deals with media on a local level. He passed us on to Jarryd Gonzales in Verizon’s media relations. The Sheet spoke with Gonzales Wednesday morning and asked why Verizon needed 12 weeks to finish the project. Gonzales said he would have to look into it. He responded with the following statement from Verizon, “Although we experienced some unintended issues with the backhaul upgrade project which caused a delay, Verizon is fully committed to building the infrastructure necessary to provide quality high speed broadband service to Crowley Lake and Swall Meadows.”

The Sheet had heard that Verizon may be waiting on a piece of necessary equipment to arrive from China, plus the company may be low on manpower.

On Aug. 23, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to approve a $286,398 grant to Verizon California Inc. to bring high speed internet broadband to the unserved and underserved communities of Swall Meadows and Crowley Lake.

The grant will cover about 34% of the project cost. Download speeds of 3 megabits to 10 megabits per second, and uploads of at least 1 megabit per second, will be available to Verizon landline customers for $39 per month with a 1 year service commitment. There will also be a one-time fee of $75 for a modem and service activation. (Non-landline customers can also obtain standalone broadband service, at a higher cost.)

Verizon will make service available to those communities no later than Jan. 28, 2013. Verizon applied for the California Advanced Services Fund grant after reluctantly agreeing to provide service to Swall Meadows and Crowley Lake as partial mitigation for violating the California State Scenic Highway Under-grounding law.

Verizon had strung ariel fiber optic cable along U.S. 395 between Crowley Lake and Mammoth Lakes beginning in 2001, without seeking to obtain the required permit to deviate from the under-grounding requirement.

The new high-speed broadband service will utilize existing copper phone lines to residences, which will be connected through new nodes to Verizon’s existing fiber optic cable running between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes.

Verizon has assured the CPUC that upgrades of its existing fiber optic cable line between Mammoth Lakes and Victorville will be completed by early November, making the promised service speeds attainable. -Press Release

A couple of weeks ago, I opened my Verizon bill and it was higher than usual, so I called Verizon to ask about my unexpected Christmas treat.

After the customary 11 minute wait, a Verizon representative got on the line and assured me that its fees and services had not changed. Rather, I had apparently ordered a new service. Verizon was collecting the money for the service on behalf of the other provider.

“What did I order?” I asked.

“See page five of your bill, sir.”

“Hmm. ‘Online Green Pages.’ $49.99. What’s that?”

“I can’t answer that, sir. You’ll have to call the other provider.”

“I thought I was doing business with Verizon. Why are you serving as a collection agency for other people?”

“Again, sir. You’ll have to call the other provider.”

But there was no direct phone number for Online Green Pages. Instead, I was directed to call a company called PaymentOne. PaymentOne is a bill collector for about 500 subsidiary companies.

Another level of bureaucracy. Another 11 minutes of my life.

I eventually get ahold of Online Green Pages. They claim that Andy Geisel placed the order for their $49.99 monthly service on November 4.

I check my calendar. First of all, November 4 was a Thursday. A deadline day. No one would have ordered any service on a Thursday. Frankly, no one would have ordered any service at all. I asked Andy about Online Green Pages.

“What’s that?” he replied.

“Never mind,” I said.

I managed to cancel the Online Green Pages and get credited the $49.99. In addition, I was so irritated with Verizon that I decided to eliminate that phone line I’ve been meaning to get rid of just because I wanted to stick it back to Verizon any way I could.

Fast forward to Wednesday’s Mammoth Lakes Town Council meeting where Mayor Skip Harvey announced that he had been the victim of a similar scam. Although Harvey actually called the California Public Utilities Commission to report it. That’s where he learned that what had been done is so common that it has its own name, “Third Party Cramming.”

A different company had levied a $49.99 surcharge onto his bill. But they’d used the same tactic – getting the name of an employee whom they then claimed supposedly ordered the service.

So folks, make sure to double-check your phone bill. The complaint line for the California Public Utilities Commission is printed on your bill. They’re responsive. It doesn’t take a lot of time to lodge a complaint. All I had to do was fax them a copy of my bill.

If I do business with a company like Verizon, I don’t expect Verizon to play dumb while it allows shysters to try and steal from me, shysters from whom Verizon clearly collects a percentage.

Shame on Verizon.

Council doesn’t add cops

At Mammoth Lakes Town Council Wednesday, Council decided not to act on Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Dan Watson’s request for additional personnel.

The MLPD has been operating with a management staff consisting of a Chief and three Sergeants for the past six months.

This leaves the department down two supervisors from historical staffing levels. Lieutenant Jim Short retired in June (the position has been left vacant) and Sgt. Eric Hugelman has been sidelined due to a disciplinary action over the Rusty’s incident (a verdict on the appeal of his termination is expected in the next few weeks).

Watson said research he’s done shows that the average supervisor-to-sworn officer ratio in police departments runs about 1:2.3. Mammoth’s ratio is currently 1:4.7.

During his career, Watson says it’s a lack of oversight which leads to potential problems. “When officers make mistakes, that indicates a fundamental failure of supervision.”

If he doesn’t get what he wants, will Watson leave when his interim, one year contract expires?

“It won’t make or break my future,” he said Thursday. “I accepted the challenge to come here, and I do sense support [from Council].” Watson added that he is well aware of the Town’s financial position and the limitations associated with it.

Councilman Rick Wood did say at Wednesday’s meeting that Town revenues are running $100,000/month ahead of projections, so perhaps money will be available down the road.

Watson said there is plenty of talent within the organization to fill any vacancies at the sergeant level in-house.

As for the lieutenant’s position, the only logical in-house candidate is Sgt. John Mair. Watson did not say whether or not he would recruit from the outside if Council authorized filling the position.

Now from Geisel …

AT&T outage

District 2 Supervisor Hap Hazard, reacting to a sudden lapse in service in southern parts of Mono County when cellular towers were transitioned from Alltel to AT&T earlier this month, says the problem seems to stem from an analog to digital conversion and the distance of the towers between Bishop and Benton, Chalfant and surrounding areas.

Evidently, the old analog signal has a longer throw than its digital counterpart, basically meaning that when the switch was thrown to turn off the old signal, and customers activated their new service, a large chunk of the county went dark almost instantly.

Hazard said this has raised numerous problems, not only for residents who had given up land lines for cell phones, but also first responders, who relied on the phones as well.

AT&T is apparently on the case.

“It has been a joint response involving their legal staff, management, technical people and engineers,” Hazard said via e-mail. “I have been told that all AT&T customer service sites and phone numbers now have this same information. Hopefully this will end the many different explanations and confusion on this issue.”

As Hazard said he understood things, the old Alltel phones will continue to work for a while longer, with the exception of some of the oldest Alltel phones, which may or may not work.

Hazard included the following note from AT&T’s Eric Johnson, in charge of External Affairs:

“AT&T recently discovered that some of our former Alltel customers who received new AT&T phones have encountered network issues in Mono and Inyo counties. Our teams in the field are working diligently to address these issues at the four cell sites. We anticipate that new AT&T phones will be working in greater Benton, including the Hammil and Chalfant valleys, no later than Wednesday, Dec. 15, barring unforeseen technical or environmental issues. All required network equipment is on-site and we have commenced testing. We expect the new AT&T phones to be working in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest area by the end of December. Our teams are also working to have the new AT&T phones operational in Mt. Patterson and Rogers Peak as soon as possible.

Customers with the new AT&T phones can reactivate their old phones by bringing them to one of our stores located at 352 Old Mammoth Rd., Mammoth Lakes, or 905 N. Main St., Bishop. AT&T is working as quickly as possible to address these issues. We apologize for the inconvenience and we look forward to bringing all the benefits of our advanced wireless data network to our customers in Mono and Inyo counties.”

Hazard said he will provide any additional information as it becomes available and thanked his constituents for their patience.

Ass kissing not required

In response to Wolf’s story last week about the Town’s ambassador program to teach employees about proper customer service, I had at least one business owner call me to say the choice of language in the headline was unfortunate.

It’s not about kissing ass, he said. It’s about being courteous and respectful. Ass-kissing is not required. Just good customer service.

Agreed. Point taken

Wolf forwarded another response to the story from one local (identifying himself as T. Wells) who wrote:

“As a longtime Mammoth local and former employee of MMSA, it pisses me off that I am constantly reminded how I should treat the visiting tourists when I am unable to afford a decent night out on the town myself.

I don’t begrudge them [the tourists], and true, it’s been my choice to work, live, and raise a family here in Mammoth. But it seems that every year it gets tougher to support my family with just the basics of life.

Having said this, I believe one way to achieve the goal of said article is to start treating the troops in the trenches with some sort of reward system that enables them to share the same niceties that are available to the tourists. An example of this system that comes instantly to mind would be one free month’s rent in employee housing, not just a mug from the sport shop. There are no doubt many other ideas that can be implemented along this same line (I’m sure the administration on the hill would be more than capable of putting together some sort of campaign to accomplish this).”