SENATE BILL 920 – OPPOSE

On February 1, 2010, California State Senator, Leland Yee, sponsored and introduced Senate Bill 920 which would prohibit a telephone company from distributing a telephone directory to a subscriber unless the subscriber affirmatively elects to receive the directory. 

On Saturday morning, March 27, 2010, 2010, Business Manager, Peter Pusateri, International Representative, Tim Dixon, and Scott Wetch, IBEW Legislative Advocate, met with Senator Yee where I voiced IBEW’s strong opposition to his bill.

Senator Yee gave us a positive response and invited the IBEW to participate in re-writing Senate Bill 920.

Due to the opposition, and in large part due to our opposition, Senator Yee was forced to severely amend his bill SB 920.  Rather than banning the phone directories, the bill was amended to require the phone companies to, among other things, print on their front cover a toll-free number for consumers to opt out of receiving the books.  Despite the severe restrictions on the original bill, these new regulations represent a new form of regulation on the phone  books and set a dangerous precedent.  Therefore, we continue to oppose this bill. The bill is currently short one vote for passage.  Because of the drastic amendment, Senator Yee won over several previously committed “No” votes as a courtesy.  We are hopeful the bill will eventually be defeated, most likely in the Assembly. 

A meeting was held on June 2, 2010, in Sacramento with the President of AT&T California, the Vice-President of  AT&T Legislative Affairs, in addition to Tim Dixon, IBEW International Representative, and myself to discuss the bill and other industry issues.

On June 3, 2010, I was notified by Scott Wetch, IBEW Legislative Representative, that the Senate failed to pass Bill 920.  It was clear that at least 6 key Democrats stayed off their colleagues’ bill due to the IBEW opposition and lobbying.  Scott Wetch did a tremendous job for us, and without his help and leadership on this bill, it would have passed. 

Peter Pusateri