Companies voiced their frustrations to city leaders over possible changes to how they provide service to their customers.
At the regular meeting for the Taylor City Council Aug. 25, the council voted 5-0 to update the right-of-way ordinance to establish management standards for utility service providers and their subcontractors in response to citizen complaints that their yards were being torn up with no notice, as well as other issues.
“Some entities are out here destroying customer or citizen’s properties and not even notifying them or the city that they are there,” said District 4 City Councilman Robert Garcia. “The entities don’t want to provide the city with a map of whose pole is whose. There is one pole that has really been bugging me for two years, and still today, it’s nobody’s pole, yet there are lines hanging on that pole, so the thing is people are pointing the finger to other entities.”
Some of the changes to the ordinance require service providers to obtain permits for construction on the right-of-way, repair of • page 1
poles and other facilities improperly installed, restore damaged properties, come up with procedures for removing abandoned poles, and place signage to notify people when work would be happening.
At the meeting, several service providers used the citizens communication portion of the meeting to request more time to work with city staff on reworking the updated ordinance and to express concerns that certain parts of it would increase costs for their customers.
“The ordinance will make it more difficult to continue to invest in high-speed, particularly the fiber-optic broadband service that we would like to bring to Taylor,” said Eva Muñoz, the director of external affairs for AT&T. “The new requirements will raise costs, not only to AT&T but to the residents and businesses as well.
This will occur because of the increased compliance and construction expenses that are listed in the ordinance. It will also delay construction and it will significantly impede upgrading services to your residents here in town.”
Former City Councilman Chris Gonzales, a technical quality assurance manager for Spectrum, said requiring 3-by-3-foot signs to give notice 48 hours in advance for permitting would delay service for customers.
“This is just going to delay projects,” he said.
“We need these services up and running because we have got zoom meetings. We have got all these things happening.” In response, Garcia said these changes would not affect routine maintenance.
“With the 48-hours and 3-by-3 foot signs, that’s mainly for construction and not the day-to-day operations,” he said. “I fully understand that if you are going to come out and fix, and it’s a routine repair. But if you have got a company that’s digging in your yard and you don’t know why they are digging in your yard, that’s what the reason for that is as well.”
Garcia said the door was still open to updating the ordinance further if utilities show improvement.
“I will reconsider revisiting this ordinance in the future if the entities can show that they are fixing their infrastructure,” he said.
“That’s the main reason why these utilities are here because they are not fixing their infrastructure in the Taylor Community. And we have to look out for our citizens and the infrastructure of the Taylor community.”
“ The new requirements will raise costs, not only to AT&T but to the residents and businesses as well.”
- Eva Muñoz, the director of external affairs for AT&T
