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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font><b><font size=5><span style='font-size:18.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>City says Qwest is stalling at table <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><i><font size=3
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>Albuquerque</span></font></i></st1:City></st1:place><i><span
style='font-style:italic'> Journal – Business Outlook<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><i><font size=3 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>Thursday, November
29, 2007 <br>
<br>
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<br>
<span class=popup><a href="http://www.abqjournal.com/cgi-bin/email_reporter.pl">By
Jack King</a> </span><br>
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer<br>
City of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:City></st1:place>
attorneys are threatening to ask the City Council to seek the eviction of Qwest
Communications from the rights of way the company uses to provide telephone
service in the city.<br>
They say Qwest keeps stalling about renegotiating a
franchise agreement with the city that ended in 2000.<br>
Under state statute, a city may pass an ordinance giving a
franchise to any entity for the operation of a public utility. Qwest<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s franchise agreement allows it to use city rights
of way for its wires and other equipment. Since the agreement ended, the
company has been on a month-to-month contract with the city.<br>
Qwest pays a franchise fee to the city equal to 3 percent of
its local gross revenue.<br>
The company paid the city about $3.2 million in fiscal year
2006, when the city<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s general fund
revenue totalled $447 million, according to City Economist Jacques Blair.<br>
But city attorneys said keeping a franchise agreement
current is about more than money.<br>
City Attorney Robert White said a new agreement would cover
issues like relocating equipment when rights of way are closed and the use of
rights of way for new technologies. It also would ensure that Qwest and any new
phone companies that come to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:City></st1:place>
are on an equal footing.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Assistant</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">City</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> Attorney Carolyn
Fudge said the city wants access to Qwest<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
books to ensure it is paying enough money.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:City></st1:place>
is only one of 36 municipalities in the state where Qwest is operating with an
expired franchise agreement, according to the New Mexico Municipal League.<br>
Qwest<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:State></st1:place> attorney, Tim
Goodwin, denied the company is stalling in its negotiations with the city. He
said he has communicated with city attorneys twice since March about the
franchise agreement. Fudge told the Journal she does not recall those
communications.<br>
"I can remember one phone call about something else,
railroad rights of way, during which I said, <st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>Oh,
by the way, why aren<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t we talking
about the franchise?<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName> And there was
no response to that remark," Fudge said.<br>
White and Fudge said they are currently negotiating a
telephone franchise agreement with Time Warner and plan to send a new master
ordinance governing telephone franchises to the council in early December.<br>
Last week, they sent a letter to both Qwest and Verizon
Business, which also has approached the city about a franchise, offering the
companies a last chance to comment on the new ordinance, White said.<br>
Fudge said City Chief Administrative Officer Bruce J.
Perlman sent Qwest a letter in January stating that unless the company reached
a new franchise agreement with the city in 90 days he would stop accepting its
month-to-month franchise payments and ask the City Council for a motion asking
attorneys to seek a writ of ejectment.<br>
After receiving the letter, Qwest officials contacted
Perlman saying they wanted to enter negotiations. He notified them in May that
he would suspend the 90-day deadline for a reasonable period to allow
good-faith negotiations, but has not heard back from the company since, Fudge
said.<br>
In May, the city sent Qwest, Verizon Business and Time
Warner the draft of a proposed master ordinance governing franchise agreements.
Since then there have been good-faith negotiations with Time Warner, but not
with Qwest or Verizon Business, Fudge said.<br>
"If we reach a fair and reasonable agreement with Time
Warner, and pass that ordinance, the next step would be to take Qwest to
court," Fudge said.<br>
She said she couldn<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t
tell when the Time Warner agreement would be reached.<br>
William Fulginiti, executive director of the New Mexico
Municipal League, said companies have developed a number of new products and
services in the last several years. Qwest may not want to renegotiate its
franchise agreements because it doesn<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t
want to give municipalities the chance to add the revenue from its new services
to its payments, he said.<br>
Goodwin agreed that he objects to Qwest<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s having to pay a percentage of its gross receipts
for a franchise. He said federal law requires that the city collect a franchise
fee based on the city<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s cost of
administering its right of way. But he denied this was the reason for not
negotiating with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:State></st1:place>
cities.<br>
Where Qwest and the cities have failed to begin negotiating
new franchise agreements, "sometimes it<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
just inertia and both parties agreeing that it operates to the mutual benefit
of both," he said.<br>
In fact, city officials in <st1:City w:st="on">Clovis</st1:City>,
<st1:City w:st="on">Farmington</st1:City>, Grants and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Las Cruces</st1:City></st1:place>, all of which are on the Municipal
League<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s list, said that even though
their franchises with Qwest have expired, they continue to receive franchise
fee payments, based on those agreements, from Qwest and currently are satisfied
with that arrangement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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