2018-01-11 Letter to Mary Alice Evans re Feedback on "small cell" application process bill"

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Mary Alice Evans January 10, 2018 Page 2 If a telecommunications company does its due diligence as to legal requirements and proposes an acceptable location for its equipment, then the County will work with that company on a site-specific agreement to allow the company to install and use its equipment in that location. The County fundamentally opposes the present premise for this Bill and desires to maintain its control over public property placed under its jurisdiction in order to directly manage requests from potential vendors to use public property. It is important that the County retains the right to approve or deny these requests on a case-by-case basis to include analyzing pole or structural capacities and loads and any plans the County may have to use the infrastructure. The Bill presently does not provide for requiring studies for wind loading impacts such as flat plate area (ft2) and lateral wind load thrust (lbf), a RF Interference Analysis / Intermodulation Study by an approved radio engineering firm, or a provision for structural analysis to maintain County's standards for structural stability during wind events. In some cases where there are such plans for future use, then the County may require a vendor to cover the market cost of upgrading infrastructure to satisfy the County's present and/or future needs. Furthermore, site-specific license or easement agreements will allow the County to address each request for installation according to that site's capabilities and needs, account for the County's future or planned use of specific infrastructure, allow the County to protect itself from liability due to the "small-cell" equipment's location on public land, provide for fair and equitable maintenance responsibilities, and clarify that the County will not need to compensate companies if it is necessary to change or move the affected infrastructure. The County also has the following additional comments and concerns about the draft Bill: 1. Sites that the County is presently using for public safety and/or emergency communications must be excluded from any version of this Bill due to concerns over access, security, potential interference, and the compelling public health and safety needs to keep those communications systems fully operable. 2. The Bill does not address the fees that the County may assess for the use of public property, which a company could argue allows it to locate equipment on public property for free. The County recalls that similar bills were introduced during the last Legislative Session which allowed for no or a nominal fee, and the County believes that it would violate the public's trust in holding and managing public lands if it accepted less than fair market value for a private company's use of public lands. County of Hawai'i is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer.