Krause’s son, finding he had no change, had used a Santa Paula pay phone a “mile from our house and it cost $13; he wasn’t aware of the charge he was incurring by calling collect.”“How long did he talk?” teased Councilman John Procter.“Less than three minutes,” said Krause.“I think this is a long time coming,” Cook said of the city ordinance. “I agree that we need to have pay phones but we don’t need those that a guy can drive up and use without even getting out of the car,” an allusion to those pay phones hugging the curb.The ordinance applies to any telephone booth, mounted telephone or other publicly accessible pay telephone not enclosed within the interior of a building whether public or private.“I want to thank former Mayor Don Johnson for bringing this matter to my attention,” said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.Johnson had been concerned about the pay phone abuses in the city for years, Bobkiewicz added.Berger will add language to the ordinance to require rate posting.
City Council hangs up on public pay phones with tough ordinance
April 21, 2004
Santa Paula City Council
The City Council decided to hang up on unauthorized public pay phones in the city’s right of way and impose new rules for private installation of same.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe City Council decided to hang up on unauthorized public pay phones in the city’s right of way and impose new rules for private installation of same.The council discussed the issue at the April 5 meeting.According to Public Works Director/City Engineer Cliff Finley, the new guidelines “prevents people from installing pay phones all over the place; they need to be permitted,” and locations approved by the city, after staff found that a number phones had been installed on public and private property.City Attorney Karl Berger said the ordinance applies to both public and private property. “In the public right of way, the city can actually collect rent in addition to imposing some stricter requirements. For private property,” the installation of a pay phone would require the review of Police Chief Bob Gonzales to ensure does not facilitate criminal activity.In addition, pay phones would have to bonded by the city and the city could disconnect pay phone permits if the ordinance is violated.Vice Mayor Mary Ann Krause that now telecommunication companies have been deregulated it has opened the door to “exorbitant rates. . .do we have any ability to regulate the pay phones or require clear posting of what the cost of calls are?”Local rate regulation is limited by federal law said Berger, but rate disclosure will be investigated.
