HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-05-21 Special Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS
AGENDA
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1981 AT 7 : 00 P.M.
�
DOVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - 1932 DOVE ROAD
'� I. CALL TO ORDER
II . INVOCATION: Councilman Oliver
III. NEW BUSINESS
City Council to conduct a public hearing
relative to quality of service provided
by General Telephone Company of the South-
west.
IV. MISCELLANEOUS REPORTS and/or DISCUSSIONS
V. ADJOURNMENT
,�� IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 6252-17 , V.A.T.C.S. , AS
AMENDED BY CHAPTER 227 , ACTS OF THE 61ST LEGISLATURE,
REGULAR SESSION, THE SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA
''�' WAS PREPARED AND POSTED ON THIS THE 18TH DAY OF MAY,
1981 AT 9 : 00 A.M.
Shirley s ong
City Sec etary
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STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTY OF TARRANT
CITY OF GRAPEVINE
The City Council of the City of Grapevine, Texas met
in Special Session on this the 21st day of May, 1981
,,,� at 7: 00 P.M. , in the auditorium of Dove Elementary
School, 1932 Dove Road, Grapevine, Texas with the
followinq persons present to-wit:
"'�'"' William D. Tate Mayor
Ted R. Ware Mayor Pro Tem
Charles Dunn Council Member
C.L. Oliver Council Member
William Shafer Council Member
Marion Brekken Council Member
Ron Dyer Council Member
constituting a quorum with the following members of the
City Staff:
James L. Hancock City Manager
Bill Eisen Assistant City Manager
John F. Boyle, Jr. City Attorney
Shirley Armstrong City Secretary
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by City Secretary,
Shirley Armstrong.
� INVOCATION
�,_:;
The Invocation was delivered by Councilman Oliver.
PUBLIC HEARING
The purpose of the meeting was for the City Council to
conduct a public hearing relative to the quality of
service provided by General Telephone Company of the
Southwest.
Mayor Tate made a brief introductory statement after
which he introduced Mr. James Spriggs, Division Manager
of General Telephone Company of the Southwest. Mr. Spriggs
then addressed the Council and those in attendance, making
a statement on behalf of the telephone company.
Those in attendance, wishing to make statements were then
introduced by the City Secretary. A copy of said testimony
is attached hereto and made a part hereof as Exhibit "A" .
Following the testimony, Mr. Spriggs made a second brief
statement.
,���A In conclusion, Mayor Tate thanked those in attendance for
their concern evidenced by their presence and for their
courteousness throughout the hearing.
� ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business to come before the Council,
Councilman Dunn made a motion to adjourn. The motion was
05/21/81
seconded by Councilman Oliver and prevailed by the following
vote:
Ayes . Tate, Ware, Oliver, Shafer, Dunn, Brekken, & Dyer
Nays . None
PASSED & APPROVED on this the /G � day of y,,,✓ , �
1981.
APPROVED•
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Mayor
ATTEST:
City Secre y
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EXHIBIT "A" TO THE
MINUTES OF MAY 21, 1981
1 CITY OF GRAPEVINE
A
�. :
2 PUBLIC HEARING
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3 ON
4 GTE LEVEL OF SERVICE
5
s HELD
7 MAY 21 , 1981
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8 7e30 P .M.
� s
DOVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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"` 1932 DOVE LANE
I1
GRAPEVINE , TEXAS
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�� ''�`� APPEARANCES :
t':::-�::.- :�.°�
�;:,��.;� 16
�""`� MR. RON DYER, Place 6
17 MR. MARION BREKKEN, Place 4
MR. LARRY OLIVER, Plac� 2
i8 MR. TED R. WARE , PYiayor Pro-Tem
M� . WILLIAM SHAFER, Place 3
19 MR. CHARLES DUNiV , Place 1
MR. WILLI�I�I D . TATE , Mayor
"'�" MR. JOHN F . BOYLE , JR. , City Attorney
20
MR. JAMES L . HANCOCK , City Manager
21 MS . SHIRLEY ARMSTRONG, City Secretary
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� For the City of
Grapevine;
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� MR. JAbZES SPRIGGS , District Manager
� 2b
For GTE.
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 PURSUANT TO AGREEMENT, the above styled matter
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2 came on for public hearing at 7 : 30 o ' clock P .M . , AZay
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3 21, 1981 , at the Dove Elementary School , 1932 Dove
4 Lane , Grapevine , Texas , and the following proceedings
5 were had:
6 _ _ _
��I 7
8 MS . ARI�ISTRONG: At this time , we will call the
9 meeting io order and ask you to stand for the invoca- �,
j� tion to be delivered by Coun�ilman Larry Oiiver .
�w�
11 MR. OLIVER: (Invocation . )
12 MS . ARMSTRONG: We would lik2 to introduce at
Yg this time our Mayor, the Honorable William D. Tate.
� 14 MR. TATE : Good evening, ladies and gentlemen .
15 On behalf of the Grapevine City Council and the City
16 staff, I welcome you to Dove Elementary and to tnis
17 public hearing.
18 It has been called by our City Government
19 to give our citizens an opportunity to speak and
20 express their sentiments and regards to t:�e 1ev21 of
21 service that ' s being provided by General Telennone
�...
� Company .
23 I would like to express my appreciation
24 to the Grapevine Independent School District for the
2b use of this facility tonight; and also to the r^irst
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
' REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 Baptist Church of Grapevine for the public address
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2 system.
CCouncilman Charles Dunn is our electrician
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4 tonight. He has wires spread all over the stage and
5 �,ae hope that we don ' t continue to disconnect those
6 and to affect our speaker system. But he has done
? a very good job and worked throughout the evening in
8 setting this system up.
�,,; 9 I would like to explain to you very briefly
�
10 the nrocedure this evening . This is your evening .
11 We are not here to debate . I will make a few comments
12 and try to explain that procedure to you.
13 Representatives from General Telephone will
� 14 be given an opportunity to make some opening remarks
15 and then we will start with those who have requested
16 an opportunity to speak .
17 At the door, you were given an opportunity
18 to take a piece of paper that is designed for you to
19 ma}:e written comments , if you ha4fe any . If you have
""�" 2� requested time to speak and you have a lot to say ,
21 we request that you be as brief as possible and to
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� clocument any additional statements that are necessary
23 in writing .
� We ' re not designed to accept questions
� � tonight . V�le know that you may have some questions .
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STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD 8t ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 75201
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If you do have questions , if you will make those
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2 questions known through the written questionnaire that
Cwas given out and turn that in, and we ' ll see that
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the City staff or representatives of General Telep'hone
5 will respond to those questions .
6 The public hearing tonight has been called
I 7 under the authority of State law; and primarily under
$ the contractual arrangement with General Telephone .
9 General Telephone has been the holder of .�.
10 the franchise for telephone service in our community � �
11 for almost ten years . We have had throughout the last
12 few months _an a�,rareness , or at least a concern
13 among some citizens as to the level of service that
� 14 was being provided.
15 Without being suggestive , without making
16 any conclusions, we felt like it was the City ' s
responsibility under the franchise to give the
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opportunity to our citizens to speak for the purpose
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of trying to iden-tify any complaints that we might
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have to evaluate the level of service that is being
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provided. '
21 �, :
22 If we do have some problems , to catalog
those , to evaluate those , and to discuss those with
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the Telephone Company, to try to make assessments
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and to improve and correct those problems .
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STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALtJ1S.TEXAS 75201
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1 We have a system set up to place a limit on
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2 the speakers , as far as time, if that becomes neces-
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\ sary . We don ' t believe that will be necessary; we
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4 just ask you to be concise and as brie� as possible .
5 We do have a Court Reporter here for the purpose of
6 taking down what you say; so we can refer back to
? it at a later date .
8 We ask you to give your name when you speak,
� .: 9 your address and your telephone number . And to make
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10 Your statements . T�ose who have not signed up to
11 speak, if vae have time towards the end of the meeting
12 and you stay with us , and you change your mind and
13 Would like to speak at that time, but have not signed
;
� 14 up, we ' ll try to recognize you and at the end o� the
15 Period of time in which those who have requested to
Z6 speak have spoken.
17 We have about twenty-five people at the
18 present time who have requested an opportunity to
19 speak. I believe that is the initial procedure .
�'"°"' After we have the audience participation , members
20
21 of the City Council will perhaps have some comments
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22 they w�uld like to make before adjournment .
I would like to introduce at this time our
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District Manager for General T21e�hone , Southwest;
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t Mr . James Spriggs .
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STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 t�IR, SPRIGGS : Thank you, Mayor Tate ; Honorable
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2 City Council , Citizens of Grapevine . I am relatively
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3 new in this area ; having spent the last four years
4 as Division Manager for GTF in Stuttgart , Arkansas .
5 However, I ' m aware of the growth potential of the area ,
6 having spent the prior three years in the Irving,
�� � Texas Division .
8 I am here tonight to hear your complaints ,
9 to gather information about your problems , to get �
10 Your suggestions on ways you see ��e might �_mprove ou.
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11 service .
12 I am pleased also tonight that we have
13 many of the GTE employees here , indicating their
� I 14 interest in your problems .
Z5 As a matter of information, we do have
16 more than thirty employees that work here in Grapevine .
17 Many living here . In addition , we hav� approximately
18 twenty other employees that work in other GTE
19 offices that live here, but work elsewnere . They
20 live here because Grapevine is a good community and "�""
21 they are part of this community .
22 We are not trying to be like any other com-
23 pany . We want to be an individual companlT that serves
� you, our individual customer. And it' s for this
reason that I think that you find us primarily in the
2b
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
I REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
' DALLAS.TEXAS 7'5201
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1 growing suburbs of this United States , and in parti-
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2 cular the Sun Belt .
3 Individual problems will occur from time to
4 time that seems like we are not responsive to those
5 needs ; but I assure you, it will be our intent to
g work with the City Council and the T��ayor recognizing
� our responsibility to you to resolve those problems
g in a very timely manner.
,��, 9 We work very hard in the communities we
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10 serve to keep a feel for the problems that we need to
11 be resolving . We also recognize the P�Iayor ' s and
12 City Council ' s interest in our company; since we do
1� provide you, the Citizens of Grapevine , a very vital
14 service .
15 We are , however, aware of our responsi-
16 bilities and our obligations to this City; and we
17 Pledge our support to provide and meet those obliga-
18 tions . But our company is basically people serving
19 People . We are active in this community . �4e support
'''�' 20 its activities with our time, our individual efforts
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21 and our money .
� You will find our employees here active
23 in the Rotary Club, the Kiwanis Club , active in
� churches and active in the Chamber of Commerce . Many
25 may even be your nextdoor neighbor .
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 78201
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1 My point is , we are here tonight as indi-
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2 viduals to solve the problems that you may bring
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3 before this group . Many of our problems are due to
4 growth. Others are due to having the growth and
5 hiring new employees and the problem faced with
g training those employees to do a professional job in
� a very short period of time .
8 In 1976 , GTE served six thousand nine
y hundred twenty-two telephones in the City �� Grape- ,�,,;
10 vine . We had a ten percent rate of_ grow'�h . In 19 79 ,
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11 We experienced a fourteen percent rate of ��rowth and
1z ended the year with ten thousand five hundred sixty-
13 two telephones .
� 14 In 1970 , we had a seventeen percent rate
15 of growth and ended the year with twelve thousand
16 three hundred fourteen telephones . We project we
17 will have twenty-four thousand five hundred telephones
18 in Grapevine in 1985 .
l� Yes , as I said, we have experienced problems
20 from time to time ; not because we wanted to mistreat
21 any individual customer, but primarily due to the
� growth, with tha housing activity, the new streets ,
23 cables cut, things sometimes beyond our control ;
� even though you, the individual customer, may not
2b have realized that.
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
I REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS �
DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
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Z We possibly fall down sometimes in not
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2 communicating with our customers . We are dedicated
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3 to improving that. My office number is listed. You
4 will be getting communications from me , introducing
5 me to the area.
6 Secondly, inviting you to share your pro-
7 blems with me . Mayor Tate and the City staff has
8 given me information since I ' ve baen here and since
� _ 9 this he�ring was called. They, too , are interested
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10 in working with us to solve tha common needs of this
11 community .
12 I mentioned we had added many new employees .
13 �'Zany of them are here tonight, too, because they are
14 interested in providing you good telephone service .
15 We have increased our capital budget to provide for
16 this city ' s growth . Our employees are recQiving
17 extensive training . We have added additional super-
18 visors in this community .
19 Our company is a very large and growing
�"' company . More important, we are part of the second
20
21 largest telephone company in the United States , Gen-
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22 eral Telephone & Electronics . This enables us to
have high technology , exp�rience, made availablz to
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us and also capital needs to serve the communities
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in the Sun Belt. Our GTE employees in Grapevine and
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STANLEY. HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 those that live here and work elsewhere bring more
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2 than eight hundred thousand dollars per year into
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the Grapevine economy , s�?� are a major taxpayer in
4 this community . ��7e have an interest in this community.
5 And we should be a major taxpayer .
6 Our company pays thousands of dollars to
7 support the Grapevine School System. We pay thousands
$ of dollars in property taxes and thousands o� dollars
9 in yearly franchise taxes ; a -�act often o�erlooked �
10 that we are not just a faceless company . But *J�ith
�.:�,
11 the obligations and responsibilities , yes , even the
12 right to pay these taxes , goes an obligation an� that
13 obligation, fellow citizens , is to provide you the
� '' 14 service needed in this community .
15 As your serving telephone company , 4ae want
16 to do just that . And v��ith your input tonight , we
17 `"�ill do just that.
18 In our current rate release , talking about
19 taxes , for example , request , almost half oi that will
20 go for Federal income taxes . '"�
21 Mayor Tate , I will respond as your re�uest
�w:�
22 this evening . It would be helpful to us , as you
mentioned, if wz could get the telephone numbers of
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any particular problem there .
24
2b
I do thank you for letting me speak this
, STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE. LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
�I REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
' DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 evening . We are pleased to be a part of this com-
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2 munity . I ' m proud of our employees that work in this
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� 3 community and we reaffirm our �ledge to work with the
4 City of Grapevine and the citizens to provide the very
5 best communication service possible .
s Thank you.
� MS . ARMSTRONG: The procedure for speaking
8 tonight will be as follows . You will notice that we
� � 9 hav2 a microphone on my right and a microphone to
�
10 my left . I will call two speakers initially . The
11 first one will come to the speaker on my right,
12 please . The �econd one, to the speaker on my left .
13 You will be called on to speak in the order in ;ahich
14 You signed up .
15 I will ask you to do thr�e things , please .
16
Immediately before you begin to speaking, if you will
17 state your name for the record . Secondly, remember
18 to speak into the microphone, so that you may be
19 heard; and thirdly, keep in mind that we do have a
�^ Court Reporter and if you will please speak at a rate
20
�f speed, so that he can properly record all that is
� 21
�2 being said.
Our first speaker tonight will be Carroll
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Atchley . Carroll , if you will please come to the
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microphone on my right. Our second speaker will be
25
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 75201
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1 John Petree . If you, John, will please come to the
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2 speaker on my left . If you will , following Nir.
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3 Atchley ' s comments , if you will give me a moment to
4 introduce the next speaker so that he can come to
5 the microphone on my right .
g If you will , please, state your name ,
7 address and telephone number prior to beginning your
8 speech. Mr . Atchley?
9 MR. ATCHLEY : My name is Carroll Atcr_Iey, and �
10 I 1 ive at 317 E as t Franklin . Te lephone n::.-:;ber 4 81-
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11 3429 .
12 My biggest complaint is , you start to pick
13 up your telephone and you get a dial tone . You
C, '� 14 star�c to dial your number; the time you get your
15 iirst three or four numbers dialed, you get a record-
16 ing . You hang up . Twenty-one seconds , they tell you
j7 you have to wait between calls . You dial your
18 number again; you get a busy signal . Maybe you pick
19 up your telephone the next time and you can ' t get a
20
dial tone . ' "°'�
21 I think we should get the type of service
�,h�
� that we are having to pay for.
23 MS . ARMSTRONG : If Ken Bernhardt will please come
� to the speaker on my right.
2b MR. PETREE : I 'm John Petree, President of
STANLEY,HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 78201
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1 Trans American Telephone Company . We are an inter-
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2 connect telephone company; that means we sell and
Cinstall telephone systems . We also lease telephone
3
4 systems to businesses .
5 We can provide telephones to residential
s users through our new phone store that is coming to
� Grapevine .
8 I will be very brief and straight to the
� 9 point . 6Jhen you purchase a telephone from any source
�.�
10 other than a phone company, you can connect it
11 directly to the telephone company lines provided that
12 you notify the telephone company of the manufacturer,
13 the make, the FCC registration number and the ringer
C 14 equivalency number.
15 You may purchase this equipment from many
18 sources ; interconnect companies such as ours which
17 are listed in the Yellow Pages and from stores .
Now, we can ' t do anything about the telephone company ' s
18
19 lines . We can ' t do anything about their central
� office; but every time a phone is purchased from a
20
sour�.e other than a telephone company, it removes
� 21
revenue from their customers . Lost revenue means
22
it must be made up somewhere else .
23
They cannot go to the �ublic Utility
24
Commission and request a rate hike unless they justify
25
STANLEY. HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 it . And that is the point we wanted to bring up to
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2 you. Thank you.
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� MS . ARMSTRONG: t�iill Robert Downs please come
3
4 to the speaker on my left? Mr . Bernhardt?
5 MR. BERNHARDT : My name is Ken Bernhard� . I
6 live at 421 4�lorth, Apartment 105 , r�y phone number
7 i.s 481-4823 .
8 I 'm relatively new in the Grapevine area .
9 I ' ve been down here for ten months now. T+;hen I first,�
10 moved down here, I went and got a GTE phor�e and I
�t_�
Z1 paicl a forty dollar deposit for it .
12 Six months later, my phone number still
13 Wasn' t listed in directory assistance; and all through
�� ' 14 the six months , I had had bad static problems on the
I5 line, a bad phone .
26 Well , come Decemb�r, I used my phone a lot
17 anc� I had a hign phone bill . So it was seventy to
18 eighty dollars a month . Well , I was noti�'ied that
19 I had six days to get down to the main office here
20 in Grapevine and ante up another hundred and seventy "�
21 dollar deposit on top of my forty; so I could have
�•„�
22 my phone . Well , I did that . And it got me pretty
upset, so the next thing I did was wrote a letter
23
to the Public Utilities Commission .
24
25
I wrote a letter to the Better Business
i STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
' DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 Bureau and I sent one to the General Manager of GTE,
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2 Mr. Spriggs .
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3 Well , I don' t know where the letters wound
4 up first , but I sure qot some good results . I got
5 a new phone; my phone number was immediately listed
g in diractary assistance . My deposit , I 'm out of
7 my money . I guess they can do that; and I don ' t like
8 it a bit, but there ain' t nothing I can do about it.
�, , 9 But I ' ll tell you what, there is a lot of people that
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10 complain about GT� ; if they would do something about
11 it, if they would call in and try to talk to whoever
12 it is at GTE , if they can ' t get any results , write
13 tizat letter to GTE or the Better Business Bureau .
C 14 They did come through for me . They gave GTE thirty
1� days to respond back to them with a written c�mplaint
lg and I was very happy how they did everything .
1� So I urge you, don ' t just complain about
18 it . Do something about it . Thank you .
19 MS . ARMSTRONG : GTill Robert Ardiana please come
""�"'' 20 to the speaker on the right? NIr . Downs?
21 A4R. DOWNS : My name is Robert Downs , 2828
�
� Ridgewood Drive . My phone number is 481-1079 . I ' ve
lived in Grapevine, Texas for approximately one
23
� and one-fourth years . I ' ve lived in several other
; 2s
towns . This is the first community I ' ve ever lived in
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD 8c ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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Z that was served by the General Telephone Corporation .
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2 I ' m a member of the, newly appointed member of the
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3 Citizens ' Advisory Board in the City of Grapevine ,
4 Texas ; and just recently I was charged with my first
5 duty, to poll several people in my immediate neighbor�
� hood concerning tneir complaints about the service
� of G2neral Telephone .
8 I was shocked . I knew I had problems , but
9 when I heard some of these other complain��� , they ran�
�0 ed from just tremendous disgust all the v�-:._;- to humo� ,
�7:�
11 to -just some o_f the wildest things you' ve ever
12 imagined.
�3 I was amazed at some of the comments . To
' 14 keep this on sort of a businesslike or light sid� ,
�5 one felloca sort of compared -- he ' s a new resident,
1S as a matter of fact -- he compared the General Tele-
17 piione Service to two tin cans with a tight string
18 strztched between them; so you ' ll see what we are
19 doing here tonight .
20
I won ' t go into all my specific home pro- "°�""'
blems I ' ve had with my telephone service since the ne�
2I
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� installation fourteen , fifteen months ago . I would
just like to talk about today . I 'm a traveling sales-
23
man . I travel around the nation . And fortunately this
24
week I ' ve been able to travel in the Grapevine area .
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STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD 8c ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
' DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 I stopped at three pay phones today to
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2 make just local calls , you know, like two and three
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� 3 in Lewisville, maybe one in Grapevine, and one near
4 the Airport . You put your coin in the slot and you
� dial a number and nothing happens . You just have to
s keep repeating it and repeating it and repeating it .
? Occasionally, you will hear the other �arty
8 say "Hello" , they will introduce their company that
�.
9 I ' m usually calling companies , and it will disconnect .
Z� So I don ' t know whc�se fault that is on th� end.
�,
11 But in my polling of the local peonl� , I 'm
1� certainly not going to name any names ; I ' ve come
Z� across two employees of General Telephone; very, verY
C14 fine people . Don ' t get me wronq; they are s�a��,er guys .
15 I really enjoy them. I know them personally . They
ls explained to me one of their problems with their,
17 our telephone service in the Grapevine area is , tn.ey
don ' t c�uite have the equipment to handle the touch-
18
19 tone system; and another young man that works for
^""� the General Telephone Equipment Company explained to
20
me , he ' s -- I think you call him a lineman , a fellow
� 21
22 out in the field doing the work himself; and he
explained that they have so much time to make a
23 .
>
splice -- I don ' t really know what a splice is . I
24
guess that ' s where you hook two wires together .
25
STANLEY,HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD 8t ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 75201
.. �
m...�
18
1 They are given "x" amount of time to do
A
2 that and occasionally the splice is bigger or smaller
Cor whatever, and they don ' t get them all done properly .
3
� He blamed that on his management .
5 Now, let ' s not, you know, really pick on
6 these folks too badly . I 'm sure they are trying hard.
� They are in business . They have to turn a profit
8 like most of us do in business . But as the fellow
9 that started this out, he was giving us so-:ie pretty �
10 reasonable numbers about how the growth �•��nt from
�.,..�,
11 six thousand nine hundred twenty telephones maybe up
12 to twenty-four thousand five hundred telephones in
13 a certain period of time . He spoke rather fast and
I! 14 I didn ' t get to write down all the dates . But I
15 Would suggest that maybe they have predicted a growth
16 rate, maybe they could also predict their capital
1? budget rate equivalent to the telephone rate . T�ank
18 You .
19 P�IS . ARMSTRONG : P�Ir. Bob Taylor, will you please
�p come to my speaker on the left? Mr. Ardiana?
' MR. ARDIANA: Than}c you. My name is Robert L.
21
�.:.
� Ardiana. I live at 2958 Oak Forest; my telephone
number is 488-0355 . . I ' m pleased he talked about the
23
capital needs of_ the company, because I take exception
24
to Mr. Spriggs ' s comments that the GTE Corporation
25
STANLEY,HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
I REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
� .r _ ,r., _ ... - .. _
�.�
19
1 out of Connecticut provides funds for the General
A
2 Telephone System of the Southwest.
3 Quite frankly , my research shows just the
4 op�osite is the case . In reality , GTE of the Southw�st
5 is a totally owned subsidiary of the GTE System out
6 of Connecticut, which owns several other operator
7 companies , both in Florida and in Calitornia.
8 In both of those facilities , they have
,,,.
9 suffered some rather severe penalties for failure to
i� provide the service and in reality some oF the revenue
��
Z1 generated from the Grapevine area is fed back to
Z� those companies to pay those fines .
13 Might I sug�est that perhaps if th2 revenue
� �4 generated from the GTE Southwest Corporation were in
fact used totally in this organization, we r:iay rot
15
16 have as severe a telephone problem. Thank you.
MS . ARMSTRONG: Pat Greathouse , please come
17
to the speaker on the right .
I8
t�IR. TAYLOR: Good evening . My name is Bob
19
,� Taylor . I am the Chairman of the Citizens ' Advisory
20
Conmittee .
�, 21
The Citizens ' Advisory Committee is a form
22
of community residents that are appointed by the City
23
Council to represent all geographical subdivisions
24
of tne City in all matters relating to general
2b
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
_ �
�,.,�.
20
1 community interest .
A
2 Presently there are twenty citizens on
\ the Citizens ' Advisory Committee , representing eleven
3
4 districts . The survey has been conducted by the
5 Committee concerninq General Telephone Service ; there-
s fore , the results as I will present them this evening
7 represent the views of a considerable number of our
8 citizens; and we had some eighty responses .
9 The consensus of the survey will be in the �
10 order of descending importance . The numre� one com-
��,:�
11 Plaint was static on the line . Worse in wet or rainy
12 weather . Sometimes it was impossible to hear the
13 other party .
I!, 14 Long distance service is poor, �specially
15 Wlth direct dialing . Often need the operator ' s
1� assistance .
17 After dialing a number, a recording co:nes
18 on, indicating the number is disconnected . Number
�9 is not in service . Often need operator ' s assistance
20 to complete the call . �
21 Must dial several times to complete a call .
;,,:�
� After dialing a number, tnere is no ring . Need
operator ' s assistance . After dialing a number, you
23
get the wrong number . Conversation is often inter-
24
rupted by another caller on your line . Unable to
25
STANLEY. HARRIS, RICE. LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
I REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
� DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
,��_;, _
a
Y�:;::w
21
1 reach a number in bad weather . Delay on repairs
A
2 after a faulty installation .
C
g Difficulty in hearing the party called.
4 D�usic on the line . Missed billing on long distance
5 call or billing confusion in general . Employee
g attitude very poor, especially service. men.
q Trainees doing installation work without
g proper supervision. Problems still not solved after
F g many calls to the phone company or after contacting
�..,
Ip division manager . And last but not least, rates are
11 too high .
12 The general consensus is that General
13 Telephone has very poor service and poor equipment
14 and they are apparently unable to handle service
15 Properly . Thank you.
16 (Applause . )
i? MS . AP.MSTRONG: If ringing begins when you are
18 speaking, if you will bacY. away from the microphone
19 slightly , it may help the situation . Will Jackson
'""�" 20 E . Whisnant please come to the speaker on my left?
21 MR. GREATHOUSE : My name is Pat Greathouse ,
� 11G Eldorado , Southlake; 431-1088 . I ' m sure glad he
23 spoke ahead of ine , because it sure saved me a lot
� of work and everything he said, I can testify to that
25 it has happened at least once and some of th2 things ,
STANLEY.HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD 8c ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
�.;-,�,
22
1 a lot more times . I also would like to give a
a
2 compliment, though, to the phone company . They have
(
� 3 a little girl named Cheryl :, Caldwell that is on
4 maternity leave right now . And i found out her name
5 when I went down to take my phones in, to get them
6 fixed . I asked the little lady that was replacing
7 her, what the name was; when I found out about the
8 meeting I wanted to make sure she did get some praise ,
9 because she is a super sweet person and I think that ,,,�
10 is one reason maybe a lot of people don ' t �omplain .
K..,,a
11 I know when I go down there and am hacked
12 off and mad and she ' s so sweet and polite and gracious ,
2g just kind of get defused . Well , she can ' t do anythir�g
� 14 about it, and blow it off .
15 I know no�a, Grapevine is such a small , --
1g not small anymore, has a phone mart in town . That' s
17 because you are going to be making at least one or
18 two trips a year down there to get your telephone
19 iixed . It ' s automatic . You don ' t think a thing about
zo
it . You go to the dentist once a year, you go into
�
the phone company .
21
,N.,.�,
�2 I have been here five years and I have had
six new telephones ; not because I wanted them. Because
23
I was worried about the color or something wierd like
2r4
that . It ' s because I take it in and they say, °'���ell ,
' 25
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
I REGiSTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
�� ,
�..,�
23
1 we can ' t fix it" , and they give you a new onz . I
A
2 think that ' s a big part of your problem . If they
� would get some quality telephones , whatever it takes ,
3
4 they would save a lot of money in the long run, if
5 they would get a good product to start with .
6 I moved about a month ago and it ° s a long
� story , but it took me two weeks to ever get any phone
8� in; and they made me give up my old one . I was
9 still at the other house , "No, you can ' t have a
� ,
10 telephone; you turn these suckers in . You aren ' t
11 g�ing to have a phone for two weeks " . I tough it
1� out . The man doesn ' t show up when I ' m told he ' s
13 supposed to . Take off work, wait all night . He
14 never shows up .
15 Monday, what' s the deal? "They coul�n ° t
18 find your house" . Can ' t find my house . I told them,
17 �� If you can ` t find a Catfish Hut , if you can ' t find
18 that , I feel sorry for you; because there is signs
19 all along the road" .
� I �inally get my two phones , two weeks
20
later; both the telephones are not working . Not
�, 21
� just oneo but two talenhones are not working; and
have to prance down to the phone company and they
23
mess with them, say, "Here ' s two new phones" ; just
24
ordinary -- that ' s everyday things . You take the two
25
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD$c ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 75201
_ *�
�
���
24
1 phones hom� and then over the Easter holidays , I ' m
A
2 sure you must have had the same problem I did .
3 Operator comes on and says , "I ' m sorry , unless there
4 is an emergency, we cannot complete your call" .
5 And, you know , this is the ordinary type
g thing . You don' t think nothing of it , after a while .
q It' s just normal , that ' s what you come to expect .
g I do want to say I think they do have some
g really good people working for them; beca��se any ,,,�
l0 time I went down there, they really trea��d me good.
�'
li And as far as I had heard, one of the repairmen made
12 the statement that they don ' t bother to fix the pay
13 phones because some of us jerks are just going to
', '
` ' 14 tear them back up again, steal the money, or what-
Zg ever . So they have a bad attitude maybe because
lg they are :=i�O�'��n=�!'1�18:� or whatever .
17 But there are some good people , and I
18 really hope this does some good . Thanks a lot .
19 ��Pplause . )
20 MS . ARNIST20i1G: Sandra Dyer, i.� you will come '""�'"`
21 to the speaker on my right, please . Mr . Whisnant?
��
22 MR. WHISPdANT v P�y name is Jackson Whisnant. I
23 live at 9813 East Continental , Grapevine. My number
24 is 4s31-2847 . And I �ad a couple of questions I was
i 2b goi:�g to ask, but I don ' t think I ' m allowed to ask
�
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE. LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
IREGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
I DALU15.TEXAS 7'5201
�.>�w, _
D
Yl�{'„„a«�
25
1 questions right now; just make comments . I have one
A
2 comment I would like to make . I ' m just recently
�
3 moved from an apartment to a house I ' m buying . And
,� I had telephone service . I was going to have my
5 telephone transferred from the apartment to the ho�zse .
g They gave me a date the telephone would be
7 connected in. E'ine and dandy . Eight days later , I
g still hadn ' t had service yet; due to the fact they
,� � g had to rewire the whole road system, to get my tele-
�
10 Phone service in .
11 And I got charged for that eight days of
�2 service and I don ' t like the idea of having to pay
13 for something that I don' t have . Thank you.
C 14 MS . ARMSTRONG : Tom Wade , if you will pleas�
15 come to my speaker on the left .
lg MS . nYER; ^?y name is Sandra Dyer, and I live
17 at 2845 Creekwood Court West; 488-9150 . I ' m here
�$ for one purpose . I would love tc see my phone service
19 improved.
'"�°' �� Mr . Ta�lo� mentioned many of the thinc�rs
21 that I will be concerne�3 with° and I will try to be
�
22 very brief .
23 Among tne problems we have had with our
� phones over the last three years is , we have many,
� 2b many wrong numbers . Our phones are simply unusable
STANLEY. HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD Et ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 7'5201
. .�,
�; ,.r,
26
1 when it rains or there are high winds . Many times ,
�
2 incoming calls d�an ' t ring at our house . I have had
3 neighbors stand across the street in their window
4 and call me and call me and then walk across the
g street and say, "��Ihat is the matter? Why don ' t you
g answer your phone? "
7 I have had friends and family do the same
g thing . Many, many times . When making outc�oing calls
g on my phones , at least fifty percent of t:iQ time , I ,�.
10 dial the number , thzre is nothing on the �:� �her end.
...�.�
il G�e have an extreme amount of static and interference
12 in our phones . Both local and long distance .
13 And I will estimate that ninety percent
14 of the long distance calls that we receive or we
15 Place at our home must be terminated prematurely or
lg they must be replaced by the operator, and many times
17 the operator has come back on the phone and said,
18 "I ' m sorry, we cannot make that connection" .
19 Several times we havz had people out to
2Q work on our phones and I will comment we have had �'"�`
21 some very, very go�d employees from General Telephone
4:...�
22 to work on our ph�nes . However, sometimes they will
2� leave and say the �hone is fixed. Everything is
24 fine . And you pick un the phone and make a call
2� and it ' s dead. And there is nothing .
' _
STANLEY, HARRIS, RIGE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
pALLAS,TEXAS 7'3201
_ _
�,..� . _ . .
>
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27
1 One General Telephone employee told us
A
2 that when we called because of our �roblems , our
3 service record was so large that obviously we called
4 in, c�uote , "For every little thing" . Therefore , we
5 would need to wait for our service until the people
6 with really important problems were taken care of
7 first .
8 What is our standard practice now when we
r 9 have a problem? [�e call the general mana�er . And
��, 10 most of the time we do get a result frc�m t�.at .
11 Also , unless the phone is totally deade
12 we don ' t even report the problem, anymore . If wa
13 did, we would be reporting problems every single day .
C14 It doesn ' t do a whole lot of good when we do , now,
z5 because when we call , we are told they can ' L fix
18 tilat, any�aay .
1� One example I would like to give; my
gg husband does travel . This is commonplace ; but one
19 nic,nt he called from Denver; could not get through .
�
2p He called the operator in Denver. She could not get
�
21 �hrough . She connecteu with the local operator . She
22 could not get through . It �aas an emergency call . My
2� husband called a friend in Bedford and she drove to
� my house and gave r�e the m�ssage . This is not an
i 25 isolated incident.
�
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 75201
�
�..�.�
28
1 If my family or my friends need to reach
A
2 us in an emergency, they have another network that
3 they use . They call this friend, this neighbor, until
4 eventually someone will answer the phone .
g On occasion, in dealing �ith some of the
g people at the Phone Mart , I will have to be very
7 frank, they not o;�ly have been unpleasant , but they
' g have been rude . Most of the time the repair person ,
g he will have been courteous and tried to ii�lp . How- ,,,,�
10 ever, one time we had a repairman come tc `he house .
��
11 �"�e have an extension phone, also . He walked in where
12 the phone was and said, "Our records sho�,* that you
13 should not have this phone; therefore , I ' m taking it
� ' l,� out of your house . I will report you to the phone
15 company, to the police" , at which point my hus�and
16 came in, got very upset and they had a nice yellinq
17 match and he was asked to leave, and my children were
18 crying .
19 This was one of the scenes we had. By the
20
��ay, we called the business office, the district �`'
21 manager. GVe were paying for every service that we
��.��
22 were shown to be paying for . According to the Grape-
�3 vine Sun today, complaint forms are supplied to
24 customers with their new phones . This must be a
�5 very new practice . l��y husband, after a particularly
STANLEY. HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD 8c ASSOCIATES
iREGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
��
a
�
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1 nasty setto with the phone company , was so put out
A
2 he went down to the Phone Mart and he demanded the
�
3 name of the division manager.
4 After a very big scene and refusals to
5 give the name out , they presented him with a stack
g of complaint forms . They said, "Here is the name,
7 but write it instead; please do not call'° .
g I have lived for seven years in a neighboring
,�,,, g community and I did not once make a call for re?�air
��
l0 service on my phone . This is no longer a joke to
I1 me or to my family or to my friends ; but it ' s a very
12 serious inconvenience . It ' s my opinion our telephone
13 service is seriously inadequate . Thank you.
C 14 P�S . ARD4STRONG: Vincent Del�laggio , please corne
1� to the speaker on my right , l�Zr . t�lade?
1S MR. WADE: My name is Tom G7ade , 606 Church
17 Street; 488-7187 . My complaints probably are
IS repetitious , about what everybody else has said.
19 I have made calls before , outgoing calls where you
''�"`" constantly hear people talking on the lines , and
20
21 ot��er conversations ; and several times , it ° s been so
�
� lou� that you cannot hear youl own conversations ,
2� and you had to hang up and have those people call you
�4 back .
25 On the return calls , you don ' t seem to have
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
_ .�
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30
1 the problem and the other comPlaint we get quite a
�
2 bit is when you call, you spend all the time dialing
3 a number at work or using a touch-tone at home and
4 dialing a number, just to get nothing . You don ° t
5 get a dial tone , you don " t get a busy signal . I
g don ° t get a record; no music, anything .
7 Also, I would like to comment , within the
g last week to week and a half since it ' s been made
g public that this meeting would be around , Lhat I ' ve �
lp noticed a lot of activity witli GTE truck� around
�..s�
li Grapevin� , many more than usual , fixing ��rvice
1� lines . Thank you .
13 MS . ARP�ISTRONG; P�1s . P . A . Quinn , il you wiil
14 come to the speaker on my left , please .
15 MR. Deh7AGGI0 : r�y name is Vincent De�>�aggio ,
lg 2007 Sequoia; pl�one number 481-5669 . I moved to
17 Grapevine in 1979 . At that time , we needea to nave
18 three telephone cables installed from the house to
�g the -"erminal box in the back . Each time there was
2� sornething wrong with the cable or so the repairman '"�'"'
21 claimed.
�.��
22 At times the phone vaill just not worka
23 pick it up and there is nothing there , and it ' s
�4 random. Niay last for hours or minutes . I ' ve had
25 people claim that Lhey called me and received a busy
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE. LANGFORD 8c ASSOCIATES
, REGiSTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
I, DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
�
�
31
1 signal or received a ringing and at the time I was
A
(.
2 able to pinpoint with those people , I knew I was at
3 home or someone was at home and nothing happened in
4 the house at all .
5 For one period of two weeks , we could dial
6 out but we couldn ' t receive incoming calls . i-�e
7 didn ' t know that until the police came to our house ,
8 because they were called by relatives of mine in
� ; 9 New York to find out what the heck had happened to
�w 10 us .
1� When we dial out, it is normal practice ,
12 you dial out at least twice , sometimes three or four
�3 times to make yoar connection . The first time it
14 never works . The second time, maybe if you are lucky ;
15 if you have been good that day . Before I moved to
16 Grapevineo I lived in the City of Iieller �or seven
17 years . We were also, quote, "served by GTE" ; and we
18 had the same pr�blems when I first moved there, until
19 the day I left . Thank you.
,,,�..�,
20 l�iS . ARMSTRONG : Earl Schlabs , please come to
� 21 the �peaker on the right.
22 MS . QUINN : I am Delores Quinn ; 1090 East Street ;
23 � 81-1876 . I want to than�c the City Council . I like
�4 tne life in Grapevine anc� I th.ink it ' s great, you
� 2� give us the opportunity to do these things . I ' ve been
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALUIS.TEXAS 75201
�
�
32
1 here twenty-six years and I would like to mention ,
r,
2 when we first moved to Southlake , .we had a ten party
3 line and the service was great . Now, my complaints
4 have been covered pretty carefully, but there are
g three things I would like to mention.
g The iact that people dial me and it rings
� and ring� and rings and I don ' t answer . The second
8 thing is that I get the recording two or three times ,
9 "This number has been disconnected" , and -- numbers ,,,�
10 �hat have been in operation thirty years , in Dallas . ,
�:.�
11 � great deal of the time lately when I have an
32 important call to make , the phone is dead, and d�ad
13 for two or tr�ree hours .
� II 14 I t'_�ink this is sufficient . Evzrything
15 else has been covered. Thank you.
IS MS . ARt�ISTRONG: Ricky Robinson, come to the
17 speaker on my left, p�ease .
18 MR. SCHLABS : My name is Earl Schlabs . I live
19 at 2332 Niesa Vzrde Drive . Number is 481-6318 ,
20 and I think it ° s useless for me to tell you my "�
21 problems , because you have heard them all at least
�..:;�
� a half dozen times .
23 The only one problem I would like to comment
24 on; I ' ve been here for about zight months and all
2s :;1y relatives are from out of town, and the bad phone
STANLEY, HARRIS. RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
I REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
II DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
�:� . . ..
�
33
1 system cost me an emergency call one time , also . So
A
2 we are forced to just use my office in Dallas to
�
3 make all of our personal calls ; and the only one
4 feature that I would like to see, I would like to see
5 -- GTE ment-ion all these thousands of dollars tney
s are putting into tlzz community of Grapevine , I
7 would like to see where all the thousands of
8 dollars for this ridiculous service we are getting is
� ,
g going to .
w�;Y�
10 MS . ARP�lS�i"'RONG: 8arbara ��ahorton , please com� to
11 tne speaker on my right .
12 MR. ROBINSONa My name is Ricky Robinsor_ . I
13 moved here the first of March, and we put in and
C 14 applied for a phone the first day of March ; and they
15 s aid, "Okay, it will be four, five days be-`ore �re
16 can install it for you"° . Tnat ` s fine . PZo big deal .
17 �Ve waited for five or six days and no one showed.
1$ And finally , sevpnth or eighth day, someone �inally
19 did show. They said, "Your phone is fixed. Go
�' 2� ri ght ahe ad" .
21 I 'm a member of a bass club, and I ' ve got
�
� lots of people , we talk to . I ° ve got to talk to these
23 people because of a fishing town .
� Come on. From that day on , two we.eks my
i
�� number never worked. I talked to the supervisor and
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
�
��.
34
1 pleaded with her and asked her if everything in
�
2 the book reasonable could be done; and she said, "I 'm
/
3 sorry, sir; all I can tell you is that our service,
4 your service will be restored by no later than 10 : 00
5 o ' cl.ack -- " , the next night . Fine . Okay . I go
g home .
7 Next day, no phone . I call members in
g the bass club . What are we doing to do , where are we
g going to fish? I ' m calling from work, t�is time . „�
10 I ' 11 get back with you T�hen we can find o:� t . "
�.,�
11 Next day, I go to Phone Mart ; supervisor,
12 again . Same thing . This happened four days in a
13 row. Finally after the second, second and a hal �
', 14 week, my service was going fine . So I called ev�ry-
15 body and everything is peachy ,
lg Well , about two weeks later, the phon�
1T goes out again . This time , it was out for a week .
18 And here I go storming back to the phone service
19 and they give me , " I can ' t do anything; you' ll have
20 to call the supervisor" . '�'"'
21 We go through the round about, "No later
�.��
22 than 10 : 0� o ' clock the next night" . By 10 : �0 o ' clock ,
23 the place is closed . You can ' t get �hold of anyone .
� Yo�a have to wait until the next day, and have to rusn
; 25 to the phone center and call before closing .
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, UINGFORD &ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
�, DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
��,
� 35
1 Here it is two more weeks after that, my
A
2 phone went out again . You just can ' t do anything
;
� about it. You have to wait until your service
3
4 comes in and hope that it comes in within the next
5 two, three days .
6 Since I ' ve had it fixed that last time , off
7 and on, a day or two at a time , the phone would go o��zt
8 and no reason whatsoever .
��
9 Next time you pick it up , it would be going .
�� You' d be talking to someona and (snap fingers ) he
�
11 cut you off . What ' s the deal? What do I do? Nothing;
12 7ust the phone out here.
1� Well , this has qone on off and on like I say ,
14 ior -- the last time it went out for a week was like
25 four weeks ago, five weeks ago; and I ' ve been real
16 lucky, the last five weeks . It just went out day
17 before yesterday, but it came back today . Thank you.
1$ MS . ARNISTRONG: Dr . Lancaster, if you will come
19 to the speaker on my left , please .
� MS . WHO�=��ON ; First of all , my name is Barbara
20
21 Udhorton . Address , 2116 Westbrook . P�Iy phone number
�
22 is 4g1-5001 .
First of all , I would like to preface my
23
comments by saying I have had very good response with
24
the people that I ' ve had to deal with at . General .
' 25
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1 Anytime you go to them, they have been very responsive .
A
2 I ' ve heard a lot of comments tonight as far as , "Our
(
g te.lephone doesn ' t work so we take it in and trade it" .
4 My feelings on the matter is , the problems are no� in
5 the telephone itself, which a lot of people think
g they are . The problems are in the equipment. They
7 are in the central office. They are in the type
g of equipment they have and the response to the major
g problems . ,,,�
�p We have had repairrien out several times .
,.x�
Z1 It ' s not going to do any good to have repairmen come
12 to your house and look at your phone , when the problem
13 is in the central office and cable system.
I! 14 The question is , with the PUC and rat2
15 increases that we get from the tariff_s they allow,
lg when are we qoing to allow them to upgrade tne
l� advanced sv�itcizing equipment and get the service we
18 want .
19 One comment I would like to make . The
2� man that spoke secona said they were selling t2lephon�
21 sets . This may or may not be the case , but I b�liev2
�•.�
22 that when you buy that, that doesn' t help our
23 telephone service here in Gra�evine . I think we need
� to go ahead and support the company, becausz this
25 �kims off the cream at the top , and t:�e revenue they
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1 receive from that, perhaps they can put into capital
A
2 investment .
r
, 3 And I know that operating with phone
4 service is a high capital invastment venture . They
5 don ' t get as much revenue off of it; howev�r, I feel
g tha� that is the major problem and that we wo�ald
q like the response from the telephone companyo when
g their major equipment will be upgraded from those
� . g levels .
� ..,
10 I ' ve nad the very same type problems that
11 have been mentioned all along . Lost service . I ' m
1� on the road some; I ' ve had the same thing, tryi:�g to
13 call my husband. I know he ' s there . We ' ll go through
C, 24 four operators before we get through . And this is
15 not an unusual problem.
16 Every single thing that has been m�ntioned
17 tonight, we ' ve experienced; and you get to the point
18 where you say , "Well , that ' s the way it is . Just
ly learn to accept it" . But I don ' t think that ' s the
"'�"' way it is .
20
�1 We need to support our telephone company ,
�
�2 but by the same token , we need to find out when they
�3 can do something with this . Thank you .
� (Applause . )
+ 2b MS . ARMSTROrdG: ��ill Sus an Chaves , C-h-a-v-e-s ,
,\
STANLEY. HARRIS, RICE,LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
DALLAS.TEXAS 73201
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3 �
1 please come to the speaker on my right? Forgive
A
2 me if I mispronounce your name .
3 DR. LANCASTER: I would like to know if it ' s
4 possible that sor:i.e of your phone lines are set up
5 with wa� and when it rains , the string gets wet and
g that ' s what causes it to crackle and pop? That ' s
, 7 one explanation I ' ve heard. But the Grapevine
g Memorial Hos�ital , which I represent here , is a
g hospital with emergency services ; and it r�qair�s ,,,�,,,
10 telephone accessibility at all times ; both incoming ,
�
11 and outgoing .
12 We have found with General this is not
, 13 always the case . An estimated forty percent of our
�i j�
, 14 outgoing calls experience some type of problem. We
15 have two operators that work the switchboard . Of
lg these calls , approximately twenty percent reach a
17 recording and have to be redialed. Approximately
18 iifteen percent give no response . Approximately
19 five percent have miscellaneous problems such as re-
20
verting to a dial tone , giving a rapid busy signal �
21 or reaching a wrong number.
�.a„�
22 Inclement weather seems to increase these
23 percentages that I ' ve just given you.
2� The hospital averages about five hundred
25 incoming calls a day ; and although we have no way of
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1 obtaining a percentage , there are frequent complaints
A
2 from callers saying they had trouble reachina the
3 hospital ,
4 In many instances , these calls have had to
g be operator-assisted. These figures were obtained
g from calls coming through the switchboard and did
7 not include other direct dial calls from within the
8 hospital .
�,,.,,, g We do have that capability . We can dial
�:�
10 out from within the hospital and don ' t have to go
11 through the operator . These are just the ones �hat
12 the operator got and picked up.
13 In view of the complaints outlined ab�ve ,
� the feelin is the tele iione service y
14 g P provided b
15 GTu is inadequate . Thank you.
�g MS . ARMSTRONG: Taill the record reflect please
17 that the comments just given we-re spoken by Dr . E .
18 L . Lanc�ster of Grapevine Memorial Hospital , I6�0
�� Tr7est Col lege .
�° t�lill Gary J . Smith please come forward to
20
21 the speaker on my right, and Dr . Don Gerschick, to the
�
� speaker on my left .
23 MR. SMITH: P�y name is Gary Smith. I live at
2� 2941 Brooksn.ire in Grapevine. I also have a business
25 in Grapevine . I have a total of eight lines ; so if
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DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
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Z you think you all have got problems . The unfortunate
�
2 part , and I would like to speak from a business af --
�
3 going thr�ugh all the same residential part problems
4 that you all have had; but from a business communiLy,
5 it ' s almost deplorable . Trying to conduct business
s t�rough the General Telephone System.
7 The fact is , a few months ago , I complained
8 to the Utility Department of the State of Texas . They
9 repaired my equipment and sent back a comr;ent to the
�
10 Texas Utility Commission that the equipm�.::�� had been ,
�.;�'
11 repaired.
12 The equipment is no different today than it
13 was prior to repair . The misdialing in tne office
'� �� 14 Was blamed on, "Well , you can ' t dial the phone
15 ri�h�'; so I pay seven fifty a month for a machine
16 that automatically dials the number , and the machine
17 can ' t do it right , either .
1$ One thing that disturbed me the other day in
19 reading one of the Grapevine papers was a coinment
2� tnat '�ell couldn' t do any better" . Let me assure '"'�"
21 you, they sure couldn ' t do any worse . They talk abou
��
22 rate increases and one of the areas I happen to he
23 familiar with is a development called The GVoods ,
24 which we contacted all the utilities prior to the
2b streets being put in, in the second phase .
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� ' DALLAS,TEXAS 73201
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� Z Other utilities responded so they did not
A
2 have to drill underneath the streets . The telephone
C
g company said they would just as soon bear tne other
� costs , so they wait for the whole subdivision to be
g done , and then they have to come in and tear up all
g your survey stakes , drill underneath the strzets ,
7 and then they wonder why they don ' t have enough
g revenues when they are spending it when it ' s unneces-
,� , g sary .
� �
l0 (Applause . )
11 r�S . ARMSTRONG: Gil Traverse , please come to the
12 speaker on my right .
13 D:�. GERSCHICK: My name is Don Gerschick . I
� 14 live at 3404 Lakeridge . 481-1656 . First, I would
l� like to commend D4r . Spriggs , who is new in tne area
lg here with General Telephone Company ; and I thought
1� the things he said were very nice and he has the
18 right attitude and would like to correct some of the
19 Problems that exist here .
`�' 2� However, I ' ve lived here for twenty years
21 ar.d I ' ve been active in civic activities and worked
�
22 wit�z the telephone company in the past. And I would
23 like to say that we ' ve had new people come here in
� the past and they ' ve said these very same things
, �5 and we ' ve had promises , promises , promises ; nothing
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
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DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 has improved . I am here tonight because of the fact,
�
2 two weeks ago, while trying to use my telephone
�
t
3 at the office, I became so frustrated. I know there
4 is no way in the u�orld we can have a differ2nt
5 telephone company here. I don ° t know everything about
g the rules and regulations regarding that, but I don ' t
7 think we can have a different telephone com�any, but
' g I became so frustrated, I called the Mayor ' s office
g and I said, "Is there something we can do about the ,�
10 telephone company here , because I ' m sper�cillg too
�;.�
11 much time or, the telephone in my office , tyying to
12 make it work; and I 'm having people tell me they try
I3 to call me and my line is busy all the time" .
� i
� !, 1� I think Bob Taylor stated very beautirully
15 While ago a lot of the things that are happening
lg here; and I can repeat those things . we all can.
17 V7e dial ; there is no ring . The dial tone doesn ' t
18 go away after you ring . Static on the line . �is-
19 connects while you are on hold; waiting for someone
2� to pick up the phone on the other end.
�
21 And also , this recording that s ays , "The
N.-:tiY
� nunber you have reached is not in service at this
23 time . Please consult your directory" . Or, you know,
� they are going to fix it soon. And lo and behold,
� �s you dial it again and they ' ve got it fixed. Just like
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1 that .
a
2 It ' s really unbelievable how fast they can
3 get those things fixed. If you were an obscene
,� phone caller, I would leave Grapevine .
5 (Applause . �
g Number one , it ' s too much troubl� to get
7 the call through; and number two, how are you going
g to scare a record? I ' m curious to know hocv many
� . g people in �his room are here tonight to commend
���
Y� General Telephone Co:npany for the service tnat they ' ve
11 �Jive_z us in the last ten years , hold up your hands ,
i2 please? "Commend" m�ans to congratulate , tell them
13 they did a good job. How many are here because they
Iq� are unhappy with the servic� they ' ve had within the
15 last ten year�?
16 I rest my case .
17 MS . ARAgSTRONG: Art Maurer , come to the speaker
1� on rny left -- no comments? Ralph Verran , please come
19 to the speaker on my left .
""�' 20 A1R. TRAVERSE : My name is Gil Traverse , Traverse
�1 Int�riors , 414 South Main. 481-2666 . We ' ve lived in
�
� Grapevine about five years and in our residence
23 phone , have experienced similar problems tn.at have
� been discussed tonight.
; 26 In November of this last year, we opened a
�-
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1 retail store on Main Street and as any new businesses
�
2 first open, it ' s very important that you spend a good
�
3 deal of money on advertising and promote your new
4 location and new business , �hatever the case micrht bz .
5 [ahich we did, and we continuously had problems with
g our phone system.
q We had ads in the newspaper and the welcome
g wagon knocking on doors for us and all kinds of
g promotions , and the ty�es of problems we ':ad with ,�
10 our business was not just not being able ;�� get ou+�
�.���
11 or busy signals ; but our phone would be co�pletely
12 dea3 for one and two days at a time .
13 We estimate that we have been totally with�
� I, �4 out service at least twelve times since November;
lg twelve days . We did not keep track of that until
lg last month and in the last forty-five dayso our phone
17 has been completely dead for at least a day at a
18 time, five different occasions ; and from a business
19 Standpoint, it ' s especially frustrating to try to
20 do well in a community with a business and not be
21 able to use the phone; and our type of business , ;
r,.�
� the phone is where we make all of our contacts with
� our customers , or customers make contacts with us ,
� for appointments for draperies; and we are not pleased
2b with the service at all . Thank you.
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD &ASSOCIATES
REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTERS
I DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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Z NIS . ARMSTRONG: Andi Lahovin, come to the
A
2 speaker on my right, please . No comment? Sharron
�
g Spencer, come to the speaker on my right, please .
4 MR. VERRAN : My name is Ralph Verran , 1243
5 DZulholland Drive; 481-3776 . I just want to make a
g briez comment about paying ior service that you dan ' t
7 have .
g The policy of the GTE is that they ' ll dis-
,� g count days that you have to pay for dead days '
�:, �,
I4 service , if your phone is completely out for a full
11 twen�y-four hours . And I experienced here several
12 months ago, my phone went out six or eight hours a
13 day every day from anywhere from ten, eleven o ' clock
l. 24 at night and later, on in the night, it came back .
15 I don ' t believe every time you are completely
lg out of service or incoming calls or outgoing cails
17 for a minimum of two or three hours , we ought to be
18 able to discount that. Any time we don ' t have any
19 telephone service , I don ' t think we ought to pay for
�,�
20 iL . Their policy , where you have to be out completely
�
21 for �wenty-four hours , I don ' t think that ' s right .
22 And that is the only comment I would like to make on
23 thaL .
� A4S . ARMSTRONG: Andrew Ouinn , come to the speaker
�
25 on my left, pleasz .
STANLEY, HARRIS, RICE, LANGFORD&ASSOCIATES
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1 MS . SPENCER: My name is Sharron Spencer`
A
2 101 DZanor t9ay; 481-3469 . I ' m going to sound like a
� 3 broken record. I can see that already .
4 We ' ve had a lot of problems like most other
5 people here tonight . inTe can ° t get a dial tone . [��e
g dial a nunber, it will not ring . I call my neig�zbor
7 across the street and reach someone in Azle , four times
$ in a day. She was a very patient lady . T�Te receive
g calls , the phone ap�ears to be dead, but the other „�
10 P��Ple can hear us speaking . �^7e can ' t hear them.
�...,�
11 LVe have also had to call the operator as
32 many as four times per day , to get her to dial a
13 number for us ; and firially last January , I couldn ' t
', 14 even get her . Seems her number was no longer in
15 service .
lg At that point, I realized what a security
l� blan;�et the telephone is to us , or it shouid be .
18 Had I needed to call the fire department or police ,
19 I could not reach them. I could not reaciz anyone .
20 The dial tone was �nere , but no matter what�
21 I dialed, nothing happened . Ai-ter six years of
�,�
22 calling repair service and reporting this and calling
23 the operator for assistance, I finally got mad and
� talked it over with r:i_y husband and decided to write
�5 a letter to the Public Utilities Commission , to
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DALLAS,TEXAS 75201
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1 express our opinions about General Telephone . The
A
2 PUC , in turn, wrote a letter to General Telephone
i�
� 3 instructing them to repair my phone and report back
4 to them in thirty days .
5 So for tn_e first time in six years , �a� had
g a repairman knock on our door . The point here I want
� U ;?lakz is , it took a letter to the PUC to get a re-
8 pairman. He had a form with him, documenting the
�, . 9 ti:nes I called them. I-t was completely fillea on
�,:�,
10 �ne �ront and hal :E the back; but I had nev�r nad
11 anyone ring my doorbell . Never had anyone call to
12 say , "Hey , are you still having problems : " , a�ver
13 reporting it .
C 14 This is the firs � contact I had had in s ix
15 Years . I talked to Mr . Alford at General Telephone ,
16 who explained to me they had been using revenues for
1? expansion rather than equipment maintenance and re-
18 pair over the past years ; thus the need for more rate
19 increases .
"""�"` In the Banner today a Ms . Morton also
20
21 stat�d the_y are asking for rate increases to improve
�
� their service . Their rate increases which come from
23 our pockets have gone to pay stockholders their
� guaranteed profits on their investments ; somet:ning
25 tlzat we are not guaranteed. It has not gone to
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1 improve our service or maintain it where it was . Most
�
2 service has not improved since we moved here six years
�
3 ago; but my phone bill fi.as certainly increased several
4 times .
5 Ms . Morton also stated in the Banner ,
6 General Telephone was not notified of the projected
7 growth in this area by the Chamber of Commerce , and
, 8 I am quoting now ;
9
'►r��ilur. e to f�re��arn utili�ia� ,_;�� �he �.
io P.r�;,'��ted �ro-�Tth h�s c�us�d s oma problem�:; , " �,�
Z1 It ' s not the resnonsibility oL ��Ze Chamber
12 of Commerce to call all the utilities and tell tnem
1.3 hoW �any psn�l� we are going to have fifteen years
� ', 14 fror.i now; rather it is the responsibility of the
15 utili�ies companies to obtain this informatior. .
lg The City of Grapevine spent several
17 thousands of dollars on a master plan some years ago .
�8 That entire report ancx t?�e population projections
19 �aere a matter of public record for anyone who wished
20 to see them. """'""
21 Fortunately, it projected growth far largerti �
22 than we have experienced. She also stated, if Bell
23 ielephone came into an area such as this , they would
� likely have the same kinds of problems . If Be11
�5 Telephone had served our franchise ten years ago , we
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1 probably would not be here tonight. Certainly ,
A
2 problems would havz occurred along the way , but I
r
3 seriously doubt ten years later, they would have the
4 magnitude of problems that General Telephone ha� now .
g And I also doubt that I would have had to write the
g PUC , to get their repairman to come to my home .
7 If the Council decides to extend General
8 Telephone ` s franchise , I would respectfully request
� _ 9 that you consider the possibility of awarding the
�: w
10 franchise on a year-to-year basis , rather than
11 extending it for the entire ten years .
12 General Telephone is going to be doing
13 everything possible in the next few weeks to satisfy
Z� our citizens . If General Telephone has the s�curity
15 °f ;cnowing they will be nere for another ten years ,
16 past experience tells us their se�vice will deteriorate ,
17 no matter how good it will be in the next few weeks .
18 Thank you . -
19 MS . ARMSTRONG: Jerry Pittman, will you c�me to
"'"�" the speaker on my riqht?
20
21 MR. QUINN : Andrew Quinn, 1315 Pine ; 481-1000 .
�
� Two points recently have been made . One of tn�m`
23 they are working on a cost plus operation ; which
�4 indicates to me that a cost plus business should be
25 a quality business .
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1 The other thing is surely in a country
A
2 where it ' s predicated on free enterprise, we have
C �
g the option to get them out of town, if we want to do
4 so .
5 And I would request that the Council
g seriously consider that option . Thank you.
7 MS . ARMSTRONG: Loais Olaani , come to t�� speaker
' g on my left, ple ase .
g MR. PITTMAN: I am Jerry Pittman. i�Iy telephone ,,�
lp nu:nber is 481-1888 . I live at 346 Pebble'�:rook .
��
11 Don ' t try to call me . Based on what I hear tonight,
12 you' ll have trouble reaching me . I ' ve never receive�
13 an obscene pnone call . I don ' t know whether it ' s
' 14 because of the telephone systern or what . I have six
' 25 rOt����_n� lines in my business , located on rlain
lg Street ; and when we moved from 1340 South I�iain to 1000
17 �`3ain, I was told I had to change my telephone number,
18 because the phone company could not give �e rotating
19 sequential lines .
2� Well , that caused quite a bit of consterna-�
21 tio� ; meaning that we had to c�ange station�ry . We
�..:��
� had to change all of our advertising; and what have
23 You .
� General Telephone told me that it was be-
25 cause of the manual switching station they had 'nere in
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1 Grapevine and somewhere down the line they would
A
2 change this . However, I was told Bell System has
C �
3 not got thi.s problem at all , that they can rotate a
4 number like 481-15�5 to 481-3706 �aithout having to
5 change the number. That disappointed me , but we
g changed tine numb�r.
� I find also, to digress a little bit,
g being an accountant, that I am -- I run an adding
,, , g machine and run it very fast , but find out I be-cter
,�. .
�p not run the telephone company as fast, p�nching
11 numbers , because I won ' t get my line througn . This
12 is a phone tip to everybody here , that if you will
13 dial a little slower, it will go through a little bit
l_ �.� easier .
I� On i�Iain Street, where our building is , on
lg the west sicle of P�Iain Street, South Main, tnere is an
lq overhead utility. It ' s out in front, front of alZ
I$ the buildings on South Main, going a11 the way doa�vn
19 to ihe First National Bank of Grapevine .
"�'° 20 We have �- those of us that have businesses
�1 out there have been promised by the phone comnary
� since 1971 that overhead utility would be buried.
�3 If you will vlease note when you are driving down
24 Main Street, there i� also a utility behind the
; �b buildings . That ' s where the other utilities , Texas
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1 Power & Light lines are; but our phone company has
A
2 their lines out front . I was told in 1969 , 1979 ,
�
3 excuse me , that that is still on the front burner .
4 However, it ' s been put back on slow heat, because
5 they ran out o� budgeted money . I corresponded with
g tne phon� company . I ' ve copied all my lett�rs
� to �he City P-Zanager, Jarnes Hancock . Contacted the
g Public Utilities Commission, and have been told it ' s
g still now back on the front burner; and t?:�y will �„
10 �ury that utility line some time in Octobc-r .
11 I am beginning to '�2 a doubting Thornas .
12 Very unsightly utility lines in front of the buildings .
' , 13 I think the line could either be buried
�� ', 14 or put on the back . I was also informed that, to move
15 a guy wire on that particular line that vaas in �ne
lg face of an entrance on that i�iain Street , it wouid
17 cost nine hundred seventy dollars to move the guy
18 cvire that holds the line up . That also disappointed
I9 me .
2p I submit to you tnat the t�rrif needs to
21 be examined . Needs to be examined in terms o� tne
;...5 ,�
� disparity , in my opinion, between the rental charge
23 for the equipment and the use of the line . I think
� there is a massive disparity for the cost of the line
2� and the rental cnarge of the equipment . I think that
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1 should be examined as well .
A
2 As far as the other utilities are concerned,
�
3 the Grapevine, Texas , Lone Star Gas and Texas Po�.aer &
4 �,ight, I think that General Telephone doesn ' t hold a
5 candle to either one of those . That ' s all I have to
6 say .
? MS . ARMSTRONG: Mr . Richard Eakins , come to the
8 speaker on my right, please?
,�,.9, y M5 . OLDANI : Good evening . My name is Mrs . Louis
�: .,
10 Olda�i, and I live at 1559 Tif�any Forest Lane . 488-
11 0160 . Everything that has been said here this evening
Zg has happened to us more times �hat I can count . We
13 have only lived here six months ; and my first impress-
L 14 ion of the telephone company proved to be right .
15 On November 12th, we went into the office
16 in town to apply for phone service . We were not
17 �oing to move in until November 21stP so we very
�8 graciously asked the young lady to please take care
19 °f having our phones installed on November 21st,
"'�� 20 because we were expecting our �irst grandchild to
21 be born in Houston approximately around t'�at time ,
+�►
22 and we wanted to make sure that we had phone service ,
23 so that if my son needed to get us , he could .
� So , the reason I say my first impression
, 25 was correct, there were so many irate people in that
'�_
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1 office that I said to my husband, " Surel� there is
A
2 not a problem here that we are going to have to go
�
3 through? "
4 My husband said, " It must be just a bad
5 day . °' As we know this evening, it was not just a
g bad day . It was t�e usual . Each and every time I
q called repair, "Oh, we don ' t have any complaints .
g Oh, how unusual . " I never get service . I have to
g call and call and call . And the time that I am �
l0 'wasting is mine . I really value my time �ore than
��:,
11 calling repair and getting rude people .
12 And we all know, in this day and age of
13 high technology , that none of us should be putting up
' 14 With what we are . Thank you.
15 (Applause . )
16 P�R. EAKINS : My name is Mr. Richard Eakins ;
17 2020 Camelot. Telephone number 481-4409 . I agree
18 with the percentages that Dr. Ed gave , as �ar as the
�9 times that your phone doesn ' t get through and so
�fl forth . I have , in the past, I �hink they have allevi,
21 ed giving you this reason for your p:Zone not v,orkina , �
�.,,�:
� now days -- used to be continuously got that the
�3 squirrels caused the lines to give me problems .
� I submit that maybe it ' s not just t�e
2� name of GTE that is the problem; because �ou go to the
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1 airport out here and the telephones work out there ,
A
2 but I believe if I ' m right on my statement, I believe
�
C� that the equipment came from �Vestern Electric
3
4 Limited in Canada; becuase they could not reach the
5 specifications that it would take out there at the
6 airport .
7 For those of you who don ° t know who makes
$ Bell Telephone ' s equipment, it is Western Electric .
,�._ 9 About two or three weeks ago in our ofLice on 114 ,
� _.
10 we had two different men that -- one is a plumber
11 and one, an electrician; they both got phones installed
12 the same day . Both of them were 488 exciianges .
13 One of them' s phone bill for the installation was
( I4 almost one hundred dollars higher than the other onz ' s
15 �^'as .
Ig I don ' t know . Our charges were trernendous
17 on putting our phones ino and they cannot explain a
18 lot of the charges .
1� In building homes , I find that over the
�' years that the only way we can get the houses pre-
20
wired is _for an electrician to pre-wir� them. You
;�„ 21
22 cannot rely on the phone company to pre-wire the
houses .
23
Also , in our business , when we went to put
24
those in just recently, even putting the conduit in ,
25
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Z having the conduit there for them, we still wound up
�
2 having to go get the cable and pre-wire the wires
�
3 in the building for them.
4 This , I believe is doing t.'neir job; and I
� don ' t mind doing it if it will get the job done . I
g hope that we can get an irlprovement in our phones .
q We have lived with the bad situation here , I think ,
' g for a long time . In the past, I ' ve worked with real
g estate more than I do now. And in the past , I have ,,,�
l0 had companies that would refuse to consid�r coming
Za to Grapevine with their business , because they said
1� that their business relied upon good phone service �
13 and they `aould not come to Grapevine because we had
'i
`- 14 �TE here .
I 15 �Applause . �
lg P�ZS . ARMSTRONG: That concl�ades our writt2n re-
ZT quests to make a comment . Do we have any other
18 gu�sts in the audience who would like to speak , at
lg this time? I will recognize you one at a tirie . will
ou lease come forward ""�'"
2� Y P , please , and state your name
�1 and address and phone number?
�,,�:
22 NIS . E3AI�LIN; P�[� name is Linda Hamlin . 421 Smith�
�3 481-2314 . I ' m not going to comment about my home
�4 situation; even though it is bad. I want to comment
25 about my office . I work for Guardian Title Company
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1 and have worked for them for fourteen years . Even
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2 the last two weeks , even today, I . had a phone call
l
3 today from a gentleman that is dialinc; our number,
4 was dialing 431-3556 . He gets 2556 . 3556 is thQ
5 Grapevine Animal Hospital . [-Je get them all the time .
g I don ' t think that ' s too great .
7 I ' m trying to think of something else .
g When it rains , you can ' t -- people calling from
,,. 9 Dallas , I ' ve had people call me and tell me that they
�. r,
l0 cannot get through. This is more so when it rains
1� out here .
12 I think that ' s really lousy , because every
13 time it rains , we have lousy phone service , and I
1� don ' t go along with that . I ' m trying to think oi
15 some of the other li�tle things . Downtown office
16 is in Fort Worth . We also have tried to call them;
17 cannot get through . VJe get a ringing , but they do
18 not answer the phone . rinally get the operator to
19 get us through; they tell us their phone sys�em is
'""""' working; so they call us , in case they need us for
20
21 something; they call us every thirty minutes , and we
�
� are still �here , and we don ' t need them for anything .
23 Thank you.
� TZS . ARMSTRON(�: Please come forward, DZr . Crabtree .
2� Is there anyone elsz that would like to speak, when
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1 Mr . Crabtree finishes? Anyone else that wants to
A
2 speak next?
3 MR. CRABTREE : I ' m Bill Crabtree . I live at 905
,� East Worth in Grapevine . I have beAn a long time
5 resident . The main thing I would like to bring up
g is the business phone .
7 I have a Goodyear store here . Have been
8 here for eight years , The problems have all been,
9 you know, reiterated over and over and ov=�r, and it ' s,,,�
lfl obvious to rne t:�ey can ' t seem to correct ��-1ur proble.
��.�
11 �'�hat I am curious of and what I challenge you on
12 is , can you better your service once you have a
i3 service call coming into the system? Thank you .
�!C ' 1� I�IS . ARDZSTRONG: Do we have anyone else who wishes
15 to speak? T,�e ' ll now turn the meeting back over to
16 �Zayor Tate .
Z7 �4R. TATE : Do we have any councilmen that would
Z$ like to make any statement at this time? �,pparently
�9 not.
2� Mr. Spriggs , saoul�. you have anything you "�
�1 woulci like to say, sir?
",,.�
22 n1R. SPRIGC�S : We appreciate the in.formation �•�e
23 received tonight . We have the numbers down . �nTe will
go back and go to work on them . You can expect to
24 -
25 hear from us individually and collectively in the
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1 next several days . We will analyze it . I am concern-
A
2 ed with the things I ' ve heard. Our company is con-
�
� 3 cerned . And we �aant you to have good service .
4 I ' ll do my best to provide it . Tnank you,
g Mayor.
g MR. TATE : Thank you, P�r . Spriags . I can assure
7 you that the service problems that you have enumerated
g tonight are not unique to you . I think all of you
„�..w g have probably talked to your neighbors and your
� .
10 friends and they have experienced many of th� same
11 Problems . I think the problems that havz been
12 enumerated tonight in some form or to some extent
13 have been experienced by almost every househol� and
�� �4 every business in the community .
Z5 I can assure you that the P�Iayor ' s of-�ice
16 is no exception . I-� s one thing to operate a residence
17 phone . It' s another if you have a busin�ss phone
18 and you have several lines . It ' s almost a challenge .
19 It ' s almost like operating an electronical game .
""`"�" 20 It ' s v�ry disgusting when you call your office and
21 you fi�d out it ' s not a working number . It makes you
�
� wonder not only what it ' s costing you to subscribe
� to the phone system, but what the nhone system is
24 costing you.
�b I think the comments tonight have been very
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1 interesting. I congratulate you on your participation
A
2 and coming forward and allowing us to document your
3 sentiments . It ' s only through you that a city gov�rn-
4 ment, in its dealings with the utility company, has
5 any leverage at all to try to solve problems .
6 As you know, the Public Utility Com�ission
? has exclusive jurisdiction on telephone rates in
8 Texas now. But we believe that the City of Grapevine ,
9 i� not by State lawihen certainly through its franchi�
l0 agreement , has the right and tne obligations, and
�
11 demand that we have an adequate level of service in
12 our community .
13 We are going to do whatever we can to try
� ' 14 to accomplish that . We will be analyzing the inforrna-
15 �ion provided tonight and we �aill be discussi�.g it
16 among ourselves with our legal staf-� . We will
17 determine what, if anything, is necessary befnre �ae
�$ discuss these problems with the phone company .
1� I believe it ' s within the mark to sayo
20
thcugh, it ' s not just people . General Telephon� `�"'"
21 has many very fine people that are employed bv �hem
� that are doing the best they can; and they are doing
23 their job .
I think it ' s a question of equipment , policl,�
24
and money . Perhaps these things can be overco:ne and
as
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1 be accomplished.
A
2 We would like to remind .you that for those
�
3 who are making written responses , you need to mail
4 those responses to the City Hall of the City of
5 Grapevine . Those responses , cae would like to nave
6 wi�hin the next ten days ; so we can analyze them in
7 light of the responses made tonight; and then very
$ well we ' l1 broaden our contact with the public in
�__ 9 some form of questionnaire or attempt to documen�
� ::
10 areas of similarity of problems .
11 Our goal is to gather our evidence and to
12 document it in a manner that it is usable , identi-
13 fiable , and that it will be constructive and major .
�
` 14 Apparently the Council has no further com-
15 ment . Apparently everyone has spoken this evening
18 that wishes to speak .
17 Once again, we appreciate your participation
18 this evening . We think it ' s been very beneficial
19 to you . We appreciate the order in which you have
�-`� 20 spoken . The way that you have presented yourself;
21 and we are very pleased for your participation. Than��
�
� yo�a very much.
If there is no further action to come before
23
the Council , a Motion to close the public hearing will
24
be in order .
� 2b
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1 MR. DUNN : So moved .
A
2 MR. �aARE : Second ,
�
� g D7R. TATE : All in favor of that motion? All
4 opposed? The public hearinq is closed. Thank you
g very much .
6
7
8
9 �,
10
11
Z2 (Pursuant to the agreement of the
13 parties , the hearing �vas at this
, '
<_ ' 14 time adjourned. )
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1 STATE OF TEXAS X
A A
2 COUNTY OF DALLAS X
t
\ 3 This is to certify tnat I , Dan L. Stunkard,
,� reported in shorthand the proceedings had at the time
5 and place set forth in the caption hereof, and that
g the above and foregoing 62 pages contain a full , true
7 and corrzct transcript of said proceedings,:
' '1
� �� � _
/� �' ++�
t �\ ~_ � �1 r ��.!�� /
9 ����` � "��,� '_�I�Li:'
�;., _ / � �.7� .i
' Dan L . S�urikard, Certified
10 Shorthand Reporter in an.d
'� ' for the State oi Texas .
�1 �1295 .
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