County takes phone companies to court
In an attempt to recover surcharge fees to support the 911 emergency call center that officials believe went unpaid, an attorney based in both Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., has gone to court on behalf of Washington County.
Joshua D. Wolson, a partner in Dilworth Paxson LLP, litigated a similar case in Delaware County aimed at phone companies’ failures to impose the full surcharge on multiline businesses.
Last month, the Washington County commissioners entered into a contingency agreement with both Phone Recovery Services LLC, to research the number of phone lines businesses operate, and Dilworth Paxson law firm, which initiated a civil action to enforce 911 assessments.
Wolson filed what is known as a writ of summons, and Scott Fergus, Washington County director of administration, said now that the matter is in court, Wolson will meet with representatives of the phone companies to discuss the matter. The summons lists phone companies, and as the suit takes its course, the defendants can require the county to detail its allegations in a complaint.
“Anybody can become a phone company,” Fergus said. “All you have to do is buy some piece of equipment. That’s why we think the phone companies may not be reporting all the lines they have, whether by accident or by design, but we’re going to find out.”
At least one local telephone provider thinks the county has dialed a wrong number by including his 110-year-old telephone company among the defendants.
Grier Adamson, chief executive officer and treasurer of Hickory Telephone Co. and a sister company, HTC, that handles Internet and cable television services, said Thursday he hadn’t been served with a copy of the writ filed in Washington County Court, but the company was named in similar litigation filed in other counties.
He said those trying to recover fees for 911 emergency service and service for hearing-impaired customers tend to “confuse telephone numbers with telephone lines.”
“Part of our agreement with the state and counties is that our books are open for audit at any time. There have been no findings of wrongdoing. They match up billed customers with 911 revenues or hearing-impaired revenues.”
A new state law that took effect Aug. 1 has phone customers paying an additional monthly surcharge for 911 emergency service. In addition to the new fees, the county is trying to recover surcharges that were not paid in the past.
“They can only go back so far,” Fergus said. Washington County’s 911 emergency center in the Courthouse Square office building was founded April 4, 1994.
Washington County residents and commercial phone customers were paying a surcharge of $1.25 per phone line per month. Under the recently enacted legislation, the fee increased Aug. 1 to $1.65 for each cellular, land and Voice Over Internet Protocol account each month.
Washington County taxpayers, according to the 2015 budget, are expected to contribute $800,000 to the 911 system. If money is recovered this year through the lawsuit, the 911 emergency center would be in a position to remit some part of county taxpayers’ subsidy this year.
The taxpayer contribution has fluctuated between $500,000 and $800,000 over the past decade.
Named in the writ, along with Hickory Telephone and HTC Communications, were AT&T of Wilmington, Del.; Armstrong Telecommunications of Butler; Teleport Communications America LLC, Bandwidth Communications Competitive Local Exchange Carrier LLC, Consolidated Communications Enterprise Services Inc., Century Link Communications LLC, Citynet PA LLC, Comcast Phone of Pennsylvania, Conestoga Telephone and Telegraph Co., Core Communications Inc., Global Crossing Local Services, Level 3 Communications, LLC, Telcove of Pennsylvania, Fibernet Telecommunications of Pennsylvania, Mariannna and Scenery Hill Telephone Co., Peerless Network of Pennsylvania, Verizon Pennsylvania Inc., Intermedia Communications Inc., U.S. Local Exchange Carrier of Pennsylvania Inc., Cavalier Telephone and Mid-Atlantic LLC, Windstream PA Inc., PAETEC Communications Inc., XO Communications Services Inc., and YMAX Communications Corp., all of Harrisburg; Bentleyville Communications Corp., doing business as Bentleyville Telephone Co.; Broadvox-CLEC and Voxbeam Telecommunications Inc, both of Hummelstown; IDT Telecom Inc. and Verizon North LLC, both of Washington, D.C.; Local Access LLC of Dallas, Luzerne County;
Service Electric Telephone Co. LLC of Coplay, Lehigh County, and Choice One Communications Inc.
Spokesmen for local telephone providers Bentleyville Telephone and Marianna-Scenery Hill Telephone could not immediately be reached for comment. A menu for each resulted in recordings for Fair Point Communications, which was not named in the writ. Attempts to obtain contact information for them through the Pennsylvania Telephone Association in Harrisburg were met with busy signals.