I REPORT, YOU DECIDE.-BY BARRY LEVINSON
BARRY LEVINSON
Park and Recreation Committee met last night and voted to approve the installation of an AT&T cell tower in Richman Park, a few feet away from the St Jude Medical Clinic and adjacent to the Richman Elementary School.
The final vote was 4 for approval, 1 abstention and 1 rejection. The vote broke down as follows:
Wayne Carvalho, Vice-Chair (appointed by Greg Sebourn) Yes
Erin Haselton (appointed by Jennifer Fitzgerald) Yes
Jesus Silva (appointed by Jan Flory) Yes
Scott Stanford (appointed at-large) Yes
Karen Lang-McNabb (appointed by Doug Chaffee) Abstained
Barry Levinson, Chair (appointed by Bruce Whitaker) No
Ladies and gentleman, it was approved despite the collection of 365 neighborhood citizen signatures telling the city that it does not want the cell tower to be installed. The committee was told that this neighborhood group only learned about this cell tower a week ago and that they were still actively collecting signatures and that more would be forthcoming. All public comments from the citizens, five in all were against the construction of the cell tower. No one from the public was for the cell tower.
It was also approved despite the fact that AT&T has not provided a contract document to the city. At my urging a similar document was provided as an example. We learned that the specifics of the cell tower equipment is not included in any contractual document but handled off line by the Park and Recreation Department.
The standard language in these cell tower contracts was somewhat troubling in a few key areas. For instance, it states under the Section entitled Use, the following: ”The Premises may be used by the Lessee” (that would be cell tower provider), “for any lawful activity in connection with the provision of wireless communications services by the Lessee.” According to the engineering study conducted for AT&T, the cell tower in question is “one percent of the applicable public exposure limit”. So under this standard language contract they could presumably increase the exposure almost 100 times and still be within the “legal” FCC limits according to the study. All this can be done without every being reviewed again by the Parks and Recreation Committee or the Fullerton City Council. I noted last night that this contractual language was not acceptable to me. Apparently, it was acceptable to everyone else as I was the only no vote.
I also asked if the council would be given a copy of the AT&T contract prior to their vote to approve the cell tower. The answer was that it is not provided in their agenda package because it is a standard contract approved many years ago by a former council.
I found all of the above unacceptable as I believe we were voting on an agenda item based on only verbal assurances by AT&T and very little else.
Now ladies and gentleman, I have not even yet raised the part that is most concerning to many others and me. It is the potential health risks that most of the public comment speakers addressed. Joe Imbriano, administrator of fullertoninformer.com even gave the council copies of several recent studies that detail the health risks of cell towers to the surrounding community.
Yet despite all of this, I was the only commissioner who voted against this agenda item. So now it goes before the city council for final approval. Unless all of us go to that meeting (it has not been put on the agenda as of yesterday) I suspect this cell tower will be approved.
Before the vote, I offered an alternative motion that the vote be delayed one month until our next meeting. At that time I recommended that AT&T could provide us with the proposed contract, the neighborhood group could provide the city with its final tally of all those against the project and members of the public could address the committee with a formal presentation of their concerns about the placement of this cell tower. The committee voted down that alternative motion.
I asked the members of the Park and Recreation Department present along with the other five committee members, what is the purpose of reviewing this cell tower proposal, if we do not have a contract and by law (the FCC) we are not to consider the health risks of our children and their parents that have been claimed by dozens if not 100’s of scientific studies throughout the world. Not surprisingly, no one provided me with an answer.
One last but vital point. Director Hugo Curiel reminded us that as a body we couldn’t consider the health effects of cell towers in making our decision to approve or reject the cell tower for Richman Park.
The FCC stands for the Federal Communications Commission. It has federal jurisdiction over interstate communications. Please tell me where such a group has the authority and the expertise to make it illegal to consider the potential negative and serious health effects of cell tower transmissions.
I for one stand tall and stand proud to state unequivocally that the FCC has no right to demand our silence on the issue of cell tower heath risks.
It was just another sad performance by people representing the city of Fullerton. It was sad because every concern, i.e. the lack of a contract, the health concerns and the wishes of many of the neighborhood residents, all ignored by our Parks and Recreation Department and its committee.
#1 by Joe Imbriano on July 16, 2014 - 8:13 am
What we have before us is the following:
The FCC is the sole authority on microwave exposure guidelines.
The FCC is a regulatory agency, not a public health agency.
The FCC doesn’t have one medical doctor on its entire payroll.
The FCC exposure guidelines are NOT SAFETY STANDARDS.
The FCC exposure guidelines only consider acute burning of adult tissue and COMPLETELY ignore non-thermal biological effects of microwave exposure. They also do not address exposures for children and pregnant women.
The wireless industry is a trillion dollar industry with an unlimited supply of lobbyists. It owns the scientists and researchers.
The wireless industry funds, directs and orders the research funding, scope and fields of study to serve up the scientific results and conclusions that it desires.
The telecommunications industry war games the science and destroys the careers of those whose scientific conclusions conflict with the industry’s interests.
The telecommunications act of 1996 preemption clauses were redefined by a flawed San Diego Court ruling that yielded the precedent that “health effects” resulting from radio frequency microwave exposures CANNOT be considered in the antennae siting processes by local jurisdictions. It does however, allow for “safety” and “aesthetic” concerns to be considered. It only applies to GSM, not LTE, 4G, 5G, WiMax or WiFi. Nor does it grant any right to any carrier to erect a tower, only to site an antenna array.
Basically I believe it is like being forced to choose aand marry a bride while not being able to refuse her just because she is a prostitute with a violent criminal record even though it has been shown that she is a prostitute and has harmed or killed in the past. This is insane once you begin to understand what is being done to us by very powerful entities with the blessing of inept local leaders.
Do we have public officials that cannot or refuse to think and willfully ignore thousands of peer reviewed scientific studies as well as the scope of the telecom act itself? They just rubber stamp things and go along for the joy ride like, in my opinion, complete idiots, yes idiots folks. It is as if this is some kind of social club or something with critical thinking skills not allowed.
To top it off, we have forced wireless microwave irradiation of all school children in the Fullerton School District at the hands of Robert Pletka and all of the complicit principals continues with the wireless microwave matrix common core classrooms that Robert Pletka so proudly rams down all of your throats ignoring the science warning against everything he is doing. This model is being replicated worldwide folks. Most of you are helping at home with the iPads and wireless gaming systems you all use babysitters. Most of you have filled your homes with thsi crap. These kids will never get a break from the classroom exposure, playground exposure, and home exposure.
Across the pond however, FJUHSD’s Dr. George Giokaris has decided to HARDWIRE ALL OF THE COMMON CORE COMPUTER LABS IN THE FULLERTON JOINT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT leaving all of the wireless equipment they already purchased in boxes in storage and trashing the hot mapping plans for access point deployment. Yes, citing safety concerns, off the record, they have scrapped their plans for total wireless deployment and hired an electrical contractor to hard wire the classrooms. THIS IS SPARING 15000 HIGH SCHOOL KIDS FROM WHAT PLETKA IS FORCING ON THE KIDS ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE 5 YEAR OLDS IN THE Fullerton School District.
With the exception of Mr. Levinson, the parks and recreation commission members ought to be ashamed of themselves and as well as those on the council who appointed them.
While I do not necessarily approve of the vulgar vernacular employed by “miller time” that has been posted on this thread, I wholly agree with his assertions. It is a great point, that is if it so safe then why can’t we look at health concerns in basing our cell tower siting decisions? Sometimes crude statements are the most truthful.
So now we know how all of this is being done but you ask yourself why is this all being done? Well, here is your answer:
https://thefullertoninformer.com/the-inconvenient-truth-of-the-wireless-agenda/