Jackson Free Press

The city of Jackson rakes in more than $1.5 million every year renting city-owned towers to cellular providers, and EZ 103.7 FM President Edward Saint Pé wants a piece of the action.

Saint Pé spoke to council members at the May 1 council work session, saying he could not use his two existing towers to rent cell phone capacity because the city has cornered the market.

"I've got two towers … but we do not have a single client because all the cell phone companies renting space on towers are on city towers down at the waterworks and on the Eudora Welty Library parking lot. Nobody needs us in the private sector," Saint Pé said.

Saint Pé said that the city monopolizes tower rental on the I-55 corridor and locks out competition through restrictive licensing and below market-rate prices. Saint Pé said he attempted to get city clearance for the construction of a third tower recently but was told he would first have to tear down his remaining two towers to beautify the city.

George Brown, administrator of the city's communication division, confirmed that Saint Pé would have to tear down his current towers to put up a new one.

"He would have to tear down the other two towers to put the new one up, because he wants to put the new tower very close to a current tower and very close to a building," Brown said.

"The private sector cannot compete with the government. If you do, you will lose, and we've lost," Saint Pé said.

Council President Marshand Crisler said he was amazed that there was a city monopoly on the towers. "This took me by surprise," Crisler said. "Heck, I didn't know it was an issue."

The city is not likely to lose clients to Saint Pé without a fight, however. The city expects tower rentals to bring in $1,687,000 this year, an increase of $350,000 over last year, which is one of only five revenue streams growing rather than shrinking.

Brown said Saint Pé had every opportunity to enter the telecom market.

"We've even sent other carriers to him to promote him as a gesture of goodwill, but it's the carriers' decision whether or not they want to locate on his property. We don't control that," Brown said.

"My attorney says what the city is doing is highly illegal, and I'm here to talk as a human, face to face with these people before anything else happens. I'm not interested in creating trouble, but I want them to deal with the issue fairly," Saint Pé said.

David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute in Washington, said the city is disrupting free enterprise.

"You can always find reasons to turn down an applicant for a license," Boaz said. "If the city is itself the special interest, then you have a sort of judge and jury in one body. It's bad enough that a city council or zoning board can be influenced by outside financial interest, but in this case, they have their own financial interest, and the city is being judge in its own case."

Previous Comments

ID

66295

Comment

OK, this is where my Libertarian side gets crazy. The city should not be competing with private business. What is up with this!?!

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-05-10T15:09:06-06:00

ID

66296

Comment

No doubt! Cities should not be competing with private business. It is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Author

Liberty Dog

Date

2006-05-12T15:26:56-06:00