We are asking the Novato City Council to do the following:

1. Direct the Novato Planning Division to deny all four AT&T use-permit applications.

2. Direct the Planning Division to require detailed evidence from AT&T to ensure compliance with all relevant federal, state and local laws, including Novato’s own wireless ordinance.

3. Use Novato’s existing ordinance to hire neutral Radio Frequency Engineers and Legal Consultants at AT&T’s expense.

4. Declare all applications for so-called “small” Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (sWTFs) incomplete until the FCC completes its DC Circuit Court-mandated National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review (as mandated in 2019 and again in 2021) of the entire additional 800,000-to-1.2-million-unit, nationwide roll out of sWTFs. The FCC has not yet done this. Any city can shut down the sWTF roll out in their jurisdiction until the FCC completes this court-mandated NEPA work.

5. Require greater transparency in the application process, including timely notice to affected neighbors, placing all relevant data on the website as soon as it arrives, and passing a stronger Wireless Ordinance that protects Novato residents.

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Comments Made to Novato City Council April 12, 2022 (See Video Above)

Speaker One

I attest and affirm that the following statements are true, accurate, and within my personal knowledge.

Tonight, well-informed Novato residents will be entering substantial written evidence into the City’s public record regarding four AT&T applications for so-called “small” Wireless Telecommunications Facilities placed on average, only 20 feet from homes and a school.

We are asking the City to do the following:

  1. Direct the Planning dept. to deny all four applications.
  2. Direct the Planning dept. to require much more detailed evidence from the applicant to ensure compliance with all relevant federal, state and local laws, including Novato’s own wireless ordinance.
  3. Use our existing ordinance to hire neutral Radio Frequency and legal consultants at the applicant’s expense.
  4. Deem all four applications incomplete until the FCC completes the DC Circuit court-mandated Environmental Review of the entire 800,000 to 1 million cell roll out; the FCC was mandated to do so in two court rulings which I submit into the record.: once in 2019 in Case 18-1129, Keetoowah et al. v FCC and again in 2021 in Case 20-1025, EHT/CHD v FCC.
  5. Provide more transparency in the application process, including timely notice, placing all relevant data on the website as soon as it arrives, and passing a stronger Wireless Ordinance that protects residences.

The City’s hands were never tied. It seems the City of Novato did not complete proper due diligence when it voted through its 2019 Emergency Wireless Ordinance. At present, the City is unwittingly taking on Big Wireless’ liabilities by allowing applicants to rent the City’s light poles to be used as cell towers, without passing sufficient local regulations.

I am also entering into the public record a 2017 letter — a legal analysis from Novato attorney Harry Lehmann to the California Assembly Appropriations Committee. The letter outlines the liability transfer inherent in Wireless industry Master Licensing Agreements. which persuaded the state to shoot down Senate Bill SB.649, the Small Cell Bill that was vetoed by Gov. Brown in 2017.

Click to access 2017-0719-SB649-CA-Liability-Lehmann-to-Galehouse.pdf

The largest re-insurers in the world, evaluated the independent science about adverse biological effects from wireless RF Microwave radiation and specifically excluded all claims of injury, illness or death from that radiation from any General Liability insurance. The smart money acted. They do not want another asbestos debacle on their hands.

The Wireless industry is busy transferring these liabilities to the City of Novato, which means that any future claims will be paid by the taxpayers to cover the disasters created by Big Wireless’ defective service, which could bankrupt the City.

Finally, I encourage readers and listeners to visit our website, wirednovato.org.

I have expressed no matter of mere concern but solely matters of substance, fact and law.

Thank you.

Speaker Two

I attest and affirm that the following statements are true, accurate, and within my personal knowledge.

Four AT&T WTF applications landed on City of Novato’s Planning Department’s desk on Fri Feb 25. Ten days later, Planning sent letters stop the shot clock. The fate of at least three neighborhoods now rests in the Director of Planning’s hands, while we await AT&T’s response and we will only have 50 days to complete an appeal.

This is the first test of our 2019 Urgency Wireless ordinance, which has remained in its temporary status for about 2.5 years.

This Ordinance is not sufficiently protective and does not consider — in anyway — the serial losses by the FCC in the US Courts of Appeals from Aug 2019, Oct 2019, Aug 202o and Aug 2021, which wiped much of the FCC’s so-called “small” Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (sWTFs) agenda, starting with the FCC losing the very definition of a “small wireless facility” at the Federal level. The whole push for “small wireless facilities anywhere near residential zones was a lie from the very beginning — a lie now even admitted by the Wireless industry itself.

WHAT IS NOVATO’S BEST MOVE RIGHT NOW?
  1. Deny all four of these applications by strictly applying the provisions of both of Novato’s existing wireless ordinances, the one from 2012 and the much larger (and unnecessary) addition in 2019.
  2. Reject all wireless industry propaganda and data that is non-substantive, including analysis by Hammett & Edison and CTC Technology
  3. Overhaul the 2019 Urgency wireless ordinance to say no to Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (WTFs) of any kind within 1500 feet of residential zones, which is legal and defensible.

The City Council can direct the Planning Dept to preserves residents’ lives, liberty, privacy, public safety and the quiet enjoyment of streets. The City must provide to Novato residents actual public safety and privacy, which are our inalienable rights because you took an oath to uphold the State constitution before you started serving. You are also bound by the 2019 CA Supreme Court Ruling in T-Mobile v San Francisco which says that Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (WTFs) of any size or any “G”

“might generate noise, cause negative health consequences, or create safety concerns. All these impacts could disturb public road use, or disturb its quiet enjoyment.”

Protect our quiet enjoyment of streets by forcing AT&T to provide all of the data requested by the City of Novato residents to prove if these applications are even needed to close a significant gap in telecommuncations coverage. Read the citations provided on my written comment which is in your hands.

I have expressed no matter of mere concern but solely matters of substance, fact and law.

Please go to https://wirenovato.org, the website created for this issue to keep updated on planning department actions, council actions, residents comments, and the science regarding the threats to public safety of wireless facilities near residences.

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE I DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, SECTION 1

“All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.”

2019 CA SUPREME COURT RULING IN T-MOBILE V SAN FRANCISCO

“. . . the City has inherent local police power to determine the appropriate uses of land within its jurisdiction. That power includes the authority to establish aesthetic conditions for land use . . . . the word “ ‘incommode’ means ‘[t]o give inconvenience to; to give trouble to; to disturb or molest in the quiet enjoyment of something, or in the facility of acquisition.’ ” . . . Obstructing the path of travel is one way that telephone lines could disturb or give inconvenience to public road use. But travel is not the sole use of public roads; other uses may be incommoded beyond the obstruction of travel. . . . For example, lines or equipment might generate noise, cause negative health consequences, or create safety concerns. All these impacts could disturb public road use, or disturb its quiet enjoyment.”

Speaker Three

I attest and affirm that the following statements are true, accurate, and within my personal knowledge.

The City of Novato can learn how to reliably deny Wireless Telecommunications Facility (WTFs) applications by citing substantial written evidence in its public record. A 2019 WTF appeal hearing — https://youtu.be/G_lNu9R56Xk?t=5698 — in Seaside, CA, features Mayor Ian Oglesby — showing other cities how to do exactly that.

The key is to base WTF placement decisions solely on true and verified substantial written evidence that has been entered into the public record. Wireless Cos. consistently enter the least amount of information possible and often enter fraudulent information during the application process.

According to a top US Telecom Attorney in the US, Andrew Campanelli — https://youtu.be/UtT6gVH584s?t=1616

“in my experience, in 90% of the applications I have seen, the applicant has submitted false and misleading information and it is not by mistake.”

As you can learn from Mr Campanelli — https://youtu.be/UtT6gVH584s?t=1829)

“cities can force applicants to provide probative evidence, not the bogus propagation maps provided by many applicants. Without the data behind the maps, no one can determine if the propagation maps are worth the paper on which they are written.”

“No federal court would accept a propagation map without verification. Hard data will show if there is a gap and where its boundaries are. Then and only then can a City make a factual determination if the proposed WTF location is consistent with the City’s General Plan and local ordinances. Usually the proposed sites are not necessary.”

The City must make the determination if the applicant has proven a significant gap in telecommunications service or not. The City must demand the substantial written information from the applicant to enable IT to make this determination.

TWO THINGS WILL DO THAT.
  1. Demand from AT&T 12-months of completed/dropped call records in the target search ring for each WTF. Require this information of the applicant before deeming the application complete.
  2. Institute a Written Evidence — Wireless Antenna Need Test — In Telecommunications (acronym spells WE-WANT-IT). This is a Comprehensive Wireless Signal Strength Test to be conducted every six months by an independent RF Engineer, who will meter the Wireless signal-strength levels in dBm (decibel-milliWatts) of every carrier-specific licensed and unlicensed wireless frequency that is being transmitted to the streets of Novato. See <https://wireamerica.org/mccollough/

The cost for this can be charged back to Wireless Cos.

For this reason and others you may discover, such as the intent of city council to upgrade and formalize its urgency ordinance, i ask that the applications be frozen now.

Please go to wireNovato.org, the website created for this issue to keep updated on planning department actions, council actions, residents comments, and the science regarding the threats to public safety of wireless facilities near residences.

I have expressed no matter of mere concern but solely matters of substance, fact and law.

Speaker Four

I attest and affirm that the following statements are true, accurate, and within my personal knowledge.

In San Rafael in 2019, informed residents convinced the planning director to deny the applications of the multinational corporation, Crown Castle, for four Wireless Telecommunications Facilities that were to be placed directly in front of homes — that decision by the Planning Director withstood all challenges. Novato can do the same by learning from other cities how to skillfully deny WTF applications and not get sued, just as Phillip shared.

After denying these four applications, please learn from and apply the lessons from protective Wireless Telecommunications Facility ordinances that were passed in San Anselmo, Fairfax, Mill Valley, Petaluma, Sebastopol and Sonoma and other CA cities back in 2018-2019 . . . ordinances which are far better than our current emergency URGENCY ordinance.

To assist the finding for denial, tonight, I am entering into the public record over 11,000 pages of peer-reviewed, scientific evidence that Environmental Health Trust and Children’s Health Defense and other plaintiffs placed in the FCC’s public record in their successful lawsuit against the FCC, which received a ruling on Aug 13, 2021.

The DC Circuit judges ruled the following in Case 20-1025:

“. . . we grant the petitions in part and remand to the Commission to provide a reasoned explanation for its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against harmful effects of exposure to radio-frequency [microwave] radiation. It must, in particular,

  • (i) provide a reasoned explanation for its decision to retain its testing procedures for determining whether cell phones and other portable electronic devices comply with its guidelines,
  • (ii) address the impacts of RF radiation on children, the health implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, the ubiquity of wireless devices, and other technological developments that have occurred since the Commission last updated its guidelines, and
  • (iii) address the impacts of RF radiation on the environment.”

Wireless radio frequency microwave radiation is bioactive and is currently being insufficiently regulated. Therefore, each locality can regulate the maximum power output of microwave radiation from wireless infrastructure antennas that reaches any areas accessible to human beings, consistent with the evidence in the 27 pdfs that I am adding by reference tonight into the City of Novato’s public record: Vol-1, Vol-2, Vol-3, Vol-4, Vol-5, Vol-6, Vol-7 Vol-8, Vol-9, Vol-10, Vol-11, Vol-12, Vol-13, Vol-14, Vol-15, Vol-16, Vol-17, Vol-18, Vol-19, Vol-20, Vol-21, Vol-22, Vol-23, Vol-24, Vol-25, Vol-26 and Vol-27.

Please go to wireNovato.org, the website created for this issue to keep updated on planning department actions, council actions, residents comments, and the science regarding the threats to public safety of wireless facilities near residences.

I have expressed no matter of mere concern but solely matters of substance, fact and law

Speaker Five

I attest and affirm that the following statements are true, accurate, and within my personal knowledge.

The City of Novato is bound by the Ninth Circuit appellate rulings, including a 2005 ruling in MetroPCS v San Francisco, which defines a significant gap in coverage test for wireless telecommunications and requires wireless cos. to use the least intrusive means to address any gaps. Constructing new WTFs closer than 1,500 feet from residences is not the least intrusive means. Co-locating wireless antennas on existing WTFs is the least intrusive means.

The City of Novato does not need to fall victim to the Wireless industry propaganda — the FCC has no say over local zoning, other than listing their preferences, guidance and presumptions in FCC Orders, such as FCC 18-133, the Small Cell Deployment Order. But many FCC Orders from 2017 to 2021 have been vacated and remanded by the US Courts of Appeals. These orders cannot take away local zoning authority, which has been granted to Novato by the State of California.

Two top Telecom attorneys, Andrew Campanelli and W. Scott McCollough provide expert advice to cities at wireamerica.org/mccollough and wireamerica.org/campanelli

ON MARCH 29 MCCOLLOUGH SAID ON YOUTUBE:

Here is What the Cities Can Do . . .

  • McCollough: “A city can say ‘we don’t want these things in a residential area.”
  • Interviewer: “Petaluma did that in 2018.”
  • McCollough: “That’s right. The only [exception] is [that if the wireless provider can show that it must put a WTF at a [specific] location in a residential area because that is the only way they can provide the telecommunications service — [meaning not putting it there would result in an effective prohibition of the ability to make outdoor wireless phone calls], then they can prevail . . . Proving that is a hard task for the Wireless company.**

–McCollough: “Unless they can prove it is an effective prohibition [of telecommunications service] — then a city can deny the WTF. So, an ordinance a city can pass is ‘We are saying nothing in residential areas. Indeed we are saying nothing within 1,500 feet of any residential area‘.”

I implore the City of Novato to deny or freeze at&t’s use-permit applications; reform planning department procedures & transparency; demand evidence-based applications; and upgrade & formalize the city’s wireless ordinance.

I have expressed no matter of mere concern but solely matters of substance, fact and law.

Please go to wireNovato.org, the website created for this issue to keep updated on planning department actions, council actions, residents comments, and the science regarding the threats to public safety of wireless facilities near residences.

Speaker Six

I attest and affirm that the following statements are true, accurate, and within my personal knowledge.

I am the founder of Wire America, an organization that advocates for Broadband via fiber optics & only calls/texts via wireless.

Wire America helped secure vetoes of two CA State Telecom bills: SB.649 in 2017 and SB.556 in 2021 — bills that would have wiped out cities’ local control over cell tower siting. As a result, all CA cities maintain their zoning authority over the placement, construction and operations of Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (WTFs) off any size or any “G”.

Now, we all understand the following:

  • Good faith is honesty or lawfulness of purpose
  • and
  • Bad faith is lack of honesty in dealing with other people

When four AT&T WTF applications were filed on Feb 25, an act of good faith would have been to immediately notice of the public about hazardous WTFS as close as 20 feet from homes — consistent with Novato’s 2019 Urgency Wireless Ordinance.

But City staff did not do that. Instead city staff has been sitting on these applications for 40+ days, has NOT noticed residents and today refused to answer direct questions about why that happened.

This weekend, however, Novato residents took matters into their own hands and in good faith passed out hundreds of flyers to let the people in these affected neighborhoods know that they would face significant nuisances, hazards and diminished public safety, privacy and property values — all caused by these proposed WTFs as evidenced by the data placed in Novato’s public record this evening.

More examples of bad faith were broadcast on Mar 12, in a national podcast of The Verge entitled **From the Beginning, 5G Millimeter Wave was a Big, Fat Lie”

Apple’s Mar 8, 2022 release of the new third generation iPhone SE proves it. This new iPhone built without millimeter wave antennas, and that uncovers the deception that so-called “small” Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (sWTFs) were ever needed in residential zones

On Mar 12, the Verge Editor-in Chief, Nilay Patel said at 7:45:

“the millimeter wave thing was a lie and now we can all admit it was a lie . . . AT&T offered their own deception by labeling 4G service as 5G-E . . . It’s been at least four years of 5G millimeter wave lies. This new iPhone SE is proof that all of this fake out was just a lie . . . to raise prices.”

The only reason Novato’s 2019 Urgency Wireless Ordinance has a list of Most Preferred, Less Preferred and Least Preferred Location is because Novato’s contract City Attorney did not sufficiently learn from the FCC’s defeats in the US Courts of Appeals and he lacked the discernment to separate wheat from chaff, the propaganda from true, verified information.

Attorney Scott McCollough who argued and won the Environmental Health Trust and Children’s Health Defense lawsuit against the FCC, already told you the truth in an earlier comment:

“an ordinance a city can pass is ‘We are saying no WTFs in residential areas. Indeed we are saying no WTFs within 1,500 feet of any residential area‘.”

I have expressed no matter of mere concern but solely matters of substance, fact and law.

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