20050912_1318.pdf

DECISION MEMORANDUM
TO:COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER
COMMISSIONER SMITH
COMMISSIONER HANSEN
COMMISSION SECRETARY
LEGAL
WORKING FILE
FROM:GRACE SEAMAN AND DON HOWELL
DATE:SEPTEMBER 7, 2005
RE:RECONSTITUTING THE TRS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
BACKGROUND
Section 61-1306 of the Telecommunications Relay Services Act and TRS Rule 103
(IDAPA 31.46.02.103) requires that the Commission appoint an "Advisory Committee" to advise
the TRS administrator. As promulgated in 1992, Rule 103 assigned permanent seats on the
seven-member committee to U S WEST, GTE, MCI, and AT&T. In addition, the rule assigned
two seats to independent telephone companies and one other seat to an interexchange carrier that
is not a local exchange company. The initial Advisory Committee was constituted in 1992 by
way of Order No. 24269. In July 2000, Order No. 28425 reestablished the Advisory Committee
and appointed the following seven members to the committee:
John Souba - US WEST Communications - Advisory Committee Chairman
Dean Randall- GTE Northwest
Jay Garrett - Farmers Mutual Telephone Company
Ron McCue - Silver Star Telephone Company, Inc.
Eileen Benner - AT&T
Reed Hyer - Nextlink Affinity, Inc.
Dean J. (Joe) Miller WorldCom Telecommunications
Since 2000, many of these Advisory Committee members are either no longer serving in
a similar capacity or are no longer employed by the companies. In addition, telephone
companies have reorganized, merged, or changed names and no longer exist as originally
outlined in Rule 103. Staff has contacted the members from the 2000 reconstituted TRS
Advisory Committee who are available. Every attempt was made to find a representative from
the interexchange carrier group as designated in Rule 103, but contacts were either unavailable
DECISION MEMORANDUM - 1 -SEPTEMBER 7 2005
or declined to participate. Staff, therefore, proposes that CenturyTel and A TC representatives fill
the two vacancies left by AT&T and Nextlink Affinity, Inc. Renee Willer will represent
Verizon, formally GTE Northwest. John Souba with Qwest declined to serve as Advisory
Committee Chair and Doug Cooley with CenturyTel agreed to fill the position. The new TRS
Advisory Committee will be made up of the following seven members:
Doug Cooley - CenturyTel- Advisory Committee Chair
John Souba - Qwest
Renee Willer - Verizon
Ron McCue - Silver Star Telephone Company, Inc. (member of ITA)
Jay Garrett - Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative (member of ITA)
Rich Redman - A TC Communications
Dean J. (Joe) Miller - MCI
The committee is being reconstituted at this time to review the responding bids to the
TRS RFP released in early July 2005 by the TRS Administrator, Bob Dunbar. Two .service
providers, SPRINT and Hamilton Communications have submitted responses. The current TRS
provider for Idaho is Hamilton Telecommunications, whose contract expires in December of this
year.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
1. Staff recommends that the Commission fill the vacant seats with Doug Cooley from
CenturyTel and Rich Redman from ATC Communications. 2. Staff recommends that the
Commission approve the remaining TRS Advisory Committee members as listed with the
understanding that not all members may agree to participate in the RFP evaluation process.
COMMISSION DECISION
Does the Commission wish to approve the TRS Advisory Committee as described above?
/hA-U
Grace Seaman
i :udmemos/ decmemo- 200 Sadvcom
DECISION MEMORANDUM - 2-SEPTEMBER 7 2005