Is it Perjury, Is it Forgery or Is it Just Business as Usual?

Kreines & Kreines, Inc. gets many requests for assistance during the approvals process for personal wireless service facilities.  In this case, the story is true but the names are represented by initials for everyone’s protection.

Our client has a very nice home in an upscale suburb of San Francisco.  He called Kreines & Kreines, Inc. to ask whether Carrier K can place a cell site on his property without his consent.  Kreines & Kreines, Inc. found out that, by asking the right questions, the landowner had an easement on his land with energy utility XYZ which was a party to the application before City M.  Carrier K uses a third party site acquisition and installation company, ABC, whose agent has the same initials as our client, the property owner.  So here’s the questionable part:

·       ABC’s agent, whose signature shows the first letter of her first name and the first letter of her last name (and everything else in the signature is a straight line) signed as the property owner on the “Property’s Owner’s consent” line of the City’s application form.

·       Our client, the property owner, knows nothing about ABC, M, K or XYZ.  He called Kreines & Kreines, Inc. to wonder if this is “misrepresentation.”

·       It could be more than misrepresentation, we said.  Most such applications have a “false information is punishable by perjury” warning.

·       “What should I do?” asked our client. 

We suggested that our client attend the Planning Commission meeting on the public hearing on the application for the cell site.  It should become obvious to the applicant who he was.  After all, this was the last item on the agenda and the cell site was not controversial.  Our client was the only member of the audience and the applicant approached him to say “we’re embarrassed, but we’d like to make a deal with you.”

At this writing, we don’t know what deal was struck.  But we do know that there may be thousands of cell sites where the underlying property owner is not a part of the approval or leasing process.

The first case of liability on a site like this could cause much finger-pointing.  Even the City may be liable if staff didn’t verify the responses given by the applicant.

Here are some rules for your city or county to remember:

·       Always check the applicant’s assertions to see if they hold water.

·       Make a copy of the lease part of the application.

·       If the property owner contacts your staff a few days before the public hearing to complain, don’t throw up your hands and say “it’s not our problem.”

The city can avoid a possible fiasco by refusing to process a false application.  The City could also endear itself to its citizens by following up on their concerns.

In this case, the property owner had gone to the City and was told: “your only recourse is to contact the applicant.”  Had the City taken up the property owner’s cause, they could have saved an embarrassing moment.

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Kreines & Kreines, Inc.
58 Paseo Mirasol, Tiburon, CA 94920
Phone: (415) 435-9214
Fax: (415) 435-1522
e-mail: mail@planwireless.com