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Fall City Council approves demand letter over unpaid pole-attachment fees, warns AT&T/CenturyLink of removal
Summary
The Fall City Council approved sending a demand letter giving AT&T/CenturyLink 30 days to pay about $20,165 in unpaid pole-attachment fees and 90 days to remove attachments or face removal at the company’s cost, after staff said negotiations dating to 2020 have failed.
The Fall City Council voted to authorize staff to send a formal demand letter to AT&T and CenturyLink after staff said the companies have not paid pole-attachment fees for roughly four years.
A staff member told the council they had been trying since 2020 to update a decades-old attachment agreement and to reconcile the city’s pole count. “We have not received any payment now from them in four years — that's the equivalent of $20,165,” the staff member said. The same staff member said the agreement in the packet dates to 1983 and that earlier per-pole compensation was low, noting the figure had not been updated to reflect current dollars.
Staff recommended the council authorize a letter that would give the company 30 days to cure unpaid balances and 90 days to remove attachments if unpaid; if attachments remain, the city would remove them at the company’s expense. The staff speaker said attorneys had helped draft the notice and that, if necessary, legal action remained an option. “If they don’t remove [the infrastructure], we’ll remove it at their cost,” the staff member said.
Council members expressed frustration at the long-running negotiations. One council member said the city had tried cooperative options but had to push harder after years without payment. Another suggested exploring regulatory or legal relief, though staff said the Public Utilities Commission does not regulate pole-attachment agreements in the way the city had hoped.
Council approved sending the letter; staff said they would deliver it by email and certified mail and pursue follow-up options if the company does not respond.
Clarifying details: staff reported there are “over a hundred” poles (exact count to be verified), prior per-pole compensation was cited as about $8 versus an expected $15 in today’s dollars, and staff estimated four years of unpaid fees totaling $20,165. The staff speaker said AT&T informed the city it is the successor to CenturyLink’s infrastructure, complicating negotiations. The council did not authorize immediate removal of attachments but approved the demand-letter step.
