City Council members don’t often have their decisions made for them.

But when City Attorney Harriet Steiner told the council at its meeting Tuesday that fighting Crown Castle in court would be a battle it would not win, council members were left with few options on how to proceed with the application to install the Distributed Antenna System that would improve cell phone coverage in Davis for MetroPCS users.

So the council began blazing the trail toward approval by evaluating each proposed antenna site to determine the best possible location in hopes of reducing visual blight in Davis’ neighborhoods.

But at 12:45 a.m., after completing half of the site-by-site votes, the council elected to postpone the remainder of its decision for a special meeting next Tuesday.

Before adjourning, the council did make a few key decisions.

The first was whether to even consider evaluating the sites in the first place. Several residents spoke during public comment to say that if council began that process, it would open a door it would not be able to shut, as approving many of these antennae would require alterations to the city’s telecommunication ordinance.

But as Steiner and City Manager Steve Pinkerton told council, the city also operates under state and federal law that currently sits on the side of Crown Castle.

And knowing the city would lose to Crown Castle in court — because the state considers it a public utility with the legal right to install its equipment on the public right-of-way — Mayor Joe Krovoza said he could not support a decision that would lead to costly litigation.

“I don’t believe this community can even begin to afford going into a lawsuit on this matter,” Krovoza said. “It would be frivolous, unnecessary and I’m not going to put staff time into that or the citizens’ money into that. … Lots of things are going to fall off the budget in June and that’s at the top of my mind.”

Councilman Dan Wolk remained as the lone voice against the application, and reiterated that he’s willing to stand up for the city’s rights in the face of state and federal jurisdiction.

“I respect where my colleagues are coming from, (but) for the reasons I stated last time, I’m going to be voting no on this,” Wolk said. “For me it’s just a matter of principle and a matter of local control.”

But Mayor Pro Tem Rochelle Swanson saw it differently.

“I actually see this as our only path to assert local control because if we lose (in court), we’re going to have no say,” Swanson said. “I think this is a way for us to try to determine as best we can within our very limited options as to what will and won’t happen within our community.”

Councilwoman Sue Greenwald agreed that because the city finds itself in a difficult situation, it must do whatever it can to help out its residents.

“To me it’s just a calculation,” Greenwald said. “How do we best protect our citizens? And what’s the best outcome we can get in this very, very imperfect and unfair world where local authority has been taken away from us?”

Added Councilman Stephen Souza, “I am convinced, looking at the case law, we will lose local control, we will lose all say.”

After voting 4-1, with Wolk dissenting, to go over the list of proposed antenna locations one by one, the council tentatively approved three sites:

* A joint utility pole antenna on the south side of Covell Boulevard west of Lake Boulevard;

* A joint utility pole antenna on the north side of East Eighth Street east of D Street; and

* A new 10 3/4-inch-diameter street light pole/antenna that would contain all radio and meter equipment inside the pole at the southeast corner of East Eighth and J streets.

The council also rejected four sites, asking Crown Castle to come back with “substantially” different proposals for those locations. City staff was told to evaluate further options near three other proposed sites.

To see the full staff recommendation with details on antenna site, visit www.cityofdavis.org.

— Reach Tom Sakash at [email protected] or (530) 747-8057. Follow him on Twitter @TomSakash

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