premature in fall of 2018 to be prescribing
a cookie-cutter approach that everyone
must follow. Because I think we will ac-
tually lose some of the innovation and
some of the real transformative ways of
operating in this new industry if we start
off by heavily prescribing what everyone
must do in this space.
What is your perspective on state man-
dates? There are cases where a state-
wide regulation is probably better
than 50 different sets of regulations.
So where is that sweet spot?
It is a case-by-case analysis. I could make
an argument that in those circumstanc-
es involving public safety there might be
good grounds for it — maybe public safety
in emergency circumstances. But obvi-
ously I’m going to resist efforts to infringe
on and interfere with local control, but
where you draw that line is a product of
negotiation. Whether I was in Washing-
ton D.C. fighting for cities or here fighting
for cities, so often there wasn’t a table for
negotiations that included the local gov-
ernment perspective. … and that is just
going to end up in a fight. Last year, we
had the small cell tower discussion. [Gov.
Jerry Brown ultimately vetoed legislation
that would have given the state more au-
thority over how local governments issue
cell tower permits.] That’s a good exam-
ple of cities wanting the deployment of
these great new modern technologies as
much as industry wants them, and there
ought to be a way to sit down at the ta-
ble and figure out how we can do that.
In those instances where we can reach
some compromises, it doesn’t have to be
an all or nothing. I hear that term ‘patch-
work’ quite a bit, I frankly like patchwork
quilts myself. You know there’s a reason
and there’s natural tension in our system
of government that allows for that patch-
work in certain circumstances, but we’re
all going to have to come to the table and
figure out how to draw those lines. n
Rich Ehisen is the managing editor of
State Net Capitol Journal. His work has
appeared in Sunset, San Francisco Mag-
azine, California Journal, Sacramento
Magazine and the Lexis Legal Network.
On Twitter @WordsmithRich.
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