State, trade group split on managing no-call system.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

The Oregon Telecommunications Association wants you to know that if you're sick and tired of telemarketers interrupting your dinner, you should sign up for the state's no-call list as well as the federal government's no-call list.

The Salem-based trade association is less eager to tell you that it's fighting efforts by state Attorney General Hardy Myers to let the federal government manage Oregon's no-call list.

If the feds take over, Oregon consumers could sign up at no cost.

Oregon was one of the first states to pass a no-call telemarketing law, back in 1999. Residents pay an initial fee of $6.50 and an annual renewal fee of $3 to get on the state list.

The money is used to update a database list of telemarketers and another list of the people who don't want to hear from them. The fees go to the private administrator hired by the state to manage the lists: the Oregon Telecommunications Association.

"You have a local presence in Oregon," said association Executive Director Brant Wolf. "If there's some problem with list administration, the buck stops here with me and this office."

Some state legislators, including Rep. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, don't see it that way. Prozanski has championed House Bill 3329, which would allow the state Department of Justice to fold the state's no-call list into the federal government's list. The bill's fate is uncertain, awaiting an as-yet-unnamed conference committee to work out differences between House and Senate versions.

Prozanski said it makes no sense to employ a middle man when the state can offer the no-call service for free by joining forces with the feds. "We have the ability to provide the same service, if not a greater service, at no cost," he said.

Other legislators contend that the current arrangement supports local business. "But that's bogus," Prozanski said. "It's not even a local business doing the actual work."

The telecommunications association directs most of the fee money to Computer Business Services, a Georgia firm that does the actual database work. But the association still clears about $110,000 annually for its part in overseeing the work, Wolf said.

The association, which represents most of Oregon's smaller telephone companies as well as cable, wireless and Internet businesses, drafted and promoted the state no-call law.

Participation was slow at first, but has picked up dramatically in recent months, with 174,000 Oregonians now paying the annual fee in hopes of avoiding the onslaught of telemarketer calls.

The state attorney general's office has collected nearly $500,000 in fines from more than 120 companies that have violated the no-call law. The fines in turn underwrite the continued prosecution of violators.

The Federal Trade Commission last week introduced the federal government's no-call program - and has since been swamped by more than 10 million Americans eager to sign up. The federal program will go into effect Oct. 1 and is expected to block about 80 percent of all telemarketing calls.

The Oregon Telecommunications Association and other advocates of Oregon's law say local residents should sign up for both because the state law is tougher - banning calls, for example, from phone companies, banks and insurance firms that can still make telemarketing pitches under the federal law.

Both laws allow calls from charities, politicians, polling firms and businesses that have an established relationship with the resident called.

The attorney general's office contends that, unless Oregon agrees to join the federal list, the federal government could eventually decide to "pre-empt" the state. That means violators would be prosecuted in federal court, with fines no longer going to Oregon to underwrite the prosecution of violators.

"Oregon's no-call law is one of the best laws we've ever passed, and Oregonians love it," said Jan Margosian, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office. "It works well for them, and the reason it works is because the attorney general prosecutes violators."

If Oregon joins the federal government's list, it will be allowed to maintain its own program and reap the fines paid by violators, Margosian said. It will allow Oregonians to enjoy both state and federal protection, at no extra cost, she said.

Wolf said the federal government has insisted that it doesn't want to pre-empt states' lists. Also, it's more than a little ironic, he said, that the federal government has hired AT&T, a telecommunications giant that has been fined for its own telemarketing offenses, to manage its no-call database.

The Oregon Telecommunications Association worked hard to promote and pass Oregon's no-call law, won the contract to administer it and is seeing its business venture jeopardized just as a critical mass of residents is signing up, Wolf said.

"It's our program, our law, and we'd like to keep it," he said.

DON'T CALL US...

More than 174,000 Oregonians have signed up for state no-call list for phone solicitors, including:

Eugene: 9,319

Springfield: 2,529

Coos Bay: 1,092

Florence: 941

Cottage Grove: 848

Coburg: 720

Veneta: 279

Harrisburg: 197

Brownsville: 157

Pleasant Hill: 154

Yachats: 121

Drain: 89

Dexter: 88

Cheshire: 78

Marcola: 65

Yoncalla: 65

Vida: 62

Blue River: 56

Mapleton: 44

Blachly: 15

- Oregon No Call

HOW TO REGISTER

Oregon no-call list: Call [phone] toll-free or visit www.ornocall.com online

Federal no-call list: Call [phone] toll-free from phone line you wish to register, or visit www.donotcall.gov or www.ftc.gov online