UPDATE: San Clemente Wants Emergency Backup for Cell Towers

To encourage cell phone companies to install backup generators on their antennas, the City Council waived permit fees up to $500.

"The city uses cell phones extensively, and many people don't have land lines," said Councilman Jim Dahl.

Most service providers have only batteries with a few hours of life to back up cell antennas during a power outage or emergency, according to staff reports. Verizon, however,  routinely installs backup generators that run on diesel or natural gas.

Verizon customers never lost service during the, but other providers did, the staff report states.

City Manager George Scarborough said city cell phone users lost service during the outage, and that the generators were a matter of public safety. The city cannot, by law, require the generators, so a fee incentive was the next best thing, he said.

For cell antennas leasing space at city sites, however, Scarborough said the city can and will require diesel generators.

"That might drive some providers away, but so be it," he said. "It's a public safety issue."

Failing cell reception in an emergency is a problem for "police, fire and other emergency responders who, in addition to the general public, also use commercial devices... in conjunction with their public safety radio systems," the report states.

The cost of paying city staff to review and approve fossil-fuel generator installation ranges from $600 to $2,000. The review process is much cheaper if the generator is installed inside an existing building instead of building a new structure.

The original proposal was to waive all fees, but some council members had a problem with spending that much money to entice multi-billion-dollar communications companies.

"I can't support it to the tune of $2,600 in fees in some cases," said Councilman Bob Baker.

He moved to approve the measure with a cap of $500, "just to show the city is interested in moving forward with this, certainly not with the expectation of affecting the finances of billion-dollar companies."

The fee waiver would last for several months.