Rep. Sean Flaherty
February 24, 2009

Letter to the Editor - read it online at www.ScarboroughLeader.com

Apparently most legislative sessions start fairly slowly with a long ramp up a much busier time. Veterans tell us, that this year, that’s not the case. Although the Legislature was sworn in the first week of December, newly elected representatives got to work in the days after the election. Between electing House Leadership, choosing the Attorney General, and filling out paperwork, the weeks prior to taking the Oath of Office were busier than what you might expect.

Most of the work in the State House began after the New Year. During the initial weeks in January, we began the business of the House. The financial crisis has been hitting all states across the country and rapidly declining revenues have resulted in the Governor and the Legislature needing to reduce the State budget fairly quickly. Every policy committee met to review the necessary budget cuts and reported out bipartisan reports. The Appropriations Committee, after weeks of hearings, work sessions, and much negotiation, reported out unanimously a bipartisan Supplemental Budget.

This work, of course, is the reason why the Legislature went from 0 to 60 without much hesitation. The process has been an exciting one for me as I was already anxious to roll up my sleeves back in November. Because of the bipartisan work that was done on the Supplemental Budget, I am hopeful for further cooperation on the many issues to come before the legislature this session. I believe our work thus far to deal with the economic downturn bodes well for our next hurdle, the Biennial Budget, which must be passed this session.

Much of the work in the Legislature occurs at the committee level. I am honored to be serving on the Utilities and Energy Committee. The work of this committee is crucial as we increase our efforts to bring more renewable energy sources to our state. Helping to attract wind farms and promoting energy conservation are only a few of the issues the Utilities and Energy Committee deals with. We are also charged with jurisdiction over natural gas industry, telecommunications industry (including mobile, telephone and Internet services), Emergency 9-1-1 systems, water and sewer utilities, and much more.

Committee work has begun on several bills and industry oversight. One particular area of recent concern is the FairPoint migration from Verizon. Representatives from FairPoint Communications appeared before the Utilities and Energy Committee amid public scrutiny over the transition of customers’ e-mail addresses from Verizon to the new MyFairpoint.net e-mail addresses. One of the biggest issues addressed was FairPoint’s lack of responsiveness and busy signals on its customer service phone lines. I received complaints directly from FairPoint customers who said they spent all day calling the customer service number, only to receive a busy signal each time they called.

After being assured that FairPoint had increased its responsiveness nearly six fold, I pressed for more information. I told the FairPoint representative that I had just dialed the 1-800 Customer Service number twice in the last ten minutes and all I got was a busy signal both times. I questioned whether they had adequately addressed customers concerns.

My inquiries also covered what the cost would be to customers, and to FairPoint, if Verizon e-mails were to be forwarded to the MyFairPoint addresses beyond the April 30 deadline. I suggested that as a consolation for the grief that FairPoint customers are feeling currently, they could enable a longer forwarding time for their e-mails .

FairPoint has agreed to appear again before the Utilities and Energy Committee in the near future. I am hopeful for some answers and some honesty to the many questions that I and other members of the committee raised during the hearing. I believe that e-mail addresses are crucial to people, including many small business owners, who will run into more serious issues if FairPoint doesn’t rectify some of the issues that have already risen out of the transition process.

Needless to say, this will be a tough session. However, I am hopeful based on what we have already accomplished in such a short time, that the opportunities will outweigh the struggles. More importantly, I hope to continue to engage even more Scarborough residents on the issues that they are most concerned about. Each day I happily handle numerous e-mails, letters, and phone calls from folks in town. I hope everyone feels comfortable reaching out to me for help with issues, opinions on pending legislation, and opportunities to visit the State House in Augusta.

Sean Flaherty, a Scarborough native, represents House District 127, which includes half of Scarborough. He can be reached through his Web site www.SeanFlaherty.org, e-mail at RepSean.Flaherty@legislature.maine.gov, by phone at 450-4188, or US Mail to PO Box 6998 Scarborough, ME 04070.

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