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The company said it has made significant progress restoring the vast majority of sites affected by fire damage, including much of the North Coast, Napa and Sonoma County areas.
AT&T disaster response teams, including the Network Disaster Recovery team, have deployed more mobile cell sites, equipment and generators to support emergency responders and customers in areas impacted by ongoing wildfires.
In addition to the mobile cell sites on air at two locations in Santa Rosa and the Napa town and county fairgrounds in Napa, AT&T has deployed an emergency communications vehicle to Napa Valley College.
Charging facilities are available at the larger evacuation sites and the company is working to deploy additional charging equipment.
As the wildfires still burn, the company said it will continue to evaluate opportunities to deploy additional equipment once it’s safe to do so.
AT&T also is automatically issuing credits and waiving additional charges from Oct. 9 through Oct. 14 to provide unlimited data, voice and text for AT&T wireless customers and unlimited voice and text to AT&T PREPAID customers in impacted areas of California.
The company also is extending payment dates for impacted AT&T PREPAID customers with voice and text service through Oct. 14.
This applies to AT&T wireless customers with billing addresses and AT&T PREPAID customers with phone numbers in Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Sonoma and Yuba counties.
Customers in these areas may still receive data alert notifications during these protected dates, but billing will reflect the correct data charges.
Impacted video and home internet customers can contact AT&T at 1-800-288-2020 with questions about their service.
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The current timeline includes an opening date in the spring of 2018.
The Santa Rosa Costco is one of the highest-grossing stores in the nation, partly because it draws significant revenue from Lake and Mendocino counties.
It is anticipated that the Ukiah store will largely redirect those customers, capturing the sales tax along with the sales.
Sales tax is one of the largest sources of revenue for cities, providing necessary funds for the police and fire departments, streets, parks and community services and more.
Additionally, the Ukiah Costco is expected to generate more than 120 new jobs.
When area residents travel to Santa Rosa “to go to Costco,” they typically visit several other businesses there as well. By capturing those Costco shoppers in Ukiah, city officials said it can be expected that Ukiah’s restaurants, shops, and service businesses will also see a significant increase in traffic.
The city of Ukiah reported that many small business owners in Ukiah shop for their business at Costco. “A local Costco will help them be more efficient and will keep their sales tax dollars in the community, which benefits everyone,” the city said in a written statement.
Construction of the traffic improvements at Talmage Road and Highway 101 and Airport Park Boulevard is on a parallel path forward, with final plans and specifications for the project already approved by the Ukiah City Council.
The actual construction of those improvements is scheduled to begin in October 2017.
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The bill, co-authored by Assemblymember Matt Dababneh (D- Woodland Hills), was introduced in response to the Wells Fargo scandal where millions of accounts were fraudulently opened without consent, using consumer’s personal information from existing accounts.
This legislation would eliminate the use of forced arbitration clauses in contracts that were fraudulently created by financial institutions, giving victims their day in court.
“Allowing victims their day in court allows them to recover and helps prevent more victims by putting an end to illegal business practices,” said Sen. Dodd. “The idea that consumers can be blocked from our public courts when their bank commits fraud and identity theft against them is simply un-American. I’ve been the victim of fraud and identity theft myself, so I know how jarring and difficult it can be, but being victimized by your once-trusted financial institution has to be even more disturbing. If our bill were already law, Wells Fargo would have been held publicly accountable years ago, and the fraud could have been prevented from spreading.”
“With the most recent news uncovering additional fraudulent accounts opened at Wells Fargo Bank without the knowledge and consent of its customers – bringing the total since 2009 to over 3.5 million accounts – it is now even more important that we bring openness and accountability to this process and allow these customers an ability to find justice in our legal system,” said Assemblymember Dababneh. When signing up for financial products, consumers should not be forced into arbitration clauses when the financial institution itself is the one committing these deceptive acts. This bill will put in place a process to help prevent this kind of fraud and abuse from occurring in the future.”
Late last year, it was discovered that Wells Fargo Bank employees had fraudulently used their customers’ personal information to create over two million fake accounts without consent over the course of five years.
Some of these fraudulent accounts incurred fees that were then passed along to the victims. Many of the victims attempted to sue the Bank for damages and to recover their losses.
Last week, Wells Fargo admitted the actual number of victims may eclipse 3.5 million, nearly 70 percent more victims than previously reported.
“Instead of allowing victims to have their day in court, where an independent judge or jury can arrive at a verdict following an open and fair trial, Wells Fargo wrongly pushed customers seeking justice into forced arbitration,” said California State Treasurer John Chiang, explaining the need for the legislation. “While the bank’s latest marketing slogan is ‘On the side of customers,’ it has stubbornly persisted in denying its victims the right to be made whole by coercing them into a secretive process that tilts in favor of corporations. The absence of transparency is almost always a breeding ground for abuse and corruption. Senate Bill 33, authored by Senator Bill Dodd, will level the legal playing field and restore an urgently needed measure of fairness. I applaud his efforts and am proud of our partnership.”
Wells Fargo argued, with the backing of the courts, that their customers waived their right to sue when they opened their “legitimate” accounts with the bank.
The only recourse left to victims was through binding arbitration. Arbitration cases usually tend to favor the defendant as they are able to select the arbitrator overseeing the case.
In the aftermath of the scandal, Chiang suspended ties between Wells Fargo and the state of California, and the Bank has had to pay fines of $185 million in regulatory fines for their illegal uses of consumer information.
The bill, SB 33, will prohibit the use of forced arbitration in cases where a financial institution has wrongfully used consumer information to commit fraud.
The measure is sponsored by Treasurer John Chiang and leading consumer advocacy groups. The bill now returns to the Senate, where it previously passed, for a concurrence vote and will then head to the governor’s desk.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the United States Congress by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), but that legislation has yet to be granted a hearing in the Republican controlled Congress.