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was never informed of the termination and only discovered that the siren was without power during a routine test of the warning system. Utility Employees Are Ignoring Or Misdirecting Customers. Deregulation has also been marked by a general lack of responsiveness to customer requests and abdication of responsibility. A representative from the City of Killean described the situation, noting, "The ability to get quick mm-around service to the customer, and that can be the City or the resident, is non-existent. There are just too many wickets to pass through, and too many check points for service to be speedy." For example, after a power outage in Plano, Oncor informed customers that called its power outage number to contact the City. Oncor also failed to timely act to remove downed power lines after a thunderstorm in Plano and let damaged electric poles languish for weeks before replacing/repairing the poles. The City of Merkel also repons that it took more than two and a half hours for AEP to respond to a downed power line. Many cities convey similar experiences with uninformed wires company representatives who appear oblivious to their responsibility to handle outages and uncertain as to who is responsible for service connections and disconnections. Street Lighting Problems Increase Under Deregulation. Numerous CAPP and STAP cities have indicated that customer service problems exist particular to Cities' street lighting service. Problems encountered by Cities include: · The City of Alton reports that its T&D service provider, PEP, now charges cities for the installation of street lighting. Prior to deregulation, PEP did not charge Alton for street light installation. The change in policy has had negative impacts upon city budgeting processes. · The City of Waxahachie recounts that new installations and repairs for street lighting are generally delayed by three weeks to one month. · T&D service providers have also informed Cities that the utility company is no longer responsible for trimming tree limbs that grow around the street lighting. · The City of Allen indicates that it experienced a frustrating three-month delay in receiving a meter from Oncor for a street lighting project along a major thoroughfare. Even though the poles were placed under City contract and all associated work was completed, the street lighting was delayed as Oncor challenged the validity of addresses, the inspection process, and "missing" account numbers. After persistent accusations that the City was to blame, it was discovered that minor typographical errors in Oncor's system prevented the required account match. 1813\O0~aacXnnno030113grog 9