Telemarketers limits sought

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

Erin Kenny supports a law that would stop phone solicitors from pestering residents and prevent telemarketers from making fraudulent offers to Southern Nevada's senior citizens.

The Clark County commissioner proposed the "Do Not Call" program in a recent letter to her constituents.

On Tuesday she persuaded the board to sign a resolution urging the state attorney general to adopt the program, which would allow residents to place their names on a state list prohibiting telemarketing companies from calling their homes. The companies are required to obtain a copy of the list when they register with states that have such laws.

"Some of the larger states have adopted this program, and it has been a success," Kenny said.

Kenny investigated solutions after her father took a phone solicitor up on his offer to sell him a $2,300 home security system. He never received the system.

"Needless to say, he doesn't have a security system in his home," Kenny said.

But Kenny's "Do Not Call" pitch is a reheated plan.

The attorney general's office began cultivating a plan in 2000 and in 2001 joined Assemblyman Greg Brower in his anti-telemarketer proposal to push the program through the Legislature.

The measure cruised through the Assembly but got bogged down with exemptions in the Senate, Brower said. The attorney general's office withdrew its support, and the bill failed.

"It had so many exemptions it didn't accomplish the objective we originally wanted it to," said Kimberly Rushton, chief deputy attorney general. "It pretty much exempted everyone out of it."

Twenty states have adopted similar laws, and most excluded nonprofit organizations that, for example, call for clothing donations.

As Brower pushed his bill, lobbyists for major telemarketing firms representing phone and cable companies moved in on lawmakers. One of the exemptions listed was a new company moving into a market where a monopoly exists. Some lawmakers believed phone solicitations provide those companies with their only chance at success.

Public utilities were also exempt, as were companies with which the consumer already had a business relationship -- for example a lender offering an opportunity to refinance.

"My initial bill didn't have any exemptions," Brower said. "But it became clear unless there were some exemptions, it wouldn't pass. The magic to this is to get everyone to agree on the exemptions."

Brower said he learned of the program and drafted his bill too late. With the clock running on the 120-day session, Brower had little time to investigate how other states passed their laws.

In her letter to residents Kenny said she has researched "fixes" at the state level.

"I've made a formal request of the attorney general to get Nevada on the national list of 'Don't Call' states as quickly as possible," wrote Kenny, who is running for re-election.

Rushton said Kenny contacted the attorney general's office to notify it of her efforts.

Rushton said if the sponsors of the bill can fend off requests for exemptions it could meet another obstacle -- funding. Gov. Kenny Guinn has said that with the sagging economy, if a fiscal note is attached to a bill the sponsoring agency will have to take the money from another program.