Conference panel signs off on telemarketing bill

Erin Neff

Friday, May 30, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The bitter dispute over a telemarketing registry appears to be over, with Republicans and Democrats signing off Thursday on an amended "do-not-call" bill.

Assembly Bill 232, sponsored by Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, makes it a deceptive trade practice for a company to place an unsolicited telephone call between the hours of 8 p.m. and 9 a.m.

Those who have had an existing business relationship with a person for at least 18 months may continue to call to verify the termination of the relationship, to collect payments or to extend credit.

The amended version of the bill will not include a statewide registry that businesses must purchase. Instead, residents can put their name on a national database of those who wish not to receive the calls.

"We're only using their list to warehouse our names," Conklin said.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, had sponsored Senate Bill 255, a do-call registry.

Although the final version of the bill will be Conklin's do-not-call language, much of Townsend's work on business exemptions is included.

A conference committee consisting of Conklin, Assemblymen David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, and Josh Griffin, R-Las Vegas, and Sens. Warren Hardy, R-Henderson, and Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, agreed Thursday afternoon to adopt the amended version of the bill. Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, was in a Taxation Committee meeting and missed the conference.

Two members of each house signed off on the agreement, and the conference report now must be adopted by each house in order for the measure to be sent to Gov. Kenny Guinn for consideration.

After the hearing, Conklin -- who earlier in the session was a staunch opponent of any business exemptions -- said he considered the bill to be as tough as almost all of the 35 similar state laws regulating telemarketing.