[IP] Exposing Phone Company Skunkworks,Sock Puppets and Astroturf Groups and the Harm to the Public.

Subject: RE: [IP] Exposing Phone Company Skunkworks,Sock Puppets and Astroturf Groups and the Harm to the Public.

For IP if you wish - here's a related story we did last September on the matter, and how the debate over first responder networks was being influenced:

Exclusive: With Billions at Stake, Verizon Had Hidden Hand in First Responders Group Battling Nextel Over Emergency Radio Bands

Joe Kochanek, the volunteer fire chief for Rocky Hill, Conn., received a letter this summer from a new group calling itself the First Response Coalition. Led by a volunteer firefighter in Pennsylvania, the group urged him to join with other first responders to help solve radio problems among fire, police and medical emergency teams.

"It sounded pretty legitimate, so I sent my name in," Kochanek said in a phone interview.

Within weeks, the First Response Coalition began stepping aggressively into one of the year's biggest telecommunications lobbying battles in Washington, D.C. - one that pits corporate power Nextel Communications, backed by several major public safety groups, against its even larger competitor, Verizon Communications.

Several large public safety groups, over the last two years, have endorsed a radio spectrum plan put forth by Nextel because it would make additional bandwidth available for first responder radios.

Into this mix came the First Response Coalition, formed in June, which took a very different position from that of the large public safety groups. It immediately began issuing press releases and initiating a series of more than 50 visits to Capitol Hill offices to block Nextel's plan.

But what Kochanek and many others did not know was that the First Response Coalition itself is funded, in large part, by Verizon, and it was created with substantial help from a Washington-based public relations firm, Issue Dynamics, that lists Verizon among its largest clients.

"I feel like the dope of the year," Kochanek now says of his unwitting involvement in the Verizon-backed coalition. His name has since been removed from the roster.

Others are having second thoughts as well. Three of the 11 other fire chiefs in the coalition, who were interviewed by CQ Homeland Security, said that they did not realize what they were signing up for when they joined the coalition, and two of them want to get off the list, too.

Neither Issue Dynamics' nor Verizon's involvement has been mentioned in the coalition's Web site or publicity materials to date, although Gene Stilp, coordinator of the coalition and a volunteer firefighter and vice president of the Dauphin-Middle Paxton Fire Company in Dauphin, Pa., has acknowledged that Verizon is providing some funding to the group.

Asked about the fire chiefs' comments, Stilp told CQ Homeland Security: "If they didn't know [about Verizon] before, they know it now. All I can do is go forward."

On Monday, Verizon officials confirmed they have provided funding to the First Response Coalition.

"We've provided them with support, but I cannot specify how much," said Larry Plumb, a Verizon spokesman. "We share common cause with them on emergency response issues."

Asked why he will not disclose the amount, Plumb said, "Because other people get jealous." As for why Verizon's support to the group had not been publicized previously, Plumb said that question should be asked of the coalition leaders.

"This is a start-up of a credible group," Samuel A. Simon, founder and president of Issue Dynamics, said in a telephone interview last week. "We are calling everyone who joined, and if they weren't adequately informed, we regret that."

But the questions raised by the First Response Coalition go beyond what its 12 fire chief members knew - and when they knew it - about the organization's Verizon funding and the assistance it is getting from Issue Dynamics.

Organizations claiming to represent a broad public interest and that spring up quickly and move boldly to influence policy in Congress and federal agencies - but without disclosing publicly their K Street allies and corporate backing - have become increasingly common in the past decade.

Such groups are derided by critics as "AstroTurf," corporate-backed groups pretending to represent the "grass roots."

The formation of the First Response Coalition to influence a major public safety and homeland security issue was bound to attract notice.

The coalition was formed after months of wrangling in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over radio spectrum issues.

The technology and government rules involved are arcane, but the inability of emergency crews to communicate at a disaster site is not: The deaths of hundreds of firefighters at the World Trade Center towers have been blamed in part on radio problems.

There are huge amounts of money at stake in the Nextel proposal, known as the Consensus Plan. The deal is valued at $4.8 billion, according to the FCC. The commission approved a version of Nextel's plan on July 8.

Under the deal, Nextel would be given radio spectrum in the 1.9 gigahertz range. In exchange, Nextel has agreed to give up radio spectrum in the 700 megahertz and 800 megahertz range, to be turned over for public safety use. The plan would allow rebanding in those ranges and reduce interference for police and fire radios.

Nextel has cultivated support from public safety organizations for many months to back its plan. It has been endorsed by the major groups, including the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), International Association of Chiefs of Police and National Sheriffs' Association, among others.

Nextel also offered to pay $800 million to cover the costs of moving public safety agencies into new bandwidths, but the FCC raised that amount to $2.5 billion. Nextel has not yet indicated whether it will accept the FCC's terms.

Even so, Verizon and several other companies call the FCC decision a giveaway to Nextel and are demanding that the FCC auction off the 1.9 gigahertz spectrum to the highest bidder instead.
Swap Meet

The First Response Coalition also is promoting an auction, rather than a swap, with the goal of using the funds raised in an auction to make first responder radios more compatible.

Stilp said he believes such an auction could raise $5 billion or more for first responder radio needs.

"I'm trying to talk about the issues," Stilp said in an interview. "We're afraid the first responders have been led down the garden path by the Consensus Plan."

But backers of the Consensus Plan accuse the First Response Coalition of muddying the waters by introducing interoperability, which they agree is a worthy goal, into proceedings that have focused primarily on reducing radio interference.

"This coalition has not been involved over these past five years in our attempts to solve the issue and they exhibit a lack of understanding of the risk and danger this interference brings to first responders," the IAFC said in a statement on Sept. 8.

Other Nextel plan supporters say the First Response Coalition's sudden appearance and lack of disclosure is contributing to the confusion.

"I think people have been led to believe the First Response Coalition is more than what it is," Charles Werner, deputy fire chief in Charlottesville, Va., and head of a state fire service interoperability task force, said in an interview. "I'm not saying Verizon shouldn't give them money, but it shouldn't be a secret."

"The First Response Coalition is not representing much of anything," Robert Gurss, government affairs director for APCO, said in an interview. "They represent a tiny fraction of the public safety community."

Stilp, when asked to describe how the group was formed and how it attracted support from Verizon and others, said it originated in conversations between him, volunteer firefighter William Fox of New York City, and a "few other people." But he declined to be more specific.

Asked whether he is paid by the coalition, and how much money and support Verizon is providing to the group, Stilp declined to answer.

Reached by telephone Monday, Fox said "I don't care where the money comes from. This is about saving lives."
Nose for News

Simon, of Issue Dynamics, said he began raising money for the coalition and helping it to organize after Stilp approached a member of the firm, Todd Main, about forming the group several months ago. Simon said he, Stilp, and Main have known each other for many years in connection with campaigns for consumer activist Ralph Nader.

In fact, Nader himself has praised Stilp's unique skill of building props, such as a 30-foot-tall ear of corn or a giant inflatable SUV, to support various causes.

"Now comes Gene Stilp, a 49-year-old lawyer with a keen advocacy sense, a nose for news, and the creativity and skills to communicate a complicated public policy initiative with a prop that's guaranteed to generate media coverage and capture hearts and minds," Nader wrote in an editorial published in March 2000. "Stilp has been an outspoken activist for more than two decades on issues ranging from hunger to nuclear safety."

After Stilp approached Issue Dynamics, the firm began raising money for the group, Simon said, although he declined to say how much or to provide details, except to say "there's no question that Verizon [provides] a large part of their funding, but they're not the only part."

The public relations firm has helped to prepare publicity materials for the coalition and gives them advice on visiting members of Congress. By year's end, Simon said, the coalition most likely will be incorporated.

Some of the work has been paid for through fundraising for the group, and some of it has been offered at no charge to "help the group get launched," Simon said. Public relations executives typically charge between $100 and $400 per hour for their services, according to industry estimates.

"We think it's a great cause consistent with the values of our firm," Simon said in the interview.

He acknowledged that Verizon was a major client of the firm, but he did not want to discuss details.

However, Simon's firm has gotten into hot water over its tactics with Verizon before. Four years ago, the attorney general of Pennsylvania fined Bell Atlantic of Pennsylvania (now Verizon) $250,000 to settle charges that it used consumers' names fraudulently in a lobbying campaign involving a 10,000 postcards. That campaign was run by Issue Dynamics.

Many of the postcards listed people as supporters without their knowledge, and at least one card was "signed" by a dead person, which amounted to identity theft under state statutes, state officials said at the time.

"That was a mistake," Simon said of those events. "We used a list that was wrong, and we've apologized." Verizon agreed to the settlement but admitted no wrongdoing.

Whatever happened in that case, it appears that the First Response Coalition is having an impact in Congress.

"During August and September, the First Response Coalition has underscored its call to action with nearly 50 key Capitol Hill meetings," including sessions with the House Government Reform and Select Homeland Security committees and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, states the coalition Web site.

"I think they've done very well," Pat Engel, a senior consultant at Issue Dynamics, said in a phone interview. "Someone from just about every office [on those committees] has seen them."

To be fair, the major public safety groups backing Nextel's Consensus Plan have additional ties to Nextel, though those connections have been publicly disclosed before.

Nextel, which failed to meet an FCC deadline for deploying enhanced-911 service in 2000, agreed to donate $25 million for 911 services. A large share of that payment went through APCO's Public Safety Foundation of America.

APCO's foundation received about $12 million from Nextel and is giving all the money away to 911 operator call centers and public safety answering points for operational improvements, Gurss said.

"That funding is unrelated to the Consensus Plan," Gurss said, adding that APCO receives no ongoing funding from Nextel, the Consensus Plan, or from the agreement approved by the FCC.

Until July, the Charlottesville, Va., fire trucks all displayed Nextel banners under an agreement made when the city purchased wireless services with the carrier. That deal expired July 1, and the banners have since come off, Werner said.

"When we first purchased Nextel, the price was more than our budget, so we agreed to put a small thing on our firetrucks that said 'Wireless Service Provided by Nextel,' " Werner explained. "It was creative financing, and it's done all the time."

In addition to the 12 fire chiefs, the other members of the First Response Coalition include the National Black Police Association, the Gray Panthers, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), among others.

Verizon is listed as one of the corporate sponsors of the NBCC. "We believe in competition. The more competition the better," Harry Alford, president of the chamber, said in an interview about why the chamber joined the coalition.

The American Legislative Exchange Council lists Ronald F. Scheberle of Verizon Communications as chairman emeritus of its private enterprise board of directors.

Council officials said in a phone message they were seeking additional information about the coalition before responding to a reporter's inquiry.