"The city does not have the legal authority to require us to bear the expense of relocating our facilities," said Diane Barlow, an Austin attorney who represents several telecommunications companies doing business in Houston, during a meeting of City Council's Transportation, Infrastructure and Aviation Committee.

The proposed ordinance, which primarily would affect telecommunications companies, would set a 180-day limit for utility companies to relocate lines in public rights of way slated for construction work.

City officials maintain delays for relocating lines can increase the costs of projects by tens of thousands of dollars.

Barlow said other Texas cities have passed similar ordinances, but none has been enforced and none is as strong as Houston's proposal.

"Houston is drawing a line in the sand," she said.

Councilman Ronald Green said he supported the ordinance, but criticized the city's Public Works and Engineering Department for not adequately responding to the concerns of utility companies. He and the rest of the committee unanimously recommended that public works officials hold more meetings with utility representatives and bring the ordinance back to the committee within 30 days.

Dan Krueger, interim deputy director for public works, acknowledged that his department had not sent written replies to utility companies or held a meeting with representatives of all utility companies.

But he said utility companies have been consulted frequently in the drafting of the ordinance, and that some of their concerns were addressed after the ordinance was first proposed in March.

The proposal is the result of the federal deregulation of the telecommunications industry in 1996. Before that, Southwestern Bell (now SBC Southwest) had a monopoly on providing local telephone service to Houston, in exchange for paying the city a franchise fee and being regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

As part of its franchise agreement, Southwestern Bell agreed to pay for relocating its lines in public rights of ways, passing on the costs to customers.

In 1999, the Texas Legislature responded to federal deregulation by preventing cities from requiring telecommunications companies to pay a franchise fee. SBC ended its franchise agreement with Houston on June 1, 2000.

Lawyers for the telecommunications companies pointed out, however, that the city collects $70 million a year from them in administrative fees, designed to defray city expenses of maintaining rights of way.

Senior Assistant City Attorney Deborah McAbee said that money essentially replaces revenue the city lost through franchise fees, but not the costs of relocating lines.

While other utilities continue to maintain monopolies and pay to relocate their lines under franchise agreements, telecommunications companies contend that Texas law only requires them to pay to relocate lines for the widening or straightening of streets.

The dispute reached a boiling point earlier this year when the city demanded that several telecommunications companies pay a total of $2 million to relocate their lines for a project.

The city finally agreed to pay the relocation costs, Barlow said.