The Santa Fe City Council deliberated until nearly midnight Wednesday before passing an ordinance that will regulate how telecommunications companies use city rights of way.

Councilors Patti Bushee and Miguel Chavez dissented on the final product, which requires the mayor to appoint a special task force to develop a strategic plan for telecommunications within four months.

Earlier in the evening, the councilors tied, 4-4, on a motion to postpone the measure for at least three months.

Councilors Bushee, Chavez, Rebecca Wurzburger and Christopher Calvert voted in favor of the postponement, while Matthew Ortiz, Carmichael Dominguez, Ron Trujillo and Rosemary Romero voted against it.

Ortiz said the same arguments about the health effects of wireless signals would be likely to re-emerge even with the delay and that the city will remain "legally bare" without a franchise ordinance.

The tie-breaking vote against the delay motion came from Mayor David Coss, who noted that the city is prohibited by federal law from considering health effects of telecommunications equipment and can only legislate on land-use issues.

Forty-one people spoke during the public hearing, with wireless opponents and advocates both agreeing that the ordinance developed over the last seven months wasn't ready to be passed.

Leo Baca, representing Qwest, said the proposal to charge telecommunications firms 3 percent of their gross revenues plus a $2,500 application fee would cause land-line telephone bills to rise 1 percent to 3 percent in Santa Fe.

Qwest's challenge to a previous Santa Fe ordinance requiring leases for telecommunications systems resulted in a federal appellate court striking down that ordinance in 2004.

John Brown, president of CityLink Fiber Holdings, which has proposed building a fiber-optics system in Santa Fe, also urged the council not to pass the newly proposed ordinance because of its fee schedule.

Brian Harris, an assistant state attorney general specializing in telecommunications, urged the city to step back from the ordinance and "remove the toll booths" for the development of new systems.

Wireless opponents found themselves in agreement with the industry representatives on postponing the ordinance, but for different reasons.

Victoria Jewett said each antenna for a distributed antenna system, or DAS, would emit 55 to 85 watts — compared to 0.2 watt for a standard Wi-Fi system.

Pat Simons said relying on industry representatives for information on the safety of wireless signals is like relying on cigarette companies for information on tobacco's health effects.

Elena Benton said the companies that want to start new telecommunications systems in Santa Fe want to concentrate on the wealthier north side, while ignoring the south side of town.

Judy Crystal suggested the city delay voting so it could come up with a telecommunications ordinance that would be a model for the nation. "This city should be the leader in doing this in a green, healthy, brilliant way," she said.

The new ordinance won't take effect until five days after the city publishes the final, amended version of the law.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.