When we last checked in on Pine Street neighbor Will and his family three years ago, they were breathing a sigh of relief due to their new source of income- fines placed on robo-calling telemarketers and junk mailers.

Interviewing Will today, he admits not only that the fines helped him get through a rough time economically, perhaps even allowing them to stay in their small Oregon Hill house, but that he has seen some positive changes in their whole relationship with the economy.

“Before the local government enacted this legislation, I was personally feeling preyed upon. Here I was, struggling to keep the roof above our heads, and food on the table, and yet we were bombarded by postcards, letters, texts, and phone calls, trying to sell us insurance we could not afford, or offering to buy our house out from under us. And so many outright scammers too. It was depressing and stressful.

But since the legislation went in, we may still be dealing with rising taxes and costs, but we feel less hassled, less pressured and more in control of our lives. It may not seem like much to some people, but I finally feel like there is balance restored. We still sometimes get postcards and calls, but we just log them and report ’em, and eventually we get those small public settlement checks that help us considerably with managing day-to-day expenses. I have also noticed less fraud and scam calls.”

Again, these checks come from a public fund set up by the Consumer Protection Act, a law that addresses robocalling, Do Not Call Registry, email spam, and solicitation violations. With the 2018 addendum that includes fines for unsolicited direct marketing mailings, the fund as well as its payments have grown considerably.

“Again, I urge neighbors and Richmond residents to call and email their local representatives and get help joining the program, or, if they already are enrolled, thank their local representatives for the program and remind them how important it is, especially for low income folks like ourselves. Everyone who is aggravated by robo-calls and all of the automated solicitations should see the big picture.”

Unfortunately, the industry and corporations are not taking this lying down. They are increasing their political campaign donations, often relying on ‘dark money’ channels to force their agendas on courts and governments. They claim that these fines and regulations are violating their corporate ‘personhood’ rights to ‘free speech’.

That’s why, in addition to signing up for the robo-call settlement program, citizens should contact their City, state, and federal representatives and demand resolutions and laws for both the state and national constitutions that make it explicit that corporations are not people and money is not speech.

As Will says, we need to know our Councilperson, Mayor, General Assembly, and Congresspeople put citizens over corporations.