Josh Kleinbaum
Just a few hours after watching his colleagues discuss the city's
franchise renewal with Charter Communications, Councilman Bob
Yousefian's television screen turned into snow.
"I'm pretty sure it was because of the rain, but my cable went out
the day it was pouring cats and dogs," said Yousefian, who was home
sick from the City Council meeting Wednesday but watched the meeting
on television.
So as the city begins to discuss a new cable agreement with
Charter Communications, Yousefian wants one thing -- better service.
"It doesn't matter what cable company it is," Yousefian said. "For
some odd reason, the cable industry can't seem to get their act
straightened out, and they're losing a lot of customer base to
satellite dishes."
The city's franchise agreement with Charter Communications, which
allows the cable company to operate in the city, will expire Jan. 3,
2005. On Wednesday, the council agreed to hire five consulting firms
to gather focus groups and conduct surveys and audits to determine
the city's cable needs.
"There's some very technical stuff, and some relating to the
quality of the service to the public," City Manager Jim Starbird
said.
No other cable companies have expressed interest in providing
service to the city, officials said.
The consultant groups will explore four areas in which the city is
allowed to deny Charter a deal -- compliance with law, quality of
service, financial, legal and technical ability to provide service
and ability to meet future cable-related interests of the community.
The city will explore Charter's rates and the quality of its signal
and its customer service, but the city can deny a deal only if
Charter fails to meet FCC regulations, regardless of comments from
the public.
"Our main goal is to see that the subscribers are protected, and
they run a safe system and meet all FCC, state and local
requirements," Senior Assistant City Atty. Christina Sansone said.
Craig Watson, vice president of communications for Charter, said
Glendale's cable system is among the best in the country, and the
company has several new features it plans to introduce in the next
few years, including a cable box with TiVo-like capabilities and a
cable telephone system.
"We're looking forward to a dialogue with the city, and we think
we're going to come up with a mutually beneficial agreement," Watson
said. "We see this as a positive thing."
