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Adelphia deal getting close?
by George Wiley
Though approval of a new cable TV franchise agreement with Adelphia Communications was put off for at least two weeks, the battle lines between the City of Redondo Beach and the communications giant appear to be softening.
Two weeks ago, Redondo Mayor Greg Hill was calling the company fraudulent in its dealings with the city, and the city manager's office called a special public hearing to gather public comment about revocation of Adelphia's cable franchise. Adelphia inherited the Redondo Beach franchise when it merged with Century Communications.
This week, however, Hill actually had compliments for Adelphia. Following a closed session at which councilmembers were briefed on the status of negotiations with the cable company, Hill admitted that during the week he had traded in his satellite dish for and signed on as an Adelphia customer.
"You did a great job," Hill told Adelphia representatives. "You met your two-hour window and did all the other things you had promised."
Hill did note that written comments from the public, which have been arriving at city hall since the city issued its call for public comment, were running 72-8 complaints vs. commendations on the old service provided by Century Communications.
Lee Perron, vice president of corporate affairs for Adelphia, repeated that he was now a resident of Redondo and lives on Avenue A. Perron once more handed out his private number at work, (310) 264-8043, and asked Redondo customers to call him with any problem they were encountering with service.
Perron said Adelphia was committed to "rolling a truck" 365 days a year, 24 hours a day if customers requested to cure snowy pictures, blank screens or other viewing problems which were local in nature. "We have made a commitment to take care of problems," Perron said.
The difficulties between the city and Adelphia grew out of Adelphia's moving ahead with its merger with Century before the city had given the merger agreement its blessing and approved the transfer of the city franchise from Century to Adelphia.
In other action, or in this case nonaction, the Redondo council Tuesday sent a controversial barking dog ordinance back to city staff for a rewrite. The ordinance, which appears close to being approved, will come before the council again at its next meeting in two weeks. The ordinance is complicated, but it would essentially allow both criminal and civil penalties-including initial fines of $78-against dog owners who allow their animals to bark without restraint, creating a noise nuisance for neighbors.ER