Santa Ana to Take Cable Firm to Court

Santa Ana will take its fight with Comcast Cablevision to court next week and seek an injunction ordering the company to comply with its contract, city officials announced Tuesday.

Santa Ana has been levying a $1,000-per-day fine on Comcast since Dec. 1 for what it says are several franchise violations. Comcast, in turn, filed suit against the city in federal court, alleging that the terms of the franchise violated the company’s First Amendment rights.

At issue are several items in a contract that Group W Cable, which serviced the city at the time, negotiated with Santa Ana in 1984. Comcast took over the system in 1986 but maintains that it was not a party to the agreement and may renegotiate items out of the contract if they are “commercially impracticable,” Comcast attorney Maureen Whalen.

She said the company lost about $2 million in Santa Ana last year.

Santa Ana will say in court next week that the contract calls for the following items that Comcast has not provided:

- $2 million for a new TV studio for the city.

- A $468,000 annual grant for public access, educational and local government broadcasting.

- $200,000 for a network linking U.S. public agencies.

- A system linking community colleges and other cities for educational programming.

Last month, the company also mailed a two-page letter in English and Spanish to about 23,000 subscribers explaining that basic service rates would increase from $13.50 to $17.95 starting March 1 because of the city’s unwillingness to renegotiate the contract.

Included in the letter were post cards asking subscribers whether they wanted to pay increased rates for the contract items the city was insisting on. Comcast attorney Maureen Whalen said 10,000 cards were sent back--with 98% against the increased rates.

Comcast vice president Jim Bequette said the March bills, with the increased rates, were ready to go out and would be accompanied by a note explaining that if the city withdraws its demands, a partial or total refund of the increase will be forthcoming.

“My basic surprise is that based on citizens’ reaction they would do this,” said Bequette of the City Council’s decision to go ahead with the lawsuit. “If they want to spend their taxpayers’ money that way, well, OK.”

The city said the company would have raised rates anyway and pointed out that Comcast has not paid for any of the disputed items since 1986.

‘Trying to Use the City’

“We think Comcast is just trying to use the city for another round of rate increases,” City Manager David N. Ream said. “They believe they can have both the new rate increases and contract concessions by putting the city in a bad light.”

A victim of the dispute may be KYOU (Channel 26), the city’s public-access channel. Last year, even though it had not received the grant from Comcast, Santa Ana funded the station’s shows, which include a news roundup of Orange County, a monthly show with Supervisor Roger R. Stanton and programs for the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian communities.

But earlier this month the city told the station, which is operated in part by the telecommunications department of Rancho Santiago College, that it could not continue supporting it without the Comcast payment.

KYOU station manager Nick D’Antoni said the station could go off the air next week unless the college district’s trustees vote to continue subsidies--the district is already in for about $96,000, he said--or unless other money is found.

“We recognize what the current situation is,” D’Antoni said. “We’re just requesting that the city do everything in its power to continue its support.”