San Dimas Council Grumbles, but Can’t Bar Cable Sex Channel

Despite ruffling the feathers of some residents and City Council members, the sexually explicit Tuxedo Channel will debut as scheduled Monday on Foothills Cablevision.

Mayor Terry L. Dipple suggested two weeks ago that the council act to prohibit the local cable system from offering adult entertainment, which he said would offend community standards.

But City Atty. J. Kenneth Brown advised the council at its meeting Tuesday night that any attempt to regulate Foothills Cablevision’s programming would run afoul of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that council members would be liable for damages if the cable company sued.

Dipple then moved that the council send a letter to Foothills Cablevision expressing the community’s opposition to sexually explicit programming in San Dimas and asking the company to reconsider its decision to offer the Tuxedo Channel. The council passed the motion by a vote of 3 to 2.

‘Morally Opposed’

“While we may not have the legal grounds to block the Tuxedo Channel from coming into San Dimas, we’re morally opposed to it,” Dipple said. “I have a personal objection to sexually explicit programming, which I believe to be obscene, being piped into every cable household in San Dimas.”

Thom Prevette, general manager of Foothills Cablevision, said the company would seek to be “exceptionally sensitive and responsive” to the council’s concerns but would not change its plans to offer the Tuxedo Channel.

Programming on the Tuxedo Channel will have “a sexual orientation,” Prevette said, but will not be X-rated. The channel will be offered six hours a day on a “pay-per-view” basis. Because the signal will be scrambled, subscribers who want to watch a movie or event on the channel must call Foothills Cablevision to request access, Prevette said.

However, Dipple and some members of the audience expressed outrage at adult entertainment coming into their homes, scrambled or otherwise.

‘Force-Fed Pornography’

“As a parent, I’ve come to the point of saying, ‘Enough,’ ” resident William Lang said. “I’m tired of having my family and my children force-fed all this pornography.”

But Prevette said that far from force-feeding subscribers with the Tuxedo Channel, Foothills Cablevision will offer them a variety of methods to keep the channel out of their homes.

A filter can be installed outside a customer’s home to block reception of cable Channel 61, he said. That channel will carry Tuxedo programming six hours a day and ordinary movies at other times.

Some viewers may program their channel selectors to require that a code be entered before the channel can be viewed, Prevette said.

Password Required

Customers may also contact the cable company to have their accounts “flagged,” meaning that a person ordering pay-per-view programming for that household must provide a password to receive the channel.

Dipple said he is unconvinced that such security measures will be effective, adding that the cable company has failed to publicize them adequately. The mayor said he will lead a boycott of the San Dimas cable system in neighboring cities.

Not everyone on the council agreed with Dipple. Councilman Denis Bertone said he shares Dipple’s concern about the Tuxedo Channel, but he opposed the motion to send a letter to the cable company and questioned why the council had debated a matter over which it had no authority.

“We went through a big show for no reason whatsoever,” Bertone said. “I think it’s in poor taste to lead people on, to tell them their city government can or will do something when it can’t.”