Proposed During Contract Talks : Cox Cable Offered to Pay to Tape Council Meetings

Cox Cable offered to fund weekly videotaping of Monday City Council sessions when the company was negotiating a controversial extension of the company’s franchise with the city, officials said Friday.

The offer was made in June, when the council trimmed from its fiscal 1990 budget the $72,000 for taping council sessions broadcast over Cox and Southwestern cable systems, City Manager John Lockwood said Friday. Taping was done by the San Diego County Office of Education.

Lockwood said he didn’t tell the council about Cox’s offer because the city and the company were involved in sensitive negotiations that would have extended Cox’s franchise by 20 years, to 2029. Instead, Lockwood said, he only told council members that the city had received an offer to fund taping of the council sessions.

Lockwood and a Cox official said the two deals were unconnected.

“I didn’t want that to be construed as some carrot they were dangling,” Lockwood said.

Bob McRann, vice president and general manager for Cox, said, “A lot of people would like to link the two, but they’re totally unlinked.”

However, an aide to Councilman Bruce Henderson said Friday that the undisclosed deal “gives the appearance that some type of an arrangement was reached” to keep the council members on television in return for accepting an unfavorable franchise agreement with Cox. The aide, who asked not to be named, said the deal “is inappropriate at a time when we’re in negotiations” with Cox.

Lockwood responded that “people ought to become familiar with the facts before they make public comment.”

The franchise negotiations collapsed at a July 24 council meeting, when McRann expressed concern about taking over responsibility for an arcane tax assessed by the county. Henderson’s office maintained that Cox withdrew after 15 months of negotiations because Henderson exposed the franchise deal as a poor agreement for the city. Cox’s current contract expires in 2209.

The council is scheduled to vote on Cox’s videotape offer Monday. If the offer is approved, Cox will take over responsibility for videotaping council sessions Sept. 11, McRann said. He said that the project would cost Cox about $50,000.

In other budget matters, the council is also scheduled to vote Monday on a proposal to restore Sunday hours at branch libraries in Otay Mesa, North Park and Mira Mesa by spending $38,000 from its reserve fund.