Glendale Rejects Bid to Switch Cable Companies : Communications: Executive charges that city declined offer only because Burbank made a similar deal with the firm.

Glendale officials rejected Marcus Cable’s bid to take over television service because they feel “one-upped” by neighboring Burbank, which just closed a similar deal with the cable company, an executive with firm charged Wednesday.

“It’s clear that the competition between those two cities is very intense,” said Joe Camicia, Marcus’ manager of government relations. “The risk for Glendale in playing this game is, they could wind up with a cable company that is leaving the business.”

A late offer by Marcus to match for Glendale the provisions it had negotiated with Burbank failed to sway the city officials, who scoffed at the suggestion that competition with Burbank was at the heart of the impasse.

“We’re not doing this because Burbank got what they got,” said Bill Marticarena, an attorney representing the city. “We’re doing this because it’s necessary.”

Camicia’s comments came after the Burbank City Council tentatively approved, while the Glendale City Council unanimously rejected, Marcus’ proposals to take over cable operations in each city from Sammons Communications.

For each council, a prime concern was whether Marcus would make good on Sammons’ promises to overhaul and upgrade the cable system, radically increasing the number of channels available from 40 to 78.

Burbank officials are satisfied with Marcus’ promises, and the council is expected next week to formally approve the deal already negotiated, said Steve Helvey, assistant city manager. The cable overhaul, serving 35,000 subscribers, is valued at $10 million.

In contrast, Glendale council members, meeting Tuesday night, rejected a series of Marcus overtures, including a promise to increase to $750,000 a cash deposit to assure that it will carry out the $15-million cable rebuilding project. Sammons now has 42,000 subscribers in Glendale.

But council members chided the company for not putting its latest offers in writing, and for not offering to extend the official negotiation period. At one point during the meeting, council members sent their negotiators and Marcus’ attorneys into a side room for more than an hour, but they were unable to hammer out a deal and the council voted 5 to 0 to reject the transfer.

The move blocks, at least temporarily, Marcus’ purchase of the Glendale cable television system, officials said.

“I’m not pleased with having to vote to deny, but I didn’t hear the kind of facts, reassurances that allowed me to vote any differently. Our experts are telling us the security still isn’t there,” Councilwoman Eileen Givens said.

The improvements in Glendale would replace outdated technology with fiber-optics, as was stipulated in a 10-year franchise agreement approved with Sammons early this year, just months before Sammons’ parent company announced it was selling off its cable enterprises. The agreement held Sammons to a number of fines and provisions to ensure the project’s completion, including a $500,000 deposit that the city could tap if the project were delayed.

But Glendale consultants said greater protections are needed because the new company has a much higher debt-to-income ratio and less experience in the cable industry.

“That contract was predicated on Sammons’ history in the community and its conservative financial practices,” said Bill Marticarena, an attorney representing the city. “We feel Marcus presents a much greater risk.”

In the agreement with Burbank, Marcus promised to deposit $750,000 to insure its performance. Marcus also promised Burbank $5,000 a day in fines if the cable rebuilding project was late--a figure that Marcus also offered to the Glendale City Council on Tuesday, up from $1,000.

Burbank also reserved the right to cancel the franchise if Marcus is 18 months late in rebuilding the system. A similar provision was not offered to Glendale until late Tuesday.

Camicia said he expects both sides will resume talking after a “cooling off period” of several weeks.

But he warned that Marcus may drop its bid for the Glendale franchise if they cannot reach an agreement “in a reasonable amount of time.”