City Likely to Reject Cable Franchise Deal

The Ventura City Council is expected to reject Avenue TV Cable’s franchise agreement Monday because representatives from the city and cable provider were unable to arrive at an agreement in time to meet a federal deadline, city officials say.

But officials say cable service will continue for Avenue subscribers, and the city will continue informal negotiations with the cable company in an effort to strike a deal.

The development comes on the heels of last week’s preliminary approval of a franchise agreement with Century Cable of Northern California, which will develop a new system over the next two years that includes fast Internet access and other high-tech amenities.

Century serves the city’s east end while Avenue serves the western portion.

Mayor Jim Friedman said approving Avenue’s franchise agreement as it was proposed in June would risk all of the hard-fought-and-won amenities included in the Century Cable agreement.

The city can’t require Century to provide high-speed networks, public-access channels and other bells and whistles unless it requires Avenue to do the same, he said.

“Century could sue or the city would have to say to Century, ‘All those enhancements and upgrades that we have negotiated for in the last year and a half, we’ll just have to give all those back to you.’ ”

Worse, Friedman said that approving Avenue’s franchise agreement as is would create a dichotomy of “haves and have-nots” throughout the city.

“We obviously, as a council, would not want to create an environment where we would have a closer to the state-of-the-art system on the east end of the city and an inferior system on the west end,” he said.

Avenue representatives were not available for comment Friday.

Avenue submitted its franchise renewal proposal to the city in June, according to city staff. At that time, officials hoped they would be able to negotiate a deal with Avenue similar to the one they successfully closed with Century last week.

But in order to meet a four-month federal deadline on the negotiating process, the city must either approve the deal Monday or deny it. That means the proposal’s denial is largely procedural, Friedman said, and city officials will continue trying to strike an agreement.