By ROSANNA MAH, The Independent Staff Writer 28.SEP.05
An inspection of Culver City’s cable television system by an independent consultant has found that its sole cable provider Comcast of Los Angeles, Inc., has violated over 5,000 safety codes required by law.
City officials hired West Los Angeles-based consultant Kramer.Firm Inc. last fall to conduct a field inspection of Comcast’s cable system in Culver City, along with representatives of the cable firm.
According to a city staff report, the Kramer inspection found that Comcast-operated cable system “materially fails to meet the required safety codes throughout the city.” The state and local safety codes are designed to protect the public from injury and property damage.
Some violations cited in the 116-page report include poor workmanship; loose cables; low cables over roadways; missing down guys (used to protect passersby from coming into contact with pole guying cables); incomplete pole-to-pole fiber optic cable construction that interferes with other utilities, among others.
It will take up to 18 months for the cable firm, a corporate subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., to correct the extensive number of safety violations, the city staff report said.
“I am dismayed that a company that has a franchise and has a commitment to this community would apparently spend so little time keeping their infrastructure up to date,” said Councilman Alan Corlin, who sits on a city subcommittee that is involved in current contract negotiations with the cable company.
Officials with Comcast’s Southern California office said they found the audit “troublesome,” and questioned its findings.
“We find the report troublesome and looking through details of it, the violations are not founded,” said spokesperson Patti Rockenwagner, who stressed that there have been no major safety incidents since Comcast began operating in Culver City two years ago.
“We dispute certain parts of the report but it’s not in any way, shape or form, to skirt the importance of having safety as our number one priority,” she later added.
According to Rockenwagner, Comcast may not be entirely responsible for all of the safety violations as Culver City’s original cable system was built around 25 years ago and has since been operated by at least four different firms.
But what continues to worry city officials, says Corlin, were shoddy installation of cable lines and maintenance problems that happened after Comcast became its main operator.
“The city’s position is that if there are any safety issues involved, then the cable company must address and resolve these issues,” said Deputy City Attorney Roland Miranda.
Currently, the city is trying to leverage its expected approval of the transfer of the cable television franchise from Comcast to Time Warner Cable Inc. in return for necessary safety repairs.
“It is in my opinion that Comcast would much rather the transfer go ahead without doing any corrections, but I’ve got to protect my constituents,” said Corlin. “Quite frankly, even though we can’t tie the two together as there is no nexus between the transfer and the repairs, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that in this particular time when Comcast needs us to sign off on the transfer, this is the most leverage we are going to have with them.”
Culver City officials have until Nov. 28 to approve or deny the transfer of the franchise agreement.
It's a shame either way.
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