WORCESTER—Despite the unanimous recommendation from the Cable Advisory Committee to reject the contract renewal with Charter Spectrum, City Manager Eric Batista has announced his decision to disregard their recommendation.
“I appreciate the work of the advisory committee and their recommendations when it comes to the license agreement,” Batista wrote on his Substack blog Wednesday. “However, in addition to their recommendations, I must consider the options the City has, as well as federal and state regulations when it comes to cable providers.”
The issue has drawn widespread attention, as Batista points out, with an information meeting hosted by the city in February attracting many concerned residents.
In its meeting on Tuesday, March 12, The Cable Advisory Committee presented and discussed its findings for the report to submit to Batista, the meeting and recommendations largely wrapped around frustration with the cable company.
Chairman John Keough led the meeting by recommending that the committee keep its internal recommendations out of the public until the city manager had a chance to examine those recommendations.
“Spectrum has taken the veil of silence,” said Keough. “There are items that are supposed to be provided that have never been provided during the course of our license [with them].” Keough added that the committee’s report had several blank spots due to having insufficient information.
“Publicly, I can say that when people call in for service, and those calls are escalated,” said Keough, “….well, the report that they gave to Judy…there were only 35 calls that had been escalated. We know from testimony alone—we’ve had more than 35 people testify—hat they’ve had a customer service issue. I’s the belief of the negotiating team and the committee members that we find that number is at least below, if not entirely inaccurate,”
Committee Member Stephen Quist agreed that devising a draft of the recommendation of whether or not to renew Spectrum Cable’s contract was a frustrating process.
“We’ve come to a conclusion here,” said Quist. “And the treatment that we’ve been given by Charter Spectrum on just obtaining simple information that the subscribers and people of this city deserve to hear…they stonewalled us each and every step of the way. They didn’t care about the complaints or issues people had. They didn’t have answers to the questions the committee had. We all know that within ten years there will no longer be cable, or it’ll be vastly different than what it is today.”
The city negotiated its original franchise agreement with Spectrum in 2013. While it was set to expire in October of 2023, Worcester was approved to extend the expiration date for a year to prepare for renegotiations.
The Worcester Cable Advisory Committee’s Ascertainment Report recommended that Spectrum ”have objectively, from any and all perspectives, failed to live up to the terms of their contract”…and that City Manager Eric Batista should “waste no time in denying this license,” This Week in Worcester reported.
Batista clarified in his blog post that the recommendations regarding the renewal of the Charter Spectrum franchise contract do not extend beyond cable television services. The contract does not include internet or phone services, which is a common misconception.
Charlene Arsenault can be reached at carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org
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