MISSION VIEJO : 9 Cities to Give Funds for Dimension Audit

A group of nine South County cities have banded together and say they will contribute money to hire a consultant to audit Dimension Cable, municipal officials said Friday.

“In our experience, people who have basic cable seem to be seeing increases while those who get premium channels are getting discounts,” said Laguna Niguel City Manager Tim Casey. “It makes sense that we hire one consultant to find out who’s getting charged for what.”

Basic cable rates generally pay for local programming such as cable access channels and programs broadcast by Southland area television stations. Cable companies sell higher priced packages that include channels such as ESPN and Discovery or movie channels.

Under the provisions of a 1992 federal cable television act, cable franchises were required to roll back their rates to customers. Dimension Cable officials say they cut monthly charges an average of 5% per household effective Sept. 1.

“We looked at what each level of service cost us,” said Dimension Cable General Manager Leo Brennan. “For instance, we found basic service customers had never been charged for cable converting equipment and we charged them for it while others saw a decrease.”

City officials said complaint calls rose in September. In Laguna Niguel, which averages one or two calls per month regarding cable service, complaints received at City Hall jumped to 11, many of those relating to rate increases, Casey said.

The same legislation that called for rate rollbacks also allowed cable authorities such as cities to apply to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to regulate basic cable rates.

All South County cities have applied for FCC certification or intend to apply in the near future, said Mission Viejo City Manager Fred Sorsabal.

In addition, the 1992 cable act allows citizens who feel they’re overpaying for premium channel packages to file a complaint that allows the FCC to investigate the individual cable.

Several cities, including Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel and Lake Forest, have decided to file complaints on behalf of their residents to ensure as complete a review of Dimension’s rates as possible.

The only cities that have not decided to join the consortium are Laguna Beach and Irvine. Laguna Beach has a form of rate regulation already written into its contract and Irvine had already started the certification process several weeks ago and plans its own audit.

Brennan said he has no problem with the audit because cities “have been given the authority to regulate rates. (South County cities) have to find a comfort level and that’s OK.”

To those subscribers and city officials who believe Dimension is overcharging some people, Brennan said: “That’s incorrect. The average customer’s bill went down and the audit will show that.”

The cities become regulating authorities 30 days after filing their application with the FCC. The consortium will meet shortly after all members are FCC-certified to choose a company to perform the audit.