Woodbury creates unease by moving to redo cable deal

Woodbury is raising eyebrows across south Washington County by questioning the terms of its cable TV deal with neighboring cities.

"There's something going on here," said St. Paul Park Mayor Keith Franke. "What is all of a sudden the problem? What is the end game?"

Fran Hemmesch, administrator of the South Washington County Telecommunications Commission (SWCTC), added:

"Woodbury knows they could operate on their own. I hope they know we can do it better for them, and I've told them that."

Jason Egerstrom, a spokesman for Woodbury, said the city merely felt that the "current joint powers agreement with our partner cities is 20 years old [and] it's time to review and update it."

But a letter to Woodbury officials from an outside attorney specializing in telecommunications law makes some barbed points about the terms of the long-standing deal.

For instance, wrote Brian Grogan, "other member jurisdictions of [the partnership] receive virtually identical benefits or even greater benefits for less than half (in some cases for less than 10%) of the city's financial contribution."

"The city, like all other Twin City communities, has never had a competing (franchised) cable television provider. The opportunity to bring new competition to the city and determine the franchise terms for such a competitor is a significant undertaking which may dramatically impact the city and its residents."

The commission unites Woodbury with Cottage Grove, St. Paul Park, Newport and Grey Cloud Island.

"The key concern" with the terms of the deal, Grogan wrote, is that Woodbury "has nearly twice as many subscribers as the other four communities that are members … yet the city has only a 20 percent impact on commission votes. The question really comes down to one of control."

Hemmesch agreed that as Woodbury has grown, things have gotten a bit lopsided and weighted voting would be a fair change.

More drastic measures would concern her, she said. "Some larger cities operate on their own," she said, "but I think they would find out that there's a lot more to it than they think."

He provided a memo that outlines a proposal giving Woodbury 14 votes to Cottage Grove's seven and just one for the smaller places. It also seeks a study of whether "Woodbury is receiving a reasonable return of services and value for its $750,000 net annual contribution to SWCTC and whether the city is receiving an equitable distribution of the services provided by SWCTC compared to the other member cities."

The commission has decided to undertake a formal study of best practices in the field, looking at commissions in communities nearby, including the issue of value for money, Hemmesch said.

"I'm proud of this commission," she said. "I think we do everything extremely well. We give money back to cities at the end of the year. We are very conscientious about giving services to member cities."

Grogan noted that the city could probably save by having another vendor do the cablecasting of meetings, but conceded that the commission also provides many other services for which it has specialized expertise.

Egerstrom said: "We sent our proposed revisions to our partner cities and the cable commission for review and comment. This will come back to [the City] Council for discussion at some point, but probably not until fall."