To the editor:
Your article "Residents get say on cable deal" in the March 5 edition of The Cranbury Press is both incomplete and misleading.
In recounting the comments of speakers who took issue with Comcast’s policies and their so-called negotiations, comments made by Phyllis Magier, president of the The Ponds Condominium Association, were completely omitted. This is unfortunate, because The Ponds is the only PRC in the township that has concluded its attempts to negotiate with Comcast, and the experiences she reported should be of concern not only to the Cable Franchise Committee, but to all other residents, as well.
Ms. Magier told of Comcast’s complete intransigence in the "negotiation" process, ultimately resulting in The Ponds Association’s attorney counseling not to sign a contract with them. The Ponds was actually ready to cave in to their demands for a monumental rate increase and subject ourselves to bulk billing to retain our community access channel. However, when Comcast insisted on a clause in the contract that our association indemnify them for any damage they might cause while on our grounds, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Who ever heard of an association holding a contractor harmless for any damage the contractor’s employees may cause on the association’s property?
On the day after expiration of the contract, the community access channel at The Ponds went blank. Although The Ponds had been receiving this channel free of charge for the past five years, they called Comcast and offered to pay for it if they would re-instate it. The issue of how much that might cost never was discussed: Comcast flatly refused to supply the channel. Do you think this was in any way punitive for The Ponds not renewing its contract?
Unfortunately, none of these comments related by Ms. Magier were reported in The Cranbury Press. Equally unfortunate, in my view, was the fact that the representative from the Ratepayer Advocate’s Office, Chris White, after hearing her statements, as well as those from Paul Lubertazzi, president the Whittingham association, Irwin Kaplan, president of both the Greenbriar at Whittingham association and the Community Association of Central Jersey, Sylvia Brenner of Concordia – all of whom attested to Comcast’s unwillingness to negotiate in good faith – stood up and had the effrontery to state, "If you do a little horse-trading, a longer term can get you a better deal."
Was Mr. White having a nap when all of the people mentioned above stated -one after the other – that Comcast won’t negotiate in good faith? How can one "horse trade" with someone who won’t negotiate? And why did your newspaper choose his comment – over everything else that was said at that meeting – to stress in large bold print?
I only hope that the members of the Cable Franchise Committee were paying more attention to what was being said at that meeting than your reporter and the Ratepayer Advocate’s representative.
Alan Ginsberg
Monroe
