THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508160195
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
For the past year our Republican-controlled City Council has been secretly scheming with TCI of Virginia, holder of the cable television franchise in Chesapeake, to extend its exclusive multimillion-dollar monopoly contract for another 15 years.
This contract is to be signed, sealed and delivered by the council soon with no public notice, no public hearing no citizens' comments about votes, programs and service. Is this open, honest government?
Included in this deal is the citizen-owned TV station known as WCTV-23, which costs taxpayers about a million bucks a year.
There are many troubling and unanswered questions about this arrangement.
What is the mission, the purpose, of WCTV? How does it benefit the schools, the community college or the libraries, when it is under the director control of City Manager Jim Rein, who can pull the plug or censor any program at will? Will there be sufficient controls for educating the people?
Does this contract call for free advertising for the business community through the Chesapeake General Hospital, doctors and insurance shows? How about ex-mayor and Chamber of Commerce president Sid Oman's ``Sounding Board?''
How can Shirley Forbes, the wife of our beloved canebrake rattlesnake protector, Republican Del. Randy Forbes, get a free show on channel 10? No citizens' groups like the Chesapeake Taxpayers' Association, the Council of Civic Organizations, Chesapeake Forward or council watchers are allowed to give their views on the air. It's a clear violation of public property, equal time and free speech.
City Councilman W. Joe Newman, the council's cable television liaison - echoed by Mark S. Cox, public information director, and Meyer Davis, station manager - says citizens' groups are not allowed because they are afraid the KKK and other subversive groups would want equal time! This is another violation of state and federal First Amendment laws.
By the way, where does the Chamber of Commerce and the Tidewater Builders Association stand? Don't they believe in the U.S. Constitution? Don't they support education for all people? They always stick their political noses in everything else the people want in Chesapeake.
Carl Burns
Whitehurst Road Unfair competition
I am writing to take issue with the recent guest column signed by the Southeastern Public Service Authority. SPSA's closing paragraph is yet another example of the old saying, ``We are from the government, and we are here to help you.''
While many localities that also have the ability to impose flow control ordinances recognized that there was no longer a need to be in the trash business because private enterprise could do it better, SPSA decided to continue to build its monopoly. Instead of allowing private business to take care of the problem, this government agency decided it should compete with private business. After it made this decision and incurred additional indebtedness to pay for new facilities it then decided to compete unfairly with private enterprise by charging commercial customers more in order to subsidize residential customers.
For SPSA to suggest that everyone should ``share the burden'' is disingenuous in light of the fact that SPSA already applied the burden in a disproportionate and unfair manner.
SPSA should have recognized that waste disposal is a service that can be provided more economically and more efficiently by private companies and that it is not a growth industry for local government.
James W. Hazel
Richmond by CNB