By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA The Town Council on Wednesday night had to vote for a second time on a 10-year Time Warner Cable franchise agreement because they did not hold a public hearing before voting on the deal in December.

“We actually took premature action on this a couple months ago. We needed to have a public hearing,” Town Supervisor Joseph Gray said.

After a public hearing at the beginning of the meeting, the deal passed 5-0. When the board voted in December, it passed 4-1 with Councilman Albert Nicola voting no.

He said he changed his vote because the deal was non-exclusive. The deal that passed two months ago was also non-exclusive to TWC.

“The only reason I would vote for this, I voted against it last time, is it’s non-exclusive. I think 10 years is a long time for any contract,” he said prior to the vote. “Because it’s non-exclusive, I will vote for it.”

Last month, Gray said the town hired the Cohen Law Group from Pittsburgh, Pa. to represent them in a franchise negotiation and to conduct an audit of past franchise deal payments. He said the firm approached them and claimed they believe Time Warner may have underpaid under older deals. They have been going day-to-day with the company for about three years, and the firm is urging town lawmakers to approve a 10-year deal because TWC won’t agree to anything less. The deal approved Wednesday is retroactive, so it will stay in place for about the next seven years.

“Other than free service to a good number of facilities in town, there is a franchise fee coming into the town … we get about $40,000 a year I think right now,” Gray said of what they gained through the law firm’s involvement. “Should there someday be competition from another company, which I should hope … they are free to come into town and do business.”

Joseph Savaca of Massena spoke during the hearing and asked what happened to a study the town funded three years ago to look at the possibility of town wide wireless internet.

“They (Massena Electric Department) decided against it … the Public Service Commission doesn’t like electric companies in the business of telecommunications,” Gray said.

“I don’t think they felt at the moment … they wanted to branch out, that they were doing what they were charged to do and that’s it. They were concerned with how many they’d have to hire, train, etc. etc.,” Nicola said.

Massena resident Charlie Romeigh spoke during the hearing and said he thinks the town should pursue forming its own cable and internet company, similar to how MED was formed decades ago.

“It may not be a 400 channel television system, but how many channels do you watch right now?” Romeigh said. “You gentlemen are the leaders, hence leading the drive to do it.”

He believes Time Warner is not doing a good job of serving customers.

“Years ago, if a person had problems with their service, if they call someone was there almost instantly. Now it’s put off, and I don’t think it’s fair to the consumer,” Romeigh said. “The losers in the long run are the taxpaying constituents here in town.”

“We’ve over a barrel because there’s no competition… I hate it, but it is what it is,” Gray said.

Nicola pointed out before Time Warner cable and federal regulation of cable providers, companies like Time Warner would have had to ask individual municipal boards to approve any rate increase.

“Before the federal government in their infinite wisdom de-regulated cable TV … they had to come to the village board, they had to come to the town board, the county board,” he said. “Very shortly after that deregulation came, they didn’t have to come to you anymore.”