COUNCIL WANTS CABLE FEE STUDY.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council called for an inquiry Tuesday into whether Adelphia Communications complied with federal regulations in hiking cable TV rates for 250,000 customers in the San Fernando Valley and other areas of the city.

Officials at the cable company, which is raising rates by $2 a month or about 6 percent, said it needs the revenue to upgrade its technology and improve customer service as well as keep up with rising costs for programming.

But the increase, which council members said took them by surprise, irked city officials who say Adelphia - which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - has inadequately served residents.

``Our position has to be to protect the interests of our constituents,'' said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, chairman of the council's Information Technology and General Services Committee. ``Consumers deserve our every effort to make sure they get quality services.''

The council asked the city's Information Technology Agency to analyze the price hike to see if it meets the Federal Communications Commission's formula for justifying increases. The council asked the city agency to report how it will carry out that analysis at the next meeting of the council's ITGS Committee, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 10.

Adelphia's franchise agreement with the city expired Aug. 2, and the city is now hammering out an extension to be in place while a new agreement is negotiated.

The city has no say in overturning the rate increase, but the City Attorney's Office said the city can challenge whether Adelphia meets the FCC formula based on what the city finds in its own review of the accounting.

``Let's bring that on,'' said Councilman Jack Weiss. ``Let's do that accounting and let's see whether the rate increase is justified.''

Stacy Burnette, telecommunications regulatory officer with the ITA, said the accounting process is not quick and could take up to 10 months to complete. If the city ultimately prevails, it could lead to repayment to cable subscribers.

Adelphia spokeswoman Lisa Carparelli responded to the council's action by saying the company ``periodically reviews and adjusts rates to more accurately reflect the costs and value of the enhanced range of programming and services that we provide.''

As for future rate increases, the council also unanimously voted to instruct the ITA to inform the city's elected leaders at least 10 days after that department receives notice of them.