Two weeks ago, Comcast executive Craig A. Snedeker met Montgomery County Council member Howard A. Denis for breakfast to try to ease tensions after two clashes between the council and the cable television company.
In July, over Comcast's protests, the council approved tough new customer-service requirements for companies that provide high-speed Internet access via cable modems. Six weeks later, Comcast attorneys subpoenaed the records of two council members who had supported an unsuccessful attempt by some company employees to organize a union.
"They wanted to try to clear the air," Denis (R-Potomac-Bethesda) said of the breakfast, adding that Snedeker blamed the subpoenas on an overzealous legal team. "They are like any other entity or person who is trying to do something in the county. They present their case the way everyone else does."
Several other council members and community leaders say there is nothing ordinary about the way Comcast, the country's largest cable provider, presents its case.
The company, with 210,000 subscribers in Montgomery and nearly 1 million in the Washington region, has taken an aggressive and, critics say, sometimes heavy-handed, approach to protecting its interests in Montgomery. Comcast's generosity toward elected officials -- including campaign contributions and free television time -- has resulted, critics say, in lenient regulatory treatment by the county, despite persistent complaints of rude employees, missed service appointments and lengthy waits for representatives to answer the phones.
"I think Comcast has been given kid-glove treatment," council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg) said.
Like other big companies doing business in Maryland, Comcast and its leaders contribute money to Montgomery County candidates -- about $4,000 over the past two years. It also sponsors receptions for elected officials, including gatherings at the national political conventions this summer. In the weeks before the November 2002 election, it donated $52,000 to the Maryland Republican Party and $75,000 to the Democratic Party, according to campaign finance reports.
Comcast's largesse isn't limited to elected officials. Jane Lawton, head of Montgomery's Office of Cable Television, which can fine the company for poor service, received contributions from several Comcast executives when she took a leave of absence to make a run for the House of Delegates in 2002, which ended unsuccessfully.
"I feel like we are really tough regulators," Lawton said, pointing to the new service standards for Internet access, among the first of their kind in the nation.
Other officials are growing uncomfortable with some company perks, such as tickets to University of Maryland basketball games at the Comcast Center. "It doesn't pass the smell test," council member Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) said of the free seats offered to the council. "I think it creates a real perception problem."
Comcast officials said that lobbying county officials is a sound and ethical policy, noting that cable companies have been criticized in the past for being inaccessible to decision-makers.
"We do this for the purpose of information-gathering and for the purpose of gaining feedback," said spokesman David H. Nevins, not for "exercising any inappropriate influence."
Several other council members agree.
"Their lobbying is no different than any business in Montgomery County, like Lockheed Martin or Marriott," said council President Steven A. Silverman (D-At Large).
