Haverhill city officials must either have a very good sense of irony, or they must think their constituents have an extraordinarily high tolerance for hypocrisy.
Mayor James Fiorentini and city councilors were in high dudgeon this week, complaining in behalf of their constituents about Comcast raising its rates for cable television.
According to Comcast, the increase is just 1.4 percent and will affect only a small portion of the city's 20,000 cable subscribers.
But Fiorentini, in a letter to the company, declared, "Our citizens are hurting and cannot afford this," adding that it would especially hurt senior citizens with expanded basic coverage. The mayor said he has also asked Attorney General Martha Coakley if her office can force Comcast to roll back the charges.
Meanwhile, Councilor William Ryan, frustrated by Verizon's refusal so far to offer its FiOS service in Haverhill in spite of numerous invitations from the city, is convinced that Comcast and Verizon are colluding to maintain monopolies in various markets.
He said he had told the mayor that he should consider bringing an anti-trust suit against Verizon and Comcast, accusing them of deliberately avoiding competition.
This is rich irony, on two levels. Perhaps councilors forgot that they had just approved a tax rate that will hike the cost of government by $109 for the average single-family home, by $1,135 for the average business and by $2,295 for the average industrial property. At least citizens have a choice to buy cable service. They have no choice about paying their taxes.
Taxes go up every year. Why aren't Fiorentini and councilors all writing letters of complaint to one another, bemoaning the plight of citizens who, "are hurting and cannot afford this"? If they can raise prices every year, why can't Comcast?
Then there is the competition issue. They are absolutely right that competition tends to cut prices and improve quality. Two cable vendors in Haverhill would likely do that.
But their complaint is just as hypocritical. Competition would probably do wonders to cut the price and improve the quality not just of cable TV, but of city services as well.
But will city officials solicit competitive bids for private vendors to provide public works, police and fire protection services? Will they offer private companies the chance to see if they can do a better job educating local students?
Not a chance. There are too many friends' and family members' jobs to protect than to do what is best for all the citizens.
Issuing denunciations of a local cable company may play well. But it is grandstanding — nothing more. City officials should get their own financial house in order before trying to control the private sector.
