Marshfield Suing Former Cable Access Coordinator
Friday, October 4th, 2019 -- 8:44 AM
(WDLB) -The city of Marshfield is suing its former cable access coordinator, claiming it was billed for services which were never provided.In a lawsuit filed on September 19 in Branch 1 of Wood County Circuit Court, the city is claiming that Tri-Media, LLC and its registered agent, identified in the complaint as Branden Bodendorfer, were in breach of contract during the time the company served as the city's cable access coordinator from May of 2016 through March of this year. The complaint states that Tri-Media "repeatedly breached the contract by invoicing the city for services that it was not entitled to payment for, under the terms of the agreement." Essentially, the city of Marshfield says it overpaid Tri-Media for services that were never provided, and therefore should not have had to pay for. The complaint against Bodendorfer and Tri-Media calls it "unjust enrichment", saying the company requested payment for goods and services which the city had no obligation to pay, and for which the city received no benefit.
City Administrator Steve Barg confirmed the legal action in a written statement on Tuesday, saying "The City of Marshfield has filed legal action against Tri-Media LLC, based upon what we believe to be billing inconsistent with contract terms for services rendered to the City during the time that Tri-Media LLC served as the City's cable access coordinator. The City has no further comment on the matter at this time." Barg did not provide a dollar amount of damages the city is seeking with the lawsuit, which is asking for a monetary judgement, plus court costs and attorney's fees. Tri-Media has 20 days from when the lawsuit was filed to respond, or in this case, Tuesday, October 8.
Before the city created its own Communications Department last year, it would hire an outside firm to serve as the coordinator of its cable access operation, which provides local programming and government meeting coverage through television channels broadcast on the Charter Spectrum system. For many years, that provider was Vidcom, operated by Dan Kummer. Upon Kummer's death in January of 2016, Tri-Media acquired the assets of Vidcom and assumed the duties of the cable access coordinator, under the terms of a Vidcom contract which expired in March of 2017. The terms of that contract were later extended through March of 2019.
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