minutes
cable tv franchise negotiating committee
tuesday, march 4, 1997

The Tuesday, March 4, 1997, meeting of the Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by Ald. Carnes.  On call of the roll, members present were:  Ald. Wagner, Ald. Carnes, and Ald. Beyer.  Also present was City Administrator Schornack.

review of the city of jefferson cable tv franchise agreement

The Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee reviewed the current franchise agreement.  The franchise agreement was compared to the franchise agreements from other cities that had been obtained by the City Administrator.

Tentative list of items to be included in new franchise agreement

After reviewing franchise ordinances and agreements from other cities, the Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee prepared a list of tentative items to be included in the new franchise agreement.  The list is as follows:

1.      New agreement have a term of between 3 to 5 years.

2.      The franchise fee to be paid to the City would be 5% of total gross revenues.

3.      Provisions for remedy of outages, that is a credit to the customers be paid for certain outages.

4.      Provisions be incorporated concerning an emergency override of the system.

5.      System upgrade within 2 years.

6.      Capital grant of at least $30,000 be made to the City.

7.      Provide upon request, cable TV hook-ups to three city buildings.

8.      Marcus Cable pick up the TV Consultant's fee.

9.      Provide lock-out security devises at no-charge.

10.  Maintain at least two drop-off boxes in the City.

11.  Maintain either a toll free telephone number, or a local office within the City.

12.  Provisions to regulate rates.

13.  Payment of bills within 30 days would incur no surcharge.

14.  Specify minimum number of basic channels.

15.  At least one Spanish speaking channel.

These items are not be construed as being all inclusive as additional items will probably be added as negotiations get underway. 

The City Administrator will work out the tentative language for these items and will forward them on to the City's cable TV consultant Barry Orton for review and will schedule a committee meeting with Mr. Orton.

Ald. Wagner, seconded by Ald. Beyer moved to adjourn the March 4, 1997, meeting of the Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee.  The motion carried unanimously.

NOTES FOR THE CABLE TV NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
for TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1997

Since putting the article into the last City Newsletter, stating that the City would be negotiating a new contract, I have received several phone calls.  Some complaints, some requests.  They are as follows:

spanish channel

I have received two separate phone calls -

            one from Chris Torres - 674-5495, and from Carmen Torres - 674-6919

They would like the City to discuss a spanish channel with Marcus. 

They both told me that some time ago, Juan Torres and others went around with a petition and sent it to Marcus requesting a Spanish Channel, however, Marcus responding negatively to the request. 

billing errors and quick shut offs

Mr. Irvin Lampman of 116 Deer Creek Ct. Apt. #4 - called to say that his service had been cut off by Marcus after he paid.  Mr. Lampman has a homebound, epileptic wife who became very upset.  [Mr. Lampman does admit to being behind in paying his bill, however, he also says that he called Marcus Cable and made arrangements.]

 Ms. Pat Messer, 221 W. Candise - 674-5719 - wanted us to know that she went through a long period of  “screwed” up billings with Marcus.

 yesterday - cable went out for over 40 minutes

As you might already know, cable went out yesterday for a large portion of the city, from about 1:15pm to 2:00pm.  We know that here at City Hall because the telephone never stopped ringing!!!!!!!!!

Brenda Engelhart - 674-4139
Carol Anderson - 674-9685
Betty Skaise - 674-3340
Erna Davidson - 674-2773
Ms. Wandschneider - 674-4504
Mr. Joseph Haluska

All of the above called yesterday during the black out.  The main theme was that enough is enough.  (Cable has cut out at least three times, for an extended period, in the last months.)

Then Today, at 2 pm Brenda Engelhart called again to say that her cable went out again.

I called Marcus Cable this afternoon.  Mr. Scott Behn, District Manager, was not in, however, he had Joe Browning, a technical director call me back.  They have two explanations:

1.      They are working on replacing 2,400 feet of cable on North High Street.  Animals have chewed the cable covering off to the point that rain water was getting in, and causing fuzzy pictures.
Marcus workers have been trying to gently move the old cable over so that they can install the new cable, however, it is in such bad shape that it shuts down the system.

They hope to be done with N. High soon, and state that they will try to replace any other cable overnight, when there are fewer viewers.

2.      Sun Outage - see the attached copy from Marcus Cable.

I hope these notes are helpful.

Faith