minutes
cable tv franchise negotiating committee
MONDAY, APRIL 7, 1997

The Monday, April 7, 1997, meeting of the Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Ald. Carnes.  On call of the roll, members present were: Ald. Carnes, Ald. Wagner, and Ald. Beyer.  Also present was City Administrator Schornack and Cable TV Consultant Barry Orton.

review list of tentative items to be included in the new  cable tv franchise agreement

The Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee reviewed a tentative list of items to be included in the new franchise agreement with Barry Orton.  Mr. Orton had various comments concerning some of the tentative items.  Mr. Orton will draft a new Cable TV Franchise Ordinance and will set up a meeting with Marcus Cable TV, in which the City Administrator, Ald. Carnes and Mr. Orton will be present.

minutes

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

Ald. Wagner, seconded by Ald. Beyer moved to adjourn the April 7, 1997, meeting of the Cable TV Franchise Negotiating Committee.  The motion carried unanimously.

CABLE TV NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
ITEMS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE NEW FRANCHISE AGREEMENT

1.      The Franchise agreement shall commence on July 1, 1997, until June 30, 2000.

2.      The grantee shall pay to the City of Jefferson, annually in August, a franchise fee in the amount of 5% of the grantee's total gross revenues.

3.      Service interruptions and significant degradation.  When the grantee has failed to provide a subscriber with appropriate service due to service outage or significant audio or video degradation, not due to the subscribers equipment or action, the grantee must notify the subscriber that the subscriber may request a rebate of any fees paid for the effected services under the following schedule, and the grantee must provide such rebates.  For the purpose of this section, outage or degradation shall begin when the subscriber provides notice to the grantee of the outage or degradation.  For the purpose of this section, any complaints of outage or degradation by the subscriber within any month shall be cumulative.  The grantee may request that the city waive or modify the rebate provisions for reasonable circumstances beyond its control.

a)     For period at least four (4) hours long, but under 24 hours, a rebate of one-thirtieth (1/30) of the monthly fee for effected channel of service for each instance.

b)     For periods of at least 24 hours, a rebate of one-tenth (1/10) of the monthly fee for effected channel of services for each 24 hour, thereof.  (Whitewater's franchise ordinance.)

4.      Emergency Alert Override System.   The grantee shall incorporate into its table system, the capability for a temporary emergency override whereby a designee of the city, in times of emergency, may introduce a message on all channels in the system simultaneously.  The grantee shall provide and maintain all equipment necessary for the use of this capability, which shall be capable of being invoked by a telephone line, provided acceptable security for the audio override can be accomplished.  (Whitewater's franchise ordinance.)

5.      The grantee hereby agrees to upgrade the cable system in the city to a capacity of at least 450 megacycles by July 1, 1999.  The grantee agrees to furnish a $50,000 completion bond with the City in a form acceptable with the City Attorney, which shall be released when the upgrade is complete and available to all areas required to be served under the franchise ordinance, or is forfeited to the City if the conditions of this agreement are not met.  (Delavan franchise agreement.)

6.      The grantee hereby agrees to provide to the City a capital grant of $30,000 to support programming of access channels on the cable system.  The grant shall be paid within 30 days after being requested by the City of Jefferson.

7.      Cable TV hook-ups shall be provided upon request by the City of Jefferson to three City of Jefferson buildings.  The hook-ups will be provided by the grantee at no cost to the City and shall provide basic and expanded basic at those hook-ups also at no cost to the City during period of this agreement.

8.      The grantee shall reimburse the City of Jefferson for the cost of the cable TV consultant that was utilized by the City of Jefferson in the negotiation of this agreement. 

9.      The grantee shall make available to all subscribers, without cost or deposit, a lock-out security devise to allow the subscriber to control the flow into his or her home of objectionable material over pay cable channels.

10.  The grantee shall maintain a minimum of two (2) drop-off locations in the City of Jefferson.

11.  The grantee shall provide access to a local or toll free telephone number for programming questions and service requests.  The number shall be either staffed or provided with answering capabilities 24 hours a day. 

12.  Rates.  (1)  Rates charged by the grantee for service hereinunder shall be fair and reasonable.  Before any service is sold to any customer, the grantee shall file with the City Clerk its schedule of rates for installation, monthly service charges, and any other charges related to the operation of the cable system, together with a statement of the rights and obligations of subscribers. 
(2)  Subsequent additions or amendments to rates and service charges shall, likewise, be filed with the City Clerk at least 30 days before the same become effective.
(3)  The City reserves the option to regulate rates for cable service, should such power be allowed under federal and state law.

13.  The grantee shall allow customers to pay their bills within 30 days with no surcharge.

14.  The grantee shall provide a minimum of ____ channels.

15.  The grantee shall provide a minimum of one Spanish speaking channel.