HomeMy WebLinkAbout1563 ResolutionRESOLUTION NO 1563
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
PASCO, WASHINGTON, ESTABLISHING RULES AND REGU-
LATIONS AND STANDARDS OF OPERATION FOR A NON-
EXCLUSIVE CABLE TELEVISION FRANCHISE TO BE GRANTED
TO MICRO CABLE COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION
WHEREAS, the City Council is considering the granting of a non-
exclusive franchise to Micro-Cable Communications Corporation to provide
cable television service to residences and institutions of Pasco, and
WHEREAS, Section 2, of the proposed franchise ordinance provides
that Rules and Regulations and Standards of Operation for cable television
shall be established by Resolution as a part of the granting of a franchise,
NOW, THEREFORE,
THE PASCO CITY COUNCIL DO RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS
Section 1 Rules and Regulations for Customer Service
Standards
(a) Grantee shall maintain and operate a local office in the service
area throughout the franchise period
(b) All subscribers shall receive all legally available services
requested insofar as their financial and other obligations to the Grantee are
honored Neither the Council nor the Grantee shall, as to rates, charges,
service, service facilities, rules, regulations, or in any other respect, make
or grant any preference or advantage to any person, except as modified herein,
nor subiect any person to prejudice or disadvantage Nothing in this provision
shall be construed to prohibit the reduction or waiving of charges in conjunction
with promotional campaigns for the purpose of attracting subscribers, nor shall
this provision be interpreted to prohibit the establishment of graduated schedules
which vary with volume of usage, to which any subscriber, or programmer on a
leased channel, included within a particular classification, shall be entitled
(c) The cable television system shall be extended to every new sub-
division of the City,and the capacity to provide cable television service shall
be provided by Grantee during the construction phase of every new subdivision,
pursuant to the provisions of the requirements of the Franchise Ordinance and
subsection 7 4 of this Enabling Ordinance
(d) There shall be no charge for service calls except in cases of
willful or repeated damage
(e) The loss or theft of a converter or decoder will incur a penalty
of $150 00 plus replacement cost to the responsible subscriber unless a Police
report has been filed If a Police report has been filed and copy furnished
to Grantee, then the subscriber shall be charged not more than current
wholesale replacement cost
(f) In the event of service interruption of over 24-hours duration,
or unresolved service complaint not caused by the subscriber, Grantee shall
credit the subscriber's account upon request by a subscriber, on a pro-rata
basis Grantee shall inform all subscribers at least every four months of
this rule
(g) No polls or monitoring of other two-way responses to subscriber
shall be conducted by Grantee without the subscriber's consent The program
of which the poll is a part shall contain explicit disclosure of the nature,
purpose and prospective use of the results of the poll No commercial or
other use of information of individual subscriber viewing habits or patterns
may be made and no release of such information shall be permitted without the
prior consent of the City Council or pursuant to rules and regulations duly
adopted by the City This does not preclude Grantee's use of aggregate
subscriber viewing data for the above stated purposes
(h) Whenever Grantee elects to rebuild, modify, or sell the system,
or in the event that the Grantor revokes or falls to renew the franchise, the
Grantee shall do everything in its power to ensure that all subscribers receive
continuous, uninterrupted service regardless of the circumstances during the
lifetime of the franchise In the event of system purchase by the Grantor,
or change of Grantee, the current Grantee shall cooperate with the Grantor to
operate the system for a temporary period, not to exceed one year, in main-
taining continuity of service to all subscribers Grantee shall be entitled
to the profits or losses from operation of the franchise during such temporary
period
Section 2 Standards of Operations Programming
(a) The programming of the Basic TV, FM and Premium (Pay TV) services
shall be at a minimum as set forth in the City's CATV Plan
(1) Grantor may require Grantee to provide other unidirectional
and interactive cable services such as security, Teletext, Videotext,
and Playcable when such services have been demonstrated to be
technically and economically feasible on other cable systems of similar
description and size
(b) At least once per year, the Grantee shall furnish to all
subscribers along with their monthly service statement, a complete descriptive
menu of possible programming and services, including area independent stations,
satellite carried programming, local programming, and other services available
to Grantee The menu to be in the format of a mallback survey for determination
of the subscriber's programming preference The results of the survey are to
be provided the City by the Grantee with any proposed change(s) in programming to
accommodate subscriber's desired revisions as indicated by the results of the
survey The first such survey shall be conducted within one (1) year following
franchise award The requirements of this paragraph shall not continue beyond
three (3) years from the award of this franchise unless so directed by Grantor
When demonstration is made by the survey or other means , that
sixty percent (60%) or more of Grantee's subscribers desire a modification and/
or addition to the cable television services, one for which the majority of those
subscribers have previously paid or agreed to pay a sufficient amount of money
to Grantee to return Grantee's investment for the providing of such service with-
in a period not exceeding five (5) years, and Grantee elects not to provide
modified or additional service, the City may require Grantee to show cause why
it should not be required to modify and/or add to the service to provide said
service to the subscribers Should Grantee not be able to demonstrate that it
Page Two
--
is unable financially and on a technically viable basis to modify and/or
add to the service, the City may require Grantee to provide such
modification and/or addition to the service
Section 3 Institutional, Commercial and Government Services
(a) The City will have the option to utilize, at no cost to the
City, Institutional and Residential systems frequency spectrums in full 6
MHZ channels and other bandwidths when desired for video, data, facsimile,
and/or audio transmission community services The City will be responsible
for the provision of all terminal and cable access equipments, i e , modems, etc ,
for such applications Grantee will be responsible for headend interconnection
(and switching if required) of the channels for bi-directional communications
Grantee shall perform the interface of the City's terminal equipments on a
time and materials cost basis
(b) Grantee shall whenever requested by the City, provide the
capability for live cablecasting of Council meetings and other municipal
activities conducted in the Council Chambers at City Hall This shall require
a minimum of a two-camera capability, with a permanent cabling and lighting
installation in the Council Chamber
(c) When required by the City, Grantee shall provide an interconnect
with Columbia Basin College, for imortation, and distribution on Grantee's
Pasco System, of programming originated from the College
Section 4 Standards of Operation Technical
(a) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rules and Regulations,
Part 76, Subpart K (Technical Standards) shall apply However, because of
emphasis on interactive and other innovative services, modifications of FCC
standards, as presented in the specifications herein, are considered necessary
to meet system design objectives The following referenced specifications
will also apply, unless exception is agreed upon between the City and the Grantee
(1) Applicable City, County and State and National/
Federal Codes and Ordinances,
(2) Applicable Utility Joint Attachment Practices,
(3) National Electrical Safety Code,NFPA No 70,
(4) Local Utility Code Requirements,
(5) Local Right-of-Way Requirements,
*7`•
,
_
-k,I-
--,--
/
,
(b) Technical standards and parameters are to be referenced to the
mean temperature of the Pasco area The system shall be designed to meet all
specifications over a temperature range of + 50 degrees F from the mean
temperature of the Pasco area
Page Three
(c) The forward portion of the Residential System plant shall be
capable of carrying a minimum of 54 6 MHZ video channels, the full FM
broadcast band and adequate bandwidth for Pilot Carriers or such auxiliary
signals as required for system control In the event that future FCC restrictions
prohibit use of portions of the band (e g , the Aircraft Navigational frequencies
from 108 to 120 MHZ), a commensurate reduction in channel capacity may be affected
or modifications made to the slope/gain control method to retain channel capacity
The combined forward trunk and distribution system will deliver signals to each
and every customer's TV receiver that will meet or exceed the technical
specifications set forth in the City's CATV Plan at the Pasco mean temperature
+ 50 degrees F This shall include the effects of drop cables, interior splits,
and any terminal equipments such as descramblers and set top converters
(d) The Residential and Institutional systems shall have the capability
of providing and delivering return signals from each subscriber and Institutional
tap to the extreme downstream end of any area in compliance with the specifications
set forth in the City's CATV Plan This capability shall include transmission
of color, video, black and white video, and both low and high speed data, whether
analog or digital Where applicable, the end of the system specifications shall
include the effects of any signal reprocessing equipment necessary to achieve
forward transmission
(e) Although the programming procedure of shared channel usage for
non-contrasting programming is encouraged to preclude having numerous channels
with large blank periods (1 e , infrequent programming), it is an implicit
obligation of the Grantee in accepting the franchise renewal to actively
foster development of full usage of entertainment, access, and local
origination channel capabilities, including readily activating additional
channels as necessary to fulfill this obligation
(f) Technical specifications addressed in this Section are intended
to ensure accommodation of possible multiple institutional and residential
interactive data information and cable communications applications, e g , security
services, information retrieval, and educational services, as well as possibly
significantly expanded entertainment service offerings Grantee shall make
additional service capacity available including an expanded Institutional cable
network if necessary, when required by the City to accommodate those Institutional
and/or Residential broadband communications services beyond the capacity of
Grantee's then existing system Grantee will assist the City in determination
of the requirement for expansion of the Institutional cable network to ensure
timely provision of additional service capacity The City, however, reserves
the right of requiring Grantee to construct and activate an expanded
institutional network in part or throughout the system, at the City's sole
option and without unilateral, monetary or other ore-conditions on the part of
the Grantee Grantee may not require financial pre-conditions for the construction
of the expanded Institutional cable network, but Grantee does not thereby waive
the right to request a rate increase for such construction and operation after
the period stated in Section I of Resolution No 1562 , pertaining to Rates
and Charges The City will not apply unreasonable criteria in determination
of the requirement for the expanded cable system coverage
Page Four
APP AS TO FORM
Greg R ello, City At orney
PASSED by the y Council and APPROVED by the Mayor
this 77 day of , 1983
E A Snider, Mayor
Page Five