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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12061988 - IO.5 TO. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS I . 0. 5 FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE ,/�,��,I}}tra November 28 , 1988 C )sta DATE* Cly � SUBJECT: CABLE TELEVISION ORDINANCE NEGOTIATIONS �I "r SPECIFIC REQUESTS) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Authorize the Cable TV Administrator to continue to negotiate with the Cable TV industry with particular emphasis on the following positions which the Board of Supervisors believes are vital to the conclusion of successful negotiations: o Attempt to reach agreement on a ten-year term for Cable TV franchises with two additional five-year extensions which would be granted only when the Board of Supervisors is convinced that the Cable TV operator is adequately meeting community needs and when the Board of Supervisors is convinced that the Cable TV operator is using state-of-the-art equipment and technology. o Attempt to reach agreement on the issue of who pays for the countywide interconnect system with the emphasis on the need for the industry to pay the vast majority of the costs. o Attempt to reach agreement on the level of service which will be provided to, residents of the unincorporated areas of the County compared with the level of service provided to residents in nearby cities. The Board of Supervisors believes strongly that residents of this community should not be treated differently in terms of the level of Cable TV service they receive just because they are in an unincorporated area of the County, particularly when they are adjacent to an incorporated city. 2 . Request the Cable TV Administrator to prepare and forward to the Board of Supervisors a report on how often Cable TV operators show community programs and at what times of the day these programs are shown. The Board of Supervisors notes that it does not make much sense to go to the trouble and expense of producing a community program if it is shown only once at 2 : 00 A.M. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: _ RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR X RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE X APPROV OTHER �1 � �0M 7"sM SIGNATURE(S); Sunne W. Mc ek Tom Torlakson ACTION OF BOARD ON Decemher 6, 1988 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT — AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT; ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS �2 ON THE DATE SHOWN. CC: County Administrator ATTESTED ✓"A�i'// County Counsel PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Cable TV Administrator SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR M382/7-83 BY ,L (o,p ,DEPUTY Page 2 3 . Request the Cable TV Administrator to insist that the Cable TV operators agree to videotape meetings of the Board of Supervisors as they now do with city council meetings, either taping all such meetings for re-broadcast, or selecting not less than a fixed number of such meetings ( such as ten per year) when a public hearing or other issue of particular public interest is before the Board of Supervisors. Such broadcasts should begin during 1989 and should be expanded when a full interconnect system is available, which should be by 1992. The Cable TV Administrator should report the results of her discussions with the Cable TV operators on this issue to the Board of Supervisors by February 1, 1989. 4 . Request the Cable TV Administrator to try to complete her negotiations with the Cable TV operators in time to schedule hearings on the ordinance before the Board of Supervisors during February 1989. 5 . Remove this item as a referral to our Committee. BACKGROUND: On August 2, 1988, the Board of Supervisors approved our last status report on the negotiations for a new Cable TV ordinance. On November 28, 1988, our Committee met again with Sara Hoffman, our Cable TV Administrator. Negotiations are proceeding, although more slowly than had been anticipated. There are several issues which are unresolved and on which we believe the Board of Supervisors should provide some direction to staff. We have outlined these above in our Recommendations. The current schedule should make it possible to bring the completed ordinance to the full Board of Supervisors for hearings in February 1989. One of the most troubling issues from the perspective of our Committee is that the cable companies are looking at waiting until 1992 to have the system in Contra Costa County fully interconnected with a single channel number for community programming. We believe this should be viewed as an outside date and that faster action on the interconnecting of the system would be better. Rather than waiting for the system to be fully interconnected, we believe that the Cable TV operators should move ahead immediately to begin taping meetings of the Board of Supervisors as they currently do with some city council meetings and as was done for the Board' s hearings on the landfill issue.