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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1303 - ADMIN Ordinance - City Council - 1975/11/03ORIGINAL NOVEMBER 3, 1975 8E ORDINANCE NO .1_3)3 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 1235 KNOWN AS THE "CABLE REGULATION ORDINANCE" AND AMENDING ORDINANCE NO, 1236 GRANTING A FRANCHISE TO WARNER CABLE COMPANY OF ST, LOUIS PARK THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ST LOUIS PARK ORDAINS: Section 1 Ordinance No, 1235, Section 9(a) is amended to read: (a) The franchisee shall install a "duplex" broadband telecommunications network "having a minimum initial bandwidth of 295 MHz (5-300 MHz). The network shall be either a "dual cable network" utilizing a TV set mounted coaxial switch or a single cable network utilizing a TV set mounted frequency convertor whichever L is consistent with the state of the art at the time of the network design and installation. In the event that the network to be installed is a single cable network, the Franchisee shall install a second or standby cable whenever the construction of the network requires the disturbance of a paved street, alley, sidewalk or other public or private way so as to permit the network to be installed underground. Sec. 2. Ordinance No. 1235, Section 9(b) is amended to read: (b) The reverse signal transmission capability of the network as required in (a) above shall be at least in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission's 3rd Report and Order. Whenever a reverse circuit is completed to a subscribers' premises so as to permit a response to an interrogation originated by the Franchisee, it shall be installed in such a way so as to permit subscriber notification and deactivation as set forth in Section 16, paragraph (j) herein entitled "Subscriber Privacy". Sec, 3. Ordinance No. 1235, Section 9(h) is amended to read: (h) (1) The franchisee shall initially provide a full color capable studio within St. Louis Park. This studio shall be constructed to enable preparation and playback of simultaneous live and/or taped and/or filmed programming within its facilities and to provide adequate space for reasonable audience participation. A franchisee's plans for its business office and color studio to be constructed within the City shall be submitted to the City for approval. These plans shall include such items as studio size, accessibility to the public, type of facilities, hours of operation and estimated construction time. (2) The franchisee shall provide initially either by a separate cable or by use of the bi-directional capability of its proposed network, the capability for live remote broadcasting from at least five (5) select locations within the City to be designated by the City. The franchisee shall connect any public building or facility designated by the City that lies along the bi-directional routes of the five (5) selected locations. The franchisee shall also initially provide a mobil van capable of black and white remote broadcasting. When, in the opinion of the City and the franchisee, it becomes economically feasible the franchisee shall place into service a capability for City-wide live and remote color broadcasting. (3) The franchisee shall, upon request and at no charge, provide the production facilities and personnel reasonably necessary to assist in the preparation and transmission of governmental and educational programs, Sec 4, Ordinance No 1235, Section 11(a)(1) is amended to read: (1) The franchisee shall provide, as required by the FCC, at commencement of service, one fully operational Class II Cable Channel as a non-commercial public access channel available to the public on a first-come, non-discriminatory basis It shall have production facilities, equipment, and personnel available without cost to cablecast live studio presentations, 16mm, Super 8mm, and 8mm sound film presentations, black and white and color video-tape presentations on one-half and three-quarter inch video tape of five minutes or less. Fees charged for any presentation over five minutes shall be limited to production costs attributed solely to personnel and equipment utilized. The franchisee also shall make available to the public portable video cameras, and tape recording equipment at reasonable cost. Sec. 5. Ordinance No. 1235, Section 12(b) is amended to read: (b) Upon written request by the City or the educational institutions, subject to FCC approval, the franchisee shall provide, if technically and economically feasible, within 60 days of the request, inter -connected service for the educational and governmental use channels at no cost for the time period provided for by Section 11, (b) and (c). Proposed use, frequency bandwidth, letter or numeric designation and hours of operation shall be specified. In the event that the analysis of the request made by the franchisee shows such 0 interconnection to be economically unfeasible the City may elect, but at its sole discretion, to arrange for compensation to be paid to the franchisee in an amount sufficient to assure economic feasibility by the franchisee and so order the interconnection. In the anent that the analysis fails to show technical feasibility, the franchisee shall have no further responsibility for accomplishing said interconnection until such time as permitted by improvements in technology. Seco 6. Ordinance No. 1235, Section 10(c) is amended by adding the following new subsection and by renumbering the existing subsections: (1) The network shall be designed, and installed and maint$lned so asoto be capable of operating over an ambient temperature range of -40 F to +120 F without catastrophic failure or irreversible performance changes over variations in supply voltages from 105 to 130 VAC and shall be capable of meeting all specifications set forth herein over an ambient temperature range of -20 F to +100 over variations in supply voltages from 105 to 130 VAC. Sec, 7. Ordinance No. 1235, Section 10(c)(4) is amended to read: (c) (4) The visual signal level at the picture carrier frequency on each channel shall not be less than 1000 UV (microvolts) as measured across a 75 ohm terminating impedance. -2- • • Sec 8 Ordinance No 1235, Section 7(a) is amended to read: (a) The franchisee shall, prior to the commencement of any physical construction, file with the city and at all times thereafter maintain in full force and effect for the term of this franchise or any renewal, at franchisee's sole expense, a corporate surety bond in a responsible company licensed to do business in the state of Minnesota renewable annually, and conditioned upon the faithful performance of franchisee, and upon the further condition that in the event franchisee shall fail to comply with any law, ordinance or regulation governing the franchise, there shall be recoverable jointly and severally from the principal and surety of the bond any damages or loss suffered by the city as a result, including the full amount of any compensation, indemnification, or cost of removal or abandonment of any property of the franchisee, plus a reasonable allowance for attorneys' fees and costs, up to the full amount of the bond, this condition to be d continuing obligation for the duration of the franchise and any renewal and until the franchisee has liquidated all of its obligations with the city that may arise from the acceptance of this franchisee or renewal by the franchisee or from its exercise of any privilege or right granted by the franchise, The bond shall provide that at least 30 days' prior written notice of either intention not to renew, cancellation or material change in the bond shall be given to the city by filing the same with the city clerk. The bond as initially filed shall be in the amount of $300,000. One year after completion of construction of the system, the bond shall be reduced to $50,000. Notwithstanding above provisions of this subsection, the City Council may in its sole discretion waive the bond or reduce the required amount after five years of operation of a system under the franchise, by the franchisee, its successors or assigns, which, in the sole opinion of the City Council has been satisfactory. Sec, 9. Ordinance No 1235, Section 1(i) is amended to read: (1) "Gross subscriber revenue" means those revenues derived from the supplying of regular subscriber service, including installation fees, disconnect and reconnect fees, and fees for regular cable benefits including the transmission of broadcast signals and access and origination channels. In the Event that the FCC modifies its permitted definition of the term gross subscriber revenue including the approval of franchise fees based upon "gross revenue" rather than "gross subscriber revenue", the definition used in this ordinance shall be modified accordingly, It is the intention of the city at all times to apply the franchise fee to the broadest possible revenue base that is legally permitted. Sec, 10, Ordinance No 1236, Section 3 is amended to read: Sec. 3n Incorporation of Proposals of the Company. The Company adopts as a part of its application and proposal for a broadband telecommunications network franchise the contents of all documents that have been submitted to the city by Warner Cable Corporation, a New York corporation, Cypress Communications Corporation, Northeast Minnesota Cable Company, or their officers, directors or agents, relating to the application for a broadband telecommunications network franchise All offers of or representations as to facilities, service and similar matters contained in the application and proposal of the company, except as inconsistent with law or ordinance, are incorporated into this ordinance by reference and made a part of the franchise. The application and proposal of the company consists of the following documents: -3- a. A proposal to provide community antenna television service to the City of St Louis Park, Minnesota, presented by Cypress Communications Corp,, dated October 12, 1971, signed by Jerry Polinsky b. Letter to Assistant to City Manager, dated December 20, 1971, signed by Marc B. Nathanson Director of Corporate Development. c. Transcript of CATV interview on January 22, 1972 (present: Marc Nathanson, Martin Blatt, Jerry Polinsky, Burt Harris, George Mehan). d, Memorandum to City of St. Louis Park from Martin Blatt, attorney for Cypress Communications Corporation dated April 27, 1972. e. Local programming for City of St Louis Park; Part I- Program Opportunities for CATV, Part 11 - Nation-wide examples of current Cypress programs, Part 111 - current proposal - with letter of July 7, 1972, John Calvetti. f. Amendments to: A Proposal to Provide Antenna Television Service to the City of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, by Cypress Communications Corporation and Northeast Minnesota Cable Company, dated August 2, 1972 signed by Burt I. Harris. g. Engineering statement dated August 3, 1972 by Theodore J. Swanson, Vice President of Engineering, Cypress Communications Corporation. h. Letter to City Manager dated September 12, 1972 signed by Harvey L Simpson. i. Letter to City Manager dated September 12, 1972 signed by Marc B. Nathanson. j. Letter to Assistant to the City Manager dated October 2, 1972 signed by Marc B. Nathanson, k. Letter to City Manager dated January 22, 1973 signed by Marc B Nathanson. 1. Comments on local origination, St, Louis Park ordinance (no date) made by John R, Calvetti, Vice President -Programming, Cypress Communications Corp. m. Comments on technical specifications, St. Louis Park Ordinance (no date) by Theodore J, Swanson, Vice President -Engineering, Cypress Communications Corp. n. Drawing of the proposed office and studios, Cypress St. Louis Park Cable TV system (no date). o. Supplemental information by Cypress Communications Corp. and Northeast Minnesota Cable Company (no date). -4- s p. Programming Activities of Cypress Communications Corporation. With respect to the cablecasting fund to be used for community programming, the company will pay to the City, to the extent legally permitted by the FCC, a sum of not to exceed $10,000 during the first year after the commencement of service. It is intended that the amount of this fund grow over the duration of the franchise, to the extent legally permitted by the FCC, and shall remain in proportion to the amount paid in the first year. The City shall annually serve upon the franchisee in writing a statement showing the amount of the cablecasting fund. The franchisee shall pay the amount of the cablecasting fund to the City within 30 days after the date of service of the statement. The City shall confer with the franchisee at the end of the first year and each subsequent year to review such factors as inflation, growth in the number of subscribers and growth in income, and shall determine the amount of the cable - casting fund for the following year. Sec. 11. Ordinance No. 1235, Section 11 (b) and (c) are amended to read: (b) Education and Governmental Use Channels. The franchisee shall provide, as required by the FCC, at commencement of service two fully operational Class 1I cable channels, without charge, for a period of five years from commencement of service for educational and governmental use. One channel shall be designated for use by educational institutions and one channel shall be designated for use by the City. The governmental use channel and the educa- tional use channel shall continue to be made available without charge to the extent permitted by the FCC upon demand of using agencies at the completion of the first five years. (c) Channel Capacity Expansion. To fulfill programming requests within the CATV system, the franchisee shall provide fully operational Class I1 Cable channels as required by the FCC. Requests for additional channel service shall be submitted to the franchisee in writing. The number of channels or par- tial channels desired, the amount of time desired on each, and the time schedule desired on each shall be specified in the request. Sec. 12. Ordinance No. 1236, Section 5 is repealed. Sec. 13. Effective date. This ordinance shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication. Adopted by the City Council Novem': 3, 1975. Rev 71e M i e r r administration: -5- or Approved as to form and legality: City -Attorney