(a) There is hereby established an Advisory Council on Cable Television to be appointed by the township. The Council shall be composed of seven members who shall reflect the diverse community interests of the township and who shall serve for terms of three years. Initial terms shall be one, two and three years, determined by lot as follows: two members shall serve for one year; two members shall serve for two years; and three members shall serve for three years. Any vacancy shall be filled by the township by appointment for the remainder of the term. No employee or person with ownership interest in a cable television franchise granted pursuant to this chapter shall be eligible for membership on this Council. The Chairperson of the Council shall be elected by the members of the Council for a term of one year. Any action of the Council shall require concurrence of four members of the Council. An appropriation shall be made by the township for funding of this Council, such money to come from fees paid the township by the company as specified in this chapter.
(b) The Council shall have the following functions:
(1) Advise the township on applications for franchises and on franchise renewal;
(2) Advise the township on matters which might be grounds for revocation of the franchise or imposition of a penalty on the company in accordance with this chapter;
(3) Resolve disagreements among franchisees or between the company and subscribers or public or private users of the system. A decision of the Council in such cases is appealable to the township;
(4) Advise the township with respect to rates, to policy relating to the services provided to subscribers, to the operation and use of public channels and to the availability of channel time for lease for pay-cable programs, business users or informational programming;
(5) Cooperate with other systems and supervise interconnection of systems;
(6) Audit all company records as required by this chapter and, at the Council’s discretion, require preparation and filing of information additional to that required herein;
(7) Make an annual report to the township, including an account of franchise fees received and distributed, the total number of hours of utilization of public channels, hourly sub-totals for various programming categories and a review of any plans submitted during the year by the company for development of new services; and
(8) Conduct an evaluation of the system at least every three years, in consultation with the company and utilizing technical consultants, if necessary, which shall be paid for from fees received by the township from the company and, pursuant thereto, make recommendations to the township for amendments to this chapter.
(Ord. 474, passed 9-20-1978)