A. No applicant, spokesperson or person who supplies materials or services to an applicant shall directly or indirectly communicate with a city employee, concerning any matter related in any way to cable communications in the City of Chicago, the request for proposals, applications for franchises, applications for transfer of ownership, franchises, or transfer of ownership of a franchise, any franchise ordinance, or transfer of ownership resolutions except in writing addressed to:
Cable Division
City Hall
121 North LaSalle Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602
All responses on behalf of the city or any city employee to such communications shall be in writing filed with the cable administrator. The cable administrator shall maintain all such communications and responses in his or her office, available for public inspection during regular business hours, pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, as amended.
B. The foregoing shall not apply to communications consisting exclusively of the following:
1. Requests for application forms for a franchise or transfer of ownership of a franchise;
2. Requests for schedules of meetings of the city council;
3. Requests for information regarding procedural matters not in dispute;
4. Testimony, debate or deliberation at any meeting of the city council or any committee or subcommittee thereof held in conformity with the rules of the council and applicable laws with the State of Illinois;
5. Negotiations or other discussions with applicants formally and publicly authorized by the city council;
6. Communications through the public media, such as statements in news interviews and paid advertisements. In addition, nothing in this section shall preclude the mayor from publicly designating one representative of each city department to respond to inquiries from applicants concerning ascertainment of the needs of each department for possible use of the cable communications system. Any representative so designated shall be listed on a list made available to all applicants and to the public, and shall keep a log of each such meeting, which shall be available for public inspection during regular business hours.
(Prior code § 113.2-9; Amend Coun. J. 6-20-84, p. 7810; 5-16-90, p. 15716; Amend Coun. J. 12-9-92, p. 25465; Amend Coun. J. 11-17-10, p. 106597, Art. VIII, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 4-24-12, p. 23998, § 1)