(a) Type and scope of system. A grantee shall install and maintain the system as proposed and agreed upon in the franchise agreement.
(b) Basic service tier. Each grantee of a cable system shall provide its subscribers a separately available basic service tier to which subscription is required for access to any other tier of service.
(c) Access channels. A grantee shall provide and maintain the number and type of access channels as are set forth in the franchise agreement.
(d) Supervision and regulation of franchises by the city. The city may do all things necessary and proper to supervise, inspect, and regulate the construction and operation of cable television systems franchised under this article; implement complaint procedures; regulate rates as authorized by federal, state, and local laws; monitor and enforce compliance with this article and any cable television franchise granted by the city.
A grantee shall not include in the programming or services it offers subscribers any program or service which is not protected by the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
(e) Grantee to maintain an office or service center in city limits. A grantee shall maintain a business office or service center within the city limits, which shall be open during the business hours stated in the consumer services standards of Section 95-9, and staffed and operated to respond to customers in at least four ways: accept payments and resolve billing difficulties; to give out and exchange or accept return of converters; schedule and conduct service or technician calls; answer subscriber inquiries; and resolve complaints. Subscribers shall be promptly notified of any change of address of such office or of telephone number(s). Grantee shall also prepare a promotional notice to familiarize residents with the location of said office, the services available, and complaint procedures. This notice is to be given to each new subscriber upon installation of service, and is to be distributed at least once per year to all subscribers.
(f) Repair and maintenance crew to be maintained that is capable of responding to subscriber complaints. Grantee shall maintain sufficient repair and maintenance crews capable of responding to subscriber complaints or requests for service in accordance with customer service standards described in Section 95-9.
(g) Outage log to be maintained showing details of service failures. A grantee shall maintain an outage log showing the date, approximate time, location, duration, number of subscribers affected, type and probable cause of all headend, trunk, or distribution line service failures due to causes other than routine testing or maintenance at reasonable times. A copy of such log showing the "availability criteria" (below) shall be filed with the City Manager of the city on a quarterly basis and shall be retained by a grantee for a period of three years.
The grantee will design, procure, install and maintain its equipment with the objective of meeting a monthly system availability criteria of 99.5 percent measured as follows:
100 -.5 | = | Power On -Outage Time |
"Power on" is defined as the total number of customer minutes per month.
"Outage time" is defined as the duration in minutes of any outage multiplied by the number of customers affected by the outage and accumulated for all outages occurring during the month.
(h) Planned service interruption. A grantee may intentionally interrupt service on the cable system only for good cause and for the shortest time possible and, except in emergency situations or to the extent necessary to correct the affected subscribers' service problems, only after a minimum of 48 hours prior notice to subscribers and the city of the anticipated service interruption; provided, however, that planned maintenance that does not require more than two hours' interruption of service shall not require such notice.
(i) The city can require testing of system and report on system performance. When there have been repeated complaints made or when there exists other evidence which, in the judgment of the city, casts doubt on the reliability or quality of cable service, the city shall have the right and authority to compel a grantee to test, analyze, and report on the performance of the cable system. Such report shall be delivered to the city no later than 14 days after the city formally notifies the grantee and shall include the following information: the nature of the complaints which precipitated the special test(s); which cable system component(s) was/were tested; the equipment used, and procedure(s) employed in said testing; the results of such test(s); and the methods(s) in which said complaints were resolved. Where the grantee's response or tests do not resolve the problem, the City Manager of the city may require that tests and analyses shall be supervised by a qualified engineer selected by the city who is not on the permanent staff of a grantee. Said tests shall be paid for by the grantee within 20 days after the city submits the engineer's invoice. The aforesaid engineer shall sign all records of the special tests and forward to the City Manager such records with a report interpreting the results of the tests and recommending actions to be taken by the grantee and the city.
(Ord. No. 2801, § 3, 2-25-99)