(a) As consideration for a franchise granted under this chapter, the grantee shall pay to the Village an amount equal to three percent of the grantee's gross revenues. However, as the Village is interested in actively creating local programming and is therefore desirous of generating additional revenues, the grantee agrees that it will immediately assist and cooperate with the Village in an application to the Federal Communications Commission to increase such franchise fee to five percent of the grantee's gross revenues.
(b) If the law, in the future, permits some larger basis for computing such fee, the Board of Trustees shall, at its election, be entitled to collect such additional moneys upon sixty days prior written notice to the grantee, provided that upon receipt of such notice, the grantee shall be entitled to initiate a petition for an equivalent rate increase pursuant to Section 814.32(c), notwithstanding any other then pending or recently decided rate requests. In such event, the Board shall afford the rate increase petition a presumption of reasonableness and shall stay the effective date of the new fee until sixty days after its decision on the rate petition.
(c) The Board anticipates that franchise fees would be utilized to defray the expense of local regulation of the grantee, to support the development of the access channels and generally to encourage development of the system.
(d) Payments due under this section shall be payable thirty days after the end of each calendar quarter. Each such payment shall be accompanied by a report, certified by an officer of the grantee, showing the basis for the computation thereof.
(e) The Board may, at its option, elect to receive from the grantee a lump sum advance on the payments to be made under this section at any time within three years from the date of the franchise award upon request by the grantor to the cumulative limit of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). Such payment shall be credited to the grantee, and the grantee shall not be required to make the quarterly payments until the credit has been eliminated. At that time, the grantee shall be obliged to continue making quarterly payments as required by this section.
(f) No acceptance of any payment shall be construed as an accord that the amount paid is in fact the correct amount, and all amounts paid shall be subject to audit and recomputation by the Village for eighteen months after receipt thereof. In the event that such recomputation results in additional fees owed, such amount shall be subject to an interest charge at the current prime lending rate from the date the payment was due.
(g) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as relieving the grantee of its liability for other properly applicable local taxes.
(Ord. 593. Passed 7-12-82; Ord. 598. Passed 8-23-82.)