The city council for the city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, finds and declares that:
(a) It is in the public interest to permit the use of rights-of-way and easements for the construction, maintenance and operation of cable systems under the terms of this chapter and a franchise adopted by the city council acting in its legislative capacity;
(b) It is in the public interest to ensure that providers of cable services do not unreasonably discriminate in whom they serve based on race, ethnic status, income, area in which they live, or other inappropriate basis, such as by not serving certain areas of the city, or failing on a timely basis to build their system to serve certain areas;
(c) In order to meet community needs, cable systems need to be accessible throughout the city and need to be constructed with lines in appropriate places both to make available public, educational and governmental access channels and to provide cable service to schools and government buildings;
(d) Requiring providers to obtain a franchise prior to constructing the cable systems, while requiring the city to act expeditiously on any franchise request, allows the city to ensure that the city can properly manage and control rights-of-way use and that the preceding objectives and others which are in the public interest are met, while allowing the prompt provision of cable services; and
(e) It is the city’s intent to apply the ordinances of the city, including this chapter, to all persons who intend to offer video programming in the city and who intend to use rights-of-way to construct or operate systems comparable to a cable system in a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory manner. All persons shall be required to apply for and receive a franchise before offering video programming in the city.
(1992 Code, § 44-1) (Ord. 104-09, passed 11-16-2009)