CCP 06-24-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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11iW!(J-ff ON the city that works for you Council Worksession June 10, 2014 5:00 pm Present: Mayor Dave Jacobsen Councilmember Gina Bauman Councilmember Brian Strub Councilmember Paul Jacobsen Councilmember Mary Burg Absent: Staff in Attendance: Dean Lotter Guests in Attendance: Cor Wilson, North Suburban Cable Commission Comcast Franchise Agreement Cor Wilson, North Suburban Cable Commission, provided the Council with an update on the franchise renewal process with Comcast. She indicated this process was largely governed by federal law. She reviewed the lengthy negotiation process that NSCC has been following over the past two years with Comcast. She explained that attempts have been made to negotiate a renewed franchise on an informal basis with Comcast and these efforts have initially been unsuccessful. For this reason, NSCC requested that Comcast submit a detailed formal renewal proposal. She reported the City had until June 201h to take action on the formal proposal. The Council would be taking action on this proposal this evening. It was noted the Cable Commission does not support the formal proposal and recommends all member cities preliminarily deny Comcast's proposal. The reasons for this was that PEG fees have been reduced to 44 cents, the number of public channels would be cut in half and only one would be offered in high - definition; and Comcast was proposing to charge member cities an institutional connectivity fee of $1,675 per month for access to their network. She reported that CTV has gone from 12 to 6 channels. She noted Comcast would like to reduce the channel number to four. Ms. Wilson discussed the differences between operating and capital funding that had been provided by Comcast in the past. Councilmember Burg asked if CTV had records on viewership. Ms. Wilson stated a consultant had been hired by NSCC and a report was made available to Comcast regarding viewership. She reported that customers were not complaining about their $4.15 PEG fee and were viewing their local channels. Further discussion ensued regarding adjacent community PEG fees. Ms. Wilson provided comment on the informal negotiation process and explained these negotiations would continue even if the formal proposal were denied. She was hopefully optimistic that the two parties would be able to reach an agreement. She noted that a rate study had been completed on Comcast and the Cable Commission was hoping to see consistency in these rates for its subscribers. Discussion ensued regarding Comcast's bills, rate regulation along with consumer protection and customer safety. She commented that CTV took over 70 complaints last year based on the poor customer service provided by Comcast. The merger between Comcast and Time Warner was also discussed during the meeting.