Glenn County Municipal Code Art. VII Operation And Maintenance

The grantee shall initially provide the cable services set forth in its franchise. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

The county shall have the right to inspect at any time during normal business hours and upon reasonable prior notice to the grantee all maps, cable communications system construction plans, financial records limited to gross revenues, service complaint logs, and performance test results which relate to the operation of the franchise and are maintained at the grantee's office within the service area. If any of such records are not kept in the grantee's local office, or upon reasonable request made available to the county, and if the county shall determine that an examination of such records is necessary or appropriate to the performance of any of the county's duties, then all travel and maintenance expenses necessarily incurred in making such examination shall be paid by the grantee. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

In any event the grantee shall at all times maintain:

1. Subscriber Complaints. Grantee shall maintain a written record, or the equivalent stored in computer memory and capable of being retrieved, of complaints received and interruptions and/or degradation of service for a period of three years. In any event the grantee shall maintain: Such records or a reasonable summary thereof identifying the number and nature of complaints and their disposition for each month at issue shall be furnished to the county upon request of the county, allowing reasonable time to assemble and/or copy the same.

2. System Maps. A full and complete set of plans, records, and "as-built" maps as of a reasonably current date accurately showing the location of the cable communications system equipment then installed or in use in the service area, exclusive of subscriber service drops. Such plans, records, and maps will be furnished to the county upon request of the county, allowing reasonable time to assemble and/or copy the same. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

1. Consumer Service Standards. The grantee shall maintain the necessary facilities, equipment and personnel to comply with the following consumer standards under normal conditions of operation: 1. Sufficient toll-free telephone line capacity during normal business hours to assure on twenty consecutive business days average that a minimum of ninety percent of all callers for any service will not be required to wait more than three minutes before being connected to a customer service representative. The grantee shall also acquire, install and maintain adequate monitoring equipment to assure that this requirement is satisfied. For purposes of the computation required in this section, the grantee shall be allowed to exclude any days on which material system outages occur or other material events which are beyond grantee's reasonable control.

   2. Emergency toll-free telephone answering capacity on a twenty-four hour basis, including weekends and holidays. A tape-recorded answering machine does not constitute an answering service. A bona fide answering (business) service is acceptable.

   3. An emergency system maintenance and repair staff, capable of responding to and commencing repairing of major system malfunction on a twenty-four hour basis.

   4. An installation staff, capable of installing service to any subscriber within ten business days after receipt of a bona fide request, in all areas where trunk and feeder cable have been activated.

   5. Grantee shall schedule, within a specified time period, e.g. either before noon or after noon, all appointments with subscribers for installation or service.

2. Requests for Cable Service Repairs.

   1. The grantee shall render efficient service, make repairs promptly, and interrupt service only for good cause and for the shortest time possible. A written log or an equivalent stored in computer memory and capable of access and reproduction, shall be maintained for all service interruptions and requests for cable service repair as required. Such records shall be maintained for thirty-six months.

   2. The grantee shall maintain a repair force of technicians normally capable of responding to subscriber requests for service within the following time frames:

      1. System Outage. Within two hours, including weekends and holidays, of determining that a sound or picture outage of one or more channels has occurred which affects all or a considerable number of the subscribers of the system;

      2. Isolated Outage. Within twenty-four hours, including weekends, of receiving requests for service identifying an isolated outage of sound or picture for one or more channels.

   3. Grantee shall be deemed to have responded to a complaint or a request for service under the provisions of this section when a technician arrives at the service location and begins work on the problem or attempts to diagnose the problem by way of telephone contact with the customer. In the case of a subscriber not being home when the technician arrives, response shall be deemed to have taken place if the technician leaves written notification of arrival.

   • As in the case of calls for installation service, the grantee, when scheduling service calls, shall advise the person requesting the repair service of a time period either before noon or after noon

within which the call will be made. Moreover, no charge shall be made to a subscriber for a repair service call unless the service request can be demonstrated by both repeated and non- cable in origin, or to involve subscriber negligence.

4. Grantee shall interrupt cable service only for good cause and for the shortest time possible. Scheduled interruptions, insofar as possible, shall be preceded by notice and shall occur during periods of minimum use of the cable system, preferably between midnight and six a.m.

5. Verification of Standards. Upon reasonable notice, the grantee shall demonstrate compliance with any or all of the standards required in subsections A and B of this section. The grantee shall provide sufficient detail to permit the grantor to verify the extent of compliance no more than twice per year, however, if any noncompliance is detected the grantor may in its sole discretion require such additional verification as it deems necessary and at grantee's expense for each time additional verification is needed.

6. Noncompliance with Standards. A repeated and verifiable pattern of noncompliance with the consumer protection standards of subsections A and B of this section, after grantee receipt of due notice and an opportunity to cure, may be termed a breach of the franchise, subject to any and all remedies as prescribed in Section 14.06.240 of this chapter and applicable law.

7. Local Office. The grantee shall maintain an office in Glenn County which shall be open during normal business hours and have a publicly listed toll-free telephone. Such office shall be adequately staffed to accept subscriber payments and respond to service requests and complaints. The grantee may use an answering service to receive such complaints and requests during other than the grantee's usual business hours or on such days as the grantee is not open for business. (Ord. 954 § 4, 1989; Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

The grantee shall establish procedures for receiving, acting upon, and resolving subscriber complaints. The procedures shall prescribe the manner in which a subscriber may submit a complaint, either orally or in writing, that the grantee has violated any provisions of this chapter, the franchise granted by the county to grantee pursuant to this chapter, or in the terms and conditions of the subscriber's contract with the grantee. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

1. Notice of Operating Policies. As subscribers are connected or reconnected to the cable system, the grantee shall provide each such subscriber with written information about grantee including the name, address, telephone number and normal business hours of grantee. The purpose of providing this information to the subscriber is to keep the subscriber informed of whom to contact with inquiries or complaints regarding the service.

2. Notice of Change in Rates and Services. The grantee shall provide all subscribers with at least ten-days written notice prior to the implementation of any change in rates or programming services. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

1. Nondiscrimination. The grantee shall not deny service, deny access, or otherwise discriminate against subscribers, channel users, or general citizens on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, or sex. The grantee shall comply at all times with all other applicable federal, state, and county laws and regulations, and all executive and administrative orders relating to nondiscrimination which are hereby incorporated and made part of this chapter by reference.

2. Equal Employment Opportunity. The grantee shall strictly adhere to the equal employment opportunity requirements of the FCC and state and local authorities, as amended from time to time.

3. Monitoring. No signals of a cable communications channel shall be transmitted from a subscriber terminal for purposes of monitoring individual viewing patterns or practices without the express written permission of the subscriber. The request for such permission shall be contained in a separate document with a prominent statement that the subscriber is authorizing the permission in full knowledge of its provisions. Such written permission shall be for a limited period of time not to exceed one year, which shall be renewable at the option of the subscriber. No penalty shall be invoked for a subscriber's failure to provide or renew such an authorization. The authorization shall be revocable at any time by the subscriber without penalty of any kind whatsoever. Such authorization is required for each type or classification of cable television activity planned, provided that the grantee shall be entitled to conduct system-wide or individually addressed sweeps for the purpose of verifying system integrity, controlling return path transmissions, or billing for pay services, or for the purpose of detecting unauthorized connections to the cable communications system.

4. Subscriber Information. The grantee's policy with respect to personally identifiable information shall be consistent with federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations with respect thereto. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

1. Continuity Required. It shall be the right of all subscribers to continue receiving service insofar as their financial and other obligations to the grantee are honored. In the event that the grantee elects to overbuild, rebuild, modify, or sell the cable communications system, or the county gives notice of intent to terminate or fails to renew the franchise, the grantee shall act so as to minimize the period of any interruption in service resulting therefrom. Such interruptions, insofar as possible, shall be preceded by notice to the affected subscribers and shall be limited to periods of minimum use of the service or services to be interrupted.

2. Operation by Grantee After Termination. In the event of a change of grantee, or in the event a new operator acquires the cable communications system, the grantee shall cooperate with the county, new grantee, or operator in maintaining continuity of service to all subscribers. During such period, the grantee shall be entitled to the revenues for any period during which it operates the system. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

The grantee shall have the authority to promulgate such rules, regulations, terms, and conditions governing the conduct of its business as the grantee shall consider reasonably necessary to enable the grantee to exercise its rights and perform its obligations under the franchise and to assure service to each and all of its subscribers; provided that such rules, regulations, terms, and conditions shall not be in conflict with the provisions hereof or applicable federal and state laws, rules, and regulations. The grantee shall provide the county with copies of any such rules, regulations, terms, and conditions within thirty days after any change therein. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)

The grantee shall be required to provide tenants in individually billed units of a multiple-dwelling unit housing facility with all cable services offered to other dwelling units located within the service area, so long as the owner of the facility consents in writing, if requested by the grantee, to the following:

1. To the grantee's providing of the service directly to individual units of the facility;

2. To reasonable conditions and times for installation, maintenance, and inspection of the system on the facility premises;

3. To reasonable conditions promulgated by the grantee to protect the grantee's equipment and to encourage widespread use of the system; and

4. To not discriminate in retail charges or otherwise between tenants who receive cable service and those who do not. (Ord. 942 § 4 (part), 1989.)