Chapter 8 — Video Programming Consumer Protection [Added by Ord. 93-2]

This chapter shall be known as and may be referred to as the City of Lakewood Video Provider Consumer Protection Ordinance.

The City Council has heretofore enacted Ordinance 81-18 as amended by Ordinance 84-10 pertaining to rules and regulations governing the operation of community antenna television systems within the City of Lakewood and Ordinance 82-13 granting a franchise to Tribune Company Cable of California, Inc. to operate a community antenna television system within the City of Lakewood. In addition, the City Council and said Tribune Company Cable of California, Inc. made and entered into a Memorandum of Agreement, dated February 28, 1983. The City Council, by Resolution 92-4, approved an assignment of said franchise from the assignee of Tribune to Colony Cablevision of Lakewood. The aforementioned Ordinances, Resolution and Memorandum of Agreement constitute the existing franchise pertaining to the operation of a Community Antenna Television System within the City of Lakewood and include therein terms and provisions pertaining to consumer protection. The aforementioned Ordinances, Resolution and Memorandum of Agreement are hereby incorporated by reference and made a part hereof as though set forth in full.

It is the intention of the City Council, by this Chapter, to enact a consumer protection ordinance applicable to CATV systems within the City of Lakewood. To the extent any of the provisions of this Chapter are inconsistent with the Ordinances, Resolution and Agreement referred to in Section 4801, sometimes hereinafter called the "Franchise Documents," the terms and provisions of this Chapter shall apply. It is the intent of the City Council, by the adoption of this Chapter, to adopt a Consumer Protection Ordinance where not preempted, imposing more stringent and supplemental provisions than the standards established for cable television by 47 USC 552 and the FCC Regulations thereunder and the standards established by the Cable Television and Video Provider Customer Service Information Act, (Government Code 53054, et seq.), and the Video Customer Service Act, (Government Code 53088, et seq.).

This Chapter is applicable to cable television operators and systems and video providers as defined in Section 53054.2 of the Government Code of the State of California. No person shall violate the terms and provisions of the Cable Television and Video Provider Customer Service And Information Act, Government Code 53054, et seq. All CATV Franchisees and any cable television and video provider within the City shall comply with all of the terms and provisions of said Act. In the event of the failure of any Franchisee or cable television operator or video provider to distribute the Annual Notice required by Section 53055.1 of the Government Code, the City Administrator shall give written notice thereof to said operator or provider to comply within sixty (60) days, and upon failure of said operator or provider to so comply, a penalty in the sum of $500 for each year in which the notice is not distributed shall be imposed by the Director of Finance. The penalties shall be due and owing immediately upon notice of its disposition and, in the case of a Franchisee of the City, may be collected at the same time franchise fees are collected.

Non-payment of the penalty shall be grounds for termination of said franchise.

The Annual Notice as used herein, and as required by said Act, shall be given at least sixty (60) days after the effective date of the Ordinance enacting this Section and, thereafter, on or about the first day of January of each year. The Notice given to the City of Lakewood shall be delivered to the City Administrator and shall include a verbatim copy of the customer service standards established by each cable television operator or video provider within the City.

No person shall violate the terms and provisions of the Video Customer Service Act, Government Code 53088, et seq. In the event any person should claim that a video provider, as defined in Section 53088.1 of said Act, is not complying with the terms and provisions of said Act, or any person should have a dispute with said video provider under the provisions of said Act, written notice thereof may be filed with the City Clerk.

• A. Any person having a dispute with a video provider or having a complaint that the video provider is not complying with the terms and provisions of said Act shall reduce the complaint or dispute in writing before the City Clerk is required to act thereon. Upon receipt of said written notice, the City Clerk shall, within ten (10) days, make a tentative determination of whether the matter set forth in the notice is within the terms and provisions of said Act.

• B. If the City Clerk should determine that the matter set forth in said notice is not within the terms and provisions of said Act within said ten (10) days, said City Clerk shall return the written notice to the person providing the same with a written explanation of why the same is not covered under said Act.

• C. If the City Clerk determines that the notice appears to be under the terms and provisions of said Act, he or she shall give the video provider written notice of any alleged material breaches of the consumer service standards of said Act and allow the video provider at least thirty (30) days from receipt of the notice to remedy the specified breach.

• D. If, in the opinion of the City Administrator, or his duly authorized representative, said breach is material and not remedied within said thirty (30) days, said City Administrator or representative shall give the video operator a ten-day written notice of the penalties assessed for said breach as provided in Section 53088.2 (o) of the Government Code of the State of California.

• E. Pursuant to said Section 53088.2 (o) and (p) of the Government Code, the City Administrator, or his authorized representative, is hereby authorized to impose the penalties therein set forth on or after September 1, 1993. The penalties shall not exceed the amounts therein set forth and shall be assessed in accordance with the terms and provisions of Section 53088.2. In the event any Franchisee should fail to pay said penalty when assessed, on written notice to the Franchisee, the same may be grounds for the revocation of said franchise. However, any monetary penalty assessed under the provisions of this Section, shall be reduced dollar for dollar to the extent any liquidated damages or penalty provision of the Franchise Documents imposes a monetary obligation upon the video provider for customer service failures, and no other monetary damages may be imposed in such a case.

• F. Any person directly affected by any ruling or determination of the City Clerk or the City Administrator or his representative may, by written notice filed within ten (10) days of receipt of written notice of the decision complained of, appeal said decision to the City Council. The City Clerk shall thereafter schedule a public hearing on said appeal before the City Council within sixty (60) days of the receipt of said appeal.

• G. This Section shall be effective September 1, 1993.

In addition to the provisions of the Franchise Documents pertaining to consumer protection incorporated herein by Section 4801, and, in particular, in addition to the provisions of Section 9 and Section 14 of the Memorandum of Agreement dated February 28, 1983, the following consumer protection standards are adopted and, where inconsistent with the Franchise Documents, shall govern:

• A. For the purpose of this Section, the following definitions shall apply:

  1. COMPANY — Shall mean the CATV Franchisee of the City of Lakewood.

  2. CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE — Shall mean the representative of said company.

  3. CONSUMER OR CUSTOMER — Shall mean that person to whom company provides CATV services within the City of Lakewood.

  4. SYSTEMS — Shall mean the CATV Franchisee of the City of Lakewood.

• B. Each Franchisee of the City of Lakewood shall comply with the following consumer standards:

  1. Require that knowledgeable, qualified company representatives will be available to respond to customer's or PEG channel programmer's telephone inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Holidays are excluded. Cable Company's customer service center shall also be open during these hours.

  2. Under normal operating conditions, telephone answering time by a customer service representative, including wait time and the time required to transfer the call, shall not exceed 30 seconds. The number of routine rings shall be limited to four or fewer. This standard shall be met no less than ninety percent (90%) of the time measured on an annual basis and in accordance to a methodology proposed by cable company and approved by City.

  3. Under normal operating conditions, each of the following standards will be met no less than ninety percent (90%) of the time measured on an annual basis in accordance to methodology proposed by cable company and approved by City:

     • (a) Standard installations will be performed within seven (7) business days after an order has been placed. "Standard" installations are up to 175 feet from the existing distribution system.

     • (b) Excluding those situations reasonably beyond the control of the cable operator, the cable operator will respond to service interruptions, defined as service area outages, promptly and in no event later than J hours if reported during office hours or within 12 hours if reported after office hours. Other service problems will be responded to by the close of business on the next working day of the cable operator.

     • (c) The in-home appointment window alternatives for installations and service calls, including converter or remote control replacement, will be (a) morning, (b) afternoon, or (c) all day during normal business hours. The customer may choose the appointment window most convenient for them. In ninety percent (90%) of cases, cable company shall respond on same-day basis to service calls for converter and remote repair if the call is received by 3

p.m.

• (d) If, at any time an installer or technician is running late and will not arrive within the prescribed window, an attempt to contact the customer will be made and the appointment rescheduled as necessary at a time which is convenient for the customer.

4. Cable company billing statements shall be clear, concise and understandable. Cable company shall consult with City on any changes to company's statement and will consider City suggestions for modifications.

5. No customer will have their service disconnected unless they have received a delinquency notice from cable company at least seven (7) days prior to disconnection, with the exception of payments made on a past due account with a check returned "insufficient funds." Effective September 1, 1993, these provisions shall be suspended, and the provisions of Government Code 53058, et seq., shall apply.

6. In ninety percent (90%) of cases, refund checks will be issued within thirty (30) days; but, in no event, later than forty-five (45) days following the resolution of the request and the return of the equipment supplied by the cable company if service is terminated.

7. Cable company will cooperate with City's annual customer service and local programming survey.

8. Customers will be notified a minimum of thirty (30) days in advance of any rate or channel realignment change, as provided in Government Code 53088.2 (h).

9. Cable company shall provide City with a quarterly report on the number of service interruptions longer than thirty (30) minutes (on subscriber and institutional networks); service requests, complaints and service calls; their breakdown and resolution and comparison on a year-to-date and previous quarter/last-year basis. The report shall be in a format proposed by cable company and approved by the City.

10. Customers and local PEG channel programmers shall be afforded access to company's management structure including the System Customer Service Manager and System General Manager. System management staff will respond to PEG channel programmers and customer complaints or inquiries within one (1) working day of the initial request. Customers will, at least annually, be informed of this option via written notice.

11. Cable company shall file all general customer communications with the City. Company's filing with City shall at least be concurrent with its initial distribution to customers. General customer communications include, but are not limited to, marketing materials, rate increase correspondence, marketing promotions and service contract door knob hangers.

12. Cable company will prepare and submit to the City a policy with respect of procedures for access to subscriber's property.

13. If the cable company personnel does not arrive for installation or service calls within a designated four-hour time frame agreed to by the consumer, the consumer may request and is entitled to receive a $10.00 credit. If the cable company fails to provide such credit, and the request was made by the consumer within sixty (60) days of the missed appointment, the City may direct the cable company to issue the credit.

14. If the cable company does not mail a check for a refund (including applicable interest) to any consumer disconnecting service with an outstanding credit within forty-five (45) days of the date it is ended, and the consumer has returned all company-owned equipment, the consumer may request and is entitled to receive a $10.00 payment. In addition to the initial refund (and applicable interest) due, if the cable company fails to provide the $10.00 payment and the request was made by the consumer within sixty (60) days after failure to receive the refund, the City may direct the cable company to provide the $10 payment as well as any outstanding refund (and applicable interest) due.

15. If the cable company cannot perform standard installations within seven (7) calendar days of request by a consumer, the consumer may request and is entitled to receive a $10 credit. If the cable company fails to provide the $10 credit and the request was made by the consumer within sixty (60) days of the installation request, the City may direct the cable company to issue the credit.

16. The cable company shall provide an automatic credit to all consumers where there is an outage of all channels for a period of twenty-four (24) consecutive hours or more which affects the entire Franchise area, regardless of the cause of the outage. The credit for such an outage shall equal, at a minimum, the value of one thirtieth of each customer's monthly bill for the first 24-consecutive-hour period and prorated for each additional four-hour period or portion thereof that the outage continues. The cable company shall provide an automatic credit to all affected consumers when there is an outage of any premium service for a period of twenty-five (24) consecutive hours or more which affects the entire Franchise area, regardless of the cause of the outage. The credit shall equal, at a minimum, the value of one thirtieth of each consumer's monthly bill for the first 24-consecutive-hour period and prorated for each additional four-hour period or portion thereof that the outage continues.

17. Upon request of the cable consumer, the cable company shall provide a credit to a consumer whenever an outage or outages of four or more hours in a twenty-four hour period has affected any of the non-premium channels received by a consumer as part of their cable television service. The credit shall equal the value one-thirtieth of each consumer's monthly bill for the outages of four-hours or greater duration occurring in a 24-hour period. In the event that a premium channel is affected by the outage, the credit shall equal the value of one-thirtieth of the consumer's monthly premium rate for each outage of four hours or greater duration occurring in a 24-hour period.

18. Under normal operating conditions and during hours when phones are staffed, consumer calls to the cable system shall receive a busy signal no more than three percent (3%) of the time or less.

19. Consumers will be given at least thirty (30) days notice of any rate change.

20. Consumers will be given at least thirty (30) days notice of any scrambling or de-scrambling of channels or the addition or deletion of channels that are within the company's control.

21. The cable company shall offer consumers the option to receive an A/B switch at the time of initial cable service installation for no additional installation cost, and shall provide consumers with written information as to how to use such a switch. The cable company may charge a reasonable price for said switch. Upon consumer request, the cable company shall provide an A/B switch after the initial installation of cable service. If the consumer requests installation of such a switch [to receive broadcast television without cable hookup], the cable company may charge reasonable fees for such installation and equipment.

22. If, in the opinion of the City Administrator, there has been a material violation of the terms and provisions of this Section which has not been remedied despite notices to do so or the assessment of fees and fines, a written notice may be given to the Franchisee setting forth in detail the nature of the violation and proceedings commenced as provided in the Franchise Documents for the revocation of said franchise.

An Open Video System is a wireline video delivery entity that has received a Federal Communications Commission certification of intent to comply with the Federal Communications Rules and programming requirements. This Chapter shall be applicable to a franchise cable system that has converted to an Open Video System. All customer privacy rights provided by the Federal Communications Act shall be applicable to Open Video Systems.