Lancaster Municipal Code Ch. 5.18 State Video Franchises

This chapter is designed to regulate video service providers holding state video franchises and operating within the city.

On January 1, 2007, the state became the sole authority with power to grant state video franchises pursuant to the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 (California Public Utilities Code Section 5800 et seq.) ("DIVCA"). Pursuant to DIVCA, the city shall receive a franchise fee and a fee for public, educational and/or government ("PEG") purposes from all state video franchise holders operating within the city. Additionally, the city acquired the responsibility to establish and enforce penalties, consistent with state law, against all state video franchise holders operating within the city for violations of customer service standards. DIVCA precludes the city from adopting its own standards and grants all authority to adopt customer service standards to the state. DTVCA leaves unchanged the city's authority to regulate the city's existing cable franchises until the expiration of any such franchises.

(Ord. 897 § 1 (Exh. A (part)), 2008)

(Ord. No. 1038, § 1, 3-13-2018)

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, and their derivations shall have the meaning given in this section. Unless otherwise expressly stated, words not defined in this chapter shall be given the meaning set forth in DIVCA, as amended from time to time. When not inconsistent with the context, words in the present tense include words in the future, words in the plural number include the singular number, words in the singular number include the plural number, and "including" and "include" are not limiting. The word "shall" is always mandatory.

"City" means the City of Lancaster, California.

"City manager" means the city manager of the City of Lancaster or his or her designee.

"PEG" means the availability of a cable or video system for public, educational and/or governmental use by various agencies, institutions, organizations, groups, and individuals, including the city and its exclusive city use channels or any existing agreement between the city and any incumbent cable operator, to acquire, create, and distribute programming not under a state franchise holder's editorial control.

"State franchise holder," "holder of a state franchise," or "holder" means any person or group of persons who has been issued a franchise by the California Public Utilities Commission to provide cable service or video service, as those terms are defined in Section 5830 of the Public Utilities Code, within any portion of the city.

(Ord. 897 § 1 (Exh. A (part)), 2008)

(Ord. No. 1038, § 1, 3-13-2018)

A. Any state video franchise holder operating within the boundaries of the city shall pay a fee to the city equal to five (5) percent of the gross revenue of that state video franchise holder.

B. Any state video franchise holder operating within the boundaries of the city shall also pay the city a fee equal to one (1) percent of the gross revenue of that state video franchise holder, which fee shall be used by the city for any public, educational, and/or governmental (PEG) purposes consistent with state and federal law.

C. Any state franchisee that has held a locally issued franchise agreement shall, consistent with Section 5870 of the Public Utilities Code, continue to fully provide and support PEG channel facilities and institutional networks and to provide cable services to community buildings to the maximum extent permitted by law.

D. Gross revenue, for the purposes of subsection (a), [and] (b), shall have the definition set forth in Section 58600 of the California Public Utilities Code.

(Ord. 897 § 1 (Exh. A (part)), 2008)

(Ord. No. 1038, § 1, 3-13-2018)

Not more than once annually, the city manager may examine and perform an audit of the business records of a holder of a state video franchise to ensure compliance with Section 5.18.020.

(Ord. 897 § 1 (Exh. A (part)), 2008)

(Ord. No. 1038, § 1, 3-13-2018)

A. The holder of a state video franchise shall comply with all applicable state and federal customer service and protection standards pertaining to the provision of video service.

B. The city manager shall monitor the compliance of state video franchise holders with respect to state and federal customer service and protection standards. The city manager will provide the state video franchise holder written notice of any material breaches of applicable customer service standards, and will allow the state video franchise holder thirty (30) days from the receipt of the notice to remedy the specified material breach. Material breaches not remedied within the thirty (30) day time period will be subject to the following penalties to be imposed by the city:

1. For the first occurrence of a violation, a fine of up to five hundred dollars ($500.00) may be imposed for each day the violation remains in effect, not to exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) for each violation.

2. For a second violation of the same nature within twelve (12) months, a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) may be imposed for each day the violation remains in effect, not to exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) for each violation.

3. For a third or further violation of the same nature within twelve (12) months, a fine of up to two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) may be imposed for each day the violation remains in effect, not to exceed seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500.00) for each violation.

C. A state video franchise holder may appeal a penalty assessed by the city manager to the city council pursuant and subject to the procedures contained in Chapter 2.44.

(Ord. 897 § 1 (Exh. A (part)), 2008)

(Ord. No. 1038, § 1, 3-13-2018)

A. Applicants for state video franchises within the boundaries of the City must concurrently provide complete copies to the city of any application or amendments to applications filed with the California Public Utilities Commission ("PUC") by providing one complete copy of such document(s) to the city manager.

B. Within thirty (30) days of receipt, the city manager will provide any appropriate comments to the PUC regarding an application or an amendment to an application for a state video franchise.

(Ord. 897 § 1 (Exh. A (part)), 2008)

(Ord. No. 1038, § 1, 3-13-2018)