Point Arena Municipal Code Art. I Authority and Definitions

(1) The short title of this chapter shall be "The Cable Television Franchise Regulation Ordinance."

(2) The intent of the city council in adopting this chapter is to establish procedures and standards for the granting and terminating of franchises for cable television systems which operate in the city and, further, to establish appropriate standards for the protection of subscribers and users of such systems and the protection of easements and rights-of-way.

(3) The authority under which this chapter is enacted includes Sections 53066 and 53066.1 of the California Government Code and Part 76 of the Rules and Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (47 CFR).

(Ord. 127 § 4.04.010, 1987.)

For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, abbreviations, and their derivations shall have the meaning given herein. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future tense, words in the plural number include the singular number, and words in the singular number include the plural number.

"Cable communications system" or "cable system" or "CATV system"

means any cable communications system composed of antennas, cables, wires, strands, optical fibers, lines, towers, satellite receiving stations, or other conductors, converters, equipment or facilities, designed and constructed for the purpose of producing, receiving, transmitting, amplifying and distributing, audio, video, digital and other forms of electronic signals to and from subscribers or users. This shall not include any system that serves only the residents of a multi-unit dwelling under common ownership, control or management, which does not use city streets. A system may also be referred to as a CATV system.

"Channel"

means a frequency band capable, pursuant to the standards of the Federal Communications Commission, of carrying one color video signal.

"City"

shall mean the city of Point Arena, a political subdivision of the state of California, in its present general law form or in any later reorganized, consolidated, enlarged, or chartered form.

"City manager"

shall mean the city manager, or other designation of the city's chief executive officer, or any designee thereof.

"Complaint"

shall mean a written or telephonic communication from a subscriber to either grantee or grantor which specifies a failure of service. A complaint shall not be deemed to include any objection to the content or subject matter of a program transmitted over the system.

"Council"

shall mean the present city council of the city of Point Arena, California, or any future body constituting the legislative body of the city.

"Degraded signal"

means a signal on any channel, regardless of the point of origin of such signal, which fails to meet the technical standards prescribed for a Class I television broadcast signal as set forth in guidelines or rules and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission.

"Failure of service"

shall mean:

(a)

The continued reception at the subscriber's television set of a degraded signal transmitted over the cable system, for a period of 24 hours or more; or

(b)

The reception at the subscriber's television set of a degraded signal for not less than 30 minutes on not fewer than five or more occasions; or

(c)

The interruption or elimination of a regularly scheduled and previously programmed satellite or broadcast television signal when such interruption or elimination was the result of an act or omission of grantee and when grantee has failed to give subscribers not less than 10 days' notice of such interruption or failure; or

(d)

The failure of grantee to remove, at the request of a subscriber, any program service for which a separate program charge to the subscriber is made within 30 days of the request of a subscriber; or

(e)

The failure of grantee to correct an error in billing within 60 days of a written request by a subscriber for such correction; or

(f)

The failure of grantee to repair or correct a degraded signal within 10 days of a request from a subscriber setting forth the need for such repair or correction; or

(g)

The elimination or interruption of service to a subscriber (except as set forth in PAMC 5.15.135(3)) without the consent of a subscriber; provided, that such subscriber has paid all fees, charges or rates due to the grantee within 30 days of a receipt of a bill or other notice of such fees, charges or rates. The obligation to pay such fees, charges or rates shall not include any obligation to make payment for any erroneous amount billed to a subscriber when such error arises out of an act or omission of grantee, its agents or contractors; or

(h)

The failure to repair or replace a converter or other equipment required for the receipt of cable communications service within 15 days after receipt of notice from a subscriber that such converter or other equipment does not provide the services for which the subscriber is being billed.

"Franchise"

means and includes any authorization granted hereunder in terms of a franchise, privilege, permit, license or otherwise to construct, operate and maintain a cable system within all or a specified area in the city. Any such authorization, in whatever form granted, shall not mean and include any license or permit required for the privilege of transacting and carrying on a business within the city as required by other ordinances and laws of this city.

"Grantee"

shall mean the person, firm, or corporation granted a franchise by the council under this chapter and the lawful successor, transferee, or assignee of said person, firm, or corporation.

"Gross annual revenues"

means all cash, credits, property of any kind or nature, or other consideration received directly by a grantee, arising from or attributable to the sale or exchange of cable services by grantee within the city or in any way derived from the operation of its system, including, but not limited to, basic service, monthly fees, optional service or pay cable fees, installation and reconnection fees, leased channel fees, converter rentals or sales, studio rental, production equipment and production personnel fees, and advertising revenues. Gross annual revenues shall not include any taxes on services furnished by grantee imposed upon any subscriber or user by the state, city or other governmental unit and collected by grantee on behalf of said governmental unit, converter deposits, or refunds to subscribers by the grantee.

"Person"

shall mean any natural person and all domestic and foreign corporations, associations, syndicates, joint stock corporations, partnerships of every kind, clubs, business or common law trust, concerts of interest and societies.

"Property of grantee"

shall mean all property owned, installed, or used within the city by a grantee in the conduct of a cable television system business under the authority of a franchise granted pursuant to this chapter.

"Standard aerial drop"

shall mean the connection of a subscriber hook-up to grantee's trunk line by an above ground cable strand.

"Streets"

shall mean the surface of and the space above and below any street, road, highway, freeway, utility right-of-way or any other easement which now or hereafter exists for the provision of public or quasipublic services to residential or other properties, and in which the city is expressly or impliedly authorized or empowered to permit use for installation and operation of a cable television system.

"Subscriber" or "user"

shall mean any person or entity receiving, lawfully and for consideration, any service of the grantee's cable television system including, but not limited to, the conventional cable television system service of retransmission of television broadcast, radio signals, grantee's original cablecasting, and local government, education, and public access channels; and other services, such as leasing of channels, data, and facsimile transmission, pay television, and police, fire and similar public service communications.

"Two-way capability"

means the ability to receive and transmit signals from a subscriber point to another point in the system.

(Ord. 127 § 4.04.020, 1987.)