1996-12-18 - CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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NORTH CENTRAL SUBURBAN CABLE COMMUNICATIO COMMISSION 1630 101st Avenue NE, Blaine, Minnesota 55449-4419 (612) 780 -8241 FAX (612) 780.8242 MEMORANDUM TO: Member City Councilmembers FIR Mike Cusick, Administrator DA: December 4, 1996 RE MONTHLY UPDATE ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ AGREEMENT TO RELIEVE OPERATOR OF COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING At its meeting of November 20, the Commission directed staff to draft the necessary franchise amendment to relieve the cable operator of their community programming responsibilities and transfer same to the Commission effective March 1, 1997. The Commission will review the amendment at its meeting of December 18 and submit it to member cities in the hope that it will be acted on early in January so that all necessary preparations can be made by he Commission to assume programming responsibilities on March 1, 1997, The Commission has also taken action based on member city direction to increase the PEG (Public, E ducational, G overnment) fee from $1.50 to $1.75. This is in line with the PEG fee level proposed for the operating budget of the Community Media Center which was previously submitted for member city review. COMMISSION HOLDS OPERATOR IN VIOLATION OF CABLE FRANCHISE The Commission took action to hold the operator in default and violation of its cable franchise for refusing to comply with a condition of the Commission's resolution approving the transfer of ownership of the franchise from Continental to US West. The Commission approved the transfer conditioned on US West securing all federal and local approvals for a waiver from the prohibition on telephone companies buying cable systems in their own phone service region. US West ignored this condition of the transfer resolution and has already closed on its purchase of Continental (Continental had previously purchased Meredith - currently US West continues doing business under the "Meredith" name). The purpose of requiring local approval for such a waiver is to insure that such a purchase by a phone company will not result in an anti - competitive market for telecommunication services due to the local phone company also being the local cable operator. The situation becomes even more important for local government due to the fact that federal law requires US West to divest itself of these systems sometime in the later BLAINE • CENTERVILLE • CIRCLE PINES • COON RAPIDS • HAM LAKE • LEXINGTON • LINO LAKES • SPRING LAKE PARK