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96-8407r RESOLUTION NO. 8407 RESOLUI'ION APPROVING SUMMARY PUBliCATION OF AN AMENDMENT TO APPENDIX E OF THE RICHFIElD CITY CODE WHEREAS, the City has adopted the above-referenced amendment to the Richfield City Code; and WHEREAS, the 'verbatim text of the amendment is lengthy, and the expense of publication of the complete text is not justified. NOW 'IHEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Richfield that the following summary is hereby approved for official publication: *** SUMMARY PUBliCATION Bll..L NO. 199'-'17 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING APPENDIX E OF THE RICHFIELD CITY CODE BY REPEAUNG SECTION E2, THE CABLE COMMUNICATIONS FRANCHISE ORDINANCE, AND SUBSTITIJTING lHEREFORE A CABLE TELEVISION FRANClfiSE AGREEMENT ORDINANCE BE1WEEN THE CITY OF RICHFIELD AND KBL CABLE SYSTEMS OF THE SOUTIIWEST, INC. (SUMMARY PUBliCATION) The above referenced actions have been taken pursuant to the authority of Minnesota Statutes, section 462.357. This summary of the amendment is published pursuant to section 3.12 of the Richfield City Charter. The Cable Television Franchise Agreement Ordinance ("Agreement Ordinance") grants a cable franchise to KBL Cable Systems of the Southwest Inc. d/b/a Paragon Cable ("Grantee") for 15 years. It also provides the effective date for the renewal. The Agreement Ordinance specifies that Grantee will upgrade the cu;rent cable system to a capacity of 750 MHz with 550 MHz reserved for providing the delivery of up to 79 analog cable channels (the present system has a capacity of 58 analog channels). The technical operations of the system shall also be upgraded and the Grantee shall provide standby power for the cable system. Grantee agrees to extend service to any residences receiving City water and sewer services. Parental controrpn;.visions shall be available to subscribers upon request. Under the Agreement Ordinance, Grantee shall provide a free connection and specified free '. cable services to public schools and municipally owned buildings. Free installation and service shall also be provided to private schools until the year 2000. A provision in the Agreement Ordinance allows the City to engage the Grantee in a periodic review process to detennine whether the cable system is state-of-the-art. Such a review includes at least two public hearings to obtain public comment. Provisions in the Agreement Ordinance also permit the City to require subscriber surveys. The Agreement Ordinance requires the Grantee to provide four public, educational and governmental access channels. Grantee shall also provide leased access channels and Metro Cable Network, Channel six, as required by law. Under the Agreement Ordinance, Grantee will combine the three existing public, educational and governmental access facilities into one large facility located in Eden Prairie. The Grantee is required to fIle a transition plan with the City describing this process. The combined facility will feature a studio with audience participation capacity, two separate editing suites, storage space, regular hours including evening and weekend hours, and it will be wheelchair accessible. Grantee will provide at least $200,128 in (unding for the facility during the fIrst year. After the fIrst year, the Grantee shall provickt~tfftident fmancial and in-kind support to maintain a substantially equivalent level of services, facilities and equipment in the remaining years of the Agreement Ordinance. The Agreement Ordinance requires the Grantee to assist the City irt providing live City Council meetings, reruns of government access programming and character generated programming on the government access channel. Grantee shall also assist the City in replaying tapes in pre-arranged time slots and it will switch to C-SPAN 2 or other comparable programming when the government access channel is not carrying live or taped government access programming. The Agreement Ordinance requires Grantee to pay a franchise fee of fIve percent. Grantee must maintain a bond of $300,000 until the system upgrade is complete and then the City may reduce the bond to $100,000. Several provisions specify penalties in the event of non- compliance with the franchise and the procedures to enforce those penalties. In consideration of the Grantee's investment of $20 million to rebuild the systems for the Cities of Eden Prairie, Edina, Minnetonka, Hopkins and RichfIeld, MN, the Agreement Ordinance contains a competition adjustment provision that relieves the Grantee of certain franchise fee and public, educational and government access obligations within a city if a wired competitor offers video programming services in that city. The amendment will be effective January 1, 1997, except that the amendment will be null and void if the City's existing cable franchi~ee does not execute a Franchise Agreement Ordinance by December 25, 1996. : Copies of the amendment are available for public inspection in the office of the city clerk during nonna! business hours. Dated: 11/25/96 BY ORDER OF 1liE CITY COUNCIL Thomas P. Ferber, City Clerk *** Passed by the City Council of the City of Richfield, Minnesota this 25th day of November 1996. ATTEST: ~p~ Thomas P. Ferber, City Clerk g~ ')~...... .....A ,.na . ....1 Martin J. ,. c Mayor . .