Fort Walton Beach Ordinance — 1702 cable franchise use city Right of Way — reading text

right to privacy in conformance with 47 U. S. C. 9551. D. Billina.Bills must be clear, concise and understandable. Bills must be fully itemized, with itemizations including, but not limited to, basic and premium service charges and equipment charges. Bills will also clearly delineate all activity during the billing period, including optional charges, rebates and credits. E. Business Offices and Personnel. Cox shall establish and maintain a location within two and one- half ( 2 1/ 2) miles of the City limits of the southerly section of the City where subscribers can pay bills and shall provide the personnel, telephone service and other equipment, as needed, to ensure timely, efficient and effective billing service to consumers. Cox shall have a locally listed telephone number, available to subscribers and the general public, for normal business calls and service calls available twenty-four ( 24) hours a day, seven ( 7) days a week. Cox shall provide a local telephone number to the City and utility companies to enable the City or utility company to reach Cox managerial personnel in case of an emergency on a twenty-four (24) hour, seven ( 7) days a week basis. Cox shall provide repair service to correct service outages to a customer from 8: 00 a. m. to 12: 00 midnight ( Central Time) seven ( 7) days a week. F. Office Hours. Cox shall maintain office hours at the payment location from 8: 00a. m.to 6: 00 p. m. from Monday through Friday and 9: 00 a. m. until 12: 00 noon on Saturday. Cox reserves the right to modify these office hours at its sole discretion upon notice to the City. G. Rebates. Cox, upon subscriber request, shall credit the subscribers account for a prorata share of the monthly bill commensurate with the period of time a subscriber experiences an outage in excess of six (6) hours. H. Resolution of Complaints. Cox shall promptly respond to and attempt to resolve all subscriber complaints; provided, however, that nothing herein shall require Cox to maintain or repair any equipment not provided by it. Cox shall provide the City Manager with a copy of its procedures for processing subscriber complaints within thirty ( 30) days after the execution of the Franchise. I. Subscriber Complaint Procedures. As subscribers are connected or reconnected to the system, Cox shall, by means such as a card or brochure furnish information to subscribers concerning the procedures for making complaints, including the address and local telephone number of the Cox' s office to which such complaints are to be addressed. K. Response to Service Complaint. Calls for repair service shall be acted upon within twenty-four ( 24) hours after receipt under normal circumstances. System outages affecting more than five ( 5) subscribers shall be acted upon within four ( 4) hours following 8 the occurrence of the outage including Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays observed by the City. Cox shall begin to resolve all other service complaints on the next business day. Cox shall maintain on a twenty-four ( 24) hour call basis a sufficient number of field technicians to repair outages affecting five ( 5) subscribers or more. L. Form of Responses to Complaints. Cox shall attempt to resolve service complaints within seven ( 7) days after receipt of the complaint and non- service complaints within ten ( 10) days of the receipt of the complaint. If requested, Cox shall notify the subscriber in writing as to the resolution of the complaint. M. Consumer Service Standards. Unless otherwise provided herein, Cox shall meet or exceed the Consumer Service Standards established by the Federal Communications Commission ( 47 C. F. R. 976. 309). N. Complaint Reports and LOQs. Cox shall keep a service complaint log which will indicate the nature of each complaint, the date and time it was received, the disposition of said complaint and the time and date thereof. The service complaint log shall be made available for periodic inspection by the City Manager. Records of service and non- service related complaints shall be maintained by Cox for a period of two ( 2) years. O. Complaints Received by the City. Complaints received by the City Manager shall be provided verbally to Cox by telephone upon receipt. As follow- up, the City Manager will forward to Cox a cable subscriber complaint form. Cox shall complete the applicable section of the form and return it to the City Manager within five ( 5) working days of receipt indicating the steps taken to resolve the complaint. P. Outaaes. Cox shall maintain records of all service outages ( i.e., total loss of all channels). Such records shall indicate the estimated number of subscribers affected, the date and time of first notification of the outage, the date and time service was restored, the cause of the outage and a description of the corrective action taken. Such records shall be available to the City during normal business hours and retained in Cox's files for not less than two ( 2) years. A statistical summary of such records shall be prepared by Cox and submitted to the City upon request. Such summaries shall be retained by Cox for the term of the franchise agreement. Q. Subscriber Contracts. Contracts between Cox and their subscribers shall not be inconsistent with the Cable Ordinance, this franchise, or applicable law. R. Telephone System. Cox shall maintain, at a minimum, a telephone system functionally equivalent to that provided upon the effective date of this agreement. S. Submission of Reports. In order to assist the City in monitoring operation of Cox's cable system, the provision of services thereby, and Cox' s compliance with the provisions of this Franchise and the Cable Ordinance, Cox, shall timely provide throughout the term of this franchise any reports requested by the City. 1. Review of Subscriber Information. Subject to applicable law, upon request by the City, and with the consent of the subscriber, Cox shall provide to the City all information which it has on record relating in any way to that subscriber, that subscriber's account( s), and all services provided to that subscriber, or such portion of that information 9 may be specified in the consent given by such subscriber. Such information as may be specified shall include, but not be limited to, the Subscriber Billing or Account History for such subscriber. SECTION 16. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY. A. Equal employment opportunity shall be afforded by Cox to all qualified persons, and no person shall be discriminated against in employment because of race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex or physical handicap. Cox shall comply with all applicable equal opportunity provisions enacted by the City, federal and state authorities, as well as all such provisions contained in this Franchise. SECTION 17 . RATES. A. Rate Schedules. Grantee shall file with the City schedules which shall describe all services offered, all rates and charges of any kind, and all terms and conditions relating thereto. Rate schedules shall be filed at least thirty ( 30) days prior to the effective date of any change in rates or charges. B. Rates. 1. Grantee shall establish rates that are nondiscriminatory within the same general class of subscribers which must be applied fairly and uniformly to all subscribers in the franchise area for all services. 2. Cox shall not be precluded from providing a lifeline cable rate containing a 10% discount for one ( 1) Basic Service subscription to qualified low income senior citizens within the City limits. 3. Nothing contained herein shall inhibit the Grantee from offering ( i) discounts to commercial and multiple family dwelling subscribers billed on a bulk basis; ( ii) promotional discounts; and ( iii) reduced installation rates for subscribers who have multiple services. C. Provision of Service. Cox agrees to the following: 1. To charge no more for " Limited Basic" installation than the charge for installation of the " Expanded Basic" tier. 2. To not charge for any downgrade of service requested by subscriber that does not require a service call. 3. To credit subscribers $ 20. 00 for any service call or for any installation missed through the fault of the Company. Such credit shall only be provided to the subscriber when an appointment was made and: a) Cox failed to honor the appointment; and b) No attempt was made to notify the subscriber during the scheduled appointment time frame; and 10  c) The customer notified the company of its failure to appear within the next business day; and d) The appointment was not missed due to act of God. SECTION 18. FRANCHISE RENEWAL. This Franchise may be renewed by the City in accordance with the provisions of the Cable Ordinance. The renewal process shall be conducted in accordance with applicable federal law and this Franchise. SECTION 19. POLICE POWERS. In accepting this Franchise, Cox acknowledges that its rights hereunder are subject to the police powers of the City to adopt and enforce general ordinances necessary to the safety and welfare of the public and it agrees to comply with all applicable general laws and ordinances enacted by the City pursuant to such power, as provided in the Cable Ordinance. SECTION 20. PERFORMANCE SECURITY. A. Performance Bond. Upon execution of this Franchise, Cox may be required to furnish to the City an irrevocable performance bond or letter of credit in the amount of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($ 250, 000) to guarantee the faithful performance of all its obligations under this Franchise and the Cable Ordinance. B. Construction Cost Performance Bond. If during the term of this Franchise Cox conducts a major upgrade or rebuild of its cable communications system, prior to commencing such construction, Cox will furnish an irrevocable performance bond to the City in the amount of one hundred twenty ( 120%) percent of the construction cost to guarantee its faithful performance and completion of such project. A major upgrade or rebuild is defined as upgrades or rebuilds where capital expenditures are in excess of Two Million Dollars ($ 2, 000,000). Upon the City' s reasonable determination that the rebuild or upgrade is complete, Cox shall be notified by the City that the bond required under this subparagraph may be released. C. Form. Any letter of credit or performance bond furnished by Cox must be issued by an entity and in a form acceptable to the City. SECTION 22. REGULATION. A. Reaulatorv Authority. The City shall exercise appropriate regulatory authority under the provisions of the Cable Ordinance and this Franchise. Regulation may be exercised though any duly designated City office or duly established Board or Commission. B. Termination. This Franchise can be terminated in accordance with the procedures established in the Cable Ordinance. C. Reserved Riqhts. The City hereby specifically reserves the right and authority to regulate all aspects of cable communications systems and services, including 11 but not