Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 03-14-06 ‎(regular)‎ — reading text

outages to a customer 24 from 8: 00 a. m. to 12: 00 midnight ( Central Time) seven ( 7) days a week. 25 F. Office Hours. Cox shall maintain office hours at the payment location from 26 8: 00 a. m. to 6: 00 p. m. from Monday through Friday and 9: 00 a. m. until 12: 00 noon on 27 Saturday. Cox reserves the right to modify these office hours at its sole discretion upon 28 notice to the City. 29 G. Rebates. Cox, upon subscriber request, shall credit the subscribers account 30 for a prorata share of the monthly bill commensurate with the period of time a subscriber 31 experiences an outage in excess of six (6) hours. 32 H. Resolution of Complaints. promptly respond to and attempt to Cox shall 33 resolve all subscriber complaints; provided, however, that nothing herein shall require Cox 34 to maintain or repair any equipment not provided by it. Cox shall provide the City Manager 35 with a copy of its procedures for processing subscriber complaints within thirty ( 30) days 36 after the execution of the Franchise. 37 I. Subscriber Complaint Procedures. As subscribers are connected or 38 reconnected to the system, Cox shall, by means such as a card or brochure furnish 39 information to subscribers concerning the procedures for making complaints, including the 40 address and local telephone number of the Cox' s office to which such complaints are to be 41 addressed. 42 K. Response to Service Complaint. Calls for repair service shall be acted upon 43 within twenty-four ( 24) hours after receipt under normal circumstances. System outages 44 affecting more than five ( 5) subscribers shall be acted upon within four ( 4) hours following 8  1 the occurrence of the outage including Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays observed 2 by the City. Cox shall begin to resolve all other service complaints on the next business 3 day. Cox shall maintain on a twenty-four (24) hour call basis a sufficient number of field 4 technicians to repair outages affecting five ( 5) subscribers or more. 5 L. Form of Responses to Complaints. Cox shall attempt to resolve service 6 complaints within seven ( 7) days after receipt of the complaint and non- service complaints 7 within ten ( 10) days of the receipt of the complaint. If requested, Cox shall notify the 8 subscriber in writing as to the resolution of the complaint. 9 M. Consumer Service Standards. Unless otherwise provided herein, Cox shall 10 meetor exceed the Consumer Service Standards established by the Federal 11 Communications Commission ( 47 C. F. R. 976. 309). 12 N. Complaint Reports and Loas. Cox shall keep a service complaint log which 13 will indicate the nature of each complaint, the date and time it was received, the 14 disposition of said complaint and the time and date thereof. The service complaint log 15 shall be made available for periodic inspection by the City Manager. Records of service 16 and non- service related complaints shall be maintained by Cox for a period of two ( 2) 17 years. 18 O. Complaints Received by the City. Complaints received by the City Manager 19 shall be provided verbally to Cox by telephone upon receipt. As follow- up, the City 20 Manager will forward to Cox a cable subscriber complaint form. Cox shall complete the 21 applicable section of the form and return it to the City Manager within five ( 5) working days 22 of receipt indicating the steps taken to resolve the complaint. 23 P. Outaaes. Cox shall maintain records of all service outages ( Le., total loss of 24 all channels). Such records shall indicate the estimated number of subscribers affected, 25 the date and time of first notification of the outage, the date and time service was restored, 26 the cause of the outage and a description of the corrective action taken. Such records 27 shall be available to the City during normal business hours and retained in Cox' s files for 28 not less than two ( 2) years. A statistical summary of such records shall be prepared by 29 Cox and submitted to the City upon request. Such summaries shall be retained by Cox for 30 the term of the franchise agreement. 31 a. Subscriber Contracts. Contracts between Cox and their subscribers shall 32 not be inconsistent with the Cable Ordinance, this franchise, or applicable law. 33 R. Telephone System. Cox shall maintain, at a minimum, a telephone system 34 functionally equivalent to that provided upon the effective date of this agreement. 35 S. Submission of Reports. In order to assist the City in monitoring operation of 36 Cox' s cable system, the provision of services thereby, and Cox' s compliance with the 37 provisions of this Franchise and the Cable Ordinance, Cox, shall timely provide throughout 38 the term of this franchise any reports requested by the City. 39 T. Review of Subscriber Information. Subject to applicable law, upon request 40 by the City, and with the consent of the subscriber, Cox shall provide to the City all 41 information which it has on record relating in any way to that subscriber, that subscriber's 42 account( s), and all services provided to that subscriber, or such portion of that information 9  1 may be specified in the consent given by such subscriber. Such information as may be 2 specified shall include, but not be limited to, the Subscriber Billing or Account History for 3 such subscriber. 4 SECTION 16. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY. 5 A. Equal employment opportunity shall be afforded by Cox to all qualified 6 persons, and no person shall be discriminated against in employment because of race, 7 color, religion, age, national origin, sex or physical handicap. Cox shall with all comply 8 applicable equal opportunity provisions enacted by the City, federal and state authorities, 9 as well as all such provisions contained in this Franchise. 10 SECTION 17. RATES. 11 A. Rate Schedules. Grantee shall file with the City schedules which shall 12 describe all services offered, all rates and charges of any kind, and all terms and 13 conditions relating thereto. Rate schedules shall be filed at least thirty ( 30) days prior to 14 the effective date of any change in rates or charges. 15 B. Rates. 16 1. Grantee shall establish rates that are nondiscriminatory within the same 17 general class of subscribers which must be applied fairly and uniformly to all subscribers in 18 the franchise area for all services. 19 2. Cox shall not be precluded from providing a lifeline cable rate containing a 20 10% discount for one ( 1) Basic Service subscription to low income senior citizens qualified 21 within the City limits. 22 3. Nothing contained herein shall inhibit the Grantee from offering (i)discounts to 23 commercial and multiple family dwelling subscribers billed on a bulk basis; (ii) promotional 24 discounts; and ( Hi) reduced installation rates for subscribers who have multiple services. 25 C. Provision of Service. Cox agrees to the following: 26 1. To charge no more for " Limited Basic" installation than the charge for 27 installation of the " Expanded Basic" tier. 28 2. To not charge for any downgrade of service requested by subscriber that 29 does not require a service call. 30 3. To credit subscribers $ 20.00 for any service call or for any installation 31 missed through the fault of the Company. Such credit shall only be 32 provided to the subscriber when an appointment was made and: 33 a) Cox failed to honor the appointment; and 34 b) No attempt was made to notify the subscriber during the scheduled 35 appointment time frame; and 10  1 c) The customer notified the company of its failure to appear within the next 2 business day; and 3 d) The appointment was not missed due to act of God. 4 SECTION 18. FRANCHISE RENEWAL. 5 This Franchise may be renewed by the City in accordance with the provisions of 6 the Cable Ordinance. The renewal process shall be conducted in accordance with 7 applicable federal law and this Franchise. 8 SECTION 19. POLICE POWERS. 9 In accepting this Franchise, Cox acknowledges that its rights hereunder are 10 subject to the police powers of the City to adopt and enforce general ordinances 11 necessary to the safety and welfare of the public and it agrees to comply with all 12 applicable general laws and ordinances enacted by the City pursuant to such power, as 13 provided in the Cable Ordinance. 14 SECTION 20. PERFORMANCE SECURITY. 15 A. Performance Bond. Upon execution of this Franchise, Cox may be 16 required to furnish to the City an irrevocable performance bond or letter of credit in the 17 amount of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($ 250, 000) to guarantee the faithful 18 performance of all its obligations under this Franchise and the Cable Ordinance. 19 B. Construction Cost Performance Bond. If during the term of this 20 Franchise Cox conducts a major upgrade or rebuild of its cable communications