§ 5-10.16. Miscellaneous provisions.

(a)

A franchise granted to provide service within the City shall authorize and permit the grantee to solicit, sell, distribute, and make a charge to subscribers within the City for connections to the cable television system of the grantee and shall also authorize and permit the grantee to traverse any portion of the City in order to provide service outside the City.

(b)

A franchise, easement, license, or other permit granted to anyone other than a grantee to traverse any portion of the City in order to provide service outside the City shall not authorize nor permit such person to solicit, sell, distribute, or make any charge to subscribers within the City, nor to render any service or connect any subscriber within the City to the cable television service system of the grantee.

(c)

No franchise granted pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall ever be given any value by any court or other public authority in any proceeding of any nature or character.

(d)

The grantee shall be subject to all the provisions of the other laws, rules, regulations, and specifications of the City heretofore or hereafter adopted, including, but not limited to, those pertaining to works and activities in, on, over, under, and about streets.

Any privilege claimed pursuant to any franchise granted pursuant to the provisions of this chapter in any right-of-way street, or other public property shall be subordinate to any prior lawful occupancy of the streets or other public property.

The grantee shall also be subject to the provisions of the general laws of the State, or as hereafter amended, when they are applicable to the exercise of any privilege contained in any franchise granted pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, including, but not limited to, those pertaining to works and activities in and about State highways.

(e)

The grantee shall be prohibited from directly or indirectly doing any of the following:

(1)

Providing information concerning the viewing patterns of identifiable individual subscribers to any person, group, or organization for any purpose;

(2)

Denying service, access, or otherwise discriminating against subscribers, channel users, or general citizens on the basis of income, race, color, religion, national origin, age or sex. Grantee shall comply at all times with all other applicable Federal, State, and local laws and regulations, and the executive and administrative orders relating to nondiscrimination which are hereby incorporated and made part of this chapter by reference.

(f)

When not otherwise set forth in this chapter, all matters required by the provisions of this chapter to be filed with the City shall be filed with the City Clerk.

(g)

No person, firm, or corporation within the service area of the grantee, and where distribution lines are in place, shall be refused service; provided, however, the grantee shall not be required to provide service to any subscriber who does not pay the applicable connection fee or service charge.

(h)

The form of the grantee's contract, if any, with the subscriber shall also be subject to the approval of the City.

(i)

The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, hereinafter the "Cable Act," promotes certain aspects of state and local regulation of cable television systems. Therefore, to the extent that any provisions of Chapter 10 are preempted by the Cable Act, including but not limited to, all grants of authority for municipal rate regulation, and for franchise renewals, those provisions of Chapter 10 shall be considered null and void, and the Cable Act shall govern. Similarly, where the Cable Act imposes certain requirements not specifically set forth within the ordinance, or should the Cable Act or any other Federal or State legislation or administrative law be amended or repealed at any time during which the franchise granted hereunder is in effect, is being negotiated or renegotiated, grantor and/or grantee shall have the right to exercise any new or expanded rights arising from such legislative acts, except however, as such new or expanded rights may be specifically and irrevocably restricted by express terms herein.

(j)

Any decision of the City Manager provided for in this chapter shall be appealable to the Council.

(k)

Protection of subscriber privacy. The grantee's policy with regard to personally identifiable information shall be consistent with federal law in effect on the date of the enactment of this ordinance.

(§ 2, Ord. 719, eff. January 4, 1990)