HomeMy WebLinkAbout1985-05-21; City Council; 8181; DEREGULATION OF CARLSBAD CABLEVISION: RANCHO LA COSTA CABLE TV IN ACCORDANCE WITH CALIFORNIA STATUTESRANCHO LA COSTA CABLE TV IN ACCORDANC. WITH CALIFORNIA STATUTES
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\ 'A J' CIT*F CARLSBAD - AGEND~ILL -
A
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
City Council approved Resolution OXY which finds Carlsbad
Cablevision and Rancho La Costa Cable TV are in compliance with
California statutes for deregulation and in substantial compliance
with their franchise with the City of Carlsbad.
ITEM EXPLANATION:
Carlsbad Cablevision and Rancho La Costa Cable TV filed for
deregulation under California statute in late February and early
March. The City as the Franchisor has 90 days to review and if
the operators are not in compliance, to provide them the specifics
of their failure to comply - operators then have 120 days to
correct the matter. Cable Television Information Center (CTIC)
evaluated the two systems for performance and for franchise compli
in January, 1985. Additionally, CTIC reviewed the filings for
deregulation and their compliance with the state deregulation
statutes. CTIC indicates that the operators are in substantial
compliance with the franchise and except for some procedural
of the report and the operators responses are contained in the
enclosures.
FISCAL IMPACT:
errors in the filing, are in compliance with state law. Discussio
The operators have already initiated rate increases. Carlsbad
Cablevision has increased $3.00 per month for basic service
($10.95 - $13.95); La Costa has increased by $2.00 per month
($10.50 - $12.50). This increases city franchise revenues by
about $12,000 (3% of revenues) and the Foundation revenues by
$4,000 (1% of basic service).
EXHIBIT:
1. Memo from Director Utilities & Maintenance of May 10, 1985
2. Resolution Xfi2q .
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RESOLUTION NO. 8024
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF CARLSBAD, FINDING CARLSBAD CABLEVISION AND
PLIANCE WITH THE CITY FRANCHISE AND STATE LAWS PERTAINING TO DEREGULATION.
LA COSTA CABLE TV TO BE IN SUBSTANTIAL COM-
_-
WHEREAS, Carlsbad Cablevision and Rancho La Costa Cable TV have filed
to deregulate customer service rates under pertinent State statutes; and
WHEREAS, the City has caused a review of the performance of both Cable
TV operators, their compliance with the City franchise agreement and the
State statutes and the review has found them to be in substantial
compliance;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of
Carlsbad, as follows; ,
1. The above recitations are true and correct.
2. The City Council finds that Carlsbad Cablevision and Rancho La Cost:
Cable TV are in substantial compliance with all franchise provisions and
State statutes relating to rate deregulation.
PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Carlsbai
at a regular meeting held 21st day of f" , 1985, by the followin
I vote, to wit:
AYES:
NOES :
ABSENT: N0ne
Council l&mbrs Casler, Lewis, Kulchin, Chick and Petthe
None
.;.1',,@k/L
MARY H. SLER, Mayor
ATTEST :
i=Au4K
(SEAL)
4 0 e
MAY 10, 1985
TO: CITY MANAGER
FROM: Director, Utilities & Maintenance
CABLE TV DEREGULATION
The two Cable TV system operators have filed application for deregulation
under the provisions of 53.066.1 of the Government Code. as a deregulation - it is however, only partial deregulation and pertains
only to deregulation of rate setting and establishing funding sources for
a state cable foundation. The franchise granted by the City and our City
Codes are still in force except for the regulation of rates.
meet all requirements of the Government Code sections which states "be exempt
from control by that franchisor or any other authority as to rates, charges
and rate structures . . . . There is no cap on the rate as there has been
in the past which indexes to the CPI or some other index. The $3 per month
increase (from $10.95 to $13.95) is completely within the California Code.
This is a 27% increase, however, the last increase was in May 1982.
The City does have the obligation to notify the operator within 90 days of
receiving the notice of their intent to deregulate, of any alleged non-
compliance with the statutes. To this end, I requested the Cable Television
Information Center to review the operators' notices and, based upon their
recent review, to provide a letter of opinion as to whether the operators
this opinion to the operators for comments which are contained as attachments.
CTIC found 5 items best described as "concerns." These are outlined below
with appropriate comments.
This is billed
Both operators
11
are in compliance, This letter is attached, I further provided copies of
1.
working days after the submission of statement of intention to
deregulate.
Cablevision failed to file a statement with the City 15
Comment:
was filed rather than forwarded.
as soon as I inquired as to why it had not been submitted. It is recommended that the 15 day requirement be considered
to be of no consequence as it has no.impact on the overall
matter.
Identification of the significantly viewed off-air stations -
This was an administrative oversight - the original
The statement was provided
2.
La Costa.
0 0
MAY 10, 1985
CITY MANAGER
Page 2
Comment:
falls within the Grade B contour of 9 San Diego market stations
as published in the Television Digest Atlas.
nationally recognized authority for such matters.
far exceeds the significantly viewed "criteria".
It is not clear whether funding given to the local foundation
La Costa Cable provided the information in the letter from Mr. Harry Warner, La Costa's attorney. La Costa
The Atlas is a
La Costa
3.
meets the requirements for funding public access- -.
Comment:
per year contribution to a state public access foundation 01
a 40$ per sbuscriber per year contribution to a local founda-
tion if established and lo@ per subscriber per year to the
state foundation.
The Government Code requires a 50C per subscriber
Comment: The definition for the local foundation
contained in the Government Code is somewhat vague, but
it appears that the Foundation for Carlsbad Community
Cable Television meets these requirements.
operators represent to us that they will provide 1OC
per subscriber per year as required.
Both
4.
notice originating from Cablevision indicate that no impact from
La Costa is necessary here.
Information displays (relating to public access) and published
Comment:
public access facility - La Costa Cable has made such an agree-
ment with Cablevision and financially supports the facility.
It is not clear whether the Companies' notice (to the state
Our franchise provides for cooperative use of a single
5.
foundation) has been made.
Comment:
which exceeds the 40C per subscriber local requirement.
state foundation has or will be advised as represented by
statements from both operators.
The local foundation received funding at 1% of gross
The
I am of the opinion that all conditions for deregulation of subscriber rates
as required by state statute have been meet and the concerns raised by CTIC
have been adequately answered. Accordingly, I do not find any basis for
notification of non-compliance and no further action is required. a RoGfl% dg.gZZ..
RWG : saf
0
LE TV
20: mer Greermkector, Utilities & Maintenance DATE: May 7, 1985 City of Carlsbad
FROM: Fred Morey/General Manager
suB7EcT: Review of Rate De-Regulation (Your Marro of 4-22-85)
We will cmnent only on the sumnary items 1-5 pages 7&8 of CTIC Associates April. 15,
1985 report to the City of Carlsbad:
1. Does not involve La Costa.
2. Identification of significantly vi- off-air stations. in attached letter frm our attorney, Mr. Harry Warner.
Relates to Local and Statewide Foundations for Cmunity Service Cable Television. See paragraphs 2 and 3 of attorney's letter. We intend to pay 1OC: a subscriber per mnth to the State Foundation in addition to the one percent
of basic subscriber revenue which nuw goes to the City Foundation (the one perm raises approximtely $1.50 per subscriber as CQnPared to the 40C per subscriber
required under the state law). We have already informed the State Foundation of %Regulation action.
4. You are well aware that La Costa and Cablevision display the same information on
the CarmnUu 'ty Access Channel and together with the City (through the Foundation) make every effort to inform concerning cmmnity access opportunities.
Rancho La Costa Cable TV
Please see Paragraph 1
3 & 5.
Thus the attached letter to the City Manager.
"iJg p 1W-u
Fred J rey
FJM/des
Enclosures
La Costa Community Antenna System, Inc.
7628 El Camino Real Carlsbad, California 92008-9990 Phone (619) 4363401
0 0
HARRY P. WARNER
A LAW CORPORATION Am CODE 2I3
277-3526 - 879 ~ 15 le00 AVENUE OF THE STAU
SUITE 2440-CENTURY CITY
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90067
May 3, 1985 P : 'f c-l, .- :'4 . . c /-; !-; !J, c .3Sf +*
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$b&L*'. .*- i-5. Mr. Fred Morey
7628 El Camino Real
Carlsbad, California 92008
Dear Fred:
- _-.
This is in response to your request that I submit my
comments to the letter dated April 15, 1985 from CTIC Associates
to Mr. Roger Greer pertaining to La Costa's request for deregu-
lation under the provisions of Section 53066.1 of the California
Government Code.
The CTIC letter listed five areas which in its opinion
may tender questions which require clarification.
1. The CTIC letter on page 3, in its comments on
§53066,l(d)(6), states that "In its statement La Costa lists 11
stations which it suggests are significantly viewed off the air
but does not state where this list has originated."
The 11 stations listed by La Costa were obtained from
the last Statement of Account filed by La Costa with the Copyrigl
office. Each of the 11 stations are "must carry" and/or "signif!
cantly viewed" stations. Other than KNBC and KCOP, which are
located in Los Angeles, the 9 remaining stations are identified
with the San Diego markets. On information and belief and based
on the coverage maps published in Television Digest's Atlas,
0 0
Mr. Fred Morey
May 3, 1985
Page Two
Carlsbad is within the Grade B contour of each of the 9 San Diego
stations.
The California Government Code in Section M(8) states
that a "significantly viewed station 'A' is designated as such
for the area by the Federal Communications Commission in its
1972 listing or any future such listings." Appendix €3 of the
1972 Reconsideration of Cable Television Report & Order (Memoran-
dum Opinion and Order on Reconsideration of the Cable Television
Report and Order, 36 FCC 2d 326, 378FF (1972; Pand F, 7 R.R.
S85:lOOl) lists the following significantly viewed signals in
San Diego county:
XETV 6 San Diego
KFMB 8 San Diego
KOGO 10 San Diego
KCST 39 San Diego
KCOP 13 Los Angeles
KNBC 4 Los Angeles
Each of the stations listed above was specified as
-
significantly viewed in La Costa's petition that it be exempted
from local regulation of rates and charges. In addition to the
foregoing, La Costa is carrying the program service of station
KPBS, on channel 15, licensed to San Diego and listed on the
Commission records as an educational station.
e 0 Mr. Fred Morey
May 3, 1985 Page Three
2. The CTIC letter interprets s 53066.1(f) (2) and (3)
of the Government Code to require mandatory - funding to a state-
wide foundation. Both Carlsbad Cablevision and La Costa have
agreed to contribute 1% of their basic cable service revenues to
the Carlsbad non-profit foundation for CATV community based
programming. The City Council by Resolution No. 6841, dated
April 20, 1982 accepted this Agreement.
I do not agree with the interpretation given Sl(f), (2)
and (3) by CT'IC. Paragraphs (2) and (3) provide that if a local
franchising authority has designated a non-profit local entity to
foster community based CATV programing, a cable system "may elec
to provide 40 cents per subscriber to the local entity and 10 cen
per subscriber to the statewide foundation. It is respectfully
submitted that the term "may elect" is permissive or discretional
and not mandatory. I suggest that La Costa be governed by the
decision of the City Council as to whether a portion of the rever
payable to the local foundation will be transmitted to the statei
foundation.
3. La Costa inadvertently omitted its response to 553
(f)(9). La Costa will provide by display,informatiDn on the corn
service channels, written notice to subscribers or published not
information to potential users of the opportunity to have access
community service channels. This information would have been fu
nished to La Costa's listening-viewing audience since Carlsbad
0 0
Y
1
Mr. Fred Morey
May 3, 1985 Page Four
Cablevision and La Costa will be carrying the same community
channels.
4. In §53066,l(f)(8) CTIC states that La Costa agrees
to furnish the name, address and telephone number of the system,
the name of the system manager and the status and utilization of
the community service channels to the foundation for community
service channels. CTIC states that the La Costa response to the
foregoing is ambiguous since La Costa agrees to provide such infor-
mation but does not specifically state that it will continue to do
so in the future upon request. The representation by La Costa to
furnish the foregoing information is sufficiently comprehensive to
provide this information in the future. In any event, La Costa
represents to the City Council that it will continue to furnish
this information in the future.
5. La Costa will likewise furnish the information called
for by §53066.l(f)(8) to the local entity as well as the statewide
foundation, The information referred to §(f)(8) will be furnished
to the statewide foundation whether or not the City authorizes a
contribution from its 1% of the basic cable revenues.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to
call me.
Sincerely,
9 %3W w7 (W HARRY P. WARNER
HPW:sa
0 0 . *.
5010 Gerry Blvd., Suite 3
San fmncisco, CA 941 18 14 I51 3876200
March 13, 1985
Mr. Frank Aleshire
City Manager
City of Carlsbad
1200 Elm Street
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Dear Mr. Aleshire:
The Foundation for Community Service Cable Television has received notification of Rancho La Costa Cable TV's action to de-regulate its rate structure for the
City of Carlsbad pursuant to State Government Code Section 53066.1 effective
February 25, 1985.
For your files, I have attached the following information about the Foundation,
which was created by the same legislation: The Grants Guidelines and a copy
or our quarterly newsletter Cablescan. I've also enclosed a copy of the legis- lation and our 1983-84 Annual Report.
The Foundation receives $.50 per subscriber per year from cable systems that elect to participate in the de-regulation program. support the Foundation's Grants Program. Of these dues, 80% is reserved for grants to the specific de-regulated communities.
Grants are awarded in June and December. A special mailing is sent to de-regula
communities notifying them of the availability of the funds.
As outlined on page 8 (sec.3(f)(3)) of the State Government Code, the,local franchising authority has the option to establi'sh a local foundation to administ
the funds.
section.
In addition to the Grants Program, the Foundation provides information and
educational programs to local communi ties upon request and Cablescan is dis tribt
free of charge.
I would appreciate your sending me the names of anyone in your community who
should receive the newsletter and grants information.
Please contact me if you have any questions, or if I can be of any assistance.
Sincerely,
The dues are used to
Please contact me if you would like additional information on this
Kathleen T. Schuler
Executive Director
KTS : ck En osures -- % M-nfi-r tlP R CPn Mnr. - Rancho La Costa Cable TV/Mayor M. Kasler, C. Le\
e DANIhS '*
&ASSOCIATES INCm &
Douglas S. Knox
AS~~~IATC cxvw COJ~S-.
May 7, 1985
Federal
Roger W. Greer Utilities and Maintenance Department
City of Carlsbad
1200 Elm Avenue
Carlsbad, California 92008-1989
Re: Carlsbad Cablevision/ Deregulation under
California Government Code Section 53066
Dear Mr. Greer,
Pursuant to our telephone conversation of earlier today,
please consider this letter as our request that the City of
Carlsbad waive the fifteen working day requirement for the
filing of the statement, as provided in Section 53066.1(d) of
the California Government Code. As we discussed, the statement
was prepared in a timely fashion, but was inadvertently mis-
placed by personnel in our local office. We apologize for any
inconvenience to you or to the City in this regard, but since
the notice is otherwise complete, we hope that this will not be
a problem in completing the deregulation process.
With regard to the other comments in the consultant's
letter, I would like to respond separately.
Comment 1 concerns the statement filing requirement dis-
cussed earlier.
Comment 2 does not apply to Carlsbad Cablevision.
As you and I discussed, Carlsbad Cablevision appears to be
covered under subsection (f)(3). As we discussed, we will
continue to pay the 1% fee to the local foundation each year anc
compare this amount to the $0.40 per subscriber fee payable to i local foundation as provided in that subsection, so that we pa)
the greater of these two amounts to the local foundation eact
year. In addition, of course, we will pay the $0.10 per sub-
scriber per year to the state foundation. Thus, we will compl-
with this subsection and continue the local foundation and it
funding requirement as we have done previously.
a 0 'r
JI
Roger Greer
May 7, 1985
Page Two
Comment 4 also appears not to apply to Carlsbad Cablevi-
sion.
We will be glad to provide, in response to comment 5, the
name, address and telephone number of the system, the name of
the system manager and the status and utilization of the commun- ity service channel to both the local and the state founda-
tions. Obviously, this information has already been provided to
the local foundation, and we will be glad to represent that we
will provide this information to the state foundation.
I would like to respond to two other comments in the body
of the consultant's letter. It is our position, with regard to
his comment on pages 4 and 5 with regard to subsection (f)(l)
that if the one local access channel set aside for use by the
public is not utilized to the extent provided in that subsec-
tion, we do not have to provide additional channels. Our notice
takes that position, which I believe is a correct one. Addi-
tionally, with regard to his comment on page 5 with reference to
subsection (f)(3) that we have made no contribution to the
statewide foundation, our notice did not indicate any payments
to the state foundation because we are not required to make such
payments until we have completed the deregulation process and
are, in fact, deregulated. Be assured that upon completion of
foundation and will continue to make payments to the local
foundation.
this process we will begin to make such payments to the state
Thank you very much for your help and cooperation in this
matter. If any questions arise or if we can be of any addi-
tional service, please do not hesitate to call.
Very truly yours,
Doug1 %:+
DSK/gd
cc: H. Jones
S. Wilson