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Home My WebLink AboutDECEMBER 4,1982 CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS ARE TAPE RECORDED AND ON FILE IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK 25: 0631 ,I ROLL CALL RESOLUTION 'NO. 5076 ADOPTED ROLL CALL HEARING GROUP W CABLE TV CONTI NUED 1 f 5~q P MINUTES CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA and the ARCADIA REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 4, 1982 The City Council of the City of Arcadia and the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency met in an adjourned re9ular session Saturday, December 4, 1982 at 8 a.m. in the City Hall Conference Room. PRESENT: Councilmen/Members Dring, Haltom, Hannah, Lojeski, Pellegrino ABSENT: None The City Council entered a CLOSED SESSION on litigation matters, RE- CONVENED and took the following action: Councilman Hannah presented, read the title of Resolution No. .5076 entitled: "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA PERTAINING TO TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES IN THE SANTA ANITA OAKS AREA" and MOVED to waive the full text and that same be adopted. MOTION seconded by Councilman Dring and carried on the following roll call vote: AYES NOES : ABSENT: Councilmen Dring, Haltom, Hannah, Lojeski, Pellegrino None None NOTE: The next agenda item scheduled for consideration was Annexation 80-2 (area southwest of Arcadia); however, inasmuch as representatives were not present, the City Council then recessed to the Council Chamber for a hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. PRESENT: Councilmen/Members Dring, Haltcm, Hannah, Lojeski, Pellegrino ABSENT: None Time and place scheduled for a public hearing on the Draft Franchise Ordinance with Group W Cable TV. Staff submitted an Information and Fact Sheet designed to answer the most commonly asked questions relat- ing to the City's existing cable services and the main provisions of the proposed ordinance. Staff explained changes in the Draft Franchise. It was MOVED by Councilman Hannah, seconded by Councilman Haltom and carried that the public hearing be opened. A TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRO- CEEDINGS HAS BEEN PREPARED AND IS INCORPORATED HEREIN BY REFERENCE. Persons participating from the audience were: Ron Dyas, the City's CATV Consultant William Marticorena, the City's CATV Legal Advisor Rusty Faust, Group W System Manager John Merritt, Group W Frank G. McNellis, Regional Manager William Horsley, San Gabriel Valley Radio Club David A. Ledbetter, 459 Oxford, Arcadia John Nelson, Arcadia School District Sharon CuI verwell, 1032 Hampton Road -1- 12-4-82 25:0632 Laudel1 F. Ludwig, Director, San Gabriel Valley Radio Club Frdnces Andreo11i, 1934 Highland Oaks Avenue, Arcadia Michael Haver, 39 West Sycamore Avenue, Arcadia Wallace Murphy, 25 Carter Avenue, Sierra Madre Following the proceedings as set forth in the transcript, it was MOVED by Councilman Dring, seconded by Councilman Lojeski and carried that the hearing remain open and the matter be CONTINUED to January 4, 1983. Meeting adjourned at 12 noon to 7 p.m. January 4, 1983, 'in the Conference Room to conduct the business of the Council and Redevelopment Agency and any closed session, if any, necessary to discuss personnel and litiga- tion matters and evaluation of properties. ~ 1 ATTEST: a~~ aA- City C1 erk 1 -2- 12-4-82 'f1:\..Il.~SC1:\.IP'r (InSOfar \}.S deCiPnerable) cable T. V. ~ancnise , 'I'IestinghOuse GroU\J '\'I uecq;Ober 4. 1982 \ d nerein bY ~ference 11:lCo:f'PO~te (lJ:;~7I~n~~ ROLL CALL Councilmen Dring, Haltom, Hannah, Lojeski, Pellegrino MAYOR First iten on our agenda - we'll ask our City Manager George Watts to infonn us on cable television infonnation and facts. WA'lTS Mr. Mayor and Members of the City Council we have with us today William Marti- corena, our special counsel consultant for cable television - he's here today to answer any questions Council may have. Mr. Ron Dyas, our cable television consultant is running late - we expect him a little later. This morning, gentlemen, I would suggest, if Council desires, we can have Mr. C Bocian run through some last minute changes, corrections that were provided to the Council - here is Mr. Dyas, Mr. Ron Dyas, our cable consultant. Last night the Council was ,provided, in your Newsletter, some last minute changes, corrections in the draft ordinance - if you would like we can have Mr. Bocian run through those quickly - after that we can have any questions that Council may have of staff or our consultants - then I would suggest that we open the public hearing to get input from the public. MAYOR Mr. Bocian. Sl'EVEN BX:IAN - I'm Administrative Assistant. Last night Council received sane last minute revisions to the draft cable T.V. franchise ordinance. Many of those revisions are just slight errors - we did have two major changes and that took place in Section 6e - which is the section relating to bonds and what we have done is added a section for a security fund. This language that is contained here has not yet been reviewed by our consultants - so it ,is in its draft fonn. In addition to that we changed Section 17 which was origin- ally titled "New Developnents" - we changed that to "Systen Upgrading" and primarily what we have done is clarified some language in there. The basic provisions that were in the original draft that were presented to you are -1- , ID:;IAN con't. MAYOR WATTS J~ ID:;IAN HALTOM WATTS HALTOM , still the same except for we increased the penalty for non-conformance from $800 to $1,000 and the reason why this was done was so that it would conform with the other construction penalties that we have in the franchise. At this point if you have any particular questions on these revisions I'd be glad to try to answer than for you or direct the questions to our consultants here. Any questions, gentlemen. Maybe at this time we can take any questions on any part of the draft - the entire draft from Council either to staff or the consultants. Steve, I notice you have a canpletion date here of 15 months - the entire city to be under cable T.V. within a 15 month period. In the past we've never had that .., if they don't perform what happens at that time. Basically, what we're saying there is 15 months from the time that the oper- ator has secured all of the necessary permits and pole attacbments - what we have proposed if the operator fails to meet that requirement there is a con- struction fine of $1,000 per day that the deadline is not met plus 4 days lost in the duration of the ordinance itself. The last time we talked to the cable T. V. people, whatever their previous name was ... didn't they tell us they would have the entire city under cable in '82. I don't believe they ever made that statement, Councilman ., it was their in- tent to build as quickly as possible - they indicated that to the Council. We have representatives from Group W here today that may better explain that I thiru, what has occurred since then is that the cable operator is waiting until a new franchise ordinance is in place before they proceed with any con- struction other than in the area that is currently built. Are there llilY other questions before we get the cable people on because I would like to talk to them. -2- ,r I '-l MAYOR DRING " ."r, HANNAH MAYOn DRING MAYOn Any other questions to staff, gentlemen. I disagree with George - I don't perceive it as you said it - I recall it as clearly as Mr. Hal tom did ... Telepromter' s carmi tment to have the pole we last talked to them ... when did we do the; Six Star deal ... 2 years ago they, at that time, pranised to develop and said they would have by January the pole penni ts and construction would start ... none of those pranises have been kept - their position of waiHng is convenient delay as far as I'm con- cerned at this point and I hear it differently than you perceive it ., so 1'm C interested in talking to them as well. There's an article in the Arcadia Tribune which in the first paragraph states "that by January 1, 1982 Telepranter of Sierra Madre expects to be able to provide a 52 channel cable T.V. system throughout the City. I have sane ques- tions also but I'd like to wait until after we hear fran the experts. Any other questions... Mr. Bocian.... Gentlemen, I would entertain a motion that we open the public hearing. So MOVED. So be it. Gent~en, first we will open the public hearing - we will speak to those in favor of the cable T. V. - probably we'll speak to the representa- tive from cable T.V. first - so that questions and answers may be given - then we'll take the opposition. All those in favor of this item on the agen- da will you please cane up to the podium and state your name and address for a matter of record. JOHN MERRITT - I'm District Manager for Group W Cable. We would like to address some of the concerns we've heard this morning and sane of the concerns we will un- doubtedly will hear. First, I would like to take a few minutes to put Group W Cable T. V. 's position into perspective for everyone present because we are sane.vhat new in the picture and you've heard a lot of song and dances before. -3- , .~ .'h' MERRI'IT con't. J DRING MERRI'IT , In March 1967 your City passed an enabling ordinance - enabling cable T.V. to proceed. A year later in 1968 you granted a 10-year franchise to a can- pany by the nrune of H & B Comninications. They were doing business as Foot- hill Cable T. V. Ten years later in 1978 you granted an ordinance franchise to Telepranpter Corporation - canpany which no longer exists - for the area north of Foothill Boulevard. At the same t:ime - Ordinance 1646 enabled the City of Arcadia to have Telepranpter go abead and build the rest of the City, which was never done as we all know. Two years later in 1980 Telepranpter submitted another action plan - nothing happened. Teleprompter revised the action plan during that time - still nothing happened. On April 9, 1982 our Company, which had just recently purchased Telepranpter, submitted to you an action plan. We were ready to go on April 9 - we are ready to go today - there is no convenient delay on our part - our position since acquiring Telepranpter has been that we are ready to build your City a cable T.V. system. There is nothing stopping us short of this distinguished Body saying 'go to it'. Question. The practical reality of the situation is that you have the pole permits that no other canpetition can effectively canpete against you in the situation - that you have acquired Telepranpter and therefore you have acquir- ! ed their franchise rights in the City - what in the world is delaying you. There's no reason that I can see to wait - whether this Body agrees to go a- head with this particular franchise amendment of not you are apparently oper- ating under a franchise that exists now and you have those rights - you have the permits - I don't understand why you're waiting. Perhaps there is a question of ccmmunication, Councilman Dring. In submitting the action plan in April we took the position that we would only like to go ahead with the canplete understanding of the City Council as to how we proceed. We clearly can proceed :imnediately, however, we feel strongly that because of -4- MERRITT Con't. DRING MERRITT DRING MERRI'IT the significant time delays we should communicate effectively with you and with the residents of Arcadia as to how we should proceed. I can only restate, sir, that we are ready to go and if there's a communication failure we will accept part of the responsibility - we have applied for 95% of the utility pole per- mits - 77% of them have been completed and I think we want to do the-same thing that Council and the City residents do. I would only suggest. sir, that we are still a nen presence in town - we are Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable - we are not Telepranpter - that canpany does not exist. As you well know there C were significant changes being made in the company and I would ask that any conments made today, please take that into consideration. This is not the old company in a new wrapper. This is the number four broadcasting canpany in the country right behind the networks with the quality reputation that can easily be researched and proven as the best in the industry. We want to do that for you. Mr. Merritt, I'm not really sure I understand that answer - since you have the , existing franchise and you do have the permits why are you not proceeding. My understanding is that we are waiting for the City Council to authorize us to proceed that because Telepranpter, the canpany which we purchased, and sub- sequently liquidated has not proceeded - because of that it has been our under- standing that the City Council is interested in finalizing the ordinance and possibly redrafting it to turn Group W loose. We met with City management several months ago with our nen General Manager, Rusty Faust, who was then in Sierra Madre - it is now in Arcadia - it was our understanding when we advised City Administration two months ago that we're ready to go - we were told the City CoW1cil has it under consideration and we shouldn't do anything for now. May I ask you who told you that. Mr. Bocian. , -5- DRING Mr. Bocian, did you tell them not to proceed. IDCIAN No - as,a matter of fact, George and I met with Rusty Faust and as I recall it we stated at that time that they had a franchise for the entire City and we still expected them to move along those lines. DRING That's how I understood it and that's how he reported it to us. MAYOR Mr. Dyas. DR. OONAID DYAS - I'm a cable consultant for the City. I also represent several other J cities throughout California. Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council, this is just sane background information. Its absolutely correct that Group W has the franchise for the entire area, however, it is my understanding - I've been em- ployed by the City since December of last year and part of the process is to - its a twofold process - one is to review the ordinance - to rewrite - to make same recommended changes - which I consider ,to be the most critical thing the City Council can do because the ordinance sets up managerial controls - penalty clauses - performance requirements - proof of performance requirements - which the cable operator is bound to. Its true Group W has the right to build the franchise, however, to build the City because they do have the franchise, how- ever, they only have two years left on that franchise - its 1988 - I'm sorry - I its six years left on that franchise and we're talking about a major invest- ment. Estimated right now its about $700 per heme to build the City of Arcadia. Between $700 and $1,000 depending upon how many channels we require ,them to carry. In all due respects, I think it would be bad business practice for any cable operator to go out and build the city if we're in the process of changi~g the rules that is if we're requiring them to carry more channels or requir- ing them to do certain things, which, apparently as I understand it the Council ,is in the process of adopting a new ordinance. This is only meant to say - in , tenns of backgroW1d information where we are. -6- . - - _m'_'_",___,~."~_~ ~~-.a.~~~,.._.~~.......itl~,U,{~~1~~;-;:~,'<t~;n~'l&'t~~~~-.:..~,u,:J.i~~~~~:'~~;~~JIl>."'W'~~;:;:.:.,wt:!t.~~~~ MAYOR HANNAH MEBRITr HANNAH MERRITr Mr. Dyas, in case of background information this company or the company before it has been collecting for a service that they haven't been performing. That's why the amount of people in the audience are waiting to tell us. I just want to ask one question - why has the service deterioriated since you've taken it over. We used to be able to get a picture in the area that- I live in - now we can't. There are shadows and crosses and everything else - we actually get better reception with our rabbit ears than we do with the cable. First I would like to address, Councilman Hannah, the earlier statement that we're charging for a service that we're not providing. I'm not sure that r undrstand that - I don't know whether its true. I guess the best way to an- swer you question, sir, is that we know the area north of Foothill Boulevard is an old twelve channel system - that it is served from the Sierra Madre cable system and that it is in the process of being rebuilt as quickly as we can possibly move. If the service has significantly worsened it is likely because of the age of the plant and while that may be true, however, I'm not sure that that's my perception and I'm sure our General Manager, Rusty Faust could speak better to that than I, sir. However, we are rebuilding it and it will be canpleted, within my understanding, within 30 days. Its an old system like many of the old twelve channel systems that we purchased from Teleprompter and we do want to make it perfect. Under the present ordinance it states that if you get a complaint it will be corrected within 24 hours - I, personally, have called on numerous occasions - I have not received any call backs from your company nor ever received anyone that has been willing to correct the situation within 24 hours. What are you doing about helping those residents up there get a picture right now. I think Miss Faust, the General Manager, would be best able to address that, sir. -7- c , RUSTY FAUST - I am the General Manager. I think one of the reasons that the cable - your pictures and reception have gotten worse since we have been there - during the time I have been with the canpany - three months - we have been putting up new cable in the northern Arcadia area - trying to canplete the rebuild., In put- ting up ,the cable, and I'm not too technical I'll have to say this, but I do understand in putting up the cable and pulling sane of the old wire evidentally is so deteriorated it has had cracks in it. We have men vmo have spent hours J in this area looking for the cracks to correct the problems - namely, Channel 4. During certain periods of time moisture gets into these lines and it varies fran time to time - by the time a serviceman gets down you could have your picture canpletely changed and there is nothing we can do - we have tried - all I can say is we're doing the rebuild - we're a1m:>st canpleted with it. HANNAH Under the terms of the contract you're required to keep a log of the canplaints. Could you tell me how many canplaints you've had in the last thirty days. FAUSI' Not right off the top of my head I couldn't tell you but I could certainly go to the log and tell you. I could also say, quite truthfully, that during the past week we've probably have had more than we have had in the three months that I have been there. Due to several things ..... one with the st,onn .. one this past week was the fact that we did move into Arcadia - we did change our telephone numbers - the telephone canpany got the wrong number on - vmen they finally did get the right referral mnnber I find that they do not put a referral machine on - its answered by an operator.. and, I called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday because they are not answering the call. HANNAH I think the citizens of Arcadia are not really concerned about your problems as much as they're concerned about their own problems - they're paying for a television service and they're not getting it. What is the solution to that. , -8- no -., HANNAH con't. FAUsr HANNAH FAUsr HANNAH FAUsr HANNAH FAUST HANNAH FAUsr HANNAH Do' you make refunds to these people:" I have been making refunds - the people who 1: have talked to and explained the siutation to - during this past month I have worked with everyone that has called and talked to me personally. I sent a letter out to eaCh one of them explaining the position that we're in at the present time - where we are in the rebuild and asked if they had any questions or any problems to please contact me personally. I am taking all of those calls and I would be more than happy to show you the refund list of the people in Arcadia to shaw that I indeed am - since I have been there - giving them refunds. Would you make a refund to anyone who requested it. No - only if they have had problems - I am aware that there are problems and we can't do anything about it. Let me state it a different way - if they've had problems will you make a refund to them. If they're having a problem right now - yes - and I can be assured that they do not have a picture on one channel - I'm not crediting them for channels that they are getting pictures on. If they have ,no reception whatsoever then I would credit them for the entire .... What about reception thats not quality - that we would consider a quality picture. Again, it would depend I would have to assure myself that we agree.on what a quality picture is. Would you consider a double image a quality picture. No, I would not. I'd like to ask you one question - its been reccmnended by staff that we consider a new ordinance and permit you to have a full ten year period .. -9- c , HANNAH con't FAUST WATTS HANNAH 1:: WATTS that would be 4 years beyond our present contract - is that correct, Steve. If we did adopt such an ordinance what assurance would we have that the people in Arcadia would have a better picture on their channel. Our Regional Manager says he will respond to that. Councilman, your earlier question about the ten extension that would be ten years fran adoption. That's right I realize that - that would be four years beyond what it is now. No, it would be ten years fran adoption of the new ordinance. We have six - that's four more. ,FRANK G. MCNELLIS - I'm Regional Vice President of Group W Cable - I live at 13586 Contour Oh yes - okay. , Drive in i'lherman Oaks. My office is currently located in Santa Monica - in three weeks it will be relocated within about seven mile of where we stand today. Before I tell you about what has happened to our canpany since it came under the banner of Group W Cable. Let me quickly correct a situation. If your old city hall was sitting on this particular site while, this one was being built - I'm sure you would be inconvenienced and so would fhe people who use this facility. If you walk into Los Angeles International airport today - you will find tremendous renovations going on preparing for something substantially larger than routine business. We're taking a twelve channel system in this community to a fifty-four channel system in this community. It causes some inconvenience - it is short lived and is about to be corrected. As an operating officer of this company it is my responsibility to insure the delivery of the high standards required of any cable television operation bear- ing the name Westinghouse. In April of this year our cable television opera- tions were placed in the Group W Division of Westinghouse. I joined Group W -10- ......'". ,. MCNELLIS con't one.month later with a mandate to position Group W Cable as the clear indus- try leader and to do so imnediately. Being the very best is not unusual for Group W. KFWB Radio stands as our closest example of what is required of an organization with Group W identification. An over simplification of the ex- ecution of this mandate can be broken into four separate categories: One: To serve our existing subscribers pranptly and accurately. 1\vo: To rebuild our existing properties to the state of the art. Three: Continue our expan- sion process by solid growth in existing franchises while building new cable C plants and newly won franchises. Four: Upgrade the 1600 employees that make ' up the southwest region. We have used the last several months wisely - recog- nizing that the performance of our predecessor was not up to the Westinghouse standard. We inmediately zero'd in on obvious deficiencies. One: Incaning telephone traffic which I think you share sane difficulty. The speed and efficiency with which we handle trouble calls. I run pleased to report that our incoming telephone traffic has improved 42% - in lay terms you can now get through on the telephone - in the past you could not. In three of our four systems, one is called Theta Cable - our response to trouble calls is within 24 hours with much of the calls canpleted the day they are received. The remaining system is still at a 36 hour level and will be on line with the others by December 15. We have made better use of our management information systEmS and we do not fann out billing to distant services and distant states. We do it on time and we do it accurately. In an area of Los Angeles County- one is called Theta - we are rebuilding Marina Del Hey and West Hollywood fran twenty-nine channels to fifty-four channels. Our existing systEmS have grown 16,000 households in the last five month period and will grow and addi- tional 7,000 before the end of this year. As a matter of routine business we are building fifty-four to one hundred channel SystEmS in -11- o',e ,~ly ~aroed , MCNELLIS con't. I IDJESKI Southern California franchises. Those cities have enthusiastically recog- nized that they can certainly be sure if its Westinghouse. Every member of my regional staff has come aboard in the last five months. I joined the company May 17 and I am a veteran in that organization. Every 'district mana- ger in my region has joined us in July or August of this year. 54%- of our systems have newly', appointed General Managers. Our training center is recog- nized even by, what sane would refer to as our worthy canpetitors as the best as they and other operators send us their entry level enployees to learn the most fundamental cable television skills. With our eyes on the highly techni- cal requirenents today and the very near future we are staffed and programned to train and upgrade 1,000 enployees per year. Our new managers and staff department heads are in the main - the very people who canpete for these new- ly won franchises under the Group W banner. They are here today holding out that pl'Oll1ise - they are the very people who will be here tOOlOrrow fulfilling that pranise. You have the assurance and corrmitment of Westinghouse organi- zation - that you will not be embarrassed by placing your vote in Group W. And, its only the beginning. Mr. Mc Nellis, I would like to respond to a couple of your carments . and I can appreciate your many analogies - I also can appreciate your management view- point of what cable can do and potentially could do for the City of Arcadia. Let me draw a few specifics out for you, sir. One - you talked about your billing being on time and accurate... sure is, ... two months ahead of time. Again, paying two months ahead of time for service which is non-existent. I am a subscriber to the current cable service that we have - and I use the teml service very loosely in the City of Arcadia. I called three consecutive days - I was pranised correction of my reception prior to Thanksgiving - I'm still sitting with the same type of reception - I don't call this service. -12- LOJESKI Con't. I also bring out your analogy to our City Council Chambers being built over - let's say over an existing facility - I have to tell you the City of Arca- dia learned a long time ago - the City Council learned a long time ago that communication is extremely important ... and, if you were to properly communi- cate, or potentially want to properly communicate with the uers of the system - one ... I qon I t think we have the need for particularly, perhaps this meeting today nor would we have the interested citizenry that we have in the Council Chambers this morning - nor, would we as Councilmen be inundated by many, many I phone calls. Again, I allude to sane various correspondence that I have in fro of me ... one was a letter sent to Mr. Watts fran Mrs. Faust or Miss Faust or whatever the correct may be .. dated November 18, 1982 and it states in the last paragraph ... "I am also enclosing a copy of the notice which we have mailed to all Arcadia subscribers" .., this again is dated November 18, 1982. As of today - - far past November 18 - I also have polled my neighbors on my street and not one of us has received such a letter or such an indication. If you're in the process of rebuilding, revamping, correcting an existing old ser- vice - why not carrnunicate with the users, .Let us know what the problems are. Don't wait until you're inundated with a tremendous number of phone calls. Every time there is a storm - any time there is a rain - any time there's wind - any time the temperature raises above 1000 Fahrenheit or below 600 Fahrenheit I lose total reception. I find it very difficult to understand and yet I can appreciate fran a management standpoint your viewpoints, your communications and your carments. I also resent the fact that I am a citizen of this canrmmi- ty first and foremost - I have the pleasure of sitting as a Councilman and I can achieve no solutions to getting better reception on my own television set until I personally, as a Councilman, start to complain.. and, I think that's -13- totally wrong. I think the citizens of the community should have that same IDJESKI con't. MCNELLIS t= MCNELLIS IDJESKI MCNELLIS IDJESKI HANNAH MCNELLIS FAUST MCNELLIS benefit - that they should be responded to. I do not know why you did not receive your mail - I'm sure Mrs. Faust will respond to that issue for you. As far as we know we made every attEmpt to contact the hanes being effected by the rebuild. Obviously, when a systen as old as the one that exists in Arcadia and it has all the inherent problems of age - we recognize that, as I said, and we are rebuilding that. It will be corrected and perform properly. Let us know but don' t bill us two m:mths ahead of time when we don't have service ,.. its a ridiculous ...... The billing option is yours - if you want to write checks for $9.00 - that's terrific - if you want to write them for $18 - I need one in advance. I just want television reception. I thought there was a complaint about the billing. There is ... to be billed two months ahead of time for service. One more question. We're not only concerned about the reception north of Foothill Boulevard - we're also concerned about all the residents of Arcadia. People in the other parts of Arcadia are entitled to television cable, so to speak, if that's what their choice is - I don I t know whether they want ON or cable or what have you.. but they've been promised that.. That hasn't occurred either. When can we anticipate ... say, saneone living on LEmon Avenue in Ar- cadia, which happens to be where my daughter lives .. when can we anticipate that she might receive cable. Rusty, is that in the new-build area or the rebuild area. ...... Councilman, earlier your consultant mentioned the reason we have not proceeded - we have a very brief span rEmaining on the franchise - we have a very large in- vestment to make and at this meeting you are gathering information, to require -14- MCNELLIS can't, HANNAH MCNELLIS HANNAH MCNELLIS HANNAH MCNELLIS this cable company to go do something. Those things remain unknown. I ask you to put on your businesEmen hats - would you make an investment - we may be buying a pig in a poke. We did that. If we went out and built, state of the art, cable television in Arcadia and tomorrow you issued an ordinance which would change the entire design of that, where would we be. Well, in 1978 ..... I May I finish, Councilman. Pardon me for interrupting you but in 1978 this Council made that decision and said "okay, we're going to let you people have ten years in order to do all -~_,_ these things you say you're going to do." It hasn't occurred. What assurance have we got if we extend this contract for four additional years that its going to be done. One would be our willingness to accept your penalty clause and I would like to speak to that just a minute. Whether it be a $1,000 a day or more or less - if its your intention to be punitive and require us to complete a specific home or a specific street by D-day or H-hour - we will consider that penalty clause unacceptable. If, however, you do it to assure our building it on time and acurately, we will accept it. But, I will not .... let me be clear, ... if the completion date, and I'll arbitrarily pick June 30, 1983 '" if we finished it August 1 - we do not want to be ..... you've got your cable sys- tern - you're going to have it a long time - if we miss it by 30 days or 60 days - I do not expect the tenor of this Council to be punitive - and, if that is your intent then we will debate the merit of the penalty clause. If it is not your intention to be punitive but to insure that compliance we'll accept it. That answers your question. -15- DRING Mr. Mc Nellis, we appreciate you coming ... I appreciate your coming before us and giving us the Regional Vice President's speech ... I think its appro- priate and proper. You obviously understand at this point that we're some- what upset and angry about the service that has been promised and not deliver- ed. However, sir, may I address you personally.. I believe your attitude to be flippant - real flippant - you tell us if "you 're going to be punitive - we want no part of it"... and we're not going to start on this because we have a I big investment to make and without the new franchise extension - we're not necessarily willing or sure we want to make that ... you have an existing agreEment with the City and you have an obligation to perfonn that - you also acquired Teleprompter - they didn't go out of business and you start business .., you acquired and sought from us our approval of your acquiring . .. have that franchise and all the assignment. of carrni tments and rights to that franchise. Your canpany is not honoring those carrnitments and rights .. we've got documentation that will show you what Teleprompter said they would do ... okay, you talked about since you've taken over and I understand your problems .. I'm a businsSman .. you're new to it .. you've been in here six months and you're the senior guy ... you told us how many new buildings you've builtin your speech to us .. areas being serviced in 'the last five months .. 15,000 or some number. You haven't built new here in Arcadia - rebuilding the old. I'll talk punitive with you because your company to date has not per- fonned. Furthermore, I'm not about to talk extension based on the track rec- ord that your company has established to date. Its not fair or reasonable or good business - you're telling us Westingho~e has a good name ., certainly, we all respect the Westinghouse name. That we will do, and I would expect that you will do, personally.. I think given time you will do it but in a , sense its the worst fonn of blackmail - we're not providing you service - we -16- ,'" . ~~, ~".~-'UIi.u;\;O<2:'"""""""'" ~"-"'J~""""~"""''V9-~...t.':'i-~~..;-....'!'~t;.'~~~~~!~~~~..~~lv:.1l-~!'~r(i;"''~..~~~e~~$~;:..,.r......~~:'".1<L~"~, DItING can't. MCNELLIS MAYOR MCNELLIS MAYOR haven't built the new stuff until we get an extension on the contract '" not reasonable - its not good business. If you had started to build such as the canpany you acquired had pranised then I have no problem because I do respect the name of Westinghouse. This is nuts. It doesn't make any sense - you have the rights - you have the City locked up - you have the pole pennits- and you sit on them telling us ... "well, we were told by the staff not to move ahead" .... you have an existing franchise - I don't know who you think you're kidding. I cannot speak for Teleprompter. I was not here nor do I know the reason why not build it. Perhaps their District Manager John Merritt can enlight-I on that. We are prepared to take the City of Arcadia and move for- they did en us all ward with the City of Arcadia in any direction that it cares to go. We want to build this CO!l1llUI1i ty - I do not want to cane before you and be scourged by the sins of our fathers. I don't feel that your constituents hold you responsible for your predecessors. Let me interrupt .. they do - we are responsible for our ..... And, we are responsible but if they did something wrong - that is why you're in office. Let me say this... it seEmS we're all businessnen " . its a sin first of all I that you have to apologize for the last 15 approximate years of service that we have not been getting in Arcadia. Its a shame that you aren't Number One to start - I'm sure we wouldn't be in the problem that we are today. There's a thousand questions .. you can see the people in the audience " very few times we have this kind of attendance from the City and its an honor to see the people come out to speak. Our phone calls are endless phone calls to us is sanething that we can't even answer - staff could not answer because of the lack of service and that's all you do have to sell is the service. And, when that's not being perfonned we get the repercussions here and what we're -17- ~"''''''''''''''''~~''''1'''<Ji~~r''''''~~b.-;:''.::l6~''Z"'J;'.-$<~'';8'Z~t',,;'97>l-1r'~$''''~W;~'P"~~~'';-~;;'~~',I'Q,'~4a~.~~~.,b:~~~: MAYOR con't. 'RI~ MCNELLIS DRING MCNELLIS trying to say and I'm sure what Jeff is trying to say and the rest of the Council is we are going to be particular on the next person that canes in because the promises were never kept to us that were told to us when we made the decision four years ago. We've got 15 years of cable T.V. and the ser- vice has been terrible - maybe our location is not the best being against the foothills - I don't lmow the particulars on that but with cable T.V. I'm sure that service should be up to par. Mr. Mc Nellis, I see the problem as one of capital allocation - Westinghouse like other capital companies is attempting to build a very expensive operation allover - its not just in Arcadia - they have a number of other franchises - and you indicated they're doing that. We all know what the capital position and rate of return and interest rates have been recently and its a very diffi- cult place to be, however, I cannot sympathize with your problem and it galls me to listen to you building other areas when we're responsible for this area and you have an existing franchise and you have the pole pennits locked up and you don't build in this area. You're rebuilding the old system - you haven't layed any cables as far as the Council has been told in any of the new areas that were promised and its been under your control for the last six months - and you cane to us today - not saying that you're short of capi- tal equipment, man power - none of that what you're saying is "we're waiting for you to make a decision" .. you have an existing franchise, why are you not endeavoring to carry out that franchise agreement. We became Group W Cable in April. If we had started on that date I dare say we would not be finished today. We would still be doing it. But you would be started. We would be started .. we have started a rebuild of the existing area which you remember my four points ... number one was to serve your existing sub- -18- /.OillLIS con't. MERRITT DRING MERRITT DRING scribers better to improve on that service. DuTing the transition, obviously, its not appreciated but there are some rough moments going through that period of transition. John, can you help me as to why we haven't gone forward into the new-build area. Why Teleprompter did not move on the previous franchise ... I can't .address.... Fine. Why is Westinghouse not doing it. \~y Westinghouse hasn't done it, sir, I can b~st clarify it by saying that I arrived on the scene July 1. We imnediately pulled out all the stops to finish building the Sierra Madre system, which was necessary to complete to I rebuild north Arcadia. As you may know all of the electronics which currently serve north Arcadia are in Sierra Madre - from microwave lengths to satellite receiving discs. I That first step had to happen - it was done - we went as fast as we possibly could and we finished it August 30. On completion of that we imnediately started the rebuild up north Arcadia. In September Mr. Tan Flaven of our new Markets Developnent Department and I met with Mr: Steve Bocian. In that meeting my specific question was we are ready to go and build the rest of Arcadia. The answer to that, to my understanding we left the meeting with, was the Council has it under consideration and it should be re- solved withi,n a few weeks. My notes will show that that is the content of meeting, gentlEffien. That few weeks has turned into a few months and the life of the franchise has been shortened by that amount. Sitting and listen- ing the last 30 minutes or so it occurs to me that we're trying to refight the Civil War. We can all talk all morning and your constituents can listen patiently to all of the horror stories going back to 1967 - I submit to all of you that it is entirely counter productive. You want your people to have good cable service - we want them to have good cable service - why are we arguing and taken advisary positions ... I don' t know. Let me explain sanething ., becaue you built Sierra Madre and then you -19- DRING con't I MERRI'IT DRING MCNELLIS started on Arcadia - you have an existing franchise agreement here and you have not started building,the south end and you claim to us that you're waiting for the ordinance and that its a big capital outlay and you wouldn't do it unless you got the extension. I suggest to you that that's the worst form of blackmail and its not acceptable. That is what we're talking about. I don't care about the stuff in the past and I also recognize that you have the City locked up tight and there's no way canpeti tion can cane in here, but don't have the gall to cane to us and say 'we aren't going to build unless you extend the franchise' because I find that more than just unaccep- table. Now, Westinghouse is new .... go ahead and start building it you would have had my total support but I can't believe your attitude and caning to us and saying 'you have to extend the franchise first' " that's balon"ey. I'd like to correct one thing and then lAr. McNellis will respond to that. Councilman Dring, you are incorrect, sir, in that I mentioned the word 'capi- tal' ... neither I nor Mr. McNellis has mentioned it - you have mentioned it three times. The capital is available - we are an $8 billion dollar canpany. It is not a question of capital, period. Chainnan Daniel Richey will be glad to tell you that. I will give you his phone number if you would like. There is not a capital commitment problem holding up our build in the City of Ar- cadia. Its a resource allocation problem. Councilman, what we want to do is build a system that this City wants. I do not want to go out there and build sanething - have it built and find out it is sanething you don't want. Had we begun we would not have done that. In the hall, this very morning, I asked the City Manager if there was going to be a vote today and he said '" "no, the purpose of it was to find out what we want in the ordinance and what we don't want in the ordinance." -20- MCNELLIS con't DRING MCNELLIS HAi'lNAH MCNELLIS HANNAH MCNELLIS HANNAH I.OlELLIS HANNAH MCNELLIS HANNAH MCNELLIS Why would I be building something when I don't know what its going to be. I'm not trying to excuse the lack of action of either company - myself or anyone but why, as a businessman, would you begin to do something if you had no idea where it was going to go. Sir, are you re~uilding the north part right now. Yes. The rebuilding of the north part - the reason why that's on the tail end of the Sierra Madre system, as I understand, it must be done, it is not contiguous to the new-build area it could be designed that way but it does I not have to be designed that way depending on the flavor of a communication system that you want will dictate which way we will go with that. Question: Before you bought Teleprompter, I assumed you looked at it, did you, to see what the tenns of the contract was - were you aware that they had six years left on the Westinghouse made the Teleprompter acquisition - they received among other documents 533 municipal ordinances. Let me ask you just one question. Were you aware it had six years to go. I'm sure we were. You wouldn't buy a company without knowing what contract was with the City. ! Secondly, were you aware that they were supposed to provide service to all of the residents of Arcadia. No. It did not say that in the contract - nobody reviewed that. I'm speaking for myself. I did not know that. I do not think our company knew that. How could Westinghouse who has a great reputation 'assume a contract knowing what the tenns of the contract were if they had no intention of fulfilling them. It has never operated in that type of bad faith. -21- HANNAH ~'S HANNAH MCNELLIE HANNAH MCNELLIS HANNAH MCNELLIS My 'concern is if th~ were aware of it - why haven't they done something about it. I'm sure if Westinghouse had checked with the citizens of Arcadia they would probably have been advised the reception was not of quality recep- tion .. secondly, service was not provided south of Foothill Boulevard. I just can't believe that an organization as reputable as Westinghouse" would go in completely blind on a contract of this nature. Now, they come back and tell us six years is not a very long time to recoup our expenses of $700 some odd dollars per house. If we had begun in April it would have been six and one half years - it would not have made it any better. We would like to get an extension on it. But you could have done it in six and one half years but not six years. It would only have been six and one half years it wouldn't be that much better. That was my point. Then the existing contract for a half year .... You mentioned ten a little while ago - we would really appreciate a twenty. I'm just saying I can't believe your organization would go into this type of thing without knowing what the terms of the contract were, ... and that was to provide service and to provide service to all of the residents of Arcadia and you haven't done it.. and that's the reason for the canplaints this morning and, I would like to hear from some of the other people, Mr. Mayor, that I'd like to make one last carment for Councilman Dring ... it was on the personal point that he brought out. It 'was not ... your word... flippant you misread that ... the word is pride .... extranely proud what the company has done in the short period of time it has been here. If you misread that I'd say it was my' fault. They cane here with a very large sense of pride in our people and what we have accanplished. Thank you very much. -22- One minute before you make your farewell address. You proobly understand that we're a little hostile and you faced this up in Sierra Madre - probably every place you've gone. I've talked to a lot of people in Sierra Madre I was received warmly in Sierra Madre. 'The ones I talked to considered warming it up for you too - they had sane- thing like burning at the stake in mind ...... We have heard this before - if I had all the B. S. in one pile that's gone before me for cable T. V. I'd never have to buy anymore fertilizer for the rest of my life if I lived to be 2,000. We've heard it fran your predecessors and we're hearing the same thing fran you that we've heard fran thEm and you must understand after we've heard this so many times we don't have any faith in it. We've shown our faith by issuing the franchise. I think its time you showed your faith because its twofold by perfonning ... that is to say, you've got six years approximately on your franchise now - that should be enough time to show sane degree of performance. I don't think I would want to extend your contract without some show of faith .. like I say we've heard this all so many times it goes in one ear and right out on the floor: MAYOR Anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this itEm. BILL lDRSLEY - I live in the City of Monrovia at 325 Linwood Avenue. I am Vice President of and represent the San Gabriel Valley Radio Club. We're here to speak, not so much in favor but certainly not against but we are in support of the cable T. V. system. Quite a number of our club mEmbers reside here in the City of Arcadia and are your citizens. They have dual concerns. The Radio Club is HAL'lDM MCNELLIS HAL'lDM I represented here by a goodly number they might want to raise their hands. Our President is not here today he and six others are providing a community service with the use of their equipment and the cooperation of the Police -23- IDRSLEY con't. I Department of the City of EI Monte for the EI Monte Christmas parade. A thing that amateur radio operators specialize in - witness to the Rose Parade. Our concern here, again, is public service. Service to your citizens, sub- scribers to cable T. V. and a service to the Cable T. V. Canpany. We come here to head off a problem before it manifests itself ... specifically neutral inteference. As you have seen and heard from your own consultants you IrnlSt know the nature of the cable system, which I'll briefly touch on for the audi- ence .. its a confined system - confined to coaxial - it does not broadcast out on the air - if its built correctly. The problem that we face here is that FCC has authorized cable T.V. operators that they use all the channels allowed to them - the shared use of police, fire, aircraft, other public works and public safety ~requencies and a number of the amateur radio frequencies. This creates two problems -,if the system fails in its integrity at any point it can leak radiation that's supposed to be confined to the coaxial cable and that can interfere with my amateur, your police camrunications, your fire camrunications on certain selected frequencies. I've enjoyed that experience in my location in Monrovia - enjoyous with tongue in cheek. The other problem is the same break in integrity of the cable system that causes interference - to me your police, your fire and your other public service radios causes interference to the subscribers. The point of leakage or egress of the cable system be- comes a point of ingress through the air radio tranEmissions fran certain specific frequencies that will thus cause interference to the cable system. We are here, the Radio Club is here, to bring this problem to your attention because I believe you have some enforcement values in your franchise - to bring it here to the cable people - let them know that there is interest in this problem - we want to work with them - we want to work with the City in preventing problems. I think I mentioned at least once the word amateur -24- -~..--:.:'----,_:."-:.-~~ HORSLEY con't. radio - let me dispell you about any misconception of the word amateur. I know its used as a put-down to demean someone's quality of expertise .. let me tell you amateur canes fran the word .. Latin word amo, amas, amat ., I love, you love or he, she or it loves. We do it because we love to ,do it. Professional does it for money - that's not to put down professionals be- cause they do it for money and we do it for fun - its to have you not de- grade our standing as amateurs. We do considerable cannunity service with our own equipnent on our own amateur radio frequency and just this past summer I was unable to represent the City of Monrovia's Emergency Prepared- I ness Group - a County wide drill ... a flood drill that particular one was - we've had earthquake drills - brush fire drills - it was a flood drill and a County wide disaster communication system utilizes 800 amateur radio oper- ators and their own equipnent had selected the City of Monrovia frequency of 147.45 and a two meter amateur band to be an auxiliary link for sane special carmunications that we do not want to use on the primary 11nk,. We were totally inoperative because of a leak in a cable system in that communi- ty - which totally wiped out that frequency for a radius of two blocks, which considerably exceeds the perimeters allowed for such a system. We bring this to your attention to let you know you may have a problem - that the cable Canpany may have a problem. I understand from test:irrony here this morning that they're planning a 54 channel system - if they go ahead with utilization of ,all 54 channels they are certainly at least going to utilize the several amateur frequencies and quite probably your police and fire frequencies. Now, that's no problem if the system is built correctly - namely, integrity.. under the provisions of certain I don't know what the numbers are ... but there are nl]Tlbers under Section 76 of the FCC rules that govern cable T. V. There are certain perimeters which they cannot exceed in terms of radiation -25- IDRSLEY can't HANNAH IDRSLEY MAYOR believe me, its a matter of feet or a few tens of feet. We want to work with you and we want to work with cable T.V. - Mr. Mc Nellis and his group and we're at the disposal of either or hath of you. Are there any questions. Had you provided Cable Group W with a copy of your letter. I understand that Mr. Laudell Ludwig, the signature of that hand out- has conmunicated with sanebody at Group W. Is that correct. Thank you. Anyone else in the audience wish to address this item in favor. lAVE LEDBEITER - I live at 459 Oxford Drive. I am also the Dean of Instruction at Pasadena City College. I think, to say the least, I as a resident and also as an educa- tor in Pasadena I've been very frustrated at the inability to deliver instruc- BXIAN LEDBEITER tional programming from the college and also as a~resident. to.be able to ~eceive some of the programning that I would like to get. I I ve given to each of you a program which I'm very encouraged about and excited about - the beginning of the airing programning in Sierra Madre and Channel 10 of our instructional programning - I look forward with great anticipation to be able to deliver the same programning to Arcadia. I'd like to ask a question .., in the existing franchise ordinance how many channels are provided, Steve. In the existing franchise there are twelve. If, in fact, Telepranpter or Group W had built the systan that had been pro- vided in the existing franchise ordinance it would have been ~possible for us to able to deliver our program to this comnuni ty. Personally, I I m glad they did not build the twelve channel system that is provided - it would have great- ly limited the amount of programning that could be delivered. I can certainly understand the concern about getting an extension on the franchise ordinance if they're going to build a 54 channel systan because there is a great deal more expense involved in that.. so personally I'm glad they didn't build the twelve channel - it would be same years before we had an update to 54 channels. -26- LEDBEITER con't. HANNAH LEDBEITER I eAlJressed a concern about the frustration we've had - I would like to say that I feel, personally, as a Dean at Pasadena City College that the relation- ship with the new management of Group W has been very positive. They have installed and are in the process of installing equipment at Pasadena City College for delivery of programning to Sierra Madre. I have seen very posi- tive rrovenent and I have sane confidence that they're going to stand by what they say. Correction. In the old contract it does say that the Cable W must provide I at least one channel immediately without charge for use by the City upon re- quest by the City Council, Also, it refers to the television services ... "the grantee shall provide without charge to the City or school district single service connection as well as installation or maintenance of said service con- nection for one individual location per city or school district facility. I think that it does provide for educational T. V. under the present contract. ! Is that true. , I believe that's a receiving drop, Mr. Hannah, rather than a transmitting - allow the schools to receive the programming free ., free drop but it would not provide the opportunity for the City or the schools to be able to deliver HANNAH It says "provide at least one access channel". programming. LEDBEITER That maybe - I haven't seen that ordinance - if there is one access channel HANNAH I'm not sure how it might very well have been shared but with the advent many channels are provided but I would assume that under this proposal five or six channels provided for the City and the schools " all of the service insti- tutions would have in effect the ability,...,. Correct " Mr. Bocian it was a minimum of twelve channels immediately and provide for the capacity of minimum of twenty channels on or before March 31, -27- HANNAH con' t. 1986. I think that provision is in there. DYAS The FCC requires cable operators in the system to carry all Grade A and Grade B contour television signals which in the Los Angeles area means 17 off the air broadcasting channels. By rights if they only have a twelve channel system they must carry all the broadcast channels - they have no roan for access channels. That's FCC rules and regulations, JOHN NEUDN - 326 Harvard Drive. I represent the Arcadia Unified School District, We I hadn't planned on speaking this time - we'll have a formal letter going to the City Manager next week. Talking about educational T.V. - let it be known that we're certainly looking forward to eventually having the opportunity to use the cable network - we're not speaking in favor for any particular pro- gram - we're leaving that up to the City Council but we certainly see needs for the Unified School District in this area - and also would be requesting similar support that would be given the Community College for your local school district - we do service the entire comnunity of Arcadia and be work- ing with the City Manager's office - relating that in the next few weeks. MAYOR Anyone else in favor of this item ..,. anyone in opposition, SHARON CULVERWELL - I live at 1032 Hampton Road. I'm just a citizen. I've had cable television service for twelve years - I live in the north section of Arca- dia. I'm a neighbor of Mr. Hannah or at least I live within a block of him. I don't understand all this discussion ahaut dates - when we're going to pro- mise this and when we're going to pranise that, I've had a long on-going camnunication with Telepranpter and Group W - I have lots of letters I've written .- I've written to you - the newspapers and I got promises of dates fran than of when things are going to be provided. I have sane before me, I did receive, 1ir. Lojeski, the notice that was sent to all subscribers. -28- CULVER\~ According to that notice, Mr, Hannah, your system has already been finished. con't. and is operable and you're supposed to have perfect reception according to the letter I have with me now. You only live a block away. I have a promise of December 31 for perfect reception. I suggest before we extend this con- tract any longer that we have sanething to go by. On December 31 if- I have television reception in my hane then its just fine with me if you extend it. Right now it isn't - I got another bill the day before yesterday - I refused to my bills since last March because I have had no reception at all. I have they promise to cane the next day but they don't cane - they don't even call I called them any mrrnber of times. If I can get through without a busy number to tell me they're not caning and I can't live my life waiting for Group II' to call me. Incidentally, it isn't $18 every two months - its $21.10. I've not received any refunds - I was able, after a few pointed letters, to not pay my bill for some months now and I refuse to pay it any longer. They'll have to take me to court before they get me to pay for anything I don't have to pay for. I suggest we don't grant another extension to Graup W until we see some results. I think we should set a time limit and expect something to be performed at that time, Thank you. LAUDELL LUDWIG - I live at 1085 Singing Wood Drive. .Also up there in the north end of Arcadia. I just want to reenforce the lady's CaJInents that were just prior to me. I have called Group IV a number of times over the past severaLrnonths. I have been assured that within the next week we will have good television service. I have also been told that we would have a representative to cane out and see us - look at our problems and talk about the new proposed im- provements, They did give me one m:Jnth' s rebate on my bill - other than that I have not heard any words from anyone - my week's promise of good television that I get every time I call has never materialized. As far as I know I've -29- LUDWIG con't, I DRING LUDWIG never seen anyone on my premises that is even concerned with my problems. Like the other comments that have gone before I think its time that Group II' shaped up and met their canni tments before we go any further. Once they can do that and give us good television - that is fine, I have a dual purpose of being here - I'm also one of the amateur radio operators in the area. I think we have approximately 100 in the City of Arcadia.- if we all get on there and start cable leakage to the system which may occur immediately or it may not - there are going to be many, many disturbed citizens in Arcadia because their pictures will not be acceptable. Group W has already, supposed- ly, completed Sierra Madre's systan. There has been at least one case re- ported to FCC of which I have been involved in - it was not my station - that amateur radio service has disrupted services up there. That's their new system - also, up in the Fort Bragg area Group W has a canpleted a system there - to what extent I don't know - but I do know that the ARRL - the rep- resentative of the amateur radio community has given me a report that their cable leakage is substantially in excess of what is allowed which has material- ly effected the amateur radio operation in that area. Thank you. Laudell, what do you suggest we do ahaut it. Your suggestion is in the letter. EspeCially or asking us to preclude them from certain frequencies. There is a notice before the Federal Communications Commission presently that has been submitted by the American Radio Relay League asking the FCC to ex- clude the use of cable channels on any of the amateur frequencies. If that is approved and the bill hasn't been acted upon - that could cause consider- able problems to the cable companies of having to go back and revise their system to eliminate service on those channels. At this point I would sug- gest that you eliminate the use of those right now in anticipation of that rule making being approved. Also, it will save the cable company expense, -30- 4.~"'_l"" .---- '" !l.TI___~_~;~,,~t'1""~~_~""'~,~ LUDWIG con't. WATTS DRING it will make your lives much more pleasant because the citizens of Arcadia will not be constantly hounding you because the other service is not only amateur but fire, police, other civic services that use. the frequencies will be getting into the cable system if it is not perfect. There are many, many . things that can cause it to be imperfect. In practically every state in the nation there are law suits, complaints, letters of improperly prepared and buil-t cable companies causing this leakage. There are a few examples .. there's one example in the letter that I gave you of a cable company in nor- thern California just receiving a $6,000 fine from the Fa::; because of that leakage and they're not doing anything about it. Its been said supposedly the cable canpany can be built so that leakage will not occur but the ex- perience throughout the country is showing that this is not the case. Now, I don't know if Group W can do any better or not but these other cable com- panies are also reputable companies - they have not succeeded. M:r. Mayor and Members of the City Council, with respect to those last com- ments I understand that the Amateur Radio Club is recommending that the City ban the use of eight channels, I believe. Both our cable consultant and our special legal counsel for cable advises that the City cannot do that - the FCC preempts that field. I think the answer then would be to make sure that we have in our franchise ordinance requirements such that they must properly shield the cable and further if there is any leakage there be heavy penalties involved if they don't correct within a short period of time. Mr. Dyas, technician in this area so I look at the problem of leakage on a fire or police channel range and correcting it in a short period of time could be disastrous - I'm sorry about the amateur radio operators but to me its seems to be vitally cnitical to protect the police and fire frequencies. -31- I DRING con't, DYAS I HANNAH Is there anyway we can do that. Does FCC really have control over that. Absolutely. The FCC controls the frequency allocations - the spectrum allo- cation for the cable operators - if the City were to go and deny them use of certain channels - its my opinion, legal counsel agrees with me that that would be in violation. In other words the City would be attempting to pre- empt the Federal Government in that particular area, The problem of signal leakage is a problem that exists allover and I'm very sensitive to this - I just inspected a system in northern California where the signal leakage was very, very excessive - as Mr, Ludwig indicated its attributable to a variety of things - the major cause, of course, is sloppy workmanship in the construction process. Its also sloppy maintenance. When they go out and test and system or they balance an amplifier or something or they leave unterminated connectors or if they don't have the proper grounding or shield- ing this causes lelli,age. My recommendation would be for the City Council to adopt requirements in the ordinance which in the propgsed revised ordinance there are some very stringent, technical requirements including some penalty causes - if they don't meet those technical reequirements as well as provi- sions for them to test on a regular basis as well as provisions for;the City Manager to require to test whenever there ara any problems in the area. Then there are penalty clauses if that is not corrected. In terms of the fire and police emergency it is less of a problem than it is with radio.: amateur. However, it is a problem and I am very sensitive to it and I strongly recommend City Council adopt procedures to prevent that and that we require that - maybe we can get further recommendations from whoever you grant the franchise to. Inasmuch as I gather its not the mood of the Council to adopt the recommend- ed ordinance I would like to refer back to the original Ordinance 1646 under -32- ...._~..,.__........-~.".."'.,......""""'_......__._..,~""_...._""""'_.'" , 4 -"....... "" ~ ~ ~'--~-~~ ,~.."- HANNAH con't. Standard of Operation which refers to the technical performance and equipment standards ... under Section lla-2 ... doesn't that require them to maintain performance equivalent to what is being requested here. Its page 15. Section lla-2: "The standards adopted shall govern the engineering, construction, in- stallation, service and maintenance of all cable systems in the City including but not limited to standards governing carrier levels, signal-to-noise ratios, hum modulation et cetera," !Vh~ICORENA Mr. Council Person, basically Section 11-2 is merely an authorizing statute tions, I understand at this point no such rules and regulations have been I that gives you power to adopt rules and regulations relating to those func- adopted. But, as a more general matter, the Federal Communications Commis- sion preempts the entire field of techical design and technical regulations. I understand that many cities have adopted technical regulations which mayor may not have or perhaps exceed Federal law to the extent that those technical requiranents or parallel with Federal law. Most of the attor- neys in the field think they would probably be enforceable but on the other hand to the extent that the technical requirements exceed .those required by Federal law or the penalties imposed are more grieveous than was imposed by Federal law then you have a basic preemption problem and my feeling is that those would not be enforceable. The Federal Comnunication Ccmnission does have some fairly stringent requirements relating to signal leakage. The example that ~~ brought up a couple of minutes ago in terms of the cable system that was fined $6,000 by the FCC. The case involves the City of San Luis Obispo and a cable company there called Sonic and there Sonic was charge with various signal leakage problems by the local radio amateurs and the FCC found that Sonic had violated two specific requirements of the Com- mission in conducting its operations. First, the FCC has set forth specific -33- l.lARTlCORENA signal leakage guidelines - specific numbers that say you can radiate no more con' t. than X amount within a certain foot radius. And, it was found that Sonic did radiate in excess of that amount for a certain period of time. Secondly, the FCC has adopted a broad rule that basically prohibits a cable company from anyway interferring with any other type of allocable frequencies be they amateur frequencies, police or fire or whatever and again, it was found that Sonic was not only exceeding the signal leakage requirement but was also in- terferring materially with other users and thus was independently fined under I that basis, My point is is that I think that although the City can adopt sane rules and regulations its pretty much limited to those that are current- ly in force by the FCC. Probably the best solution in addition to adopting those ruoles and regulations would be to work with the cable company to see if they would voluntarily comply with certain forms of technical standard programs and inspection programs to make sure that these type of problans do not arise, But, I think as a legal matter the City's discretion in this area is severely curtailed. There are no restrictions in the current ordinance relating to the There are no broad technical requirements. DRING Bill, how do you spell your last name. MARTICORENA DRING Can we adopt an ordinance currently that would strengthen or create ~~create or strengthen technical requirements and performance characteristics and would that have an effect on the current franchise. MARTlCORENA There are really two questions there. One as a matter of preemption - can you adopt a technical standard type requirement. Its my feeling that to the extent that technical requirements are no more stringent than FCC clearly you can. There is also an argument that could be made that even if -34- MARrIOORENA the requirements are more stringent than FCC regulations to the extent that con't. the cable operator as a matter of private contract excepts those more strin- gent requirements then they are enforceable not via your police power but enforceable as a straight matter of contract and interpretation. Whether that theory will prevail in coU!t or not we just don't know because although ., , that theory has been used for the last two years by cable consultants and cable attorneys there really isn't a court case on -it yet that tells whether that's going to work. So basically the answer if they yes, if they HANNAH I suggest that the City Manager get with Cable W and see if this problem can I don't then its unclear, DRING Thank you. be resolved... pardon me ... go ahead. FRAN ANDREDLI - I live at 1934 Highland Oaks Drive. I hesitated about making remarks but I think this previous debate just reiterates that here again we're dependent upon the integrity as the radio operators stated - I think we're so dependent on the integrity of Group W and as a subscriber since the beginning of cable television I think we still have reason to doubt that we can believe in the credibility of Group W because they also have made promises upon promises upon promises and I have had two people come to try to correct a problem in my area but the word that I get from the men that come to correct the issue just can- pounds the doubt in credibility. When Mrs. Culverwell wrote her letter to you I thought that's exactly how I feel. I second her on all her criticisms and doubts of Group W. We think we need more assurances and I think we just can't take the word of every person we've talked to at Group W - they keep giving us one story after another - one promise after another. In June we had what we thought was a rebuild in our area - all of a sudden the work stopped and we didn't have another thing going on. Yesterday they were back again and the -35- ~I:.' -ii~~~;;w.:s:-~---:;-"'~~~~~~~~;~Wl:fE'1'~'?'~~~~~\K;;i'p';~~'i~~'1.ik:.~~ RUSTY FAUST - with Group II' cable. I ANDRIDLI con't. men said that were working in the yard apparently working on the rebuild said that we would by December 31 have the extended service. What we say in our very little pocket north Arcadia was that work was begin on a rebuild - it was suddenly dropped and new work was begun in another area and we heard nothing more about it - now they're back again - all we get is one story after another - my only point is that I think we have to have all kinds of assurances and I think the burden of proof is on Group W to the citizens. Thank you. Your Honor, I would like to respond to this lady. Construction was stopped in June - I joined Group W Cable at the beginning of September and at that time prior to continuing the rebuild made certain that I had staff, construction coordinator to overlook all of the construction of the rebuild - I made positive that all of the materials were in house before we started the rebuild. I have promised the citizens that as of the end of Decem- ber 31 the system will be completed. I would hope by that time we can have the majority of them on the system - its going to be quite a marketing thing to visit all of than and contact them and set them up for scheduling. At the present time I would like to fill you in on exactly where we are and for the people who are here that are interested. When they started the construction previously - its my understanding that they did go from area to area and that's what we have to do now - we've had to have the construction crew go back in and tie up all the loose ends, so to speak. As of Friday we have two and one tenth miles left of aerial cable to be completed. Based on stringing 1800 feet per day it will take seven working days to canplete and that's working with one crew, We are almost finished, The aerial strand is canplete. We have 302 pieces left to splice. Based on two splicers and 15 pieces per day it will take a little over ten days to complete. The underground cable people... again, that's my problem - I've had a problem with them - they are in working and they have -36- FAUST con't. MAYOR FAUST MAYOR FADm' HALTOM FAUsr HALTOM seven tenths of a mile to complete pulling cable through the conduit. At the present time I'm still assuring the people of northern Arcadia that the system will be completed by the end of the year. Ms. Faust, while you're up - are you laying the cable. or whatever the wire according to the standards, that we have been just talking about. Yes we are. We have been dealing on a almost day to day basis with your people here in City Hall and the Planning Commission. My construction coordinator has been doing that. To help prevent the leakage. Yes. Its. my understanding that you have all the permission to hang on the power poles or telephone poles in northern Arcadia - north of Foothill and your system will be complete by December 31. How about giving us a complete date when you will be able to service all of northern Arcadia with quality tele- vision. I would hope by the end of December we would be able to service you with quality pictures and service at that time, There are quite a number of homes will have be installed and I cannot truthfully say and I \von't tell than they will have it in their hanes at that time. . It will be available and we will be scheduling prior to that as systEmS in certain areas are activated. Excuse me. We've heard this - we've had pranises until they're caning out our ears. Fortunately, I don't have to have cable television and I doubt that I would if it were available but people want sane performance from you people - not just hope - I understand the problems in southern Arcadia because haning on the poles - getting permission and everything else. You don't have that propblem in northern Arcadia - the only problem you have -37- I HALTOM con't. FAUST HALTOM FAUST I HALTOM M:CNELLIS DYAS M2NELLIS DYAS MCNELLIS DYAS there is your ability to proceed. At that point you should be able to give me a tentative date when you not only hope but will be able to ... I'm sorry, sir, are you asking if it will be connected in their homes .. a date. Yes, Assuming of course that they have made arrangements with you -to have it connected in their home .. that's obvious. I would see no reason why at this point ." I'm trying scheduling in my mind at least by ... I'm going to say the end of January before everyone of them will be completed but there will be some of them ..... we already have .a certain portion of the area turned on and activated. That's all we want --- just a date. In the change out of the old systan into the new system it does require the subscriber to be there. Rusty is not hedging when she was doing that. That's the reason I came.up - I want to try to get the Council to understand the pro- blan more so you can understand the question. We need the subscriber to be there to take the old system out and the new system in and there can be a transition period where your phone is going to ring as well as ours where people are looking at an inadequate system rather than the new one. I just wanted to clarify that, IThe system you're building 400 megahertz.., or 4<10 ,.1 you going to address- able converters. I do not think we're going to addressable converters by the end of this year. ,This lady who spoke back here - she said her system is twelve years old... then I would assune that the subscriber tap has to be replaced as well. Yes. . Mayor and Members of the Council what he is talking ahaut there is going in-. each home to improve the service - not only do they have to change the lines -38- DYAS con't. HANNAH MCNELLIS 9YAS MCNELLIS DYAS MCm:LLIS DYAS - MCNELLIS DYAS MCNELLIS FAUST DYAS FAUST DYAS FAUST out on the street they have to change the lines that are coming into your houses and they have to change the converter that's in your house as well. Is there going to be a charge to the homeowner for this. No, there will not be. Essentially the December 31 date that Rusty referred to you will be for completion of what is called trunk lines which are the cables on the poles. That's where I think the dates are misleading, Yes, and I would like to clarify that. That will be done by December 31. It will be up to us and to subscribers and to residents including non-subscribers I to complete all of what is known as the drops, which are the cables running from the poles to the individual residences, It will be up to us and those people mentioned to get those done as quickly as possible - presumably by Janauary 31. Are you subcontracting that. I believe we are. How many crews do you have doing that. As many as we need to get it done as quickly as possible. How many does that mean. I don't know thu.t we know how many we have today because perhaps Rusty better respond to it. It depends on the scheduling and how many people are signed up and how many we schedule per day. How many subscribers do you have right now. We have 5,262. No - no - you mean to .., To do the change out, We hu.ve 2000 -; ,ahaut 1200 - we passed 2000 homes but there will be new ones that will be added but at the present time we have 1200. \ -::J9- _.-~~-' '----+~,.....----~.--..............,...-.'Z:;""...ti.:.:t:r~~~P'~:;,~~.~"::;~~".~~~~~~,~~.-it:~1&-~~~~_L'::~n:;,;~T~~:U;.Jl DYAS FAUST DYAS FAUST DYAS HANNAH DYAS FAUST I DYAS MCNELLIS DRING MCNELLIS DRING MCNELLIS An installer can do how many a day. The installer can do on the drops and things, I think, ahaut 8 or 9 a day. 'That's pushing it. Can we say seven. Ok. \You have 2000 subscribers - that's 1200 homes - That's approximately 200. ;That's 200 days - one person - At the present time we have two crews working with us - we have four extra people and at the time we start doing this we will get extra people in - we will be working other contractors, ,I just wanted to clarify this for everyone - because therein lies the problem. We will provide as many crews that are necessary to meet a schedule that we can agree on. We do have many other systems in the area and if necessary we can even bring in installers from those. At seven on 1200 - that's 171 days over a 22 day working period ., that requires eight crews to canplete that in round numbers. Are you willing to go and get eight crews and get them installed. It will require also - let me just clarify - not only the drops and all the fittings because the radiation which is the leakage of signal will get worse with putting in new high frequency signals into an old system. Its analogist to perhaps putting a brand new water main system in a high pressure system with a n~v reservoir into an old water main - you're going to have leaks - and we will have leaks - we will fix everyone of them as quickly as we can. I thought you were laying a new systan ...., I'm referring to the drops - the individual cable drops - frequently we are not able to get access to every home when we would like - experience has shown - and in some cases if we do get into a home and we're not able to put -40- MCNELLIS con' t. DYAS MCNELLIS DYAS MCNELLIS MAYOR MCNELLIS MAYOR I.nlELLIS in a nav drop - if for one reason or another a subscriber doesn't want us to go new a tree or a certain part of the yard - they'll say just leave the old drop - that has happened historically. If we do that and we find radiation we obviously will fix ie. \You're laying a new trunk. Yes. AbSOlutely a brand new trunk. , I And new feeder. And new amplifiers, Absolutely if you're going 440 megahertz. Where is the leakage caning fran. It could be in the individual house drops - if we are not able to replace them'.. We anticipate replacing every one but there have been access problems, histori cally. Wi th regard to the amateur radio band .., we are very cognizant of the problans that cable television can cause on the interference getting into the cable and the necessity of having it properly shielded. It has been my personal experience in other markets - worked very closely with amateur radio people, When we do lelli, signal - amateur radio helps us find it - its a brotherhood - it works extremely well, John, do we have a meeting established in January - we are aware of it and their .point is well taken by this canpany. Mr. McNellis, I have a question - it may be opening another can of worms but for years we've controlled the quality of T.V. - the quality of cable T. V. is ridiculous as far as the pornography - the X-rated and stuff. That's the programming concept - not the technical quality. Right. What does Westinghouse or your canpany do to prevent this kind of filth on the air. We're taking a leadership role, Mr. Mayor. Last nite our Chairman, Mr. Dan Richey was recognized nationally as humanitarian of the year. He did that or part of that award in recognizing as such came from a position against -41- ~QffiLLIS con't. I MAYOR MCNELLIS MAYOR 1CNELLIS DRING pornography on cable. He's the same individual who took a position not to sell tobacco on television two years before it became law. We had a pay T. V, company called Showtime - we own 50% of that company along with Via- Com, We were in a position with them - Via-Com was the managing general part- ner of Showtime. So we ended up with no voice in programning. We did not like some of that programming - we think it went beyond the limits of proprie- ty. Since that period of time and for other reasons as well - not soley be- cause of contact - but largely because of contact. Westinghouse Broadcasting has sold its interest in Showtime. That does not mean every movie we're go- ing to show on Group II' Cable is Bambi. There are limits of discretion - we will not cross that line - we will not carry any X-rated rrovie - we will toler- ate a substantial amount of R-rate programning - but we will not let it go be- yond the limits of human decency and we are the watchdogs ..... I'm glad we have you on record saying that because I had ON T.V. - I gave it back and wrote a nasty letter - its sort of sickening to see what they can put on T,V. ON T.V. has approached me three times in the six months. I have been with Group W seeking a contract for carriage on our cable systems throughout Southern California and we have rejected that each time simply because we will not carry that type program. God bless you. You got two points so far this rrorning. I need three. Let's go for three. There are some practical aspects here - I have a great deal of faith in Group W if nothing else because of its financial resources and certainly given time I would expect you all would correct and be well under way correcting the problem. I think time is a function of dollars and dollars are a function of resources et cetera. I'm particularly interested in -42- DRING con't. M:NELLIS DRING M:NELLIS DRING M:NELLIS DRING several things, One is you have seen a copy of the proposed franchise, I'm sure, you or your technical people. Yes, I have not - they have. Do they have any particular problems with the technical 'aspects for length of term - dollars and cents - forget all that - 1'm talking ahaut technical performance. I know of no problems in the technical performance. Would it be reasonable or would you have a problem of acceptance of us beginning and drafting an ordinance that would effect the technical side of this. Also, I could we work to develop a plan that's acceptable to both parties regarding the build-oug of the City and its time frames, I would like to go that far at least, certainly..... The answer is yes to hath those questions. Arid get some performance criteria, I don't know how anyone else feels as much as I'm angry and disappointed and did not like the tact of presentation - the truth is we've got to live together here and we can effectively if you so choose - you have the control of the situation now. If we can get your atten- tion as opposed to Monrovia, Sierra Madre or any other city is competing for it and we're all canpeting for the same resources. And we see some perform-- ance - what I've heard so far, for example, the customer service has been inadequate since Group W has taken over. It's pretty clear - the informa- tion has not clearly gotten to all the people and not appropriately and whether that requires additional staffing over the time period where you're going to create problems - a change out in the system is going to create_ problems - maybe you need more people - more phones - on temporary basis - some expenditures there - what we are suffering for the people who are in the communication business is one hell of a communication gap and I don't -43- DRING con't. I MCNELLIS FAUSI' DRING H!'.,NNAH whether that's sane extra resources temporarily to solve those problems but if you will perform I have no problem extending the franchise - if you're de- livering us a viable product and service and the people in this community are happy with it I'll be.glad to extend the franchise but I'm uncomfortable with extending the franchise up front when we can't get the service delivered and that includes the rest of the City too, So if we can develop something there and build also a customer service relationship and communication over the short term that we're talking about the build-out and you know that people are going to be calling and if you have problems with your phones - put in more lines 'or sanething on a temporary basis - then you solve the comnunica- tion back and then we're all on the same track together, In order to correct something that you said which is deadly accurate and alarming to me - we will do whatever we have to do to immediately change our lack of performance ir. the area - customer service. It is the rrost important thing that we have and we will go after that today. I would like to respond to Councilman Dring for just one m:ment. During the period of time that I've been there I've been trying to set up procedures and make some procedural changes in the customer service area and I think as you all are businesSIlen and you're aware you don't go in and immediately and start saying this person is not doing a job and that person is not doing a job if they have not had leadership in the past and what I've tried to do is work with the people and I have been there now for three months and the people who have not worked out - you will begin to see some noticeable changes. I'm sorry its taken so long but I am a business wanan and I just can' t go in and not give people an opportunity to show if they can perform or not. Rusty, I understand that .,'... We have other City residents input there waiting to speak against the issue -44- HANNAH con't. DRING FAUST DRING MIKE O'HAVER 39 W. Sycamore ? O'HAVER ". MAYOR and we're rehashing things that have been said before, Let me continue, please. I think Mr. Mc Nellis could allocate resources - some people who have e^1Jerience to your office Ivhile you're training persons - to provide the additional manpower of experience - to provide the customer ser- vice level over the time period that this is occurring - doesn't have to be left in a handicapped situation and that's what I'm asking. I will see that you get it. Thank you. The only thing I think I can add, Gentlemen, I arranged for my installation around the first of May, New cables were brought in on the back - new drops into the house - everything worked fine for about three months. Around the first of September I got the same expericnce that you did, David. I called in about every three or four days - a couple of times my call was returned and the man said I'm sorry we're having a problem in your area - it will be fixed in a week. Called back in a week - it will be fixed in a week - Called back in a week - it will be fixed in a week .... I received a bill, a lady back here mentioned $21. - I received a bill for $14 - are there two differ- ent charges. (out of mlcrophone range) The last time I received a bill I put dawn a list of my calls - the dates I had called and the responses I had and sent it back in with the bill and said under the circumstances I can't use the cable - I have changed back to my antenna - this was the first of September - and I anticipated a response from them saying "they were sorry I was having a problan and they would get to it" .. had no response whatsoever. So I've been back on my antenna since the first of September. Mr. O'Haver, question on the charges.. Ms. Faust, could you explain. Is there -45- I MAYOR con't. FAUST O'HAVER FAUST MAYOR t.AUST .YOR one charge for the City or are there different rates depending on where you live. inaudible...... She says she has no extras, inaudible. ..... $7.05 a month. There's a discrepancy, Ms, Faust, would you check into that. There might be one connection, two cOill1ections, three connections. But there is one flat rate price no matter what. Yes. Thank you, Mr. O'Haver. BILL HORSLEY - from the Radio Club. I'd like to clear up one possible misconception. DRING I Maybe Mr. Dring may accidentally been entertaining in his mind .,. I think Mr. Dring spoke to the proposition to be sure to protect the Arcadia Police and Fire frequencies with apologies to the amateur radio group. I hope I made myself clear but I want to reiterate to the entire Council and staff. Amateur radio is a whole lot more than an adult toy. We are the volunteer, uncompensated backup public health and safety radio communications for every public service entity that can ever use us in every disaster that has ever happened since Marconi invented the wireless. That's why we're really here speaking is to protect the integrity of our value to you - your citizens in times of emergency and its the vzry frequencies at issue here that we use in these emergency communications. So please do not shove us off in a corner and consider that we can take care of ourselves - we don't amount to much - we amount to a whole lot. Bill, I did not mean to imply that what you have requested was unimportant, however, as with any consideration of multiple priorities - in order to es- tablish priorities you set priorities - that was my point ... that I would -46- DRING con't IDRSLEY WATTS HORSLEY WATTS consider the police and fire to be of such critical nature that any inter- ferenc whatsoever that got in there could not wait 24 hours to get repaired where indeed it would effect you but I mean you can live or die .. you can go on living for 24 hours if it did come out but if they took our police and fire radios off the air for 24 hours - that would be such a critical situation - it would be rrore than just unacceptable. So that's what I was talking about in terms of response time and do we go about such to make it reasonable and. responsive to your needs but the police and fire response time is critical. These are entirely different - much higher - they require immediate responses how do we go about addressing those when I was trying to address that I was trying to say those things ,.. not demeaning your position or the points you've made. Thank you and I appreciate that, To heckle the Mayor I'm glad I have you on tape for that too. But, I want to reiterate that the very condition you're citing - police and fire off the air - that's where amateur radia canes to your rescue - don't let us get off the air either. Thank you. What we would like to do is to set up a meeting just as soon as possible - City staff - representatives from Group W and any representatives from the amateur radio group to sit down with Ron Dyas, our cable consultant, to work out some good language that would be acceptable to all parties with regard to this leakage problan. Mr, Bocian will be in contact with you to set up that meeting. That'll be great - I'll contact somebody afterwards and let you know how to reach us. Gentlemen, if there are no other people in the audience who wants to speak I da have one bit of miscellaneous matter here - you might recall that Group -47- -f I WATTS con't. HANNAH W gave a piece of correspondence to me that went to the Council on November 23 a@{ed if they could have permission to make their marketing solicitations after 5 p. m. Our solicitation ordinance prohibits any solicitations after 5 p. m. They are asking that those hours be extended to at least 7 p. m, There's a gentlemen in the audience to wishes to speak, Mr. Mayor, WALLACE MURRAY - I live in Sierra Madre, 25 W. Carter Avenue, which is at the extreme 1 MAYOR I north end of Baldwin Avenue. I, years ago had a television shop in Sierra Madre for several years - I know the problems that the cable canpanies have and I have battled with them over the years but since Group W took it over I've had very little trouble. I've had them out - I phoned in that my pic- ture wasn't good - they came out and put a new drop line down - went under the house and run it clear around., Another time they came out the man said he had to get more equipment to work and he never came back - he evidently went out in the street somewhere and fixed it and we have a good picture - not perfect but its quite adequate. I'm very happy with it. I would like to get in a lick for the poor people in town who can't afford to have a new television set or go to the extra channels. A lot of us would just like to have just twelve channels on the VHF without having to pay for them. They have moved over most of the channels, I believe, one megacycle and some sets without the little black box that they furnish you can retune the fine tunning and get adequate picture, I have never used a black box although I have one there sitting over in the corner of the room - I'm also a member of the amateur radio group here - I just hope you will work out something whereby those who can't afford a new set can get adequate picture out of it, Thank you. Anyone else wish to address the Council. Okay, Gentlemen, we're addressing the application to solicit in the community passed 5 o'clock. They would -48- MAYOR con' t. FAUST WATTS FAUST WATTS FAUST MAYOR WATTS IDJESKI DRING like to extend it to 7. Mr. Mayor, the reason that I have requested this is ., and it can be for a limi ted time .. but in order for us to contact all the people as we are ready to turn them onto the new system and its difficult to reach people when both of than are away from their hane during the day. And, we're not allowed to go out or make telephone calls and this would enable the people to contact than and set them up for installation onto the new service. Rusty, are you aware that the City Council recently changed the solicitation ordinance to allow solicitations on Saturday. No, I'm not. Okay, that's now possible, Would that suffice. Yes, that would suffice. Any discussion. Anything else, Gentlanen. Mr. City Manager. If the Council so directs what I would like to do at this point would be to, again, have our meeting with the cable operator and the amateur radio people with regard to the leakage problem. Get our input as promised fran the school district and to make any further refinements we find necessary in the draft we have - but most particularly what we would like to do is take out or in cor- porate those parts of the action plan that we feel are important into the ordinance itself so that there's not an attachment because much of this is either redundant or conflicting with some of the stuff that we have. Such that we can come back to you the first of the year - first of January - with a complete ordinance ready for your action. That's fine - we have a publiC hearing in process I would make a MOTION to close the public hearing. I'd like to have a discussion with Mr. McNellis that we cut short because -49- I I DRING con't. lDJESKI DRING DRING M:::NELLIS DYAS I other people wanted to speak~ I'd like to continue that if I may, I withdraw my motion. Mr. Mc Nellis, to continue.. I think its important that we work together and develop this .. as I indicated we have a current existing franchise under which you have the authority or the rights to go ahead and build and also to provide customer service - we don't need a new ordinance to do that. Are you willing to do that - is there any need for us .. are you telling us you won't build unless you have a new ordinance that provides the extension. That's question one. IS You're reversing our situation and you're asking me to be confident that if we do what we are supposed to do you will not unreasonably withhold that extension. Sir, don't you have an existing franchise agreement that commits you to do what we're asking you to do already. I do not know if that's true. Councilman Dring, its consultant's opinion and staff concurs that the City would be better off if we could adopt a new ordinance because it is far more , stringent. It makes far more demands on the cable operator than does the other ordinance - there may be two issues here - one is adopting a new ordi- nance and the other is extending the franchise. Fran my perspective I think the most important thing is adopting the ordinance - extending the franchise can be a second issue, I feel. I think you need the new ordinance because one of the things that has occurred is in the old ordinance - there are not stringent enough requirEments. We wouldn't be in this siutation today if we had these penalty clauses and other requirEments that we're suggesting you adopt for the new ordinance. I think the City would be better off. I think -50- DYAS con't. DRING MCNELLIS DRING MCNELLIS DRING we ought to agree on this. I have an outstanding question unaswered, I'd like to leave that one alone. I do not think that I would make a recom- mendation to our company to invest millions of dollars in a franchise with a very limited term on good faith. I think Dr, Dyas' cornnents of introducing a new franchise with penalty clauses- or new ordinance, if you will, would demonstrate that assurance beyond your taking our word for it. Sir, what we have is a legal opinion that says franchise revocation is very lengthy, very tirlle consuming, very expensive and not very successful and so what you're asking us to do is on faith - we put forth the faith - even with the penalties - all that means is that we get into court. We put forth the faith and extend the terms under which you say we will then go ahead and hon- or our current existing cornnitments which is the current franchise agreement only it has a longer length of term. And, I'm suggesting to you it would be more appropriate to begin to honor your current agreement before asking us for a new extension. Obviously, If I went out and built a twelve channel system, Councilman, would that be good faith. I'll do that in six and a half years. If you want 54 I need the time to get a return on that investment. Now, do you literally want me to go out and build this City a twelve channel cable television system under the terms and conditions of that ordinance. Its a little more canplex than that. I understand the rate of return. Your company that you acquired - to say Telepranpter no longer exists is fine but the company you acquir~d and unfortunately your performance record since you have acquired them - customer service relations - has not proven to be out- standing to date. I undertand your intentions are good and that you're try- -51- I I DRING con't, 1 MCNELLIS DRING MCNELLIS DRING I ing to fulfill those commitments but I. don't see the performance criteria. I suggest to you that with a system that is adequate and customer service is adequate we want no more that - that's our whole intent from start to finish. If you can provide that we're certainly willing to extend it - I'm certainly willing to extend it, personally, The other Councilmen will have to speak for themselves. But, to ask us to extend first with the kind of performance record that exists does not make good business sense anymore than you... you're not willing to invest the money for six years and I'm not willing to give you four more years of personal havoc of the people of Arcadia unless we see some proof of the pudding. Alright. Suppose then - its probably a very poor time to be negotiating but I am willing to talk about it - I am willing to discuss it, Okay, all we're looking for is performance. If you can deliver, I don't have a problem - but if you can't deliver ,.,. contracts despite what attorneys would like for you to believe - they could get you in court and get you a better chfu~ce of argument but they really don't provide the actual perform- ance. The proof's in the pudding. For the topic of discussion and to enlighten anyone in the room that doesn't know what I'm talking about let's just use a supposition - not a proposal. That we go ahead and build under the existing terms of the existing ordinance, At the close of the construction the system is in compliance the City Council would then act on a term for that ordinance. Yes and I understand. I don't wish to be negotiating with you probably ___ provided the construction time frames were adequate and appropriate and what have you and I'm suggesting that we can go ahead and do this piece meal and maybe we pass an ordinance that begins to address the construction and penal- ties without extending the term with a provision in there that says if indeed -52- DRING con't. !.{;NELLI S DRING /.CNELLIS DRING MAYOR DRING you complete on schedule in additions to the penalties you would have to pay if you don't canplete on schedule then we would be willing to extend the term for four years. Fine. I do not find that unreasonable. I know you are most certainly are by this canpany - we do intend to perform. I do-not think that language is unreasonable. May I suggest that in the short run - please - considering the expense we put out for attorneys and you put out for attorneys the capital investment to lay I all those miles of cable and what have you - certainly when you look at the overall dollars its a minor investment to keep up the customer service level so the comnunication of information and all the responses problems. The cormIUnication of information out to the people as to what you're doing, when you're going to do it and know that you'll meet those schedules will provide both of us with a great return. In moderan society both members of the household work and I believe - I'm not sure we have hit every doorbell but Ms, Faust has had people going door to door even beyond that. We catch a lot of people not at home - we miss a lot of people - there's no question about that. When they come home often times there is evidence that someone has been there and I know that is dis- turbing and alarming. But we will continue that and will improve upon it if its deficient. Thank you. Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong. They have until the end of December before we have some kind of qualifications going with the people that are already in the foothills now. Unfortunately that's not true. By the end of December they will have the new cable across the telephone poles - that doesn't mean its connected to the I -53- DRING con't. MAYOR WATTS FAUST lING FAUST MAYOR FAUST DRING FAUST DRING I^= house - while the new cable is sitting up there and the guy is still getting bad reception - it doesn't help him alot, And that's part of the problem. I thought the lady just told me that service will be completed on December 31. That's just the main line - its not the drops to the houses. Service will be completed in partial sections - the power is turned on and its activated and balanced out in certain areas - those homes we will start market- ing as quickly as possible. Sane of those will be completed prior to the end of the rronth and we will be marketing those. Rusty, you're talking about marketing and what I'm talking I'm sorry - when I say marketing - when we market them we go out and talk to the people and set them up for an installation date so some of the homes will, indeed be on the new system but I can't tell you right at the present time be- cause I don't know which areas are going to be activated first, Ms. Faust, I don't particularly care how many more you have or your new custo- mers - I would like to see the old custaners cane up and say we're satisfied with the service. I would too. In fact regarding the question that was raised earlier - John, I believe, - could we request that you notify us of anyone who refuses to have their drop changed over. Yes. So we could possibly address that issue - if its going to create problans for the amateur radio operators if the drop is not going to be changed - we would hope that you could influence that person and maybe as a civic responsibility we could enter into ..... there is no charge for change of the drops. Right. -54- DRING MAYOR FAUST MAYOR HANNAH FAUST HANNAH FAUST D.YAS HANNAH DYAS DRING Maybe we try to help in that area because I think the community benefits if the drop is changed. Rusty, there's no time limit that doesn't prevail us from waiting until January 1 when we have a meeting of the minds with staff and staff comes back with a report to us on the final okay of an ordinance - we don't have to pass an or- dinance today. No time schedule, is there. No. So we can wait until the end of December is what I'm trying to say and we get I a better feedback fran the people who have the connections connected on the quality of service that you're trying to achieve, The present contract requires you to maintain a log of all the complaints - would it be unreasonable to ask that you provide that to the City Council - City 1~ager's office, please. No sir. For what period of time.. Now and the 31st of December. Okay. Since the quality of the system they're rebuilding is concerned - may I make a recommendation to Council - that you may want to hire an independent engi- neer, not myself, from an independent engineering "firm to test that and have that borne by the cable operator, Because the question is ... are they de- livering the service and I think you ought to get an engineer out to test that and Group W ought to pay for that, We could find that out by talking to the citizens. Not really. A lot of citizens would look at their picture and they would say it was satisfactory - it may not meet FCC's specifications. Ron, isn't that what the contract of this proposed ordinance is all about. If, indeed we make no additional canmitments other than ... if you take the extensi -55- DRING con't. HANNAH DRING I of the franchise - without arguing about prices that are involved in there - but if you take the terms of the franchise extension out and put a provision upon performance based on criteria and time - how do the other Council Members feel ahaut that. Obviously, I'm not talking about the individual pieces in here that you mayor may not like I'm saying in general this is a performance contract which among other things specifies penalties and service and what have you - in addition it extends the term. So what I'm trying to do is get the penalties and service in as quickly as possible into effect and I'm willing, personally, to extend the term provided, indeed, they provide the service. And, that's really all I'm after. Personally, I would not entertain any change in the contract until they perform under the present contract. What I'm suggesting, David, is that indeed .. I think I'm clear but let me make sure if we go for something along these lines that specifies in technical terms because the current-contract - the current ordinance does not specify technically nor does it take provisions for them paying .,. I think there are even provisions in here for them to pay for a City hired engineer who goes out to make sure that the system is indeed performing rather than waiting a citizen to call and complain, We have those kind of provisions covered in this con- tract, I'm suggesting the City benefits greatly under most of the provisions of this contract, but I'm certainly, as you are, not willing to entertain an extension of the tenn until I see perfonnance. So, what I'm suggesting, David, is that we bring to play all these technical requirements and enforcement pro- visions and dollar penalty provisions in here and to make that a mutual con- tract of benefit rather than a one-sided contract - say, that indeed we will extend your franchise if you meet these carrnitments and provide that perfonn- ance and at the end of that term - the filled out term - if indeed we're getting -56- DRING c:on't. HANNAH DRING ~IS HANNAH ~NELLIS DRING HANNAH DRING HANNAH MERRITT the service that we expect and they built it according to what we wanted - if they've met those commitments and provided that performance then I would be willing to extend it. If I may, Mr. Mayor. I don't think they would be agreeable to any changes that we would like to put into the contract without an extension. That's not what I heard earlier, David. That's not necessarily true. I think there are a lot of things that any municipality today is entitled to that are probably not in the franchise. I'm sure there are some things we would not do without an extension .. but not a blanket no to anything. I would like to see what you would agree to do first. Perhaps that will come out in the meeting. That's whaj; I was suggesting, David, if we direct staff to sit down with them and go through the provisions along with our appropriate counsel and consultants and indeed see what provisions are acceptable and not acceptable and mutually agreeable and let's take a look at what it looks like. If, indeed it doesn't buy us a heck of a lot then I'm not willing to address it either. If they're willing to go out on the line and know that they can get the extension of the four years based on their performance - if they're willing to bet on their own performance - then I would be comfortable with that. I still would not extend the contract until we see performance. We'll make that provision. We've had words, promises as Councilman Haltom says until we see action I'm not willing to extend the contract. Of Group W again. Yes, in fact we would most willing to bet on our own performance and agree to an extension of the ordinance based only on our per- fonnance. I'd like to clarify also any question of you hiring an engineer -57- I MERRITT con't. MAYOR lDJESKI MAYOR ('NG possibly at our 6.'.1Jense. There is a FCC Proof of Performance which is re- quired on an annual basis by every cable T.V. systan. Presumably your stand- ards would be no higher than that of the FCC which, of course, is our objective and we would provide to you on an annual basis our annual proof of performances certified by the FCC. John, that's not good enough for us - we believe in local control and that negotiation will take care of staff and you'll get back to us and to expedite time it will either be January 4 or the 18th when we receive this back to us at our regular council meeting. So, staff will set up a meeting with you as quick as possible. Group W has no problems with the new contract so I see no problems really with anythin~ except the report that we get back from Rusty December 31 and I'm sure it will be a positive one with the attitude you have, Rusty. I just have one question in regards to that particular meeting and what's going to be accomplished with it. I, also want to stop the promises and, of course, let's perform the contracts ... promises are kind of like having a baby ... they're fun to make but difficult to deliver. I am wondering if in that. conversation we can put some performance clauses in there also in other words put a time factor as of December 31 .. these streets or this section of the City will be completed and then I've got something to hang my hat on. We can go back to the citizens in those particular areas and so okay, how is it now - better today and has it been consistently better - then I would have no problems with extending contracts and clauses and that sort of thing. If that's possible to have that in there I'd appreciate that also Any other discussion, gentlemen. Then we'll adjourn to our January 4 .,. I 110VE to continue this public hearing until the next time this matter is -58- DRING con't. LOJESKI MAYOR brought before the Council. Second. So moved. CITY A'ITY Date certain. January 4 at 7:30, MAYOR DRING MAYOR Include that in your motion. Sure, Continue it to the January 4 meeting. -59- City Council adjourns, I