CC RES 2007-098 RESOLUTION NO. 2007-98
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
RANCHO PALOS VERDES MAKING FINDINGS IN CONNECTION
WITH THE THIRD SCHEDULED SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AUDIT
OF 2000 CABLE TELEVISION FRANCHISE AGREEMENT WITH
COX COMMUNICATIONS.
WHEREAS, On October 17, 2000, the City Council adopted Resolution
No. 2000-71, thereby entering into a non-exclusive, ten-year Cable Television
Franchise Renewal Agreement with Cox Communications ("Agreement"); and,
WHEREAS, the Agreement includes a requirement that three system
performance audits be conducted following the second, fourth and sixth
anniversary dates of the Agreement. October 17, 2006, marked the sixth
anniversary of the Agreement. Pursuant to Section 8.1(b) of the Agreement, the
City and Cox Communications were required to meet within 90 days following the
sixth anniversary date of the Agreement to review the performance of the cable
television system; and,
WHEREAS, on January 16, 2007, within 90 days following the sixth
anniversary date of the Agreement, the City Council reviewed the submitted data
and staff's analysis of the cable operator's performance; directed the cable
operator to provide staff with additional data regarding: Service Level (% of calls
answered within 30 seconds), Complaint Procedure and Service Appointments;
and continued the Third System Performance Audit to allow the cable operator
additional opportunity to address these issues; and,
WHEREAS, on April 17, 2007, the City Council reviewed the submitted
data and staff's analysis of the cable operator's performance; directed the cable
operator to provide staff with additional data regarding Service Level %, and
continued the Third System Performance Audit for a period of ninety (90) days;
and,
WHEREAS, on September 4, 2007, the City Council reviewed the
submitted data and completed the third cable television system performance
audit; and,
WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 8.1(c) of the Agreement, within 30 days
after the conclusion of the performance audit, the City may issue findings with
respect to system compliance. If any noncompliance is identified, the City may
direct Cox Communications to correct the noncompliance within a reasonable
period of time.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RANCHO
PALOS VERDES DOES HEREBY FIND, DETERMINE AND RESOLVE AS
FOLLOWS:
Section 1: As required in the Agreement (Exhibit C - Technology
Implementation Plan), Cox Communications upgraded its cable network in
December 2000 from a hybrid coaxial cable system to fiber optic technology with
a total bandwidth of 750 Megahertz (MHz). In addition, Exhibit C requires the
new fiber optic cable network to include greater system reliability, enhanced
picture quality, the ability to support new services and future technologies, and
an expanded channel capacity. The City Council finds as follows:
• The cable operator has provided enhanced picture quality by continuously
monitoring the cable network system for signal leakage. The cable
operator has achieved a FCC Cable Signal Index (CLI) score of 98.92% in
2005 and of 100% in 2006. A perfect score (100%) means that no CLI
was found to exist in the cable network system. The cable operator also
achieved a reliability index of 99.96116% in 2005 and 99.99831% in 2006,
which indicates the "up time" of the cable system per year.
• In addition to its video and high-speed data services, the cable operator
added telephony to the services offered to its customers after the second
performance audit.
• The cable operator has continued to expand its channel offerings. Since
the second performance audit, the cable operator has added 7 new digital
channels and 2 high definition channels to its line up. During this same
period, Cox deleted 3 pay-per-view channels that ceased broadcasting.
• The cable operator has continued to provide the Emergency Alert System
(EAS), which enables local government and law enforcement to send
emergency messages to cable television subscribers via "text crawls" at
the top of the screen or by overriding audio and/or video. The cable
operator's EAS currently exceeds FCC minimum requirements.
Section 2: Section 76.309(c) of Title 47 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, which is incorporated as an attachment to the Agreement, contains
standards regarding the cable operator's customer service obligations. The
standards require a service level where customer calls are answered with thirty
(30) seconds of the connection being made and that the cable operator achieves
this standard ninety (90) percent of the time, under normal operating conditions.
The January 16, 2007, staff report indicated the cable operator had met the
federal standard in 12 months during the 22-month period between January 2005
and October 2006. The Council continued the performance audit based on the
cable operator's assurance that significant changes were being implemented at
the customer call center and the results for the first quarter of 2007 would show a
marked improvement in the service level. At the April 17, 2007, meeting, staff
reported that the cable operator had provided staff with data for the period
between November 2006 and March 2007 showing that it was able to improve
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the service level from 79% in December 2006 to 92.2% in January 2007 and has
maintained compliance during February and March 2007. Due to the limited data
available documenting the improvements, the Council continued the performance
audit and directed the cable operator to provide staff with additional data for
2007. The data submitted for the first and second quarters of 2007 indicate that
the cable operator has been able to maintain service level compliance and even
achieved 99.0% compliance during the months of April and May 2007, the
highest level achieved in the six and a half years the City has been monitoring
this data. Therefore, Council finds that the cable operator is currently in
compliance with this performance standard and directs staff to continue to
monitor the cable operator's performance in this area on a quarterly basis.
Section 3: In addition to the state and federal customer service
requirements that are incorporated as attachments to the Agreement, the City
has required the cable operator to comply with some additional customer service
requirements, which are included in Exhibit D (Customer Protection Standards)
of the Agreement. The City Council finds that the cable operator was in
compliance with the following customer service standards during the third
scheduled system performance audit:
• Providing required notifications to new subscribers and continuing
subscribers
• Providing privacy flags
• Notifying high-speed Internet customers of changes to the Acceptable Use
Policy (AUP)
• Offering all-inclusive pricing
• Advertising the "limited basic" package
• Posting information on the reader board regarding the procedure for filing
a complaint.
• Providing public education regarding "must carry" stations
• Returning customer calls within 24 hours
• Providing appointments within 24 hours for a service outage, within 3
business days for service-related problems, and within 5 business days for
installations.
Section 4: Exhibit E (Support for Local Cable Usage) of the Agreement
requires the cable operator to provide and support educational and governmental
access channels as part of its network. The City Council finds that the cable
operator was in compliance with these requirements based on the following
service rendered during the third scheduled system performance audit:
• Produced six 30-minute franchise "shoots" and eight Public Service
Announcements (PSAs) each year for the City. These local programs
were broadcast on both Channel 33 and Government Access Channel 35.
• Continued to provide reader board service on the Government Access
Channel. In January 2007, the program software was upgraded to add
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graphics and improve the readability of the text. The Reader Board now
uses a combination of still slides and scrolling text.
• Continued to broadcast all City Council and Planning Commission
meetings on Channel 35. In addition, at the request of staff, the cable
operator recently installed swing arms on the three robotic cameras in the
Council Chambers to improve the angle of view for the television
audience.
• Continued to provide the community bulletin board service on the local
KCOX channel in the form of a half-hour program called "Cox
Communications Community Bulletin Board."
Section 5: Pursuant to Section 8.1(c) of the Franchise Renewal
Agreement, the City Council hereby issues the findings contained in this
Resolution with respect to the third cable television system performance audit
and finds that the cable operator is currently in compliance with the criteria
evaluated.
PASSED, APPROVED, and ADOPTED this 18th da •f S • ember j: .
oW,
Attest: Mayor
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City Clerk
State of California )
County of Los Angeles ) ss
City of Rancho Palos Verdes )
I, Carla Morreale, City Clerk of The City of Rancho Palos Verdes, hereby certify
that the above Resolution No. 2007-98; was duly and regularly passed and
adopted by the said City Council at regular meeting thereof held on September
18, 2007.
. (771- /
City Clerk
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Resolution No. 2007-98
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