AN ORDINANCE relating to cable television; authorizing the Mayor or the Mayor’s designee to enter into a renewed Cable Television Franchise Agreement and an agreement regarding additional public benefits with WaveDivision I, LLC; and authorizing the Chief Technology Officer to enter into other agreements for the purpose of implementing or administering the renewed franchise.
The Report of the Education, Equity and Governance Committee Agenda Item 30 Constable 1190 30 Relating to cable to cable television authorizing the mayor and or the mayor's designee to enter to every new cable television franchise agreement and an agreement regarding additional public benefits Weight Division one LLC and authorizing the Chief Technology Officer to enter into other agreements for the purposes of implementing or administrating the renewed franchise. Committee recommends the bill pass. Thank you very much. So this council bill authorizes a renewed cable television franchise between the city of Seattle and waive its legal name being waived, Division One or LLC. But we refer to it as WAIVE and the current franchise agreement expired November 17, 2017. So our office and some of your offices have been working closely with the Office of Cable, Communications and Central Staff to make sure we basically had a franchise agreement that expanded on our current community benefits and aligned with the values in our Cable Customer Bill of Rights. And so we had three different meetings regarding this issue, including an initial briefing on July 19th, and we had a public hearing on August 2nd. And again, the city clerk, just to give some description of the process, publish the notice for the August 2nd public hearing and various news outlets. And again, we complied with a fairly thorough process and that's intent and make sure we have all the input needed to make sure we have a good franchise agreement. The city and we've negotiated these through a side letter agreement for the community benefit agreements. We may require, require that the city cannot require because of regulatory issues, certain kinds of broadband issues. But we can certainly extract as many public benefits as we can in our working relationship, and that's pretty much what we did. The Office of Cable Communications conducted a community assessment at the beginning to determine the needs and interests of the city and its residents. And again, what had come out of that is the reinforced need for public, educational and governmental access of the known, otherwise known as peg channels and cable discounts to low income residents. So in in a nutshell, this particular franchise agreement we will be able to achieve for the first time residents who have waive and are eligible for our own utility discount program, the city's utility. This grant program can receive 30% discount on its basic service rate. That discounted price is about $20 per month, $20.96, to be exact. We will continue complimentary cable TV's service to city buildings and schools. Again, we have agreed to that. There will be increased support for peg channels, public education and government channels, including a new PEG fee. There will be free Wi-Fi in certain intersections, particularly around 23rd Avenue and and Cherry Street and 23rd Avenue and Union Street. We will continue to provide free cable cable modem, Internet service to qualified non-profits and has agreed to double the number of complimentary Internet service to non-profits. Currently, there's 55 active modem sites, and they will add up to five a year for a total of 100 sites. So the Information Technology Group and our community believes we have a good franchise with which to renew and the committee recommends approval or any further comments or questions about. Please call the rule on the passage of the Bill Bagshaw. Burgess. Hi. Gonzales. I Johnson. Suarez. O'Brian. Salon girl. Eight in favor. Nine opposed. The bill passed in the chair will sign it. Please read a report of the Park Service Center Libraries and Waterfront Committee.