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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 5.2 Cable TV Franchise Renewal f V CITY OF DUBLIN AGENDA STATEMENT CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: July 9 , 1984 SUBJECT Written Communication from City of Livermore Re : Cable Television Franchise Renewal EXHIBITS ATTACHED Letter from Lee Horner dated June 12 , 1984 RECOMMENDATIO Consider issues and direct Staff to notify the City of Livermore with respect to the City ' s position P Y FINANCIAL STATEMENT: The City Council previously authorized a $1, 200 expenditure for the City to participate in the cost of hiring a Cable Television Consultant DESCRIPTION The City has received a letter from Lee Horner , City Manager of the City of Livermore with respect to the cable television franchise renewal process with Viacom. Several months ago, the Council authorized a $1 , 200 expenditure for the purposes of participating in the hiring of a cable television consultant who would assist the Cities of Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton and San Ramon in the franchise renewal process with Viacom Cablevision. As you may recall, the franchise expiration dates for the 4 cities differ . The cable television franchises in Pleasanton and Livermore expire in 1985 , the cable television franchise in San Ramon expires in 1986 and the cable television franchise in the City of Dublin expires in 1988 . Since the last time that this issue was discussed by the City Council , there has been some disagreement among the 4 cities as to how and who should participate in the negotiations with the cable television company. At the last meeting of the Cable Television Advisory Committee, the City Council liaison from each of the 4 cities met and agreed upon the following with respect to the cable television franchise negotiations : 1 . All 4 cities would be permitted to participate in the cable television negotiations . 2 . Each City would have a City Council representative and a Staff representative on the negotiating team. 3 . The members of that team would meet with the Cable Television Consultant , Mr . Carl Pilnick on Wednesday, July 18 , 1984 . The purpose of that meeting will be to discuss the negotiating strategy and also provide direction to the Consultant in preparing a proposed ordinance and agreement that each City would be able to. review prior to sitting down in negotiations with the cable operator . 4 . The City of Livermore would act as the sole agency to contract with the Cable Television Consultant for consulting services . 5 . Each City Council representative would . bring these issues back to their respective City Councils for approval . $ It is Staff ' s recommendation that the City Council consider the issues identified above and provide the Staff with direction. Vice Mayor Peter Hegarty, the City Council liaison to the Cable Television Advisory Committee will be available to comment on the discussions that took place at the last Cable Television Advisory Committee meeting . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPIES TO: Viacom Cablevision ITEM NO. Date: June 12, 1984 RECEI JUN ' - 191984 To: Jim Walker, Cy City Manager, Pleasanton CITY OF Di13L! Richard Ambrose, y g er City of Dublin y nJ Jim Robinson, City Manager, City of San Ramon From: Lee Horner, City Manager, City of Livermore I -Who would think that cable television could ever be a controversial i issue? However, in this Valley I guess everything has to go through some degree of controversy before it can be successfully implemented. I do believe that we have reached some type of gentlemen' s agreement with respect to future deliberations among our four Cities and Viacom Cable- vision regarding the future franchise. I I In case you have not already heard, at the last Cable Television Advisory Committee meeting, the City Council liaison from each of our four Cities was present. These four individuals caucused and then came out and stated that negotiations with Viacom Cablevision would take place with representatives from each of the four Cities present. It was more or less understood that each City would have one staff person and one Councilmember sitting in on the negotiations when they begin later this Summer. It was also agreed that the negotiating team from each City would get together and meet with the Cable Consultant, Mr. Carl Pilnick, on Wednesday, July 18, 1984 , at 3 : 00 p.m. That meeting will take place at the Livermore City Administration Building, Conference Room "A" . We have already confirmed the date and time with Mr_ Pilnick' s office. The purpose of the July 18 meeting will be to discuss negotiating strategy with Mr. Pilnick, and also provide him direction in preparing the proposed Ordinance and Agreement that each of us wanted to review prior to sitting down in negotiations with our cable operator. I am assuming that each of you will act as the staff representative from your gj City. If someone other than you is going to be that representative, siw please let me know. The four representatives from the City Council will be: Marshall Kamena, City of Livermore; Frank Brandes, City of Pleasanton; Pete Hegerty, City of Dublin; Diane Schinnerer, City of San Ramon. It was also agreed that each of the City representatives j would get approval of this arrangement from their respective City Councils. . i The Livermore City Council approved this arrangment at their meeting on Monday, June 11, 1984 . When your City Council takes action to approve of the agreement that has been reached, please let me know so that we have a record of all four Cities acting in concert on this matter. I would appreciate it if you would advise your Council representative of the date and time of the meeting with Mr. Pilnick. Even though we dis- cussed it at the last Cable Television Advisory Colm�ttee meeting, the NL •�'�[-.1:-5.1. ` i $j (`. :�: ,". , Jim Walker, City Manager, City of Pleasanton Richard Ambrose, City Manager, City of Dublin Jim Robinson, City Manager, City of San Ramon June 12, 1984 Page Two arrangements were not finalized at that time. If you have any questions or issues that need to be raised, please do not hesitate to give me a call. One last thing--it was also decided that the City of Livermore would be the sole agency to contract with Mr. Pilnick for consulting services. The City of Livermore would then enter into individual agreements with the three other Cities for their proportionate share of Mr. Pilnick' s consulting services. It was decided to do it this way because it would be easier for a City to drop out at a later date if they did not want to , continue with the consulting services. In other words, it would not take approval of all the other Cities if one City decided that they wanted to terminate the agreement. The only City that would be affected would be the City of Livermore, and we would probably just pick up that City' s portion of their cost and then have it reimbursed to us by the cable operator once the franchise agreement was signed and approved. LH/cm