HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 5.2 Cable TV Franchise Renewal (2) 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 .
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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
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•�'�[-.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