ORD-2003-112 First Reading - Ordinance Granting Franchise to Time Warner Entertainment/Advance-Newhouse Partnership, to Own, Operate and Maintain Cable System in Unincorporated Orange County

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There are also a couple of important funding mechanisms that would come out of the Triangle J agreement with Time Warner. One would provide a capital access fee and another would be an operating subsidy that would allow the County Commissioners to impose up to 60 cents per month for operating subsidies for public and educational access channels and also a capital access fee. Triangle J negotiated an arrangement a few years ago, and now Time Warner said that it does not want to have anything like that. Finally, there were negotiations between Triangle J and Time Warner regarding data transport and some access to internet data transport for the governmental authorities. Time Warner took the position that it has already built its system and Triangle J was under the assumption that there would be further construction. They suggested that the County be given a discounted rate to allow the Road Runner system. The committee thought that this was a good idea and adopted this suggestion. The bottom line is that the committee is confident that what Time Warner wants is not what the Board of County Commissioners would want. They are proposing to go back to something very similar to the Triangle J proposal that Time Warner said that it could live with a few years ago. They are asking the Board to adopt this proposal. He does not think that any informal negotiations would be useful. Commissioner Carey said that he thinks that the committee is doing right by forcing the issue. He said that the only way that we can get Time Warner to publicly state where it wants to go is to approve this document on first reading and have a public hearing and consider it again next month. He encouraged the Board to approve the second part of the recommendation, which would result in televising meetings on both ends of the County permanently. Commissioner Halkiotis thanked Michael Patrick for his work. He is ready to move on with this. Commissioner Jacobs asked what was meant by an "informal negotiation" versus a formal negotiation. Michael Patrick said that an informal negotiation is that the County and Time Warner try to meet and work out their differences. This is what Triangle J did. This is where you "strike a deal' over the re- franchise. There is a federal regulatory system for formal negotiations where there are public hearings and other formal factors. The County will probably engage in formal negotiations if Time Warner does not agree with what the County needs in this situation. Commissioner Jacobs agrees with making it a formal process. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to: 1) Approve the first reading of the Cable Television Franchise Ordinance as proposed by the negotiating team and approved by the Cable Advisory Committee. A second reading and formal adoption of the cable television franchise ordinance would then be scheduled for the Board next meeting on September 16tH The County Attorney has advised that the Board may elect to conduct a public hearing before it takes action on the second reading of the ordinance. If the Board elects to do so, the procedure on September 16th would be to conduct a public hearing first, and then consider second reading with possible adoption of the ordinance /agreement as the following step. 2) Appoint a special technical consulting committee to review and provide recommendations to the Board on a video production plan to equip both meeting rooms — Hillsborough and Chapel Hill — for live public telecasts. John Link suggested that the Board hold open the option of having the public hearing on September 16t or, if necessary, October 1St, based on the content of the agendas.