Minutes - 20030401 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Gordon asked about the school systems maintaining it and Carrboro taking the revenue. Commissioner Halkiotis said that they cut the deal and the County had nothing to do with it. Jahn Link suggested to Lori Taft that as the staff monitors the activity on this field during the next year, they need to look at the open periods and make sure there is supervision available and that priority soccer organizations are not using the field during those days and telling other people that they could not use the field. The intent of the two half days is far the field to be used by other people. Lori Taft said that penalties could be written into the permit document. Carrboro is working on getting signage to this effect. Commissioner Jacobs asked that it be multi-lingual. The staff will bring this back as an agenda item with the questions answered. b. Acceptance of Report by Action Audits, LLC and Adoption of 2003 Rate Order for Cable Services in Unincorporated Orange County The Board considered approval of the cable consultant's review of a request by Time- Warner Cable to increase rates charged for basic cable service, installation, and equipment rental for 2003, and adoption of a rate order based on that review. Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey said that this is two items wrapped into one. First, there is the acceptance of the report prepared by the cable consultant on which the 2003 rate order was based. Second is the adoption of the rate order. The recommendation is to accept the report and adopt the 2003 rate order. Chair of Citizens Cable Advisory Committee Michael Patrick said that Time Warner Cable asks for a rate increase annually. Last year there was a matter that came before the Board in connection with the review process related to increasing the rates for certain repair and maintenance services. The County, at the recommendation of the consultant, denied the rate increase. The increase was to be implemented nationwide. Smithfield also denied the rate increase and Time Warner Cable appealed the decision to the FCC. The FCC reversed the Smithfield decision and upheld the Time Warner Cable increase. This proposal is to undo the action of the Board last year and to accept the consultant's review that the increases are accurate for this year as well. The consultant sees no basis to deny the rate increase request. He said that he was not endorsing Time Warner Cable's request, but he sees no basis to deny it. Commissioner Jacobs asked for an explanation of the statement, "Should the Board decide not to approve the rate order, the proposed rates become effective by default and the County forfeits its future refund authority." Michael Patrick said that if the Board does not act on this, the increase will go into effect by default and it cannot be revisited. If the Board acts to approve it and then finds additional evidence against it, it can be revisited and possibly amended. Bob Sepe, the cable consultant, said that the FCC said that the magnitude of the rate increase (26%) alone was insufficient justification to deem the rate unreasonable. This suggests that it could be paired with other things and the rate increase could be deemed unreasonable. This rate order would reserve the opportunity, should new evidence be presented, to reach back and order a refund. Commissioner Halkiotis said that this is an exercise in futility because they are going to do what they want to do anyway. He asked how much money the County gets from cable franchises. Gwen Harvey will provide this information at a later time. Commissioner Halkiotis asked how much the County pays Bob Sepe. He said that this cable issue has been out there for years and we still do not have an agreement with the cable companies. He respects the advisory committee and the cable consultant. Commissioner Carey said that it is ironic that taking no action is tantamount to admitting that everything is ok, but approving it is not. He does not understand this.