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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: April 19, 2005 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 7_a <br />SUBJECT: Presentation: Cable Regulatory Update <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager <br />PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Slides Handout <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Bob Sepe, Action Audits, LLC <br />(919) 467-5392 <br />Gwen Harvey, Assistant County <br />Manager, ext 2300 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To receive a presentation from Bob Sepe, Action Audits, LLC, consultant to the <br />Triangle J Council of Governments (COG) Cable Consortium. <br />BACKGROUND: Recent actions by Time Warner Cable (TWC), the cable television operator <br />in the Triangle, have caused some concern and criticism from member governments of the <br />Triangle J COG Gable Consortium, to which Orange County belongs. First, TWC refused to <br />honor a request of Action Audits to release figures pertaining to cable upgrade charges (known <br />as a "1235" rate filing) on the grounds that it need not do so under existing FCC rules, Second, <br />TWC was able to win a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision that frees it from <br />rate oversight by most Triangle J local governments based on company data showing that <br />competition from satellite companies was significant enough in the region such that TWG no <br />longer monopolized the market, <br />During the Triangle J COG Board meeting last month, Bob Sepe made a presentation on the <br />history of rate regulation and the risks involved with the termination of local authority far rate <br />setting. BOCC Vice Chair Barry Jacobs, who was in attendance, asked that staff coordinate a <br />time and opportunity for Bab Sepe to appear and provide the same presentation to the BOCC, <br />Subsequent to the Triangle J COG presentation, the following actions have occurred: <br />Dave Permar of Hatch, Little & Bunn, LLP, attorney far the Triangle .l Cable Consortium, <br />has made application to the FCC for review of the determination of effective <br />competition, the ruling that revoked local rate regulatory authority, on behalf of all thirty- <br />