Agenda - 12-09-2003-8a - Laserfiche WebLink

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IS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1.3 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 3.3 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 4.3 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Society (APS) for operation of the Orange County Animal Shelter until such time as the Board of County Commissioners elects otherwise, acknowledging that this action shall extend the subject contract through, at minimum, October 31, 2003; and to authorize the County Manager to provide written notice to APS of the renewal of the contract with APS as provided in the contract addendum until further action by the Board, VOTE: UNANIMOUS 9. ITEMS FOR DECISION--REGULAR AGENDA a. The Board reviewed and considered approval of the first reading of a cable franchise renewal ordinance (agreement) with Time Warner Entertainment/Advance-Newhouse Partnership, as recommended by the Orange County Cable Advisory Committee, in conjunction with the Triangle J Cable Consortium consultant collaborative; and considered a second reading and formal adoption of the cable television franchise ordinance to be scheduled for the Board's next meeting on September 15'h. John Link said that the Cable Advisory Committee has worked to put forth information for the franchise agreement. He made reference to the letter from Time Warner's attorney and said that he would urge the Board to be proactive and to pursue what it thinks would be important as items in a franchise to serve the citizens of Orange County and then let the chips fall where they may as it relates to the response Pram Time Warner, Commissioner Carey said that he wants to make responses after the committee members make their comments. He is very upset about the letter from Time Warner, He wished that representatives from Time Warner cculd be in attendance tonight. Michael Patrick, Chair of the Cable Advisory Committee, gave a short history of this process. Around 1995, informal negotiations began between Orange County and Time Warner that lasted far about a year and a half, There was a negotiation committee separate from the advisory committee and there were several meetings with Time Warner representatives that were unproductive. Triangle .1 then started its own negotiations on a region-wide basis and Orange County joined in the process, Triangle J then came up with a model franchise that was supposedly agreed upon between Triangle J and Time Warner to take back the local franchising authorities, The advisory committee had a few concerns about the model and began tweaking it in 2000. Starting in 2001, Orange County tried to communicate with Time Warner and received no response. At the beginning of 2002, the committee came to the Board to try and get the ball moving and Gwen Harvey tried to communicate with Time Warner. They eventually convened same meetings with Time Warner and Time Warner said that they did not like the Triangle J model franchise and they provided an agreement that stripped out any obligation to do a number of things that are important, The committee did not agree with this and they do not know what Time Warner is going to do, He said that they are not going to get anywhere until they force the issue, and this is what they are asking the Board to dc, Particularly, the density issue has always been important in Orange County. Under the existing ordinance, the obligation of the franchising authority to extend service is at 21 homes per mile. Triangle J proposed 30 homes per mile.. The committee felt that the extension obligation should be 18 homes per mile in order to serve the unincorporated areas of the County. Time Warner says that it does not want to have the obligation to