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A. Franchise Term and Renewal.

1. The term of this franchise shall be twenty (20) years. The Grantee shall have the option to renew this franchise, subject to renegotiation of the agreement, for additional five (5) year periods.

B. Notice to the Grantee.

1. The City Council shall not meet to take any final action involving the Grantee’s franchise unless the City has (a) advised the Grantee in writing, at least thirty (30) days prior to such meeting, as to its time, place and purpose and (b) published a notice at least once, seven (7) days before the meeting in a newspaper of general circulation within the City. The notice provided for in this Section shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of , the notice to Grantee and opportunity to cure any default provided in this ordinance.

2. The City Council reserves the right to suspend this requirement in the event of an emergency.

C. Franchise Fee.

1. The Grantee, in consideration of the privilege granted under the franchise for the operation of a cable television system within the public ways of the City and the expense of regulation of the franchise incurred by the City, shall pay to the City a franchise fee. That fee shall be set at three percent (3%) of the Grantee’s annual gross basic revenues during the period of its operation under the franchise. The City shall not require a franchise fee greater than three percent (3%) of gross revenues if such fee would detrimentally impact the economic viability of Grantee’s cable communications system. Provided, further, Grantee shall be entitled to adjust its rates to recover from subscribers and users any increase in the franchise fee adopted by the City pursuant to this section.

2. Grantee shall pay its franchise fee on an annual basis. The Grantee shall file with the City, within one hundred twenty (120) days following the conclusion of the calendar year, an annual report showing its total gross revenues for the calendar year and the amount of franchise fees due to the City.

3. The City shall have the right to inspect the Grantee’s income records, the right of audit and the recomputation of any amounts determined to be payable under this ordinance. Any additional amount due the City as a result of the audit shall be paid within sixty (60) days following written notice to the Grantee by the City which notice shall include a copy of the audit report. The cost of said audit shall be borne by the Grantee only if it is properly determined that the Grantee’s annual payment due to the City for the preceding year was at least twenty percent (20%) less than it properly should have been. Otherwise the City shall bear the cost of any audit.

4. In the event that any franchise payment or recomputed amount is not paid on or before the applicable dates heretofore specified, interest shall be charged from such due date at the non-compounded interest rate of one percent (1%) per month.

D. Insurance Bonds.

1. Upon the granting of a franchise and within sixty (60) days following the filing of the acceptance required and at all times during the term of the franchise the Grantee shall obtain, pay all premiums for and file with the City executed duplicate copies of the following:

a. A general comprehensive liability policy indemnifying, defending and saving harmless the City, its officers, boards, commissions, agents or employees from any and all claims by any person whatsoever on account of injury to or death of a person or persons occasioned by the ownership/operations of the Grantee under the franchise herein granted, or alleged to have been so caused or occurred, with a minimum liability of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000) per personal injury or death of any one person and One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) for personal injury or death of any two or more persons in any one occurrence.

b. Property damage insurance indemnifying, defending and saving harmless the City, its officers, boards, commissions, agents or employees from and against all claims by any person whatsoever for property damage occasioned by the ownership/operation of Grantee under the franchise herein granted, or alleged to have been so caused or occurred, with a minimum liability of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000) for property damage to the property of any one person and One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) for the property of two or more persons in any one occurrence.

c. The City reserves the right to renegotiate insurance requirements at any time during the contract period a franchise is in force.

E. Transfer of Franchise.

1. A franchise granted under this ordinance may be assigned or transferred, in whole or in part, by voluntary sale, sale and leaseback, merger, consolidation or otherwise or by forced or involuntary sale, with the prior consent of the City Council expressed by resolution.

2. The City Council shall not withhold its consent to any transfer of a franchise unreasonably; provided that the proposed assignee agrees to comply with the material provisions of this ordinance and the franchise and shall provide proof of its legal, technical, financial and character qualifications to operate the cable system.

3. No such consent shall be required for a transfer in trust, mortgage, or other instrument of hypothecation, in whole or in part, to secure an indebtedness.

F. Service Repair and Complaint Procedures.

1. Except for circumstances beyond the Grantee’s control such as acts of God, weather, wars, riots and civil disturbances, the Grantee shall be responsible for locating and correcting system malfunctions promptly.

2. A listed local telephone number or toll free (800) number shall be made available to subscribers for service calls. Investigative action shall be initiated in response to all service calls, other than major outages, not later than the next business day after the call is received. Corrective action shall be completed as promptly as practical.

3. A service technician shall be available to respond to service calls from subscribers Monday through Friday during normal working hours. Calls requesting repair service shall be responded to the same day they are received whenever possible. If a service call is received after 3 p.m. on Friday, every attempt shall be made to respond within 72 hours.

4. In establishing response time, the Grantee may differentiate between service problems unique to a single household and problems caused by a service outage which affects a large number of subscribers (“area outage”).

5. A “area outage” is defined as an outage of all cable channels in three (3) or more residences in the same neighborhood or area which is caused by a problem with the cable system, rather than being caused by the subscriber. All area outages shall be responded to as soon as possible after notification on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis. Designated technicians shall be on calls 24 hours a day to respond when notified by phone or paged by Grantee or an answering service employee. Technicians are expected to repair the problem found and have the system operational as soon as possible.

G. Street Occupancy.

1. Grantee shall utilize existing poles, conduits and other facilities whenever possible, but may construct or install new, different, or additional poles, conduits, or other facilities whether on the public way or on privately-owned property with the written approval of the appropriate governmental authority, and, if necessary, of the property owner. Such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld by the governmental agency.

2. All transmission lines, equipment and structures shall be so installed and located as to cause minimum interference with the rights and appearance and reasonable convenience of property owners who adjoin on any public way and at all times shall be kept and maintained in a safe condition and in good order and repair. The Grantee shall at all times employ reasonable care and shall use commonly accepted methods and devices for preventing failures and accidents which are likely to cause damage, injuries or nuisances to the public.

3. Grantee shall have the authority to trim trees on public property at its own expense as may be necessary to protect its wires and facilities, subject to the direction of the City or other appropriate governmental authority.