03/08/1982 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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_ r. '" ~. e considered by the council. He urged the council to adopt these recommendations. He said that any delay in ratifying the recommended amendments would only hurt Teleprompter's subscribers and the councilors' constituents. Mr. Sullivan said that three years ago Teleprompter had committed itself to expanding the service area, expanding the channel capacity, and making technical changes to improve picture quality. He reported that the Cable Commission had reviewed Teleprompter's performance of these commitments and had found that all three areas had been fulfilled and in some cases exceeded. e Mr. Sullivan said that the negotiations between Teleprompter and the Cable Commission had been conducted in a charged atmosphere, but that both sides had negotiatied well. He said that neither party was completely satisfied with the results of the negotiations and that this indicated compromises had been made by both parties. He outlined some of the concessions made by Teleprompter: agreement to notify the commission in advance of intent to expand channel capacity; agreement to free up channel 2 for basic service, at an accelerated rate and therefore at greater expense than originally planned; agreement to provide at cost a mechanical switcher to allow subscribers to basic cable to receive the educational institutional channel; agreement on a definition of and formula for calculating rate of return that includes averaging of assets over a three-year period; and commitment to provide $410,000 in capital and operating expenses for the public access center, plus commitment of additional funds for the salary of a full-time technician for the center, insurance, taxes, and rehabilitation of the center, and in-kind contributions of personnel and equipment. Mr. Sullivan noted that these additional items would bring Teleprompter's total commitment of funds for public access to an amount in excess of $500,000. Mr. Sullivan noted that the City of Springfield had already approved the amendments. He offered to respond to questions from councilors. Duaine L. Hodsdon, 2053 Aldabra Street, urged that as a condition of approval of the franchise amendments, the council deny Teleprompter the right to charge subscribers for convenience outlets. He said that he was in favor of the rate increase. Mr. Hodsdon gave a variety of figures, documented by date and reference, to indicate that other utilities, such as EWEB and Pacific Northwest Bell, do not charge for convenience outlets. He presented information on contacts he had with Teleprompter of Oregon in his efforts to protest such charges. He felt that Teleprompter had deliberately stalled in its responses to his protests, in an effort to have him miss the opportunity to testify at previous cable-related hearings. He said that despite the fact that he had asked Mr. Sullivan to disconnect his service as of March 1, 1982, he still received bills and delinquency notices for service after that date. He said that Mr. Sullivan had refused to give him the name of the firm's chief executive but that he had obtained this information and had written to Westinghouse, the parent company, to complain about his treatment by Teleprompter of Oregon. Lucia McKelvey, 1036 Adams Street, said she is the co-producer of a public access televlsion show. She thanked the council for holding a public hearing on this matter and noted that the Springfield City Council had not done so. She urged that provisions for leased access not be eliminated from the franchise. She said that ability to make use of commercial support for productions was a basic economic issue for local producers and that leased access would not only e MINUTES--Eugene City Council March 8, 1982 Page 3