Item 4A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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basic service television connections to publicly owned buildings, provision of a fourth access channel for Public Safety Training and an additional annual payment from Comcast of a $50,000 Capital Contribution for public education and government access channels. She reviewed a number of other provisions and said the new agreement served the public interest and did not provide Comcast exclusive rights to the Eugene market since other providers were welcome to obtain Franchise to market services in the community. She did not believe that further negotiations would result in significant gains. Ms. Piercy opened the public hearing. There being no one wishing to testify, she closed the hearing. Ms. Taylor asked if the City could find another provider. Ms. Berrian replied that rights-of-way had always been open to other providers but another provider had not come forward, likely due to the infrastructure expense. Ms. Taylor noted that basic cable services had been reduced again while rates were increased. She said if those things were outside the City's control, perhaps another provider could be sought. She asked about the consequences if the franchise agreement was not renewed. Ms. Berrian said if the proposal was not accepted a formal renewal process established under federal rules would have to be undertaken; if the council chose not to renew after that formal process, none of the provisions she highlighted in the agreement would exist. Mr. Mecham said there were few providers seeking to expand into the Eugene market and the likely result of not renewing the current franchise agreement was that the City would have even less control over cable television services. He was not certain that Comcast would remain without a franchise agreement, which could leave the City with no cable television services. He thought the better approach to obtaining more choices for subscribers was to renew the franchise while encouraging competitors. Ms. Taylor said she had heard that low-income subscribers had very few channels currently. Ms. Berrian said she had received complaints about the most basic tier of service. She said those issues had to be addressed at the federal level, but local governments could advocate for better oversight. Ms. Bettman asked if the City was making the additional $50,000 payment for education and government access channels. Ms. Berrian replied that Comcast would make that payment to the City. Ms. Bettman asked for clarification of the income that would be excluded under the new agreement. Ms. Berrian said there were two types of disputed income: income from advertising commissions and subscriber territory and income received when new programs were launched within the subscriber territory. She said a dispute over commissions had resulted in a settlement and the agreement provided for a $200,000 payment to the three jurisdictions in lieu of that income. 5. PUBLIC HEARING: An Ordinance Concerning the Police Commission and Amending Sections 2.013 and 2.368 of the Eugene Code, 1971 Linda Phelps, Eugene Police Department, provided an overview of the amendments, which addressed issues that had been raised by the City Council. She said those issues included elimination of a position appointed MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 15, 2007 Page 10 Public Hearing