§ 93.14. MINIMUM FACILITIES AND SERVICES.

(a)

The following minimum requirements for facilities and services apply to all franchises granted by the City. The City may require in a franchise agreement that a franchisee exceed these minimum requirements where it determines, under circumstances existing at the time of the application, that the additional requirements are necessary to meet the City's future cable-related needs and interests or to serve the public interest.

(1)

Any cable system constructed, upgraded, reconstructed, or rebuilt after the effective date of this Chapter shall have a minimum capacity of seven hundred fifty (750) MHz or the equivalent thereof available for immediate or potential use. A franchise agreement may provide for a larger minimum capacity requirement.

(2)

The City shall require in a franchise agreement that a franchisee provide access channels, facilities and other support for public, educational and/or governmental use, which may include, but not be limited to, provision of an institutional network.

(3)

The City may require any cable system operating pursuant to a franchise to cablecast City Commission meetings live to all subscribers.

(4)

A cable system shall provide leased access channels as required by Federal law.

(5)

Unless otherwise provided in a franchise agreement, a franchisee shall provide no less than one service outlet per location and one on-line access connection to all City buildings (regardless of whether such facilities are owned or leased by the city) and all public schools within its franchise area not already served by another franchised cable operator at no cost to the City or school involved, and shall charge not more than its time and material costs for any additional service outlets or equipment provided to such facilities.

(6)

A franchisee shall design its cable system to allow the City to interrupt cable service in an emergency to deliver necessary information to subscribers subject to Federal, State and County priority. Franchisee shall, at minimum, meet all FCC requirements for emergency alert systems.

(7)

A franchisee shall transmit all imbedded signals, including closed circuit captioning information for the hearing impaired and audio signals for the visually impaired.

(8)

Standard installation shall consist of a drop, not exceeding one hundred twenty-five (125) feet from the cable plant to the nearest entry point of a subscriber's residence. Residential drops in excess of one hundred twenty-five (125) feet may be charged according to the franchisee's rate schedule.

(b)

Except for cable systems in operation on the effective date hereof pursuant to franchises initially granted or renewed in areas annexed by the City subsequent to said initial grant or renewal, a franchise agreement shall require that a franchisee make cable service available to every dwelling within the City of Delray Beach or as otherwise provided in a franchise agreement. If the City annexes any new areas after the date of this Chapter, franchisee shall be required to provide cable service at standard installation rates to such areas subject to this Chapter and any franchise granted hereto. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, a franchisee shall not be required to provide cable service to any area already served by a franchised cable operator.

(c)

In the event a franchisee lawfully operating in a franchise area that is less than the entire City desires to provide service to an area of the City already being served by a franchised cable operator, then the franchisee wishing to expand service shall agree to construct and operate its cable system on terms no more favorable and no less burdensome than those pursuant to which the existing operator is subject.

(d)

A franchisee shall interconnect its PEG access channels with the PEG access channels of any adjacent cable systems owned by or affiliated with franchisee if such interconnection is technically and economically feasible. Upon the written request of the City and as required in a franchise agreement, franchisee shall interconnect its PEG access channels to any or all other cable systems operating within the City for the purpose of transmitting PEG programming if (i) such interconnection is technically feasible, (ii) the other operator(s) of such cable systems operating within the city pays for the cost of the interconnection and (iii) such other operator(s) provide funding for PEG access equivalent to the amount provided by franchisee.

(e)

A franchisee shall locate each government access channel on the same channel number throughout the City.

(f)

In an initial or renewal franchise granted pursuant to this Chapter, a franchisee shall agree to maintain that level of technology to its cable system to satisfy the state-of-the-art requirement, as defined in Section 93.02(y) herein subject to qualifications, conditions, and terms that may be expressly identified in a franchise agreement.

(g)

Pursuant to the procedures set forth in Section 93.25, failure to comply with any part of this Section 93.14 may result in the imposition of liquidated damages in the amount of two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) per day per violation or as otherwise provided in a franchise agreement.

(Ord. No. 10-05, § 1, passed 3/1/05)