Supes Hold Off On Cable Franchise Vote

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

James City County Supervisors chose to postpone the new Cox cable franchise agreement and eliminate a related fee at their Tuesday evening meeting.

At Tuesday’s meeting, staff presented the Board of Supervisors with a draft of the agreement, which included some citizen-driven customer service changes as well as a new public, educational and government (PEG) access channel fee of 25 cents per user per month. The Board voted to take that fee amount down to zero but reserved the option of changing that amount each year; they also chastised staff for not giving the advisory committee time to review the final draft and voted to hold off on approving the new agreement until April.

The agreement only relates to cable service, not to telephone or internet services, and the county has no ability to regulate rates or programming. The county has limited ability to negotiate about some items such as technical standards; PEG channel capital fees; connection to public facilities and customer service.

Until now, Cox was giving the county some funds for PEG channels; in the new agreement, users would see a PEG fee in their bill of 25 cents, which could vary every year up to about 45 cents by the will of the Board.

The proposed fee would generate about $66,000 each year for equipment and upgrades needed to televise meetings. These fees are much lower than those imposed by other nearby localities, according to staff, and less than what’s needed in the budget to run the PEG-related services.

Jerry White, a member of the cable advisory committee, told the Board Tuesday that he was concerned that the committee hadn’t gotten the chance to see the final version of the agreement until just days before the Board’s meeting at which it would be approved. He said he wished the county had alerted the public, and he also said he was unhappy that there was no prohibition against disconnect fees included in the agreement.

“This does not speak well for transparency,” White said.

County Attorney Leo Rogers pointed out that while Cox has not been charging disconnect fees, the county can’t regulate or prohibit these fees, and they’re permitted by law. Cox can charge disconnect fees for bundle services it offers, such as internet and phone packages.

Though the meeting had been advertised and the new agreement was available online with the meeting agenda, Supervisors generally didn’t like the notion that citizens who had volunteered their time to serve on the committee didn’t get a chance to see the end product.

“I see a problem with not giving citizens more than a couple of days” to review the agreement, said Supervisor John McGlennon, who opted to push back the board’s vote on the agreement to give people more time to consider it.

Supervisor Jim Kennedy and Chairman Mary Jones both agreed they didn’t like the idea of the 25 cent PEG fee, so the board decided not only to postpone their vote until mid-April, but they also decided to change the language to take the fee to zero with the option of reviewing and changing this yearly, at the discretion of the Board.

This means all the money spent on taping and posting meetings and the associated costs will come out of the budget and the cost will be shared by all residents, not just those who have cable service.

Comments  

 

0 #2 Guest 2011-03-23 19:16

Its Newton Minow, not practical suggestions but agree that rates are too high!

Quoting Kate Chase:

I know there's nothing the JCC Cable Advisory Committee can do about it, but...

Cable TV is one of the larger scams being perpetrated upon the o purchase access to channels I never ever would watch.

Everybody involved in American cable TV -- and that includes Congress as well as the programmers at truTV et al -- deserve to be pilloried.

At the very least, we ought to be allowed to purchase the channels we want on an a la cart basis. Better yet, charge me only for the time my tv is on.

And maybe work on upgrading the level of programming. Norman MInoff's calling TV 'a vast wasteland' was never so true as it is today.

Quoting Kate Chase:

I know there's nothing the JCC Cable Advisory Committee can do about it, but...

Cable TV is one of the larger scams being perpetrated upon the American public these days. When I opted out the cost for basic cable was in excess of 50 dollars a month. No premium channels, no digital.

And for what??? There is a variety of channels but they're mostly showing schlock or reruns of decades-old shows. And I was forced to purchase access to channels I never ever would watch.

Everybody involved in American cable TV -- and that includes Congress as well as the programmers at truTV et al -- deserve to be pilloried.

At the very least, we ought to be allowed to purchase the channels we want on an a la cart basis. Better yet, charge me only for the time my tv is on.

And maybe work on upgrading the level of programming. Norman MInoff's calling TV 'a vast wasteland' was never so true as it is today.

Quoting Kate Chase:

I know there's nothing the JCC Cable Advisory Committee can do about it, but...

Cable TV is one of the larger scams being perpetrated upon the American public these days. When I opted out the cost for basic cable was in excess of 50 dollars a month. No premium channels, no digital.

And for what??? There is a variety of channels but they're mostly showing schlock or reruns of decades-old shows. And I was forced to purchase access to channels I never ever would watch.

Everybody involved in American cable TV -- and that includes Congress as well as the programmers at truTV et al -- deserve to be pilloried.

At the very least, we ought to be allowed to purchase the channels we want on an a la cart basis. Better yet, charge me only for the time my tv is on.

And maybe work on upgrading the level of programming. Norman MInoff's calling TV 'a vast wasteland' was never so true as it is today.

Quote

 

 

+2 #1 Guest 2011-03-23 15:31

I know there's nothing the JCC Cable Advisory Committee can do about it, but...

Cable TV is one of the larger scams being perpetrated upon the American public these days. When I opted out the cost for basic cable was in excess of 50 dollars a month. No premium channels, no digital.

And for what??? There is a variety of channels but they're mostly showing schlock or reruns of decades-old shows. And I was forced to purchase access to channels I never ever would watch.

Everybody involved in American cable TV -- and that includes Congress as well as the programmers at truTV et al -- deserve to be pilloried.

At the very least, we ought to be allowed to purchase the channels we want on an a la cart basis. Better yet, charge me only for the time my tv is on.

And maybe work on upgrading the level of programming. Norman MInoff's calling TV 'a vast wasteland' was never so true as it is today.

Quote

 

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