§ 5.12.020. Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, and abbreviations shall have the meanings set forth in this section. Words not defined in this chapter shall have the same meaning as in Title VI of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Section 521 et seq., and, if not defined therein, shall have their common and ordinary meaning. References to governmental entities (whether persons or agencies) refer to those entities or their successors in authority. If specific provisions of law referred to herein are renumbered, then the reference shall be read to refer to the renumbered provision. References to laws, ordinances or regulations shall be interpreted broadly to cover government actions, however denominated, and shall include laws, ordinances and regulations now in force or as hereinafter enacted or amended.

"Access," "PEG access," or "PEG use" means the availability of a cable system or open video system for public, education or government use (including institutional network use) by various agencies, institutions, organizations, groups, and individuals, including the county and its designated access providers, to acquire, create, and distribute programming not under a franchisee's editorial control, including, but not limited to:

1.

"Public access" or "public use" where organizations, groups, or individual members of the general public, on a nondiscriminatory basis, are the primary or designated programmers or users having editorial control over their communications;

2.

"Education access" or "education use" where accredited educational institutions are the primary or designated programmers or users having editorial control over their communications; or

3.

"Government access" or "government use" where government institutions or their designees are the primary or designated programmers or users having editorial control over their communications.

"Affiliate" means a person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common ownership or control with, another person.

"Answer time" means the interval between when the franchisee receives a call and when an interactive voice response (IVR) or agent answers.

"Basic service" means any service tier regularly provided to all subscribers which includes the retransmission of local television broadcast signals.

"Cable Act" means the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, 47 U.S.C. Section 521 et seq., as amended by the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as such may be further amended from time to time.

"Cable communications system" refers to open video systems (OVS) and cable systems.

"Cable service" means:

1.

The one-way transmission to subscribers of (a) video programming, or (b) other programming service; and

2.

Subscriber interaction, if any, which is required for the selection or use of such video programming or other programming service.

"Cable system" means a facility, consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, reception, and control equipment that is designed to provide cable service which includes video programming and which is provided to multiple subscribers within a community, but such term does not include:

1.

A facility that serves only to retransmit the television signals of one or more television broadcast stations;

2.

A facility that serves subscribers without using, or connecting to a facility that uses, any public right-of-way within the county;

3.

A facility of a common carrier which is subject, in whole or in part, to the provisions of Title II (Common Carriers) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, except that such facility shall be considered a cable system to the extent such facility is used in the transmission of video programming directly to subscribers, unless the extent of such use is solely to provide interactive on-demand services;

4.

Facilities of any electric utility used solely for operating its electric utility systems; or

5.

An OVS that is certified by the FCC.

"Calls abandoned" means the percentage of calls in any agent queue that are abandoned.

"Channel" means a portion of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum which is used in a cable system or OVS and which is capable of delivering a television signal whether in an analog or digital format, but this definition does not restrict the use of any channel to the transmission of analog television signals or one-way transmission.

"Construction, operation or repair" and similar formulations of that term means the named actions interpreted broadly, encompassing, among other things, installation, extension, maintenance, replacement of components, relocation, undergrounding, grading, site preparation, adjusting, testing, make-ready, and excavation.

"Director" or "director of public works" means the director of public works of the county or the designee of the director.

"Downstream channel" means a channel designed and activated to carry a transmission from the headend to other points on a cable communications system, including interconnections.

"FCC" means the Federal Communications Commission.

"Franchise" refers to an authorization granted by the county to the operator of a cable communications system giving the operator the nonexclusive right to occupy the space, or use facilities upon, across, beneath, or over public rights-of-way in the unincorporated area of the county, to provide specified services within a franchise area.

"Franchise area" means the portion of the unincorporated area of the county that a franchisee is authorized to serve by the terms of its franchise or by operation of law.

"Franchisee" refers to a person holding a cable communications system franchise granted by the county.

"Franchise fee" means either of the following:

1.

The fee, expressed as a percentage of gross revenues calculated as specified in the franchise, which is required to be paid by a franchisee to the county in consideration of the grant and exercise of the right to construct, install, operate, or provide services using facilities in the public rights-of-way, except that if a franchise granted pursuant to this chapter specifies a franchise fee established as the result of limiting applicable law, the county shall have the option to renegotiate the amount of the franchise fee upon a change in applicable law and nothing in this chapter shall require a person to pay amounts in excess of any limits that may be established by state or federal law.

2.

The fee paid by a UVPP that provides services using a cable system for which charges are assessed to subscribers, but are not received by the franchisee, that is paid in lieu of a franchise fee on such service pursuant to the franchise fee calculation contained in the cable system franchise.

"Gross revenues" means:

1.

All cash, credits, property, or other consideration of any kind or nature received directly or indirectly by a franchisee or its affiliates, from any source whatsoever arising from, attributable to, or in any way derived from a franchisee's operation of a cable system within the franchise area, including but not limited to: fees charged to subscribers for basic service; fees charged to subscribers for any optional, premium, per-channel, or per-program service; monthly fees charged to subscribers for any tier of service other than basic service; installation, disconnection, re-connection, and change-in-service fees; leased channel fees; fees, payments, or other payment received as consideration from programmers for carriage of programming on the cable system; converter rentals or sales; studio rental, production equipment, and personnel fees; advertising revenues, including a per capita share of advertising revenues for advertising carried on more than one cable system; revenues from a home shopping channel; sales of programming guides; and such other revenue sources as may now exist or hereafter develop, with this definition to be interpreted in a manner that permits the county to collect the maximum franchise fee permitted by law, irrespective of the source of revenue; but,

2.

This definition does not include any bad debt (defined as unpaid subscriber or advertiser accounts) and any taxes on services furnished to a franchisee and imposed directly upon any subscriber or user by the state, county or other governmental unit and collected by a franchisee on behalf of the governmental unit, except that the amount paid as a franchise fee shall not be deducted from gross revenues unless required to be deducted under federal law.

"Operator" means, when used with reference to a system, a person who either:

1.

Directly or through one or more affiliates, provides service over a cable communications system and directly or through one or more affiliates owns a significant interest in such facility; or

2.

Otherwise controls or is responsible for, through any arrangement, the management and operation of such a facility.

"OVS" means an open video system. A reference to an OVS includes pedestals, equipment enclosures (such as equipment cabinets), amplifiers, power guards, nodes, cables, fiber optics and other equipment necessary to operate the OVS, or installed in conjunction with the OVS.

"OVS Agreement" means a contract entered into in accordance with the provisions of this chapter between the county and an OVS franchisee setting forth the terms and conditions under which the franchise will be exercised.

"Person" shall be as defined in Section 1.04.010 of this code except as used in this chapter it shall not include the county.

"Public property" means any property that is owned or under the control of the county that is not a public right-of-way, including, for purposes of this chapter, but not limited to, buildings, parks, poles, structures in the public rights-of-way such as utility poles and light poles, or similar facilities or property owned by or leased to the county.

"Public right-of-way" means the surface of and the space above and below any street, road, highway, freeway, bridge, lane, path, alley, court, sidewalk, parkway, drive, or right-of-way or easement primarily dedicated to travel, now or hereafter existing within the unincorporated area of the county which may be properly used for the purpose of installing, maintaining, and operating a cable communications system; and any other property that a franchisee is entitled by state or federal law to use by virtue of the grant of a franchise.

"Revocation" means the county's affirmative act of terminating a franchise.

"School" means any accredited primary school, secondary school, college or university.

"Speed of answer" means the amount of time between when the customer is transferred into the agent queue from either an IVR or an agent and the time an agent answers.

"Subscriber" means the county or any person who is lawfully receiving, for any purpose or reason, any cable service via a cable communications system with a franchisee's express permission, whether or not a fee is paid for such service.

"Termination" means the conclusion of a franchise by any means, including, but not limited to, expiration of its term, abandonment or revocation.

"Transfer" means the following, with "transferring" and "transferee" have correlative meanings:

1.

Any transaction in which all of the following occurs:

A.

All or a portion of any facilities or any rights to use or operate facilities located in the public rights-of-way are sold, conveyed, transferred, assigned, encumbered (except as provided subsection (B) of Section 5.12.080) or leased, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, by one or more transactions to another person, whether voluntarily or by operation of law or otherwise; or

B.

There is any change, acquisition, or transfer in the identity of the person in control of the franchisee, or any person that controls the franchisee, including, without limitation, forced or voluntary sale, merger, consolidation, or receivership, with it being presumed that any transfer or cumulative transfer of a voting interest by a person or group of persons acting in concert of ten percent or more of a franchisee or person who controls a franchisee, or any change in the managing general partners of a franchisee constitutes a change of control; or

C.

The rights or obligations under the franchise are sold, conveyed, transferred, assigned, encumbered (except as set forth herein) or leased, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, by one or more transactions to another person, whether voluntarily or by operation of law or otherwise; but

2.

The term shall not include any of the following transactions:

A.

A lease to a UVPP pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Section 532 or 573;

B.

The transmission of a commodity or electronic signal using facilities on a common carrier basis; or

C.

A lease or other right to use facilities mandated pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Section 224.

"Trunks busy" means the percentage of time customers receive a busy signal when they call customer service during normal business hours.

"Upstream channel" means a channel designed and activated to carry transmissions from a point on the cable communications system, other than the headend, to the headend or another point on the cable communications system.

"User" means a person or the county utilizing a channel, capacity or equipment and facilities for purposes of producing or transmitting material, as contrasted with the receipt thereof in the capacity of a subscriber.

"UVPP" means an unaffiliated video program provider that is only delivering cable service or other communications service (as that term is used in 47 U.S.C. Section 542(b) to subscribers.

(Ord. 1262 § 2 (part), 2005)